The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1893-07-27
WICHITA STILL IN TIE RING.
The Government TO Fight Her Freight Rate
Ia tie in the Courts.

There has been but single hindering
retarded Wichita in her growth and in the
development of her commercial advant.
| ages, and that, as everybody knows, has
been, and is the Determinations made
| of Missouri river towns, forced. originally.
| by eastern trunk lines terminating at the
Missouri river, that river being accepted
by the Kansas lines of road as a 'basing
line" in preference to making an expen-
sive war in their own interest and for that
of the state. Wichita being the only con-
siderable packing and jobDing point, and
live stock market between the said
| the most. Wichita merchants brought
the first case, under the interstate law,
before the United States railway
commissioners at st. Louis, known as the
promised. The next case WAS brought by
the Wichita board of trade, before the
state railway commission, and won
favorable decision. The next was sus-
pended by an injunction, in local court.
brought in the name of Missouri river
grocery firm. The next case was brought
by United States Attorney Ally. before
the United States circuit court in Wyom-
ing, which case has not reached final
hearing.
But there is light ahead. The United
States railway commission sent member
of it's board to Wichita this spring to in-
quire into the outrageous determinations
that had come to their notice, aud other
seemingly open violations of the interstate
law at this point. Having salts
fed himself of 1.-THE justice of our
cause, he laid the matter be-
fore the whole board who have officially
ordered test suit brought in the United
States circuit court, in the name of and at
the expense of the general government.
on the editorial page of this issue and
should be read by every business man of
Wichita. 1t is sigued by J. w. Ady,
United States attorney, aud j. E. Howard.
counsel for this city. Kansas City or
the Missouri river Chasing line" AS such
are not named in the complaint, this time,
but definite road and definite point on
the Missouri river is cited and the discrim-
nations on St. Louis freight are shown.
As Wichita jobbers and packers and
live stock dealers and manufacturers all
well know, but for the outrageous
determinations enforced 10y the Missouri
river "basing line" trust and combination,
Wichita would have had one hundred
thousand inhabitants today, doing from
five g to ten times, probably, her present
volume of business. Before the passage
of the Interstate law through demand by
the late Mr. Gould. Wichita was desig-
mated pooling point, and the Missouri
Pacific had actually given Wichita Mis-
souri, river rates. with slight differential
on all car load lots and on all unbroken
Jobbing parcels, recognizing, as he did
that Wichita must inevitably become the !
point for a very large section |
Ii Is taking time, money and patience to |
make these fights to finish, but the !
end is in sight, and the victory for the city |
of the plains will be big one; big in bust i
ness prosperity and in general results. |
Wichita will be just as good market for
the hogs, the cattle, the sheep and the
horses of forty surrounding counties and |
for Oklahoma, too, as the Missouri river;
will be just as high market for wheat |
and corn; just as cheap II market for every |
retail buyer within her domain, with a |
in frelghts saved.
Wichita flour must go to the Gulf just |
as cheaply as Minneapolis or Kansas City |
flour; Wichita meats must 90 to Texas,
to the mountains, and to the Pacific. at |
just as low rate as the Missouri river or
Chicago meats, Galveston and California |
fruits, sugars and coffees. etc, must stop
off at Wichita for the same price, at least,
that they are hauled on two hundred miles
farther to the Missouri river for
All these determinations, steals and
outrages once corrected, and Wichita
becomes as great in her own field as
Omaha, Kansas City or Minneapolis in
theirs, respectively. In the mean time
Wichita must keep, as she always has
kept, a stiff upper lip. That conviction of
the righteousness aud justice of her cause,
which has sustained her confidence in the
past, must be maintained, until courts
and commissions, aided by the universal
rule of compensation which never fails
in the end, have made their awards. And
This is time above all others in her his
tory wherein she can demonstrate the SUI
of her solid advantages, natural
and acquired. Her enemies are not only
being disfigured but knocked out. Siugly
hey are sick and combined they unexpect-
idly find themselves weak and at a fearful
discount.
Hurrah for the Peerless Princess of the
Prairies.