Kansas City journal. [volume] (Kansas City, Mo.) 1897-1928, 1897-06-07
EASTERN CREDIT MEN SAY SHE
BEATS THEM ALL.
KNOWS NO "HARD TIMES"
EASTERN BOOM FAR MORE DIsAs-
TROUs THAN KANSAS BOON.
East Five Years Behind the West In
Settlement of Boom Account
Kansas More Talked About
in East Than All other
Western states.


tain VII Hornaday. travelling correspond
ent OF a big New York credit company. Is
row making a tour Of the West in the in
terests OF that concern. He spent the past
week in ToDeka. lie says that he has
Travelled almost every state in the Union
east OF the Mississippi within the past year
and that Kansas beats them all. As
whole he says the people of none Of those
states can compare with the people of Kan
sas IN point of intelligence, appearance or
surroundings. kansas people don't know
what hard times are" said he. They
have no conception of real, hard, pinching
times. In my travels in the East met
people who sorrowfully stated that they
had not made a dollar at their trade for
the past two years; before that they had
been used to making from s. to IS a day.
Now, IL they can get 10 cent soup bone
once a week they consider themselves in
luck so far as the meat end of the menu
caFd is concerned. This statement looks
ridiculous, but it is a fact. In North Caro-
lima and Virginia, once prosperous tobacco
districts, 1 saw more evidences of poverty
in two days than I have In Kansas alto
gether.
''Of course. Kansas had a boom several
years ago, and the effects of it are still
felt. But the Kansas boom was insignif-
cant as compared to the booms in some por-
tions of the East. Booms all wool. a yard
wide and a foot thick were only seen in the
East. More money was lost in the East
than in the West as a result of them. East
ern men dropped vast sums of money in
Kansas. Their specUlations were In the
nature of gambling. The card turned the
wrong way and the spectators lost. The
rapid development of Kansas drifted into
boom. Finally the East caught the fever
md fo1rr 1af la nF1e
on there than was ever dreamed of in Kan
sas. The East got deeper in because 1t had
more money. 1t was not only land but
also a manufacturing boom, and millions
were spent in building enterprises which
now lie idle and which probably never
turned a wheel. 1 know of two big iron
works that were erected In Virginia at a
cost of $1,000,000 that never run but one
week. They were abandoned and the ma
chinery and buildings are now rotting
away. It's the same way in many other
places there. AS to deserted boom towns,
saw many Of them in my Eastern travels
TO which Saratoga, Kas., and other West
ern towns can't hold candle.
There has not been so much said about
the Eastern boom and its collapse how
ever, about the Kansas boom and its
collapse. The reason is that Kansas had
hers first The newspapers were filled with
not taken as good news by the papers any
mOre-it was old news. Kansas had fur
nished all that before. Then the collapse
came first In Kansas. and the newspapers
said much about that. When the collapse
came in the East, the same thing had hap
news. l am safe IN saying that the Eastern
boom was ten times more disastrous to
capitalists than the Kansas boom was.
Kansas came to the relief Of the Eastern
Spectators at an opportune time. Just
about the time they had lost all their
money in the East she began 20 pay off her
them with ready cash. The East is about
five years behind Kansas in the settlement
debts on the part Of Kansas has tended TO
greatly modify the feeling of the East
against hers the East mas discovered that
try live right here in Kansas.
'The legitimate borrower in Kansas has
no trouble In securing money in the East
now. If his security is all right he can get
money at a low rate of interest. All the
Eastern capitalists want to know is. that
their money is safe and will be paid back,
and they have greater faith in the Kansas
farmer to-day than ever that he will meet
cages and Kansas cattle paper are exciting
much attention again in money centers.
The eyes of the finanCierS are on Kansas.
] don't know why, but the state of Kansas
Is talked about more In the East than all
the other Western states combined, some
of which are nearly her equal.
Sentiment in the East concerning the
Populist party has also changed material
ly. We thought at first that the reform
party was a ring-tailed snorter; would tear
up railroad tracks, close up all the banks
and confiscate property of every. descrip-
tion where it was even suspected that Il
belonged 20 soulless corporations. But
after the last Populist legislature had ad-
ioUrned without doing devilment of this
kind. and after the legislative investigating
committee got to work and made a few
disclosures, the Fasteners reached the
conclusion that the Populists were not so
anxious to endanger property as they were
10 pull somebody's leg"