Los Angeles daily herald., 1889-07-31

Angeles nhu DeoH, foah onu " hniA "6S'
It exalted it's horn and blew blast OF
egotism not often rivsled even in that
land of the blaring bszoo.
And now change has come over the
spirit of this erstwhile most presumptu-
GUS of towns. We will allow the Cleve-
land Hercld and Leader, of July 23d, to
tell the story of the retribution that has
overtaken this most vainglorious and
impertinent upstart:
The expected has happened in Kansas
City. The great real estate boom that
set the people of that town crazy year
and more ago, has collapsed, as was con-
fidently predicted in these columns when
the craze was at it's height. The result
is that business of all kinds is in de-
pressed state, and mortgage foreclosures
occupy almost as much public attention
now as the list of real estate transfers
did in the days when the boom was on.
The Topeka, Kan, Capital, after q
thorough investigation OF affairs in Kan
sas City, declares that there exists in
that city "the most disastrous business
depression that has been brought upon
any Yves ern city in the past fifteen
years." Stagnation is the rule in all
branches of business. There are $50
empty business houses, 5000 vacant
residences, and 1000 Office rooms wait
ing for tenants. 1t is believed that fully
400 residences were vacated in the month
of June alone by mechanics and profes-
sional men who were compelled to leave
the CITY on account of dull times. Real
estate is drug on the market. Much
of it is mortgaged for more than 1t Will
bring today. Foreclosures are so fre-
quent that the Kansas City Globe issues
a supplement each day for the publica-
ton Of notices of foreclosure sales. In
one Issue there we're forty-nine such
notices, and it is frequent occurrence
for twenty foreclosure proceedings to be
begun in single day. In the last six
months over 600 mortgages have been
foreclosed. The depression is so great
that the principal streets are thronged
with idle men. 1t is estimated that al
least 900 men are unable to find EN-,
ployment.
Making due allowance for the jealousy
of Topeka, there is evidently a deplor'
able stale of affairs in Kansas City. Yet
| it is nothing more than Was to have been
expected from the reckless boom that
went on for several years in that commu-
nifty. The real estate bubble has col
lapsed, inflated values have been pune
tured, and the reaction that must always
follow such fictitious growth has become
as terrible as the crazy hopes OF the
boomers were foolish. Real estate
milling pushed values up to a point
years ahead of the growth of the city,
and when they could no longer advance,
the inevitable reaction set in. There was
too much froth and foam about the
growth of Kansas City for it to be sub
stan tial, and too many of the hopes for
the city's future were based on fctions.
What change has come over the
spirit of the Kansas City dream? Here
is a genuine collapse, in which real
estate values have shrunk to nothing
comparatively. In charming and aro.
matte Los Angeles, on the other hand
the price of city real estate has not
known the elimination of dollar,
and the records of the Great Register,
the School Census and the Gas and Water
Companies show that our population re.
mains substantially what it was during
the height Of the boom, with the Ger.
tainty that it will be enhanced fifty pei
cent. within year from the day it has
been authoritatively announced that the
Union Pacific Railway has reached the
Colorado river, with the cheap fuel and
iron ore involved in that proposition, tc
say nothing of the development of the
innumeraole rich mining camps of gold
and silver which will spring up all over
Southwestern Utah, Southwestern Ne
vsda and the incalculably rich mineral
regions of Southern California.
Verify Los Angeles, momentarily ar
res ted in her imperial career of progress
and development, can afford to breathe
sigh of pity over the collapse and the
almost paralysis of Kansas City.