The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1892-04-09
CONTEMPORARY IGNORANCE.

CONTEMPORARY IGNORANCE.
Politically the erudite editor of the
Atchison Champion carries one OF the
most level heads to be found in the coun-
try, but when it comes to the CONNER
cial entities of Kansas his blunders would
be grotesque were they not so painfully
sad and full Of ignorance.
The recluse, when lie first moves out
into the world, is both astonished and
enlightened, but should the editor of the
Champion ever get away from the Mis-
souri, river as far as Wichita he would be
paraIvzed. Still, it is possible for the
untraveIed man to become, through study,
reasonably well posted, and the EAGLE
earnestly urges the editor OF the Cham
pion to give at least passing notice to
the abundant and accessible railway
statistics of Kansas. They contain
world Of material facts and of economic
information touching the character and
kind of products of the different sections
of the state, and -of the shipments IN
gross of its respective railway centers.
Until we picked up the Champion OF the
7th we supposed that everybody knew
that Wichita had a greater tonnage than
any two cities Of the the state outside of
the Kawsmouth: that in fact Wichita
handled more grain, more live stock,
more merchandise, ETC., combined, than
the three cities of Atchison, Leaven-
worth and Topeka. Yet we know
that the average citizen of the
above named towns actually be-
Iieves that Wichita and Garden City,
Arkansas City, Hutchinson and Dodge
are all neighboring villages and towns of
southwestern Kansas out on the Arkan
sas river, when in fact the extremes are
hundreds of miles apart and no two of
them within fifty miles OF each other;
while on the other hand the Missouri
river metropolises alluded to are prac-
tically all in sight of each other For in
stance, it is utterly impossible for the cit
liens of the towns named to realize that
they are all located in corner of the
northeast eighth of the state, and that
Topeka, the capital of the state, is within
five miles of the center of that northeast
eighth, any more than the people of
those towns can be made to understand
costly residences of any city IN Kansas
and the greatest number of them, that
nificent business blocks, hotels and opera
houses, etc., to be found in the state;
that her county court house cost a quar-
ter of million. and that her city hall
and federal buildings each Surpass every
thing of the kind west of the Missouri
river, not excepting the towns named.
1t is not, therefore, strange that our
esteemed contemporary, the Champion, or
that our red-headed brother who pre-
sides over the destinies of the Missouri
slop-over at the mouth of the Raw,
should SO ingloriously fall down when
they come to deal with the vital mat
tiers pertaining to a region seven times as
large as their circumscribed Kansas, and
Of which they know only somewhat
more thar they do of Siberia; in fact,
no wonder that they keep harping about
the five wholesale jobbers of interior
Kansas, while Wichita alone has eighty
one jobbing concerns.
Atchison, Leavenworth, ST. Joe, Kan
sas City, Kansas, and Topeka are great
| jobbing centers" only in the sense that
the northeast eighth of the state is great
as compared to the average country of
that size, but they are, all combined, not
great enough to say that nobody shall do
business outside of that circumscribed
area, much less that this great empire
down and out here shall, with all its
multiplied interests, forever remain
tributary to the Missouri river.
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