Wichita eagle., 1886-11-24
TRIBUTARY TO US?
Kansas City Whistlin2 to Keep up Her
Courage!
The Editor OF the Kansas City Times Unload.
for the Delectation of st. Louis Through
the Post-Dispatch.
From the st. Louis Post Dispatch

00S Clty lines, talked ABOUT CnaC eXpurgaJet
edition of Chicago this morning at th
Southern "When MIR. Gould was in Kansa
City he said to me that in fifty years oul
city would be bigger than either st. Louis o.
Chicago will be then"
ssDo you believe that!'
"Most certainly do We will catch uI
with st. Louis in ten years. The signs art
all in our favor The boom in real estate
continues, the sales amounting to a million 6
week Then we are getting three new line:
Of railway, the Kansas City, Wyandotte and
Northwestern, the Chicago, Milwaukee and
Colorado. Besides these the st. Louis and
San Francisco is talking of building branch
to Kansas City, and the Missouri Pacific is
building branch from Paola."
"Why should Kansas City continue to
grow and surpass st. LOUISE
Because it has all the west tributary to
.sIt cuts off western trade that formerly
came to st. Louise
eyes"
"Why couldn't some other city lying fur
sher to the west cut off this trade from Kan
sas City,"
"None of them can do it. Denver and
Pueblo had their little booEls and then re-
Apsed. Wichita has made quite squirt of
late, but it cannot become rival of Kansas
City. The fight was once to establish what
should be the metropolis of the Missouri val
rity, trade and railway lines focus at that
point"
s'Gould in a recent interview said some
ahing very favorable to Wichita"
"Yes, that was on account of his friend
ship for Marsh Murdock of the EAGLE. That
,was what Senator Plumb told me. Murdock
helped Gould to get terminal and other facil-
kies, and he wants to help Wichita. But
even with the little help he will give Wichita
'rill never be considerable rival of Kansas
tity. 1t will remain like those other Kansas
cities. tributary to us.
Now read this
For fifteen or twenty years all OF the
great trunk lines of railway reaching south
uest from Chicago, and west from st.
louis and east from the Rocky noun
tains, save one, have centered and termin-
Hed at Kansas City. Inevitably the entire
products of Kansas, of Colorado, of New
Mexico and largely of Nebraska and Mis-
suri have been poured into the yards, in
tr the warehouses, the pens; elevators and
u mmercial institutions located at Kansas
City and about the mouth of the kaw.
( Tle result was town which in the magni
tuie of its trade, growth and money power
Hershadowed all Of the older towns OF
Ensas which were clustered about within
tbe radius of a hundred miles of that point.
Tsis concentration of railway influences,
an of traffic and consequent life and capi-
tal squeezed the energy and the hope out
of Kansas towns which twenty years ago
w re big with promise, and, even prostrat-
cd to noticeable degree the richest and
TN oldest commercial city in the west,
ma uely, St. Joseph, Missouri. 1t had
come TO that point that the people
of the old and once fourishing
ioesns and cities Of Kansas were furnished
wi h everything by and from Kansas City,
im luding the local news of their own towns
TIN 1ugh Kansas City's papers. Even St.
Ir lis with her foundation of a hundred
We rs and heI hundreds of millions of
Ca fully secured and abundantly protect
ing capital, commenced to feel the results
of /; he wonderful advantages held and en-
joy by the town at the confluence of the
Kr, and Missouri Valleys.
-
Ka sas City mark what follows:
TIE editor of the EAGLE, for one at least,
apr eciating the facts above set forth, and
frur them, in his own mind, determining
that the chances of ever building up a com
men ;al center within the bounds of Kan
sas inged, unquestionably, upon sue
cess 'ul effort TO break the web whose con
tiuu. d spread was being ever strengthened
by newly added victims; that, ii Kansas
ever was to enjoy the results of her own
labor and the products of her own rich and
bcur Hess fields and pastures; that if Kan
sas would ever he permitted to reap a
rr~rnge and gather taxes from cities
iui.. nv hcr own capital and
trade. that the combination of fortuitous
advantages which environed the town on
the western border of Missouri, must be
broken. To this end the EAALE for |
months. even years, incessantly called the
-ttention of the people of the state to the
facts set forth in the opening of this article, |
urging them, and urging the legislature to
put forth every possible effort to induce the
trunk lines terminating on the Missouri
river and at Kansas City to TO come out to
the base of supplies. We urged that unle S
this was soon done, and successfully done,
Kansas as a state would not only become
entirely and forever tributary to Kansas
CITY. whose overshadowing Importance
would not only sap the life of Lawrence,
Leavenworth, Topeka, Atchinson, TT,
Scott and other older towns, but that no
town in Southwest Kansas wonld ever
reach beyond the dignity of county seat,
In which event great per cent. OF all the
wealth produced by our fields, of all the
fatness turned off our pastures, and of all
the profits of our trade would be poured
into the Golfers and for the upbuilding of a
city Just over the boarder, city which we
could in no manner control and whose
wealth, although produced by US, we could
not tax. To this end we not only wrote
and talked, and to Mr.. Gould and the Mis-
aouri Pacific management, TO Mr.. Edward
r. Winslow, the president of the ST. Louis
and San Francisco, but wrote and talked
ox-or,- oococion and or1DOrtunitv tn