The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1896-12-18
~ DEFENDs KANsAs.
General Solicitor of the Santa Fe Re
plies to the States Defamers.


Kansas City. Dec 1S--When in
Kansas City recently Mr.. T. d. Kenna.
general solicitor of the Atchison, To-
peka & Santa Fe Railway company
was asked to give expression to his
views concerning the various Criti-
cisms being made upon Kansas by the
eastern press. He said THE Atch-
ison company is a citizen of the state
of Kansas, its largest property holder
and its largest taxpayer OF every
500 which it earns from its patrons,
$50 are Immediately paid to its en-
plOyes and to those who furnish ma
terials used in the operation of the
road Out of the remaining $50, and
before any portion thereof is used for
the payment of interest or other re
turn for capital invested the sum of
81 is required to be paid for taxes,
from which it very clearly appears that
no one is more interested in the proper
government OF Kansas than the Atch-
isOn company, and its interests are in
dissolubly interviewer with the inter
ests of every other citizen and every
attack upon the state of Kansas is an
attack upon every citizen residing
within its borders.
THE people Of Kansas have suffered
great losses and are passing through a
trying ordeal. but, perhaps, the great
est sufferers of all have been the stock
holders and bondholders of the Ateh-
ison company. who have recently reor-
gained the property at a cost of many
millions Of dollars.
They realize that only under bet
ter conditions and in improved times in
Kansas can they recoup any portion of
their great losses. Therefore they are
watching Kansas with unusual inter
est, and feel keenly every blow dealt
that state. They know that there can
be neither progress nor Improvement
without credit: that it lies at the
foundation of all advancement, and
they Know, too, that there can be no
credit if the outside world is educated
into the belief that capital has no
friends in Kansas and its people no re-
gard for their obligations.
mo people are more interested in
repudiating the charge that property
rights are unsafe in the state and its
people repudiatiOnists than the Atch-
isOn stockholders and bOndhOlders, for
such a charge is of the greatest posi-
bic injury to them, as it is an attack
upon the very foundation of their Sc
curity.
There are $4,000 stockholders and
bondhOlders of the Atchison company
scattered all over the world, and wher-
ever there is one of these there is a
person whose interest it is to stand UP
for Kansas. We have made our home
in that state and we have cast our lot
with her people. We believe in them.
and why shouldn't We2 " hat other
people grooming under such a burden
OF debt, have ever worked and toiled
SO necessarily and so honOrably to pay
and promptly pay. the interest on their
ObligatiOnS2 There is no foundation
for the charge that either the people
or the laws of Kansas are unfriendly
to capital
Any fair minded person must admit
that there is nothing in the past his
tory of Kansas to justify the charges
so heedlessly made. Her people We're
never favored in any way; they turned
a plain into q garden; they created mil
lions of wealth where none existed be-
fore and they were never aided TO the
slightest extent by any governmental
have faced adversely for many years,
and. if they have occasionally com
planned. it was but human nature that
they should do so. but SO far there is
nothing in the history of the state that
any citizen need be ashamed of and no
reason to justify the prediction that the
future BODIES any evil to her fair name.
Il am aware that many of the unfa-
vorable comments have been based up
ON anticipated legislation, but, so far
as my limited observation extends.
there is no reasonable ground for such
conclusions / have read many inter
views purporting to have been had
with members-elect. and, with few, if
any. exceptions these members all dis
close an honest purpose to only favor
such conservative measures as, in their
judgment. are absolutely demanded in
the interest of the people. ] think one
should take men at their word when
their standing is such that they have
been selected to represent the people,
and taking the mem bers-elect at their
word. one must i'm fairness assume that
there is no present disposition to treat
capital unfairly. nor to turn investors
from the heretofore popular field Of
Kansas"