Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1886-11-30
A SERIOUS RAILROAD TALK!
To our Mayor and City Council
and Business men.
Are we to Have a Business Center and
a Center of Business, or Mawkish
Sentiment and e Flattencd
out Village.

to be met, met now and mot sluarely and
urfinchingly and settled. There are al
kinds Of suggestions and propositions being
tucked into the fosoms and cranmed into
the noggins OF the members of the city coun-
Gil, by interested and by dis;nterested poo
pie, some of which are very emotional,
some very wild, and few Of any bust
fness sense whatever. There have been
suggestions that if carried out would
involve the expenditure of a half million OF
dollars and consequent debt Of that amount
3upon our city, or six or seven times more
than all cur present Indebtedness, scheme
to load our city and its prosperity down with
| with debt and heavy taxes TO buy just what
we have more than an abundance OF already
an Issue Of bonds TO buy mora streets, or
what amounts to the same thing, to buy
costly blocks to make streets or rights of way
out of them As everybody VINO has desired
! it, probably, has had a chance to buzz the
MAYOR and the differens members of the
council on this S b. ct, the EAGLE proposes
! to stick in its oar and have its say, and we
| hore that waa5 we say viii be as dispasS:on-
atey considered as it is offered Nov listen,
gentleman OF the council:
Immediately following the removal of the
Indians and the opening OF this country to
settlement, number Of gentlemen, who for
years had their eyes upon the junction OF the
Little and Great Arkansas rivers as just tho
point to found q great city, laid out wichita
on the broadcast levelest sits to be found in
tho entire country, and their SUCCESSORS were
and have always been agreed touching the
one single proposition, that to make it the
leading central city of the state all that was
necessary was TO make it the railway center
OF the state TO this end some Of us have
worked night and day, yes many Of Us, and
for wears worked Unselfshly and harmon
oasly. With this central idea ever to the
front, very broad streets and avenues were
laid cat That for which we have worked
and laborsi SO long for which we have spent
! CIR money and bonded ourselves, the rail
ro2ds, are coming, coming in such numbers
as we hardly dared at first to hope, and as they
como in response to Cur aid, invitation and
demand, they ask to be taken in, taken II, in
accordance w;fh our implied promise and
their expectation. Now, Mr.. Mayor, and
| Messrs. Councilmeu, these streets and alleys
of ours and there are hundreds of them,
! running sast and west and north and south,
! were all laid out and all dedicated to the
public with no other idea, no other inten-
ton, bat as and FOR thoroughfares, laid out
| for sidewalks for wagons, :or carts, for
1 = - arg
for motor cara, for cable cars, for steam
cars. and for every vehicle under heavens,
used by man and found necessary TO the
traffic, travel and upbuili!ng of . great city,
and for 40 other purpose Thousands OF PEG
ple who LATER seeing, believing that Wich-
we had al been working for,
to-wit railway center and {. city, rushed IN
and bought property, bought property with
their eyes open, bought property il the
suburbs and all around, knowing, expecting,
in facts, hoping, that tho5s who had been
working for these roads had not failed of
their aim, but that the roads we're bona fide
would beyond any question, come, and come
into the city. Thus thousands Of lots have
been bought east OF the Santa Fe tracks all
west Of the river with the fullest knowledge,
with no other expectation than that the
roads which had been provided for mast and
would pc built, and that theg would come
just along the very streets or along the
streets contiguous to where they IaG bought,
and bat for the expectancy Of which
reads they never would have bought,
AMI but for which expected roads nine out
Of ten OF them would never have become
residents Of the town at all Thee very lots,
along these streets, now, to-day, With the full
knowledge OF their owners that these roads
are coming, and coming beyo,l any QueS
ton, coming just as they have laen expecting
and hoping, these very lots ar9 held at fig
ures which two years agowoula have been con-
-iderod high for the choicest lots in the older,
and best settled resident districts IN the CITY.
And there is not man who laid oil an ad-
dition between Fifth avenue and the hill, not
4 man who has bought Il lot within these
limits who, if ho knew anything OF the his
tory or prospects OF The town, but that knew
that il the roads ever came they must
come down through those additions or
keep clear beyond tha limits OF town
which would mean clear beyond COLLEGE
Hill, for the College Eli streets ara just rs
sacred az the streets between here and CHS
holm creek.
And another thing we would Ike to i'm
press upon tho men who are our representa-
tives and who no; only represent our proper
tv and prosperity considered rs 8 whole, but
whose duty it is to benefit the greatest nun
Der and the greater Interests; and that IS
that the welfare OF our business center mast
be conserved and ever be kept as solid ana
compact as possible. To scatter BUSINESS Is
to destroy it, largely, and il thu business Of
, the town fails then there VIII be no demand
for streets nor lots, by railways or by anybody
else. Bring couple Of roads up or down OF
the west side OF lha Big River. and 4 coUp..
down Fifth and Mead avenues and 81 anoth
er couple down along the banks Of Chisholm
creek, and one or tvo JUS over ColleSs
Hill. and whare VIII WIchi;a's business De
= Where her exchsu-e, her market. hal
- board OF trade, her clearing Lou>e, her banks
: her hoseIs OF where anything else II,
wouldn't be 2 city bCc an ovorgrovvn v.llay,
scattered from hill - horizon aui all o Sc.
the river and creation. and which wouidr'
attract a purchasing rsrcAau: ten miles
Lots were laid out that they nigh: b. bull
uoon: streets that they might carry traffic
hats are % bs covered with business houses
bins warehouses. machinery. material q a
a,,.r;, ,i,ns a. we'll as with homes. streets :,
b. fllai in with ma adam or Stse! rails O.