Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1883-1888, 1885-08-21
PAPER RAILROADS.
The Windy Wonder and the
Wonder of the World.
Kansas City and Wichita and their Rel.
alive Chances in the Fight which
Is to Come.
One OF the organs of the Windy wonde,

One OF the organs of the Windy Wonder
1t Kawr Mouth, the X. G. Journal says:
"Wichita comes TO the front with another
railroad, the Wichita & Arkansas. which de-
signs connecting that city with Fort Smith,
Ark. The estimated length Of the road Is
225 miles, capital stock 100000. If all
the roads into and out Of Wichita that have
been chartered are ever built, that city will
be the greatest railroad center In the world:
II only half Of them are built, then Wichita
il destined to be the greatest railroad town
west Of the Mississippi river. But then paper
railroads are not considered dangerous, and
do not as general thing, cost much money"
Such talk is not overly smart in the light
of Kansas City's own brief history. 1t has
been but a very few years since a paper
edited by Van Horn, and called the Kansas
City Journal of Commerce. was published
in town without q single railroad or the
immediate prospect of one. Kansas City
was q city before Wichita was thought of,
yet Wichita Is to day reached from six diff
ferent directions by as many lines Of rail-
road. She has charters out for three more
and she will have all three of them before
Kansas City has as many additional ones.
That all the roads chartered for Wichita arc
to be built and that, as the Journal says, she
will be the greatest railroad center west of
the Mississippi, there is no doubt Speak
ing of paper railroads." the Journal would
do well to remember that no railroad
is built in the absence of paper" The
Journal might note another point, to-wit:
There is more room for railroad center at
Wichita than at Kansas City--fewer bluffs
and finer lands. And We tell that paper
now that sneers nor jokes will down the fact
that the great fight for commercial suprem-
acy for this section of the world is to be be-
tween the windy wonder at the Kaw's
mouth and the worlds wonder at the mouth
of the Little Arkansas. When Wichita Sc
cures these three additional railroads, which
the Journal tries to laugh at, the latter will
open with this announcement: missouri
river freight rates ut Wichits" Of the re-
suit the EAGLE is just as well satisfied as it
is that Minneapolis and St. Paul are bigger
towns to-day than Kansas City, and will
continue to be unless the Almighty should
proceed to wipe out the present in
habitants of Missouri and replace them with
northern energy, brains and thrift
Kansas City will note another thing:
Wichita, which is the leading commercial
town of Kansas, is chartering no new roads
to Kansas City, or even in her direction.
Wichita is seeking only connections that
are independent of the toll-gate at the KAw's
mouth, that reach around the windy won
der and her pools and per cents. And,
mark us, when Wichita has secured an
other trunk line or two, and with them Mis-
souri, river freight rates, then Kansas City's
roads will either come on charters Of their
own to Wichita, or run comparatively
empty trains, for the wheat, corn, hogs and
cs.tle Of the west are not grown in the vicin-
ity of Kanfas City. but in the vicinity of
Wichita