The Topeka state journal., 1897-12-24
BY TROLLEY CARS.
System That Ray Eventually Connect
Atchison, Topeka, Lawrence, Kan
sas City and Other Towns.

The Kansas City, Lawrence and To-
peka Electrical Railroad company has
been Incorporated for the purpose of
building a line for rapid transit be
tween Kansas City and Topeka. It is
believed by those who are familiar
with it, that it is only a scheme to de-
velOp, boom and dispose of LOCO acres
of fine market garden lands in small
patches lying along the south side of
the Kaw river between Lawrence and
Kansas City The company seems to
be built on most gorgeous foundation
and has a stated capital of three mil
lions of dollars
The charter was filed with the seere-
tary of state late yesterday afternoon
and names the following persons as di-
rectOrs; e. B. Purcell of Manhattan;
John g. Johns of Houston, Texas; Hen
Ty McGreW and w. L. Wood. a firm Of
Kansas City, Kan, lawyers; E. Z.
Holmes, James Haggard and \. \. Cos
sett, Kansas City. Mo, men who have
become Interested in the lands men
toned through foreclosures upon loans
which they have made.
The charter specifies that the COM
pany will build an electric railroad, tel
egraph lines and other necessary ad-
juncts of the proposed system. from
Kansas City to Topeka, beginning work
early IN the spring.
Edwin G. Anderson, a Kansas City
lawyer who filed the charter and who
is also interested in the company, said:
weather mOderates. The company pro-
poses to build this line of road first to
penetrate the produce and gardening
districts west of Kansas City. BY this
plan we Will be able to carry freight
as well as passengers and thereby en-
able the gardeners to place their stuff
on the markets within an hour after it
is gathered.
The company expects to build a dam
near Holiday which with the dam now
at Lawrence will furnish the power
necessary to operate the plants which
Will run the railroad equipment
We propose to have freight trains
ard passenger trains running regularly
at short intervals between the termi-
nal points. Topeka and Kansas City,
and Will be able to give the people of
the intermediate towns and villages
and the country d more accurate and
trustworthy service than is guaran-
teed by the ordinary railroad"
While the likelihood of this road be-
ing built is very faint, the posi- bilities
of such a road are great. Although
railroad men treat the scheme with de-
risiCn there is no doubt that sometime
within the next quarter of a century
such a road will be in full operation. It
is believed by men prominent in the
financial affairs of the eastern part of
the state that Topeka, AtchiSOn, St.
Joe. LeaVenwOrth, Lawrence, EmpOria,
Ottawa and towns within the territory
mentioned will sometime be connected
by q rapid transit trolley or storage
battery system. These cities are the
GenIerS OF DOpQiallOn OF InlS section
of the west. When the telegraph COM
panies completed their systems into
these towns they We're amused at the
suggestions Of competition from tele-
phone companies. However. the tele-
phones are here and are doing suffi-
cient business to declare large divi-
dends annually.
In the east. particularly the New Eng
land states, the plan of uniting cities
by electric railroad systems with a ten
minute or half-hour service is very
popular. Boston for example. is con-
nected with dozens of surrounding
towns and all of them are benefited.
Such a system operating among the
towns in eastern Kansas would give
the country people facilities for doing
business which they do not now enjoy.
The plan proposed by the gentlemen
interested in the new road is one Of the
future posi- bilities of eastern Kansas,
a fact which even the most cOnSerVa.-
tive business man Will not dispute or
deny 1t is only a question of time
when il will come.