The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1890-04-02
WICHITA AND GALVESTON.

Wichita through her board of trade,
was the only city in Kansas to respond
with delegation of representative men
to the first deep water convention held in
Texas-the first to recognize the import
ance of a southern seaport to the north
west. This may have come from the
fact that this city is on the main line of
the Santa Fe to the Gulf, through which
port her business men had been receiv-
ing already some shipments, or from the
/ fact that touching every great question
affecting the state of Kansas at large
| Wichita is the first to be heard,
or probably both from her enter
prise and her more direct interest
in the matter Galveston as town was
not considered in the connection, it max
ing no material difference to Wichita
whether the place was located on a sea-
washed sand bar, subjected to inunda-
tons and fevers, or on high projecting
promontory of rock. What Wichita
comprehended was the fact that of all
central cities Of the great northwest
Wichita would be the most directly ben
Gifted by a deep harbor on the Gulf at
at the terminus Of the Santa Fe, and
Missouri Pacific and Rock Island sys-
tens.
And so this city will be. It does not
concern Wichita whether Galveston be
comes the New York of the
Gulf or maintains only her pres
ent status, which has changed little
in twenty-five years, so that Wichita
finds deep water port and wharfage
at the Gulf. Wichita has very satisfac-
tory permanent markets for everything
except her surplus grain, the largest per
cent of which grain is forced on an I'M
willing market at great distance. For
Wichita's cured meats, vegetables and
domestic products, of farm and town,
the growing demand coming from The
mining regions, covering three or four
states and territories to the immediate
west, is an ample and permanently grow
ing field, with prices maintained and
stimulated by the markets of St. Louis
and Chicago on the east, to
say nothing of the growing de-
mand for our flour and meat and
bacon from the states Immediately south.
But the Gulf, as the new National sea-
port for exports of surplus grains and
imports of every character, Wichita as
distributing center for large area of
country. is closer in time, and nearer in
miles, than Kansas City, st. Louis,
Chicago or any other commercial city
outside of the state of Texas, to said pro-
posed sea port. With her great grain
elevators and grain store houses, and
with the Santa Fe, Missouri Pacific and
Rock Island systems, all reaching such
new export point, Wichita, but twenty
hours from the Gulf, viii
be enabled to pay such prices
for the grain of vast district, reaching
clear to the northwest corner of Kansas
and even into Nebraska. as will com
mand the market in spite of Chicago or
St. Louis or any other point which may
seek to control the crops of this section
for the purpose of sending them to any
Atlantic sea port. With deep water at
Galveston Wichita ought to be able to
lay down -four, or wheat and grain in
New York by the way OF the Gulf
cheaper than Minneapolis or Chicago or
Cincinnati can. and as cheapIy as ST. !
Louis or Kansas City even with the lat |
ter two adopting the Gulf route.
With the Gulf port problem once salts
factorily settled Wichita will find herself !
the center of a triangular situation
marked for its advantage, the Lake mar
llets to the northeast, the mountain mar
kets to the west and the Gulf markets to |
the south all being equi-distance from !
this center, more emphatically the center |
with reference to these markets than |
any other city.