The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1897-07-20
Daily X Eagle
m. NJ. MURDOCH, Editor.
KANSAS A MEND1cANT.

KANSAS a MENO1OAN4s
The New York Mail and Express is
honto our game or thinks it is. 1t
hkens this commonwealth TO the pro-
RessionaI beggar who generally has a
latter bank account than the one of
whom he solicits sympathy and aims
It says that Kansas has for two or
three years been telling a pathetic
story of Populism and grasshoppers, of
srouth, chinch-bugs and the lumpy-
law. holding up to the world as proof
of the distressing complaints, Mrs.
Lease, Jerry Simpson, and Whiskers
PETER: that, in short, we have boosted
bur calamity. But the esteemed con-
temporary has stumbled on to late re-
bort Of our state bank examiner, which
shows that the Kansas pOcket-book IL
fat: that the banks hold more in depos-
Its than they have out on loan, and
that the reserve fund is more than
double the amount required by law.
Me are glad that the Mail and Express
fIidnt hunt I'D our national bank show
Ing. as it would certainly have put us
down as big lot Of hypocrites. That
paper concludes its criticism with the
Insertion that lin view of this extraor-
binary showing, the old familiar hard
luck story from Kansas will have 70 be
retired. It is played out. Kansas,
with her admirable financial condition
and the magnificent crops now in the
hands Of the harvesters, is really one
of the richest and most prosperous
states in the Union 1t is high time for
her to cease her tale Of woe, brace up
and acknowledge that life is worth Iv-
Ing"
There are two sides to this showing,
and conclusion. Of the New York paper.
1t is probably a fact that Kansas is at
present one Of the most prosperous
states in the Union, having been but lit
tie disturbed by the slump in stocks
and not affected by strikes nor died of
the hamilton of closed factories and the
like. Yet the truth is, that in the full
tide OF a national prosperity, and at
a time of local booms, eastern capital
lists loaded our people down with loan
ed money, at high rate Of interest,
commissions added. The hard times
caught us with these assumed burdens
and, what with the shrinkage of realty
values and falling prices, we were
squeezed as no other people. And but
for the character of her people and her
many superiorities Of soil and climate
we would have been crushed. We
squealed OF course we did. Realiz-
ing that we were more the victims of
a confidence game than because of any
lack of eye-teetb. we howled, in the end
turning the tables on the mortgage
fiend, his agents and lawyers. Had the
eastern money man, in recognizing the
situation, said to the Kansas men,
''Here, these national exigencies and
conditions were all unexpected by us
both, and I will renew your notes and
cut the interest in two and credit the
commissions you paid my agent as so
much paid on the note" nearly every
creditor would have gotten his money
back with fair interest. But they did
not. They set up howl against Kan
las 1t was a universal one all over
the east, and one in which the Mail
and Express joined. The result was
that Kansas resolved to take care Of
number one' and not Of the other fell
low, at least until she felt equal to her
but half imposed obligations. In the
mean time the eastern loaner who
foreclosed got all he was entitled to.
The security was at his own valuation,
or that of his agent. A very small per
cent of Kansas honest debts have been
repudiated. Experience, however,
forced upon us coming of the lesson
that the approved method choking q
dog to the death with butter is not nee
essarily the most effective or economi-
cal.