The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1895-05-19
WILL BE WICHITA
kB0U TIME AND DISTANCE AS
CONTROLLING FACTORS

II the Long Haul Holds, and the Accomo-
dation Train Goes There Will Never be
but Ore Great City Between Kansas
City and Denve, Between the Missouri
River and Texas and That City VIII be
in Kansas--Census Enumeration Shows
Big Gain in Population All Over the
City.
Somewhat to the establishment Of the
people of Wichita the census OF popula-
ton. just completed. shows an increase
over last year, and over the three or
four years previous. The assessor and
his assistants confidently assert that so
correct an enumeration of the inhabi-
tants was never before made and the
returns were sworn to in utmost con-
fidence that they were absolutely cor
rect.
This Will prove the rule of the average
Kansas town and city, nor for western
cities generally. Probably no other
city in the state, if indeed any in the
west, outside of Chicago, can show an
increase of population for the past
year
But Wichita is growing and not only
increasing in business but in inhabi
tants. Suburban boom houses. by the
hundreds, have been moved onto inside
lots and new people have come to oc-
cupy them; empty business rooms along
principal streets no longer stare the
passerby in the face; and with an old
fashioned Arkansas valley crop or two,
and good times in the country at large,
and the world will find Wichita once
again roaring and rushing with life
and growth and business.
If the policy of the long haul, now
maintained by the railroads Of the coun
Try, is to obtain in the future, if the
rule now governing the transportation
problem is a settled one, then Kansas
win never have but one commercial
center, but one great city, and that will
be Wichita. The long haul schedule
rate combined with the local accommo-
dation train must, inevitably, build up
the great center at the expense of the
town OF local trade. The freight rates
as enforced under the interstate law
and its commission, not only drives
business TO the great centers at the ex-
pense of the local points but forces the
local points to patronize the greater
city to their own hurt. To illustrate,
it has come to pass, under the present
transportation regime, that the man or
woman inhabitant of any town within
fifty or even a hundred miles Of
larger center who has $25 or 500 TO
expend for articles Of whatever charac-
ter, she or he takes a local accommo-
dation train and goes to that center to
patronize lis merchants or manufac-
tuners as the case may be. Within the
radius of trip which can be made.
both ways. the same day, leave hours
TO spare for trade or shopping, no mere
local trade center can hereafter grow.
While We believe that policy TO be a
mistaken one for the raiIrods. as it
cuts their earnings. yet it is the one
now adopted and adhered to-
Wichita is the only important center
of population and trade in the state Of
Kansas whose people cannot reach |
Kansas City and return the same day: |
the only center surrounded by other /
tributary places whose inhabitants in |
being unable to reach Kansas City and (
return the same day, find no greater |
center than Wichita which they can |
thus reach.
Wichita has no Kansas City. no Chi !
cage, no Denver in her field of opera !
tons, and being established in her |
lines, and the strongest financially and |
commercially of any city or trade and
market center within her field must /.
logically, become a great city. Just as
great as the field which she serves will /
sustain and support
Wichita'S assHran noes of becoming the |
greatest city in Kansas are Just as loei- |
cal and as certain as they were in her /
widest boom days. In nothing save in /
the livestock and in the grain trade
does Wichita feel either the pressure Of .
Kansas City or Chicago. nor will she
ever in any other particular. The rate
coming of the Missouri |
river basing line policy, have hurt in |
the past. and may hurt more or less /
until such time in the future as when |
Wichita shall be enabled from the inn
portance of her own tonnage, TO COM
mand rather than beg. But as sure as
the elements of time and of distance
cannot be eliminated just so certain
will there be 4 great city in the midst
of the great Arkansas valley. and no
body inside. or outside Of the state.
who understands ought of the situation
viii doubt or deny that such important
center viii be Wichita.
THEY DESoRTEL 4 BABY,