Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1889-04-21

anu w lCl1ld are Jlliheu together dllu lOI
all the future. But single glance at
the official map found elsewhere of
southern Kansas and the Indian terri
tory is necessary to make plain to all
why this is so. The Oklahoma of to-
morrow is but a fraction of what the
Oklahoma of the next six months will
be. The little patch of country, not SO
large as Sedgwick and Sumner counties,
containing less than eleven thousand
quarter sections which will be taken pos
session of tomorrow by twice or five
times that number of people, and which
is reached by Wichita as directly as by
any other town, and by two hundred
miles more nearly than Kansas City, is
yet but a patch whose trade will amount
to no more than does the trade of any
two counties Of Kansas contiguous to this
city. But take the entire territory, take the
Oklahoma contemplated by the Springer
bill and which is contemplated by the
commission appointed to treat for the
new lands, and note the number of rail-
ways that run directly from Wichita
down to the greater, down to the full
and complete Oklahoma; railways which
run from no other one point, railroads
which make Wichita the most quickly
and accessible of all other jobbing
points in or out Of Kansas, and then
draw your own conclusions. Wichita 5
advantage with reference to Oklahoma,
nc I will l1n fnyx he
needs no explanation. Everybody will
see it and nobody can fail to understand
it.. To beat Wichita as the jobbing point,
as the livestock market, as the grain
market for the Indian Territory whole
systems of railways and branches would
have to be revised and torn up and an
impossible barrier built on the south
line of the state.
But the circumscribed district living
nearly one hundred miles south of the
Kansas line and one hundred and fifty
miles from the Panhandle of Texas and
one hundred and fifty miles west of Ar
kansas will be opened tomorrow and,
twenty maybe forty thousand home
seekers will find themselves outwitted
and beaten in the rush for possession.
The result need not be pointed out.
There will be trouble. There will be
trouble not only between boomers, but
between them and the cattlemen on the
strip; between them and the soldiers,
and between them and the Indians. a
further result will be, as was stated by
us several weeks since in these col
umns, if the commission fails to make
terms with the CherOkees for the Strip
and thus relieve the pressure, the
trouble will become SO great that Presi-
dent Harrison will be forced to convene
congress in extra session to finally adjust
the matter. But III any and all events
be opened, together with all that country
lying between Oklahoma and the Pan
Handle: then comes Wichita's supreme
opportunity. This vast territory is hers
and in a sense and with directness of
which no other city can pretend to claim.
Caldwell and Kiowa, Medicine Lodge
and Englewood, Liberal and Hume
well and Arkansas City, all border
towns, will all be benefited by new
local trade, and all benefited alike and
in the same way. But look at the map
again and see how Wichita reaches all
these points, and two or three of them
with more than one line each of railway.
These were the points and these the logic
of the situation, as seen and understood
by the state railway commissioners
when they decided, officially, that it was
in the interest of all Southern Kansas
that the position, trade and tonnage of
Wichita should be recognized by the
tariff schedules of the ten lines of rail-
ways centering at this point.
So far as the present opening of Okla
homa is concerned, however, and it is a
point which should not be overlooked,
Wichita will be better represented, will
have greater number of business men
and other interested citizens located
there than will any other city east or
west, so that Wichita will, even so far
as this circumscribed district is con-
cerned, control more than her proper
ton of its present trade.
| Oply ar that man