The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1896-09-15
What the Trouble
Is in The West

| A few weeks ago the Emporia Gazette,
| n leading Kansas paper, printed notable
article In answer to the question. "whats $
| wrong with Kansas 1t is so fresh, rich
and breezy, and withal SO full of hard
| prairie sense, that We deem 1t worthy OF
| reproduction. In reading 1t one should
bear in mind that the troubles of Kansas
are in large measure the troubles of the
| entire disaffected western country-that
| is to say, the country comprising the area
of the present political and social discon-
| ten.
To-day" says the Gazatte "the Kan.
sas department of agriculture sent out n
| statement which indicates that Kansas
has gained less than 1000 people in the last
| year. There are about $4,000 families in
| the state, and there were about 10000
babies born in Kansas, and yet so many
| people have left the state that the natural
| increase Is cut down to less than 1900 net.
| This has been going on for eight years.
| If there had been a high brick wall around
! the state eight years ago and not a soul
! had been admitted or permitted to leave,
Kansas would be half Il million souls bet
| ter of than she is today. And yet the ma
tion has increased in population. In five
| years 10000,OoO people have been added to
/
gaining a share of this--say 50O,00o-Kansas
has apparently been a plague spot, and In
| the very garden of the world has lost pop
ulation by the ten thousands every year.
Not only has she lost population, but
| she has lost wealth. Every moueyed man
| in the state who could get out without
great loss has gone. Every month in every
/ community sees some one who has little
| money pick up and leave the state. This
| has been going on for eight years. Money
is being drained out all the time. In towns
| where ten years ago there were three or
| four or half dozen money lending con-
| Germs stimulating industry by furnishing
| capital there is now none or one or two
| that are looking after the interest and
principal already outstanding. No one
brings any money into Kansas any more.
| What community knows over one or two
men who have moved in with more than
$1,000 in the last three years? And what
community cannot count half a score or
| men in that time who have left, taking all
the money they could scrape together?
Yet the nation has grown rich. Other
states have increased in population and
wealth-other neighboring states. Mis-
souri, has gained nearly two million, while
Kansas has been loosing half a million
Nebraska has gained in wealth and popu-
lation while Kansas has gone down hill.
Colorado has gained in every way. while
Kansas has lost in every way since 1888,
What is the matter with Kansas?
"There Is no substantial city in the state.
Every big town save one has lost In popu-
lation. Yet Kansas City, Omaha, Lincoln,
st. Louis, Denver, Colorado Springs, Sc
dalia, Des Moines, the cities of the Da-
kotas, st. Paul and Minneapolis-all cities
and towns in tho west have steadily
grown. Take up the government blue
book and you will see that Kansas is vur-
tually off the map. Two or three little
scabby consular places in yellow fever
stricken communities that do not aggre-
gate $4,000 a year is all the recognition
Kansas has. Nebraska draws about $780,
900; little old North Dakota draws $4,000;
Oklahoma doubles Kansas; Missouri
leaves her thousand miles behind; Colo
rado is almost seven times greater than
I<ansas-the whole west Is ahead of Kan
sas. Take it by any standard you please,
Kansas is not in it. Go east, and you
hear them laugh at Kansas. go west and
they sneer at her, go south and they 'cuss'
her, go north and they have forgotten her
Go into any crowd of intelligent people
gathered anywhere on the globe and you
will find the Kansas man on the defen-
sive. The newspaper columns and maya
zine pages, once devoted to praise of the
state, to boastful facts and startling fig
ures concerning her resources, now are
filed with cartoons, gibes and Pefferian
speeches. Kansas just naturally isn't in
the civilized world. She has traded places
with Arkansaw and Timbuctoo. What's
the matter with Kansas?
I'VE all know; yet here we are at 1t
again. We have an old moss-back Jack
sonian, who snorts and howls because
there is a bath-tub in the statehouse: We
are running that old jay for governor.
We have another shabby, wild-eyed, rat
tle-brained fanatic who has said openly
in a dozen speeches that the rights of the
user are paramount 10 the rights of the
owner; we are running him for chief JUS
tice so that capital will come tumbling
over itself to get into the state. We have
raked the ash heap of human failure in the
state and have found an old hoopskirt Of
a man who has failed as business man.
who has failed as an editor, who has
failed as a preacher, and we are going to
run him for congressman-at-l Large. lie
will help the looks of the Kansas delega-
ton in Washington. Then we have dis
covered a kid without law practice, and
have decided to vote for him as attorney
general Then Tor fear some mint that
the state had become respectable might
percolate through the civilized portions
of the nation. we have decided to send
three of four harpies out lecturing, telling
the people that Kansas is raising hell and
letting corn go to weeds.
"Oh, this is a state to be proud of! We
are q people who can hold up our heads.
What we need her is less money, less cap
ital, fes,er white shirts and brains, fewer
men with business judgment, and more Of
these fellows who boast that they are
Just ordinary old clodhoppers, but that
they know more about finance than John
Sherman. We need more men who are
posted who can below about the crime
of '73. because man believes in national
honor that he is q tool of Wall street We
have had a few of them, some 10000 but
we want no more. We need several thou
sand gibbering idiots to scream about the
Great Red Dragon Of Lombard street.
We don't need population, we don't need
wealth, we don't need wel-dressed men on
the streets, we don't need standing in the
nation, we don't need cities on these fer
tile praries; you bet we don't. What we
are after is the money power. Because
we have become poorer and orner and
mcaner than a spawned, distempered
mule, we, the people of Kansas, propose
to kick We don't care to build up, we
wish to tear down.
"'Therc are two ideas of government
said our noble Bryan at Chicago. There
Ill