Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1895-01-19


county. Then there WAS not a mile oil
operated railroad within the state; no "
= we have 6,905 miles, only Illinois and
Pennsylvania, of all the states, exceed
ing this in mileage.
A Remarkable Railroad Record.
We have q greater mileage than the
great Empire state, New York; more
than a thousand miles greater than all
the New England states com bined, with
their five and half million population,
and the accumulated industries of more
than century, as the manufacturing GEN.
ter of the continent On these lines OF
trans-continental and lateral railways
have sprung up more than 100 centers of
| pOpuIas4on .4n.4 business, cIe41s, the IeasI
of which contains more than a thousand
people, and in the aggregate 381, 173,
domiciled in thrift and comfort, with
churches, school houses, court houses
water and light plants, not equaled in
towns of like population in any of the
original states of this union. More than
twp-thirds of these cities have increased
in population during the past year, not
withstanding the existing depression.
The Practical Monuments of Education.
The national land endowment of our
educational institutions has been man
aged by wise legislation and prudent adj
ministration known in the experience of
no other state, until we have an interest
bearing common school fund, N bonds
and land contracts, of $9,686.993; an
| agricultural college fund of $780,
92736; a State university fund Of
$40, 731; and State Normal school fund
of $137,211. The State university has
received added endowmsnts, by bequest,
of greater sum than that from the gov
eminent, but which are not included in
the aggregate amount of interest earn
ing funds, making a grand total of all
funds sacred to education of $40, 467, 852;
the annual income from which at six per
cent, amounts to the sum of $628, 071.12,
/ 40 a current fund to aid in the pr oblem
| of education. There have been con-
Btructed 9,08S public school houses, at an
aggregate cost of $40, 703, 70S, and chief
~ by the issue and sale of district bonds,
about 100000 of which have been
paid and cancelled. In these buildings
are employed 1883 teachers, at a cost
Of $4,000, 459.45 ayear; the total tax levied
and collected for common school pur-
poses being $3,539,986.11 per annum.
The total sum paid for educational pur-
| poses for the past year, in the state, was
about 80, 100000. In 1890 we had 1920
| church organizations, with 1854 build
ings, valued at $7,447,569
"Pay as You Co." tho Motto.
There have been expended for state
buildings the following sum, nearly all
of which have been paid for from cur
rent levies, in cash: State university,
$4,000; agricultural college, $3.50, $50;
state normal school, $127,375; school for
the blind, 85,449; school for the deaf and
dumb, $144,250; asylum for the insane at
Topeka, 1915, 378, at Osawatomie $780,
900; asylum for imbeciles, $29, 078; sold
iers' orphans home, $49,561; reform
school, $119,5 1858; penitentiary, 81 1863, 700;
state house, $2,000,000; reformat
+ $4,000; industrial school for girls
$40,70 Grand Army home, $4,000.
making total of $6,152,284; to which
add state expenditure of SITS, 891 in con-
struction of university, normal school
and agricultural college buildings, and
we have a grand total Of $685., 175, of
which but $560.000 was derived from
state bonds not yet due, and $6,372, 175
paid from the pockets of the people for
the permanent and lasting use of the
generations to follow u.s. Only one or
two of our sister states, believe. in the
construction of their public buildings
have adhered to the motto, "Pay as you
CO." as has Kansas. In nearly every
state public building has stood as evil
dence of public debt. 1t may be antici-
pated that about 100000 will be re-
quired to complete and equip the state
house; when the burden of state improve
ments may be laid down for a long
period of years.
The same favorable conditions exist
with counties, cities and school districts,
as to buildings, that we recognize in the
state. Nearly all of them are amply pro-
vided for and most of them are in part
or entirely paid for. Not ten per cent Of
the annual x-burden of the past will
rest upon the future of the state, in this
connection.
Twenty-four private institutions of
learning. most of them religious denomi-
national, have earned a strong footing,
and some of them very high standing as
seats of learning, with an aggregate pro-
perty ownership of $1,713, 900, and wide
ly scattered in location over the state,
each domiciled in buildings OF lts own.
Fame, Good Name and Credit.
There can be no more complete refuta-
ton, no more emphatic condemnation, of
the organized and persistent assaults up
on the fair fame, good name and business
credit of the people of Kansas, than is
found in the simple recital of facts
have given in your hearing. In the light
OF this record of phenomenal progress,
let every lover of the state, every one
with faith in its future, gather comfort
and courage. In it we learn that through
all its trying vicissitudes Kansas has been
true to its motto, and gone steadily on
its course, "up to the stars" Its credit
as a commonwealth is the peer of any of
its sister states. A Kansas state bond
would be ~ eagerly sought by the
investor as United States bond, if put
upon the market today. Its outstanding
debt is but $789,000, of which $433, 900 is
in our state treasury, the property of the
school fund, and but $256,000 held
against it by all the world without And
over against this we have taxable wealth,
the accumulation of but thirty-four
years, the cash value of which is ST.
100000, 900.
The day of 10 per cent school and
municipal bonds selling at eighty cents
of their par value, has long since passed
Such bonds now, bearing per cent in
terest, will find their par value awaiting
them at the door of our own state treas
ury, or in the open market Private
credit, which has been the chief sufferer
from this Notwithstanding crusade, is
being rapidly lifted up and strengthened
by the payment and cancellation of OBJ
legations, and by the changed sentiment
of the people in regard 10 both ability
and duty to pay their honest debts.
The States First Duty.
The time | believe to be close at hand
when Kansas securities. public or pri-
vata will take their Mace beside those