The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-10-31
CONQUEST OF THE PLAINS
THE WONDROUs TRANSFORMATION
WROUGHT BY RAILWAY.
The Astonishing Exhibit Made by the
-GOvernOr Leedy's Woes.
special to the Indianapolis Journal.

1 OEEhAs hdu.s OCl. Io-Duy-QE the re-
cent festival and carnival in Topeka the
one conspicuous event that made the week
memorable in Kansas history was Santa
| Fe day." in commemoration oil the silver
anniversary of the completion OF the road
across the State. No other railroad, no
other State, could gather from such a com
monplace fact sufficient material for dis
play so magnificent. But it has been OBJ
served by the world ere this that Kansas
| and Kansans are a shade different from
| the rest of creation. The Santa Fe is a
Kansas institution, originating in Topeka
| in 1859 in the Incorporation of the Atchison
& Topeka Railway Company. and in the
incorporation of the A, T. & S. II. Railway
Company in 1868. The idea was that the
most feasible route for transcontinental
railway would be along the old Santa Fe
| trail, which had been explored and adopted
by the government But it took years to
persuade capitalists that the great Ameri-
can desert needed railway facilities. States
| men referred to the country west of the
Missouri as a great uninhabitable region.
| Capitalists were too shy to scatter cash
along hundreds of miles of barren plains
| and mountain gorges. Does any sane man
blame them? 1t was a most uninviting field
| lot investment Lie lISl track Was nOL ldiNl
in Topeka until 1869, after the government
had granted a subsidy of alternates twenty
miles wide along the desert portion. The
| road was completed across our western bor-
| der twenty-five years ago. The history of
that road has been Kansas history. They
have shared alike in the triumphs of civ
| ilization and suffered common misfortune.
| While the Santa Fe overland trail was
slowly developing into the modern equipped
railway, with nearly ten thousand miles of
track, extending from Chicago to the coast
and to the halls of the Montezumas Kan
sas was throttling the slave power, estab-
fishing the nobility of labor and placing
herself in the front rank among the States.
| The Santa Fe has built so many branches
| that one who has a pass can go into all
parts of the State except the extreme north
western During the Democratic railroad
| wrecking era, the Mexican portion OF the
road ceased to be part of the great sys-
tenn, but otherwise the magnificent organ
| ization remained intact.
| When the officials determined to partici-
pate in the festival the heads of depart
ments were instructed to prepare, regard
| less Of cost, suitable representations of the
| roads progress and standing. When the
| signal gun was fired ten thousand of the
company's men, with fifty-two floats and
fifteen bands. were ready to wheel into line
in a four-mile procession and march into
the presence of 5000 spectators. The impos-
ing feature Of this pageant was not in the
lavish expenditure of funds and the extrav-
agant display or power. but in the fact that
1t was a thrilling, romantic historical pan
Drama of the conquest of the desert and
the peopling of the plains. The old and
the new civilizations passed up Kansas
avenue in a grand review that told Kan
sans and the world more of adventure, Of
science and of progress than could be found
in printed pages. The human eye could
sweep across the living picture of fifty
years and see and know that in it's onward
march civilization had not been thwarted
by gigantic obstacles.
FEATURES OF THE PARADE.
Indians in primitive costumes and condi-
tons led the most skilled and enlightened
mechanics of the century. Uncle Sans
troopers were followed by weather-beaten
old stage coaches and freight wagons that
had done service on the overland trail in
the fifties. quaint and diminutive piece
of bygone workmanship was labeled the
first locomotive used by the Santa Fe, and
contrasted strangely with the monster
model of an 1897 locomotive that followed
The old forge and anvil operated by the
gray and grizzied smiths of fifty years ago
preceded a complete modern machine shop.
Bridge gangs, iron workers. section men
and carpenters were all in their working
clothes vigorously plying their arts. While
the army of employees was on parade the
Santa Fe trains were making schedule time
all over the system.
No intelligent being could look upon that
procession without feeling thrill of amaze
ment at the progress made and Its tremen-
dous cost. Indians from the bloodiest old
tribes peacefully marching before United
States regulars told of the triumph Of civil
| iZation, but it was not silent concerning
four centuries of pioneer struggle with in
| human fiends The sight Of stage coaches
| marked 'Leavenworth and Sacramento
| and freight wagons drawn by cattle and by
| mules flashed out more brilliantly than
| searchlight the story of the forty-niners,
| the gold fever adventure and death on the
| trail, the settlement of California and the
conquest of the plains. 1t revealed in
| cessant struggles, constant failures, in
| domitable courage, final triumph. The fall
ing of thousands by the wayside and the
wrecking of homes and fortunes are but
/ incidents in the warfare that develops
states and builds the nation. The indi-
vidual heroic pioneer may seem to have lost
| the contest, but in the succession of years
the results have been for humanity. To
conquer the power of the worthless redskin,
subdue the adverse forces of nature and
build a railroad train across mountain
| heights have cost beyond calculation. All
| minded men are proud of the results
| and admit that the plains could never have
been peopled without railroad enterprise. A
prominent Populist of two years. standing,
| in a friendly conversation with the writer
concerning this procession, said:
THAT was the greatest and most effective
speech ever made against maximum freight
rates The development and prosperity Of
| the Santa Fe is so mingled with that of the
people that it would be folly to do anything
| to injure that magnificent aggregation of
| capital. 1 think this day will demonstrate
| to many for the first time that the little old
anvil and forge ard individual capital
passed away because they were inadequate
| to the work of building continental rail-
ways and other great enterprises"
| Some Populists say confscate that prop
erty and let the government run it. The
stockholders are not getting rich from divi-
dends, but the management is keeping UP
the roadbed and rolling stock Could the
government do any better? Col. c. K. Holt
day, who did more to formulate, promote
and complete the Santa Fe system than any
! 4hnf 4<l