Wichita eagle., 1889-11-01
FARMS VS. TowNsI
a Ploughman on His Legs, is Higher
than a Gentleman on His Knees.

|
At the Cape of Good Hope there is ;
gigantic bird, the albatross, which seem
to delight when the ocean is in its mos
furious tempest and screams In happy
frenzy as it hovers DER the vast waste O
troubled waters, and if it reaches TIT
border of the trade winds, out OF thu
region of the storm, it Immediately
wheels back in the middle of the tempest
1t has many times occurred to us tina
the EAGLE, Wichita, Kansas, were typi
cal of this albatross: that WI
were most happy when engaged
in breasting storm or struggling with
an adversary, breasting the adverse cur
rents, and in reality the wilder thesstorn
the happier we are. In the calm we art
at our worst; in tempest at our best
| though we arrive at our true worth anC
ascertain our depth when seas are calm
we prove our strength when the pillows
are widest, most uncomfortable anc
dangerous.
Though we are at present depressed
low spirited, and Discouraged, all ovel
the west, in Kansas, and at home, the
study of the causes that produce these
effects prove only that there was, and
yet is dizzy heighuh which we may not
climb until our condition of grlstle
hardens into bone, and we add to years
the attendant weight of commerce IN al
its channels, which goes as rule with
experience and gray hairs.
Our wealth Is the fruit of the first
generators laborious industry in the
older part of the state. In the newer
portion the first baby born in the county
has not yet arrived at school age, and in
the second stage of our growth and civ
ilization, the first born has not yet
arrived at manhood.
Kansas has no just complaint to make
the destiny of young states. Truthfullv,
a glance at the physical condition OF
Kansas from 1888 to 1887 demonstrates
that we crowded our canvass to its
greatest extremities; demanded of for
tune gifts which it could not bestow,
and pouted as child loaded with Christ
mas gifts when the very richness OF our
possessions gave us nausea and ennui
A writer has said that there are times
in the lives of people and the history of
nations when the nature of things re-
volts and genius yields compensation
for the abuse of its success. A very
shallow reading of history, q glance at
the actual resources of the state and
a comparison of the growth Of the coun-
try with that of the village town or city
was sufficient to put us on our guard
and warn us of danger, and the conse-
Quences that must ensue from crowding
the city and neglecting the farm, in an
agricultural domain. Yet all DER
the state from the Kaw to the Colo
RADIO line; from the Republican valley
on the north to the Vertigris and the
Medicine on the south. the past was a
blank book; the glance at our condition
was never given and the comparison of
the relative strength or weight of the
farming class with the town was never
made, and we are reaping the fruit of
neglect of attention to the actual re-
sources of our agricultural empire.
One would have supposed that the
railroad corporations, from actual tax
statistics forced on them in bond voting
would have foreseen that the resources
from the farms would be inadequate to
respond to the demands for interest and
running expenses, but candor impels us
to say that the railway officials,
agents and contractors sympathized
with the mad race for town building
and neglectful of the true source from
which dividends are evolved in Kansas,
built towns all over the state, and in so
doing stimulated the city fever. and
when the end came, cursed Kansas for a
crop failure, when it is known fact
hot Of no
sas that if every acre of land under cult
ricious hope, the entire crop would not,
could not pay axlegrease on the railroad.
1t is not too much to say that at least
five hundred miles of railroad were built
in 1886 and 1887 to boom town lots in the
interest of men who forgot that they
were working for principal, and on
principle worked for themselves and
builded string of struggling villages,
resulting in embarrassing the railroad,
and whose managers now spend their
time cursing Kansas for short crop,
when in truth and in fact weary years
must intervene before a ripe and vigorous
settlement will dot the prairies in some
of the booming railroad extension coun-
ties of Kansas. In fact, it has been said
that one corporation in Kansas, now in
financial straits, was town company
organization with railroad annex, and
built thousand miles of railroad to
found fifty villages.
The embarrassment of the railways of
Kansas is due to causes which plentiful
crops could not avert, and the railroad
howl is the subterfuge of an adulterous
deacon who prays the roof
off county school house
in the time of revival to
hide the guilt clinging to his garments,
stiffle inquiry and suppress investiga-
ton.
The railway management desires to
keep the bondholder and eastern stock
holder in the dark as to the real cause of
the failure to earn dividends, and hence
there is universal railway coyote con-
cert that the failure of the Kansas crop
has caused the shrinkage. The most
plenteous harvest would but family have
obScured the mIsmanagementof the rail-
roads, and at best would only have post
poned the punishment of railroad-town
building greed, and for brief season
yelled the clouds that inevitably must
burst and deluge the railroad world.
The short crop has but compelled the
railroads to sooner disclose the real de-
sign: foreclose the construction mort
gage, cancel and wipe out township.
city, county stock, as well as floating
debt, buy the railroad in a foreclosure
sale, and merge into the present system.
and in imitation of national bankrupt
law, start new without liabilities. This
was the fate of the ST. Louis. Fort Scott
& Wichita railroad. 1t is now on new
legs and one million dollars of stock is
sued to townships counties and cities Is