Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1889-04-14
TWENTY MILLIONS MORE.
WHY WICHITA WILL BE THE GREAT
EST CITY WEST OF CHICAGO.
Begotten Of Events, Developed by HUI
man Efforts, with Unrivalled Oppor-
tunities, She Becomes the Peer
less Center Of New
Civilization

this city. In the center of an agrlcul-
tural paradise, one hundred miles square,
with a hundred tributary towns and
cities all bright and prosperous, consti-
tutes a strong enough guarantee that
| Wichita would have grown great In her
own field; but the addition Of field of
such territory eoualling in area the
state of Ohio, and the political economist
is lost in his efforts to measure the
results Oklahoma is well enough, but
it is but d drop in the bucket;
it is but two million acres as
against twenty-five million. In the
circumscribed district now about to be
opened to settlers Wichita must take her
chances for its trade with other cities
and towns. But this district will be
filled to Cverfiowing in a day. There
will be trouble from numerously con-
flicting claims of priority. The result
will be that more people will be crowded
over on the unoccupied lands than will
find places in Oklahoma proper. If the
army of the United States was five times
greater than it is it could not drive these
beople out. The result will be an I'M
precedented pressure for the Cherokee
strip and for all the public lands lying
west of the 96th meridian. In these
lands, in this broad virgin domain of
twenty millions of acres, and the people
who shall occupy them, lies Wichita's
greatest opportunity. No other city
reaches the great body of these lands
or can reach them, as does Wichita. The
border towns will each reach them with
one line or more of roads respectively,
while Wichita reaches them with all the
roads, while cities like Chicago and Kan
sas City can only reach them at a much
longer distance and through Wichita.
No new and Independent systems of
railways can possibly be devised and
built before the opening of the territory
named And even if they could be
they would SO intersect Wichita's roads as
but to add to her already dominating ad-
yantages But the additional truth is
the new roads thought Of, that are being
arranged for and projected, ARE to gofrom
Wichita and to connect with Wichita.
There will be hundred thousand, or.
probably two hundred thousand. people
trying to secure homes and business
in the circumscribed little district which
is to be opened next Monday a week.
With these and for their trade, Wichita
has an equal show with any other city
on the lines of the Santa Fe system,
and she will push and improve her OPP
portunity for all that it is worth: but
who can fail to see and comprehend the
fuller, the greater, the immeasureable
advantages of this city when it comes to
that broader and more magnificent ter
ritory southwest and lying along the
southern border, the treating for which
will commence within ten days. COffey-
vile will have one road down into the
territory: Arkansas City has one road
down into the territory; Hunnewell will
have one: Caldwell has one, and will
have another; Kiowa has one and will
have another:-the second road for both
of these last named towns are already
built to these respective points, and are
ready to oe extended into the territory.
Anthony will have ore road down into
the territory; Englewood will have a
road down into the territory: Liberal
will have q road down into the territory;
for to all these points are roads now
operated; but Wichita has now. and will
/ have for all time to come all the roads
of all these towns centering at her depots,
at her graineries and at her live stock
yards and markets.
VIII Wichita be equal to her oppor-
| tunity, may be asked. The Wichita of
the present don't have to be. The situa-
ton is hers, and the opportunity
| is for those who will desire to profit in
the superior advantages offered by the
city and which they will not be slow to
see. Her thirty or forty thousand peo-
Pile, her twenty or thirty millions of cap
ital of to-day, her two or three dozen
wholesale lines and manufactures of to-
day, all must be more than quadrupled
to meet the demands which will be mode.
and, as sure as the law of demand and
supply never fails, so sure will the quad
rupllng occur.
And now:
That which often appears TO be fate or
fortune is but the logic of events,
the elimination of human eff
forts, made in encompassing some
previously comprehended advantage.
All geographical lines are merely imagi-
nary, but all lines of traffic make
centers of trade. Water ways are rapid
iy giving way TO the steel rail and its
tireless wheels. The future great cities
Of Amcricawill be mid-continent cities.
In the center OF the United States the
commercial center of her central state
is Wichita. begotten of events, develop
ed by comprehensive human efforts, and
and with peerless advantages and unri-
vailed opportunities is destined to be a
center for all that the Civilization of The