Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1889-02-24
THE LOGIC OF LOCATION.
GREAT CITIES INTERESTED IN THE
NEW METROPOLIS.
Kansas City and Wichita in the Eyes Of
st. Joseph and Omaha, and Their
Relations in the Future.

OG. Joseph ana Omaha, ana Iner
Relations in the Future.
The mercantile interests of Wichita are
to be largely added to this spring, in which
augmentation Boston, Cincinnati and St.
Louis will be represented Three long
time leases have been made within ten
days for establishments whose trade will
reach every important town in southwest
Kansas, and in general way both widen
and strengthen the commercial life and in
huence of Wichita. The Boston company
or its representative who made one of the
leases, says that his decision was not alone
Tor MS own company but three others in
as many lines who see that in the trade of
Oklahoma Wichita can have no rivalship,
worth speaking of, outside of the COMPETE
ton coming from the greater distances of
Kansas City, ST. Louis, St. Joe and Chi
cago. If these latter places can congrat-
ulate themselves over the promised
opening OF Oklahoma, the superiority of
Nlchita's position must go unquestioned.
but outside of Oklahoma the opportunity
Tor rapid development and increase of
the mercantile interests of Wichita are
equalIed by no other city in the west. The
business men of st. Joe, especially the
Jobbers of that city, congratulate them
selves upon the fact that Wichita is going
to cut into and divide up the live stock
and grain interests so long controlled by
Kansas City. In talking of it they declare
That no power can now prevent Wichita
from becoming an important, even
national factor in the live stock and pack
ing markets. The business men of Omaha,
upon the other hand while admitting that
Wichita is bound to cut a great figure in
the commercial life of the west, hold that
she is so far from Omaha as not to harm
their live stock and packing interests,
while all that Kansas City commercially
gives up to Wichita will be SO much to-
wards leaving Omaha the better
prepared to hold her own with
the only city which has been threatening
TO invade her territory. Both Omaha and
81. Joe business men maintain that Kan
sas City's immense advantage has been in
the control Of the grain and live stock in
terests OF Kansas and that Wichita alone
occupies the position and holds the power
to set a bound to the ambition and further
graspings of the town which got its name
and fame and all that it has from Kansas
If these interests of Kansas built up so
quickly such city as Kansas City,
and in a state which in every way
is 50 antagonistic to the Sunfower state,
then what may be expected of Wichita
when once she reaches the point where
she can command these aforementioned
interests, located, as she is, right in the
midst of these productions and backed, as
70 i,x-+f -
which have developed the products which
in turn have made the Missouri city SO
great, so powerful and 80 rich.
This is the trend o. the thought now be-
coming rapidly current not only in the
business circles of Omaha and St. Joe, but
in those of the larger cities named in the
first part of this article. and its logic can
not be questioned OF course Kansas City
affects to ignore her waning boom and the
almost disastrous shrinkage of real estate
sustained in the past few months, rs
she affects to ignore Wicnita's adj
vantage of position and daily in
creasing power, but such affectation,
even if it sustains the waning hope of her
people does not effect the patent advan-
tages and manifest superiority of Wichta's
location with reference to the coming
trade with Oklahoma and with reference
the live stock and grain productions of
southwest Kansas, nor her superiority over
not only all towns and cities in Kansas,
but over Kansas City and all other distant
cities that count upon the new field of
trade lying along rhe southern border.
The longer the opening of the territory
is deferred the more thoroughly and COM
pletely will Wichita dominate the
jobbing trade and the cattle and grain
products of that country when 1t is
opened, for the simple reason that the will
be the better prepared to take the field and
with more lines of goods. With our pres
ent establishments, our wholesale houses,
and with our packing houses and their
cured meats, and our mills and their -four,
and with our foundries and other fac
tories, Wichita could make a very fair at
tempt at control now, but with these
other concerns from Cincinnati, ST. Louis
and Boston added, and which we men
toned, the chances will be still much
better, in fact the chances would be so
much in our favor that no fear of rivalry
would be entertained.
Wichita, in short, was never so solid as |
as she is today, never so solid in her pres |
tige and predominance, never so solid in |
the bulk of her business and credit, never |
so free nor so well prepared to take care of |
herself and to help her own as she is today, |
and tina realization of which facts, by |
other and more powerful cities, is rebound |
ing to her advancement in marked and |
way, the results of which will |
be more apparent as the business of the |
coming season opens out.