The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1890-08-29
RAMS AS CITY SIMPLY A TOLL GATE
COMMISSION POINT AND
BROKERAGE CITY.

That Kansas City is simply toll gate
and not market point for Kansas car
not be disputed when the fact is known
that the population of Kansas City does
not exceed 40, 900 people. 1t is an i'm
possibility for city with so small a
population to consume the products of
the labor of 100000 people in Kansas.
The overwhelming testimony of facts
is that Kansas has been paying a COM
mission to Kansas City for doing its
business. Kansas should ship her pro-
ducts direct to the New York, Chicago
and st. Louis markets. These cities have
become markets by virtue of having out
grown the producing power of the sec
tons in which they are located, there
fore are great consuming points and re-
quire the productions of foreign states.
Kansas City is so small in consuming
power that she can live with
out the products of Kansas,
because she is located in territory that
produces enough to supply the wants of
her citizens and the people in that terri
tory. When she outgrows the producing
power of her own territory then she be-
comes a market for Kansas, but until
that time she must pose as the Missouri
toll gate for Kansas.
The Kansas City business men recog-
nize the fact that their city is a commits
sion point only, and in order to have
Kansas products sifted through that city,
for their benefit, require the railroad
companies to give up part of their
freight earnings as a commission on all
freight that passes through.
The fact cannot be disputed that the
great steamships recently built by Kan
sas City were built for no other purpose
than to force the railroads TO give them
cut rates so they could continue in bust
ness by making Kansas pay tribute.
When they saw that the interstate
commerce commission began tOrecognize
the fact that Kansas City was not a
market point, but simply a brokerage
city. and that the Missouri river could
no longer be used with the railroads as a
basis for rates, then in their desperation
they resorted to the steamship line as
the last act in the drama to secure such |
rates from the railroads as would enable |
them TO retain their supremacy as the |
great toll gate city of the Missouri river. |
The time has come, we repeat, when |
the cities of Kansas should acquaint |
with the extent to which |
they are contributing to the support of a
Missouri city that pays no taxes to a |
state which furnishes them the bulk of |
their business. 1t is not becoming the |
dignity of Kansas people to trade |
through a city which on account |
of its lack of ability is unable
to do business on an even basis of rates
with the commercial cities of Kansas.
Wichita is not prejndiced against Kan
sas City, nor by any unfair means would
she rob her of the wonderful Missouri, or
any portion of that glory which she is en-
titled to as a toll-gate city. But when
Kansas City attempts to force the rail-
roads to cut rates to place her in position
to do simply a commission business
against and to the detriment of the best
interests of Kansas, then Wichita has a
right to protest and show the exact posi-
tioa that Kansas City holds to Kansas.
That she is compelled to fight the battle, |
in the main, single handed and alone is
not compliment to the other cities of
the state, that are as much, and some of |
them more, directly and vitality interested
in the issue than she, is not to their or
the states credit; but the contest will not
be abandoned or relaxed one title on
that account. The principle involved is
what we are contending for.