The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1897-11-21
BY THIS SIGN WE CONQUER.


noasting was found hanging on the rag
ged edge. Every interest and enter
prise was conspicuous for its black eye
Her people had been loudly Boosting
three leading interests. Dragging that
these were better and gave greater
promise than like advantages OF any
other state. These were her incompara-
BILE climate and soil, her promising
towns and cities and her railroads. The
fact was continually pointed out that
Kansas had more miles Of railway than
any other state in the Union, Illinois
excepted. The claim was true. Her
enterprising cities had inspired the
building of these roads, until the entire
area of the state was gridirOned with
trunk lines and branches. Every town.
ship had its town, every cow-pasture its
railway track What land was not plot
ted for townsiteS or condemned as
railroad right-of-way was held for spec
ulation. Midst the tumble and hurrah
of conflicting townsite speculations and
the struggle between railway manage
ments for exclusive occupation, II be-
came uncertain what towns and cities
were really warranted, or which would
survive. Following the inevitable tum-
bic from this precipitous brink, was an
all-around collapse. In going down
under their accumulated burdens of
nd ivQ1 -
Inmates the towns and railroads crush
ed every other value out of semblance.
The cities and towns which had real
excuse for their existence suffered alike
with the mere ''boOms" on paper.
The lapse was complete, the forfeit
ure little short of perdition. Not only
materially and financially was the wind
out of everything, but the people slump
ed politically. The brakes were not only
applied in way that locked all the
wheels, but the steam was reversed.
A progressive Republican state be-
came construction. For nearly ten
years Kansas has now ''sweated for it,
like the victim of a confidence game,
which she really was. Her communi-
ties have lamented and despaired, ours
ed and economical by turns, hoping be-
cause there seemed little else in the
prospect; struggling, because they
couldn't help themselves. While wait
ing for sign of returning prosperity,
for some assurance that their former
estimates of the superiority Of their
state were not all wrong, every COM
munity almost lost its brightest and
most enterprising spirits. For railroads
were not the only interests that went
into the hands of receivers, nor towns
the only corporations that collapsed.
Solid, careful and honest men by the
thousands were left stranded and hope
lessly ruined.
For five or eight years past the people
of Kansas have been looking for some
sign of a return of the times which
seemed her due, for a sign of a rein
statement Of her normal condition. Her
soil is no richer, the sun shines no
but the sign is above the horizon and is
seen of everybody. 1t has not come, as
many imagined it would, in a suddenly
renewing demand for Kansas land and
consequently improved prices for farms,
of which she has millions in number. 1t
came through liquidation of her debts,
partly, and in getting down to bedrock
and operating on original advantages,
but was first seen in improving bust
ness and more prosperous conditions of
the cities and minor centers for whose
existence originally there was a we'll de-
fined demand.
So the sign Of the states rehabilita- |
ton not only indicates the towns and !
cities which viii fulfill their former |
promise, but constitutes a warrant that |
such towns and cities will prove perma- |
nent and grow great, each in It's sphere. |
Places whose existence came out of |
speculation and boom will remain shells |
if they do not crumble and disappear. |
But every town for which there was n |
demand originally will survive in pros
perity.
Measured by this standard. Wichita is
all right. The first city in the state to
give evidence of turn in the affairs of |
Kansas, the first indication that the |
bottom had been reached by the people !
of the state that the pendulum had |
n hn In.
that the penalty of wild speculation had {
been paid, was furnished by the city of |
Wichita. simultaneously with the /
proofs of Wichita's improving trade |
and advancing prices came a better
feeling among the traffic lines of the
state. Following this return of prosper
ity to her trade centers will come a
marked demand for Kansas lands and
Kansas farms Ii will be but a few
months until Kansas lands will be
sought after. not only, but will be COM
handing as great a price per acre as
the lands of Illinois, Indiana and Ohio.
lapse and through the settlement of Ok
lahoma Will be more than compensated
for by new acquisitions, and the dis
trust and diScredit that depressed and
hampered town and country alike viii
have disappeared along with the cry of
calamity, and not only this city. but
other natural trade points and business
centers will come to the front as the
states commercial and financial bul-