The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1892-04-03
KANSAS AND THE EAST.
Capital Once More Pouring Into The
SunhoWer State.

From the Kansas City Journal.
I. B. Snow of Topeka superintendent Of
agents of the Massachusetts, Mutual Life
Insurance Company, is keen observer
of the signs OF the times and has his finger
on the financial pulse of the state CT Kan
sas. When great financial Institution
withdraws its investments from the state,
the action is ominously significant.
When those investments are replaced
and arrangements made to increase the
original placlngs, the action is encour-
agingly significant. That is exactly
what Mr.. Snow says his company has
done and his now doing. Mr.. Snow said
to Journal reporter yesterday:
Between politics and religion there is
a very intimate relation. That fact is
very forcibly illustrated by the action of
our company in Kansas. When the up
heaval of 1890 took place and the AL
lance came into power peri
Cd of uneasiness was inaugurated. The
threats of reputation inspired eastern
capital with distrust. The supremacy
of the Alliance was standing menace
to the confidence which had heretofore
existed between the eastern financial in
situations and the people of Kansas. The
agents of these institutions were in
structed to make no further placingS
an to withdraw as rapidly as was pos
sible without sacrificing all that was at
stake, what had already been invested.
The election of the Alliance legislature
confirmed the fears which had been in
spired by the speeches of the Alliance
leaders before the election. These fears
were made realities by the wildcat legis-
lation which was attempted. 1t can be
seen at a glance what was the inevita-
bic result and that result was as have
outlined.
Not as a politician, but as business
man, l am glad to say that the fears
Of eastern capital have been at last
rendered groundless, although much
mischief has already been done and it
will take long time to recover from
the evil effects of the attempted legis-
lation. 1t was the attempt and not
the deed that COMPOUNDED eastern
capital. But with the evidences
of a return of that business sense
which had been abandoned during the
campaign of 1890 began the work of re-
covery. Eastern capital, which had been
leaving Kansas as rats leave sinking
ship, is fast returning. And let me say
that there is more truthful than poeti-
cal analogy between the desertion by the
rats and the abandonment by outside
capital. Outside capital is the last to
desert community, for many reasons.
In the first place, it is the last, for geo.
graphical reasons, to appreciate the full
significance of unfavorable conditions.
1t is also less easily able to withdraw,
from the very character and extent of
its investments.
"My company is only one of the many
which have poured money into Kansas
and which are now replacing the invest
ments which Alliance legislation fright
ened away. The index and not the true
measure of the mischief wrought is the
reaction on the part of eastern capital.
Two years have been lost and in addition
to that one item the work of inspiring
confidence has to begin all over again,
with the well-nigh insurmountable dis
OF working in the face of
deep planted distrust.