Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1884-1886, 1886-03-24
HOW THE STRIKE AFFECTS
KANSAS
Millions Upon Millions OF Dollars
Must We Lose.

The grea. ialir0ad Strlke le, anu VIII
prove most unfortunate to Kansas
more SO to this state probably than te
any other. While none of the trouble
originated with her roads, no Other
state, cast or west, had such prom
re for the year 1886, in the matter Of
solid and sC.,s antial progress. 1t had
been determined that Kansas offered
for the present at least, the greatest
inducement for the construction 81
new liues of railway. Here was 'ha
greatest and best unoccup;cd ft.9 FOX
that class of investment to be found.
How to occupy il to the best advan-
tage had been the study of the man.
agements of many great lines for
months past. Several of the lines had
even been determined upon, and mill
ions upon millions of eastern capital
had been arranged for and practically
secured for their construction. The
trunk lines alone had arranged for the
construction this year, of about, or a
little more probably, than fifteen hun
dred miles of railway. The Santa Fe
had fixed for $50 miles the ST. Louis
and San Francisco, 200 miles /; the
Union Pacific, $50 miles; the Chicago
and Rock Island, 400 miles the Gould
system $50 and the Wichita and West
ern 100 miles. A low estimate, or at
least very conservative estimate, for
the first cost of the bare roads, with
out rolling stock, depots, etc, would
be $l2 600 to the mile, or a total sum
of about two million dollars. To this
might haye been safely added another
;,illion of dollars for depots, switches,
shops, engines, etc. But this is not
~. There has beeu, as everybody
~nows, an equal amount of mileage
confidently counted upon to be built
hy Independent interests, local lines for
which charters had been secured, and
local ID voted; in several disturbances
the capital provided for, among which
might be mentioned the Eft. Scott, To-
peka and Dakota line, upon which
considerable work has already been
done, of 200 miles: the Omaha, abb
lene and Wichita, for which half
million of dollars have already been
voted, 175 miles; the Kansas City and
Northwestern, 100 miles, and so on
and so on, making an additional
amount Of expenditure in and for the
state of two or three million dollars
more for bare roads. But that is not
all. Not oniv would these millions
have been added TO the state directly,
and from outside sources, but every
section of ten miles of these new roads
would have added other people, other
towns, other capital, and other inn
prOvements and industries until no
man could approximate the totals
which would have been added to Kan
sas for the year 1886. They would all
combined, have meant, no doubt, fifty
or hundred millions of dollars or
more.
What the actual outcome, under the
circumstances, may now be, we viii
not pretend TO guess, but we are con-
WINGED that unless the present strike
is soon and satisfactorily wound up
and the causes which led to il perma-
nently settled, Kansas may not in
life time secure what she otherwise
would have had poured in upon her
within the next twelve months. There
fore, leaving out of the question all
possibilities of socialistic war or
revolution, bloodless or otherwise, we
still are of the opinion that Kansas is
now yicarious. innocent and uhwill-
ing sufferer.