Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1889-12-01
THE TRIUMPH OF SUPERIORITY.
Wichita Superior to the Test Of an Or
deal Comes Out the Victorious Me-
tropolis Of Great State.

existence was permanent one, as has
been shown by Wichita. The boom that
Wichita experienced came of a general
recognition of her superior location and
undeniable superior chances and advan-
tages, and the extremes of that unparal-
leled growth was but an earnest of gen.
eral anticipation. The ''call halt" was
but needed rest from unexampled ex-
ertion, was but reaction which was
necessary to healthy rather than a
strained permanency. But it must not
be forgotten that Wichita stood test in
that reaction which no other city
of the west was compelled to
undergo, and that she has come
forth from an ordeal that would
have hopelessly killed any city less
strongly intrenched in greatness, less
fortified in advantages and utterly bank
rupted nine out of ten of its business
men. Other surrounding places in this
and other western states which caught
the spirit of Wichitas people, through
reflex action, and whose booms but fair
ly commenced when Wichita realized
that reaction was already here, escaped
the crucial test to which this city was
subjected. The very summer that
Wichita first felt that a reaction from
too rapid development was upon her,
the crops of all the southwest largely
failed. From 1874 to 1885, inclusive, or
for eleven years, the average crops of
southwest Kansas were good. The first
year of the dry cycle caught this city
at the most possible inopportune time.
Then came two years of the still
shorter crops, 1887 and 1888. In other
words collapsed boom was intensified
by the sudden and unexpected cutting
off and humiliation of the great bulk of
that trade which in the first place had
warranted and induced her extraordinary
expansion, cut it off not only for one
year, but for three successive years. No
more severe test could have been made
of the staying qualities of people, of
the sure foundations of city founded
and developed by the exegencies, agen-
cies and sustaining interests which make
metropolises. Kansas City, of course,
felt the same thing, but with the adj
vantages of age and anchored wealth to
resist and uphold. For two years, all
through the years of 1887 and 1888, men
of forecast, of mental grasp and of large
experience, as they looked upon and es-
timated the depressing effects of boom
reaction and crop failures coming IN
CONJUNCTION, declared that so young city,
no matter what her natural advantages,
could possibly stand up under such a
pressure as that against which Wichita
SO bravely, consistently and VIGOROUSLY
struggled. There is but little question
but for the fact of the crop failures the
reaction from the boom would not have
been needed or felt by the city in its on
ward stride. The fact that much of her
outside property was held by outside
capitalists able to hold it, and that the
Oklahoma excitement relieved her of a
few thousand surplus population, were
but mitigating circumstances. The in
contestible facts of her prestige, wealth,
advantages of position, and the indomit-
able spirit of people who had been ed
ucated up to an mistaken faith in the
great destiny which awaits the city,
carried her proudly and triumphantly
through an ordeal of three years dura-
ton such as no city probably of her age
was ever subjected to.
And now, day is breaking for Wichi-
ia and bright day. If its light was
long delayed, it promises to be all the
more powerful, revealing not wreck.
but only shaking down, leveling up
and solidifying result, which no future
combinations of unexpected casualties
ployed in strengthing foundations and
adding of those great interests and i'm
provements which great cities must
haye. One full year of crops have again
come with the full promise of another
which shall more than equal the present
one. The arteries of business are full
again and their pulsations are more
measured and stronger than eyer Pub
lie improvements are not only going for
ward in grand and permanent way.
but private and quasi-public enterprise
and interests are showing margins on
the profit side, and Wichita today is in a
better condition financially, in better
health municipality, and stronger COM
than any city in the state,
twice over, not only, but better in pro-
portion 10 her size and business than is
Kansas City, or any other great western
city; one of the strongest proofs of all
which is her weekly clearing house
reports.
Then, what next, boom? Yes; but not
a crazy speculative boom in unimproved
real estate, but one of intrinsic values
and widening and deepening growth,
accommodating strength and of alb
sorbing grasp. 1t will be, and