Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1890-02-15
WICHITA ALL RIGHT,
An Experienced Business Man Of st. Loui.
Sums Up the Past, Present and Future.

Mr.. w. A. Gardner, of st. Louis mem
Der of the firm of S. w. Cobb & Co., which
firm is recognized as one of the strongest
grain and elevator companies in the west,
has been spending week in Wichita,
running out occasionally on the local lines
OF railway for the purpose of noting the
probable amount and condition of grain
remaining unmarketed Mr.. Gardner. in
brief call yesterday, stated that he never
in all his life had seen so much corn in a
single day as he saw on Thursday within
a few miles Of Wichita, and what puzzled
him was the fact that two or three or more
great elevators had not ere this been erect
ed in Wichita, which he considers
the natural grain center of Southwestern
Kansas. He said such elevators would
not only improve the price of grain, prove
"A convenience to the farmer. do away with
the car famine business, but pay the own
ers handsomely, and give the banks who
advanced the money TO the farmer on ware
house receipts just that much more BUSH
ness. In discussing the matter with
another st. Louis grain man at the Carey,
the night before. both concluded that no
city in the west offered such inducements
for system of great elevators and grain
warehouses as does Wichita, and that the
time would not be long before the field
would be more fully occupied. The
amount of business transacted, and the
amount of grain being handled by Hawn
~ Co.'S elevator. he declared TO be mat
ter of astonishment, even to old grain
dealers.
In talking of Wichita's present and
future Mr. Gardner said that of course like
all other cities Wichita no doubt was feel
ing the depression in the prices of products
and the stringency OF the money market,
but that while it had been but little over
two years since his last visit, he was fairly
bewildered at what had been accomplished.
He said that all the outside talk of reac-
ton in Wichita he had found utter bosh
and that in fact the city showed less of the
depressing effects of the hard times than
any city of which he had any intimate
knowledge. For his part he could not see
how 1T would have been possible for US to
have grown any faster or any more sub
stantial!y than we had grown. Retail
dealers here, like retail dealers everywhere
else in the country, doubtless were
finding trade slow and principally
servation was to be depended on
he was convinced that Wichita dealers
could not possibly improve their condition
by trading places with the dealers of any
city. As for the future he said there was
no question that Wichita, with her pres
tige, power, wealth and advantages of To-
cation, is bound to make one of the great
cities of the country; that money now put
into her realty or into farming lands
would prove the best possible investment,
and that some day before long quietly and
before we knew it, steady stream would
be turned in upon US and that Wichita
would grow again faster and stronger and
grander than ever before, her live stock
and grain markets rivaing those of Kan
sas City and Omaha with her general COM
mercIal and business life second to no city
Of its magnitude in the country.