The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1892-04-06
wDCHIrA,s BOOM.

I
boorus in general goes out of its way to
sneeringly deprecate the result of WITCH
/ ita's l,oom. Cutting words, even from a
smart -Aleck source. are not without dis
agreeable effects. The writer alluded to
not only misrepresents, but exposes an
! inexcusable ignorance, both as to Nich-
ita's boom and 10 booms in general
| Wichita has had two well defined booms,
and she is the greater today for both, as
| she will be the greater for the next one,
which will occur In the very near fu-
| ture, and which will differ In its char
acter from the last as widely as tie last
differed from the first, including both
causes and results.
There is no great town of America
that is not, In the distinctive features of
its greatness, the result of successive
bcoms, and the greatest boom town east
or west is that same Chicago. The place
stands trophy of aggregated booms.
It's first achievement in the boom line
was in 1888, and was based on the great
sale of canal bonds that attracted the
attentio OF the entire country, and III
the end terminated in wild speculation
III town los. Lots went down and Chi
cago took rest that frightened away
many people. Her next boom was in
90 Il
on the canal III which boom several men
grew rich. In 1850 was her next greatest
| boom, and when two years later the
Michigan Southern was completed specu-
lation ran wild. This last boom was fol-
lowed by a reaction which amounted to
disaster and general fear of collapse,
and in 1857 Chicago lost 5000 inhab-
tants in single year. Real estate went
down in way that ruined hundreds,
and hard headed old timers threw up
their hands declaring that the bottom
had gone out. Corporations failed and
so great was the depression that Chicago
was left without a single banking insti-
tuition. Following the close Of
the war Chicago experienced another
great boom which by 1878 went
all to pieces in tremendous panic which
even affected Wichita as young as we
were. But that boom left Chicago in the
possession of immense interests, prestiges
and advantages, which counted for her
future, and are still largely the feunda-
ton of her present stability. And Chi
cago is today in the surges of the widest
boom of history, which must be followed,
and inevitably, by the unpleasant fea-
lures of wrecks and depressions to single
and individual interests, yet which. after
all, promises to leave the city by the
lake the greatest on the continent.
Booms to cities of marked and conspicu-
Gus advantages are inevitable, for the
simple reason that as soon as their adj
vantageS are seen men in their anxiety
for wealth grasp more than they can
hold or utilize and the result is conges-
ton.
Wichita booms have all had their in
spiration of solid and superior advan-
tages, of so conspicuous a character as
to be readily seen. None of these ad-
vantages have ever been lost or suffered
curtailment. Even in the directions and |
in the enterprises in which her
people overreached, present demands |
are now utilizing, and a sure
future Will make them profitable. The |
faith of her more solid and sentient citi- |
zens never have fallen to that degree of |
encouragement which has marked the |
recurring depressions in the history of |
other cities. This city's location with
reference to other popular and business
centers, and with reference to its supe-
rior environments as to tributary coun-
try, as to natural location and acquired
transportation facilities, no doubt in
spired the spirit and induced the invest
ments that afterward ran wild in town
lots and other speculation; but the spirit
of conviction and the art of investments
were not unwarranted, as the lapse of
time is already satisfactorily demonstrate
ing, not only to Wichita people them
selves, but to the world at large.
The very fact that Wichita's booms
have been greater than those of anv
other city of its size and age that can be
named is conclusive that beneath and
Interior to all advertising and specula-
tive schemes there exist manifest rea-
sons, and that there are tangible and con-
vincing elements underlying and guar.
the so-called booms, which
booms are, in truth, but upward steps
in logical forward movements incident
to and characteristic of the life, history
and development of all cities that have ,
become dominant or even powerful
'snters of people, and centers of manu- {
and commercial life. {
-