The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1891-08-02


eastern man.
zone hundred and fifty of the stores
they finished last have never had an oc-
cupant" This is false. and this writer
has been misinformed or intends to Gre
ate an idea that Wichita was an aban-
doned city.
To-day there isn't legitimate business
enough in the town TO support Rochester
or Great Falls" The ignorance here dis
played is only equalled by the egotism of
the writer. By reference to the United
States postof6ce record l find the gov
eminent classes the different post offices
and the salary paid postmasterS
by the amount of business transacted
through the office. New Hampshire
has one first-class postoffice, at Man
chester, and Kansas has three first-clasS
postoffices-Kansas City, Topeka and
Wichita. New Hampshire has five sec
ond-class postoffices, and Kansas seven
teen. The report shows Rochester and
Great Falls to be third-class postoffices
and the postmasters draw salary Of
S1,700 and $4,000 respectively. The
postmaster at Manchester, city OF
A, 1926 population, is paid salary OF
So, 900 per annum, and Wichita, city or
20, 653 population, 5000 per annum.
From this we conclude that Wichita,
with but little more than half the popu-
lation of Manchester, is doing as much
business, and being a frst-class office,
must certainly be doing more
than the third-class offices of
Rochester or Great Falls. Posi-
bly, Rochester and Great Falls are
great cities, and the people live high, but
IL. lyT7Ny NJ n
is time they should. 4.
Census bulletin No. 81, of Jan. 10, 1891,
credits Rochester with 1896 people, and
does not recognize Great Falls as OF
enough consequence to report 1t at all.
The school census of this city shows
1882 school children between the ages
of and 81 years. 1t is safe to assume
there are as many children IN Wichita
as the total population of Rochester.
Whether there is business enough here
to support the two places IN New Hamp-
shire mentioned we are satisfied from
what we gather relative to them, and
what is being done here, that Wichita
could support several such places, and
give them play day. l am satisfied
that the country tributary TO this place
can support a city five times the size OF
the present city of Wichita, and also
satisfied that as far as agriculture IS
concerned Sedgwick county alone
produces more corn, wheat and oats
than all of New Hampshire. Let
us see. By reference to the
United States agricultural report for 1890
we find that New Hampshire raised
2,261 900 bushels of corn, oats and
wheat. The Kansas state agricultural
report for 1890 credits Sedgwick county
with raising 2,572, 642 bushels of corn,
wheat and oats, which shows that Sedg-
wick county is ahead of New Hampshire
in poor year.
Referring to the crop of 1889, we no.
tice Sedgwick county raised 1O,63O, 93l
bushels of these three cereals. These
figures speak for themselves.
The packing business of the city is grow
ing; the iobbing trade is increasing; the
manufacturing industry is being enlarged
and the country surrounding is being
and paying more tribute to
this city than ever before. These are
facts, which lead me to believe that the
writer of the article IN question is igno-
rant of Kansas, and when his cOmpari-
sons and statements are sifted he is
somewhat ignorant of the state of New
Hampshire.
"Whence comes the money to produce
this marvellous development? From
Nashua, Keene and other New England
cities" One would suppose from this
that these places In PARTICULAR
and New England in general,
built Wichita, and infer that
the shrewd financiers of the east had
recklessly made investments in Wichita.
We do not believe that they are the
kind of people to do SUCH a thing, and
are satisfied none of them invested with
out carefully considering the question. 1t
is assuming too much to carry the idea
that the western man has not interest in
or love enough for his country, to pro-
tect his holdings and make it better.
However, Wichita will not move from
her present location, but work out her
own destiny regardless of the efforts
of others to stem the tide of the people
who will come here and participate in
the building up of city larger than
many eastern cities, and in the greatest
valley between the oceans. The soil,
climate, and location are favorable and
it cannot be otherwise.
Ten years will work wonders in the
prosperity of Wichita, and if the eastern
man will show the same faith in the
future that he has in the past there is
no danger ahead.
Very respectfully, yours,
II. l.. PIERCE.
IF a man in the east fails to pay his
debts when due, and such cases are not
uncommon, it is accepted as one of the
exigencies of business; the creditor col
lects his debt, or as much thereof as
possible, charges the balance to profit
and loss, and that ends the matter. The
great dailies do not publish editorials
with flaming headlines, and a whole
state is not damned off-hand as is the
case when an eastern capitalist loses
money in the west. 1t is fair to suppose
the eastern man invests his money in the
west for business reasons, and the rate
they get is based upon the risk as well
as the value of money at the
time Kansas loans are and always
have been as safe as those
made in any other locality when the
agent acted honestly and Inteiligently in
the matter. If he did not, it was the