Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1886-09-25

1885 It was nearly $24s, ooo, Goo Therailroads
Of Kansas are assessed, for the year 1885, al
ton of all the real estate in 1850. We ha6
not mile of railway within our borders In
1864-we now have 6, III miles. Every coun-
| ty in the state, except twenty, is now ira
| versed by one or more railroads, and Within
the present year fully 200 miles OF new road
will be sdded to the lines we already have.
In educational privileges what state can
equal Kansas? Our stats university, agricul-
tural college and normal school are institu-
tions of which every intelligent Kansan is
| justly proud; and our common school system,
| supplemented by dozens of UNCONVENTIONAL
or private academies and colleges, Is Won
derful in the scope and extent of the educa.
tional facilities provided. We had only l54
school houses and employed only 189 teach.
ers in 1860; we now have more than 7.OOO
| school houses, in which fully 9,COU teachers
are employed to instruct $4,000 scholars.
| In 1861 the amount expended for the support
of common schools was only 81 700; the ex-
penditures in 1895 for the same purpose
aggregated $2,977, 1863 During the past
quarter of century Kansas has expended
for school buildings and the support of pub
ic schools, including our institutions for
higher education, fully 5,OOO, OCO.
Churches have multiplied with proper
tionate rapidity. In 1860 we had only 81
church buildings, costing On aggregate OF
only $143, $50; in 1885 we had over 5000, val
ued at more than $3,OOO,0OO.
In 1860 only q newspapers were published
| in Kansas; we nov have over $50, of which
| fully 40 are dailies, and their aggregate cir
culation exceeds 4OO, 900 copies. Every county
| in the state, organized or unorganized, now
| has one or more newspapers; and no other
state in the union can boast of a more enter
| prising and intelligently conducted press
than that of Kanses.
The provisions made for the unfortunate
have been most generous. Two asylums for
| the insane have been erected: and the insti-
sutions for the blind aud for the deaf and
dumb are among the largest and best in the
United States. An asylum for feeble mind
ed children has been provided. The Sol
diers' Orphans home, noble charity, illus
trating the grateful loyalty of our people,
will soon be completed. A reform school
for Maynard boys is in successful operation,
and the state, following the example of the
most advanced commonwealth, ID now
erecting an industrial rsformatory for the
confinement of law breakers who are not
hardened criminals, thus removing this
class, who may possibly be reclaimed by
wholesome discipline, from the degradation
of the penitentiary.
KANSAS, THE CHILD OF THE REPUBLICAN
In citing these facts and figures showing
the marvellous growth of Kansas, l am not
asserting or intimating that our fellow citi-
zens of other political organizations have
not contributed their full share of the reve-
nues necessary to build and maintain the
institutions enumerated. Nor do [ claim
that to republicans alone are due all credit
for the marvellous growth of Kansas. That
would be q folly of which I hope l
am not capable. But it is true
that this wonderful development could
not and would not have occurred if the
government of the state had been what our
political opponents assert it has been-cor-
rupt, tyranical, weak and bad. I appeal to
the average common sense of any good citi-
zen, to make answer whether Kansas could
possibly be what it is to-day, one of the
greatest and most prosperous states of the
union, if its government had been the weak
and wicked thing democratic orators and
newspapers assert that it has been2 I ap-
peal from Philip, drunk with partisan pre-
JUDGE, to Philip, sober enough to realize the
wonderful growth and to be proud of the
splendid state we inhabir. Here is the Kan
sas of our love and our faith-look around
you and see it. Every citizen of the state,
no matter what his political opinion may be,
is proud of Kansas. And yet Kansas. more
than any other region under the shining
stars, is the product, the child of the repub-
lican party. Republicans have guided and
directed its growth and development from
its infancy to the full stature of its splendid
manhood. Republican intelligence, repub-
lican policy, republican courage, enterprise
and sagscity, have inspired its laws, estab-
lished and moulded its institutions, and
controlled every step and stage of its
marvellous development. There is
no state in the American union where there
are, in proportion to population, so many
happy and prosperous homes as are found
in the state of Kansas, and are comfortably
clad. There is no people anywhere on the
earth where SO many wives and children sit
down, every day, to substantial meals, nor
where SO large proportion are sober, intel
igent, and contended with their lot, as here
in Kansas. And this great state, as I have
said, is the child of the republican party
bone of its bone, and flesh of its flesh. It
has grown great and powerful aud pros
porous because it has grown up under re-
publican laws and republican direction. Its
schools, its churches, its charities, its insti-
tutions, its industries, have been planted,
nurtured and promoted under the en-
couragement of republican intelligence. |
Kansas is shining illustration of the benef- |
cence of republican policy and principles. |
Its growth has surpassed that of any other
American state, because Kansas has always
been republican state. The people know
this. The most bitterly prejudiced demo-
crat in the land realizes it, wonders at it, |
and in his secret heart rejoices over it.
THE TWO PLATFORMS.
Our democratic opponents, however, chal- |
lenge the right of the republican party to
renewal of public confidence. And on what
grounds? Read their platform, and you
will see that the first and principal plank is
q general and very bitter denunciation of
''all sumptuary laws, state or national" and
an emphatic demand for return to the |
license system. They are opposed, the plat
form declares, "to the principle of constitu-
tional prohibition" They regard it as an |
invasion of ''the individual liberty and man.
hood of the citizen" And they favor, 'in-
stead of constitutional or statutory prohibi-
ton, well regulated and just license sys-
tenn"
Tho republican platform, on tho other
hand, declares that 1.-The people of Kansas
have adopted prohibition as the settled |
policy of the state, and have declared that
tho saloon, with its corrupt and demoralizing |
influences, must CO." The republicans are,
therefore, the platform declares, Sin favor |
of carrying out this verdict of the people,"
by enacting laws to enforce it, and by faith |
fully executing those laws, 60 that the sale
of intoxicating liquors, except for the pur-
poses specified in the constitution, may be |
made impossible"
On this question, as you will sec, the two