The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1897-11-07
ITS GREAT RENEWAL
WICBITA'S RAPID GROWTH IN BUSI-
NESS Is TRUSTWORTHY.

Ii
Volume of Trade and OF All Sorts of Bush
ness Has Increased From rs to 100
Per Cent Within tho Last Eight Months
and Such Increase Signslizes an Uiti-
mate Enyiabie Destiny Future of the
City AS Sure the Qualities of the
Great Arkansas Valley Renaissance is
Logical.
Commercial men, and other o5servant
travellers, are quite unanimous in the
assertion that while times are improv-
ing in the state Of Kansas, at large,
that no town or city affords such evil
dence Of that fact as Wichita. That it
is true that every line and character OF
business has improved in Wichita, and
in marked way, during the past few
months, and that the average merchant
and trader report increases of from % to
100 per cent in the volume OF their
transactions as compared to their
trade Of one and two years ago, about
everyone knows. Not only has trade in
creased, the streets grown livelier and
money more plentiful, but the city has
taken on a different air and holds a new
spirit generally. New homes Glave been
built, new business houses erected,
streets have been improved and resi-
dences ana home surroundings all about
the city have been renewed and furbish-
ed UP. The claim that Wichita furnishes
greater number of marked indications
of returning good times than the aver
age town in the west should not be sur
prising. Because of advantages Of SUI
perior location and environments Wien
tia originally Doomed more vigorously
and at greater lengths than any other
Town in the state. While the reaction
from such boom may, on such account,
have been more disastrous, yet the fact
remains that the same advantages of 10
cation ana OF environment which origi-
nally emphasized Wichita's rapid
growth, in which she outstripped all the
other towns Of the state, still hold good
and in holding good must, logically, nave
me same effect in stimulating and rem
dering prominent the expansion which
formerly signalized her growth. If there
is never to be but one town Of import
ance between Chicago and st. Louis on
the east and Denver on the west, then
Wichfta's fate is sealed up in the poSsi-
Dilities Of a county seat town, and all the
present stir and life and the business of
her streets must shrink away, lner great
aggregated values collapse her jobbing
and packing and live stock and milling
interests scatter, her varied retail and
banking and other concerns cease to
exist, and all her patronage divert in
other and distant points. But, on the
other hand. if this great valley proves
what II looks no be; if this country for
one hundred miles or more in every li-
rection fulfills its promise then it will
have an important central market and
that point will be Wichita. Nothing
short Of blasting the Arkansas valley
and turning Oklahoma into a desert
waste can keep Wichita from being a
city OF importance such as its people
have dreamed. The present ever in
oreasing life Of the business the >ough-
fares must go on increasing, or other
wise corn and wheat and hogs and cat
tie must cease 70 be produced in the vast
and rich domain by which the city is
environed. Railroads may combine and
hold to the policy of serving great ter
and OF keeping down natural
centers in the interest of the long haul;
distant cities may occasionally toll away
q Wichita interest or seduce an occa-
sional firm, but a hundred stand ready
TO take their places when convinced that
the places promise profit or are worth
filing. The fear upon the part of some.
therefore, that present renewing life. ex-
banding business increasing values and
new improvements may prove but an
ephemeral squirt, or but a fictitious SEEM
ing, is not well grounded. No city west
OF the Missouri river evInced the rush
Of throngs, the clatter Of vehicles, the
rumble Of trade shown by the two or
three principal business streets OF WITCH
TIA on yesterday, for instance, not even
Denver That before Wichita shall be
conceded all the freight protection and
traffic rates to which her location and
tonnage entities her jobbers ami m;llers |
and live stock men and packers at the |
hands of the railroads. she will have 70
fight some severe, maybe trying Cat |
ties. goes without saying. But she win |
triumph every time. Railway manage |
ments and Interests change, hut such |
cannot change the forma- |
dion OF a country or reverse advantages |
growing out of natural surroundings
and conditions. Wichita's renewal OF /
life. therefore. is not only logical, but |
and being inevitable. perma- !
nent and trustworthy. Those VINO have |
pinned their faith to Wichita and held |
on through all the dark hours Of the I
past, will reap compromising reward. |
If il is not in the stars celestial, it is in |
affairs terrestrial. coming of human /
needs and interests.
INTERESTING TEACHERS PROGRAM 4