Wichita eagle., 1889-05-23

gigantic live stock market and pack
ing interests, the grain elevators etc., a
Wichita in which every producer o
southwest Kansas and all, most directl,
connected and necessary to the speed,
development of the very territory O
which the railroads are expecting 81
much. While Wichita boasts from
three to five times the population of any
other single city in central or southwes
Kansas she boasts from five to ten time:
the capital and business. Should the
railroads succeed in having the order o.
the commissioners which makes Wichita
a recognized terminal point rescinded
and should Wichita cease to grow, il
would take years for either of the great
er towns of southwest Kansas, under the
most favorable influences, to reach the
point in wealth, in business
and in power held by Wichita
today, and even then such other
city would not have the facilities for
reaching the retail dealers and the pro-
ducers of the country named as Wichita
can show now. 1t is just as much to
the interest of the towns, of the commu-
mites, of the farmers and stock-growers
of central and southwest Kansas that
they have an accessible and handy mar
ket as it is for those of the Kansas and
and Missouri valleys, and Wichita being
beyond any question, by anybody, any
where, such natural and accessible cen
ter and market, it is not only impolitic,
shortsighted and unwise for the railway
arrangements to combine to destroy or
annul, but it is an impudence which
borders On the criminal-a proposition
involving an outrage which should be
melted out with a punishment more
strict than that demanded for the gravest
misdemeanor.
In concluding this another article
which covers but a point or two of many
which we design laying before our peo-
pie, we desire to say that five years ago
this month A E. Touzalin, then about
to relinquish the general management of
the Santa Fe system, and who had done
so much to dispose of and to develop the
railway lands of the upper Arkansas
river, urged upon the directory the adop-
ton of practically the same policy which
was last month enunciated by the state
railway commissioners, touching Wioh-
tia as the coming commercial city and
market center Of southern Kansas. The
interstate law had not then been en-
acted, but he held that another CONNER
cial center two or three hundred
miles west of the Missouri river
for central and southern Kansas
must be developed and would be main
tanned by the great interests of this vast
section as necessity, and that Wichita
would undoubtedly be such point. He
held that Wichita was undoubtedly
located and would become
pooling point with practically Missouri
river rates. In pursuance Of such &
policy he advised an acquisition, by his
road, Of at least a section of land for
stock yard, packing and other purposes,
lying from Oak street immediate north
He in fact authorized the writer of this
to negotiate for such an amount of land
so located. The land now is all covered
by the city, by her packing houses,
stock yards, ETC., and is today worth
many million dollars. The management
Of the Missouri Pacific system subse-
luently recognizing the wisdom of such
a plan and sensible course for the develop
ment of a great southwestern market
ordered terminal rates for Wichita which
forced the other lines into the arrange
ment, and which continued to force for
several months, or practically till the
passage of that hypocritical enactment,
the interstate commerce law. But
Touzalin resigned, the interstate law
went into operation and Wichita has
simply waited, waited for that which her
people knew that time must bring and the
time being now full she demands only
that which her business men feel that |
they were entitled to years ago.