The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1892-12-04
THE VANTAGE GROUND.

THE VANTAGE GROUND.
Wichita is the best city in Kansas
today, 1t is not meant that this is SO be
cause Wichita is the best built city il
the state, with the finest and most costly
public, private and business edifces, Oh
for the reason that she is equipped with
the best water system, the most effective
sewerage system, the most extensive
railway and other street improvements
in the lines os gas. electricity, etc, fol-
her superiority III all these directions are
well understood and generally conceded.
And it is not meant by this, wholly, that
Wichita transacts more business than
any other city, for the weekly reports,
from year TO year, of the bank clearings
fully and officially attest that fact be-
yound even a question. Wichita Is the
best city in Kansas today not so much
for the reasons enumerated as because Of
her vantage ground, which has enabled
her to rise superior to a crucial test
that proved disastrous to many west
ern cities whose phenomenal growthS
were Of a speculative character and not
warranted by the demands of their en-
7ironmerts. Because Of the develop
ment of this vantage ground" in spite
of a general western discredit and of a
universal depression, and notwithstand-
ing the sudden dissipation of many
speculative fortunes conjured UP from
the prospective brilliant future so plain
" guaranteed by her superior location,
Wichita, today, is growing solidly and
is rapidly expanding in all her leading
interests. The thousands of her inhabi-
tants who departed, as in day, for the
chances offered by the new field of Ok
lahoma, were only lost in sense, for
they continue to pay us tribute, snd the
hundreds of others who fled for one or
more of all the reasons so abundantly
afforded by every panic, may
never return, yet Wichita is
increasing in population and
in business of all the lines of light
mate trade more rapidly than at any
period in her previous history. In short,
The bulk Of her commerce and the out
put of her manufacturing concerns are
greater today than at any time in her
previous history.
This new growth in population
consists of strangers from other
states only in part. Every town,
almost, in South Kansas is contributing
solid, men of means, to this new up
ward move of Wichita. That which is
bringing these new people, and that
which enabled Wichita to SO triumph
antly emerge from the squeeze" that
proved so disastrous, generally, is ex-
sctly that which so stimulated
her original and phenomenal
development, towit the I'M
deniable superiority of her vantage
ground" over every other point in the
state for the upbuilding and mainte-
nance of a great city. Trusts may COM
bine and railways may discriminate,
but South Kansas with all its immense
resources, and Oklahoma with IFS i'm
measurable possibilities, cannot be bod
lily transferred to the Missouri river. to |
the Gulf, to the mountains or TO the /
lakes. They are here in all the mag |
nificenCe of their wealth pro-
ducing elements of location.
of climate and of the soil, [
and here to stay, and Wichita is the heir
the natural trade center, the
rig hts Of whose metropolitan prestige |
and legitimacy can never be permanently |
disturbed. Ii is a recognition of the fact
that neither Missouri river point, nor
that mountain, lake or gulf point can
he the commercial center of this great /
country that discloses the vantage
ground occupied by Wichita, and to
which is attributed her present renewed
life and unmistakable expansion.
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KANSAS FURNISHES TIE TRAFFIC (
IV Is now rumored that the railroads F.
that belong To the degunct TRANSMITS /
sourian association. are about TO form a