Wichita eagle., 1888-02-04
TRIBUTE TO KANSAS.

TRIBUTE TO KANSAS.
Under the head of Railway Enter
prise in a Single State. the Railway Age
for January has the following timely and
| excellent article upon the growth OF rail
way building in Kansas, and especially
in the year 1887:
There Is no more remarkable example
OF rapid increase in railway mileage, and
hence IN population und prosperity, than
that shown in the last few years in the
new state of Kansas. Six years ago the
railway mileage of the state was $500
miles. In the following five years it had
only increased to 4 400 miles. But in the
last two years about $500 miles have been
added, bringing the present mileage to
about $500 miles. The year 1886 wit
messed an increase of nearly LOO miles.
but 1887 surpassed that by adding nearly
2,lOO miles. A half dozen great COM
panies have been actively engaged in
sending out parallel lines and branches
through the state. and with such rapidity
and haste has this work been carried on
that the natural inference might be that
railway building in Kansas had already
been overdone, and that hereafter little
! additions were to be expected. But this
is evidently far from the belief of the rail
way projectors and people generally of
! that state. We publish elsewhere long
list of the new railway companies incor-
porated in Kansas during the year 1887
which is summarized as follows: Num-
Der of counties, 101: capital stock, $751;
$4,000: proposed length of lines, AHA
miles. For a gross project III q single
state, and that one in which railway
construction apparently had been greatly
overdone, tins may be considered re-
markable record. An examination of
the list suggests the great freedom and
hberality with which millions are in
vested on paper by the enterprising pro-
jectors of these schemes. While the ex-
tent OF the proposed lines in almost
every case runs well up in the hundreds
of miles, reaching in some instances to
the thousands, examination indicates
the fact that on the map at
least there is abundant room for
a great amount of railway construc-
ton in Kansas and the ad jacent country
before 1t becomes necessary for the
tracks OF competing lines to lap over upon
each other. 1t is quite true that the filiny
OF articles OF incorporation for a railway
Is not equivalent to providing the money
and building the road On the contrary,
such is the liberality of the state of Kan
sas in encouraging the building of COM
peting lines, that anybody can obtain a
charter on the payment of a dollar fee,
and the capital stock and mileage of the
proposed company can be made as large
as the ideas of the protector. Still a
charter for a railway over a general de-
fined route gives certain rights, and is not
often obtained unless there is behind it
the intention of procuring the cOnstruc
ton of at least a portion of the mileage
indicated. Indeed, many of these new
companies with magnificent plans and
mysterious origin are very likely to turn
out to have been originated by some of
the great corporations already in sue
cessful existence, and which are not
ready, perhaps. to publicly declare their
intention to their rivals. Thus the
Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe COM
pany secured charters in Kansas under
several different titles for thousands of
miles of proposed line. large part of
which have already been built, while
others will be constructed as soon as
seems advisable. The Chicago, Rock
Island and Pacific, Missouri Pacific,
and other strong companies are back of
numerous lines still to be built in that
state, SO that it is not safe to venture
prediction as to what portion of the enor-
nous mileage for which charters We're
issued in a single year will be built and
what portion is merely speculative and
without real backing. While the inni-
Gated routes of many of the lines named
in the list referred TO, lie wholly in the
state, others include proposed extensions
into Colorado and south into New Mexico
and Texas as far as the Mexican border.
so that a considerable part of the 1900
miles covered by these great schemes
lies outside of Kansas. But after
making allowance for all these con-
siderations the fact that SO many new
companies are chartered in a single year.
involving such an enormous nominal
mileage, while thousands and thousands
of miles for which charters were issued
in previous years are still unconstrcted.
and many of are still being pushed, in
dictates the certainty that railway build
ing in Kansas has by no means been
and an examination of the
map shows that there is still room for
very large additional mileage.