The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1898-01-29
Kansas the Greatest Debt Pay
er in the Union.
Franklin Matthews Writes From
Observations.
SKIES ALOFT.
Sees the SunfiOWer State in It's
True COlOrS.
Harper's Weekly Gives Kansas
Great cad"

The east is gradually forming a truer
estimate of Kansas, her great fertility
! of product and resource.
Below is printed by special permission
from Harper Bros the principal por-
tions of Franklin Matthews article in
Harper's Weekly, based on a personal
visit to the state:
The investor, remembering only the
! loss of his money, would be likely to
! agree with Mr.. ingalls, in declaring the
arithmetic of Kansas more dazzling and
| beWildering than poetry. The truth Is
! there is light in Kansas and it has been
shining like a beacon in the middle west
| ever since the enormous crops of 1897
| were harvested, and it is also true that
| Kansas arithmetic has become more be-
| Wildering than poetry since that time,
| for the prosperity that those crops
brought to the farmers reads like fairy
| tales, and in many cases is dazzling
| One can form a correct opinion OF KAN
! sas and its people better by going to
| the state and by speaking with it's
! farmers, its storekeepers, its business
! men, its officials and its professional
| men than in any other way 1t was
for this purpose that in December last
I visited the state and, in this and 9TH
| er articles to follow, the exact truth
| about Kansas and other western states
| is to be told as it was learned after dill
! igent investigation.
One needs to be in Kansas only a few
| days to learn that the east has misun-
| derStoOd the people of the Sunf1OWer
! state as much as the people of that
! state have misunderstood the east. The
| real people of Kansas are no more re-
pudiatOrS and crankS than the real peO-
| pie of the east are shylocks and fanat-
| les. There is no patent process of arith-
metic whereby the eastern investor
/ must pay losses and the western in
/ weston must not And despite all that
| has been said to the contrary, it is easy
| TO snow tnat Kansas people, notWlth-
| standing the fact that millions OF
| eastern dollars have been lost and sWal-
| lowed up forever through reckless mon
| ey lending as much as through reckless
| money borrowing, are not only debt
payers. but among the best of debt pay
| ers in the country.
During the boom times it became
| known that many investors in the east
| had been quietly making enormous
| profits in the state by lending money
! at high rates of interest. Forthwith
| there was a rush of capital from the
east to share in this prosperity. a reg
| iment of loan companies was formed.
At one time there were no less than 400
| of these companies. Adventures in
| the east and in Kansas formed many of
| them; it was so easy for a time to make
money by the mere signing of notes
| and putting them up as collateral in
| your own loan company. Inc people
| of the east shOwered money over the
| state. It couldn't be kept out. Bonds
| of electric light companies of water
| works and sewer enterprises. of street
| car companies. stock in banks, invest
ment companies, and what not. in pla-
ces that were mere cross roads, and in
| places that did not exist at all, were
| subscribed for.
THIEVING LOAN COMPANIES.
It soon became necessary to use part
| of the principal to pay the alleged high
| interest The era of swindling began.
| Nearly all the loan companies had
| guaranteed-that was an easy matter
| both interest and principal COmpa-
| MES with a capital of $50 O00-perhaps
! $40, 900 of which was paid up-had guar
! upon thousands of dollars which the
| Kansas farmers paid on their loans
| were stolen deliberately, and hundreds
| OF lawsuits over such cases are yet
pending. One company, according to
| the report of the state bank commits
| sioner in 1895, collected more than $375.-
| 900 from the Kansas people, and DELHI
| erately stole it all. Forged satisfactions
| of mortgages were made out, and hun
| dreds of thousands of dollars were Dor
rOWed on them under false pretenSeS.
| One company did 500 900 of such bust
ness. Then there were bogus banks.
| The Mcpherson county bank was one of
! these. There was no such institution.
! yet hundreds of eastern investors sent
| their money to buy stock and bonds
! without investigating the matter. The
! famous Citizens bank of Wichita was
! veritable QuickSand for eastern money.
| 1t was supposed to have a capital of II
! million dollars, and a surplus of $780,
! 600. 1t all vanished like a mist. Wich-
| ita's town lots and tremendous Office
| buildings out in the corn fields still re-
| main, but the money is gone. No in
veStors apparently were more reckless
! than the savings banks of New Hamp-
| shire, most of which have since been
/ wrecked because of their western in
| vestments. The variety and scope of
! the swindling that grew out of this IN
! business-Hke way of doing business
| were such that the bank commissioner,
| in his report for 1895, said:
The list of those who have been
| robbed by those rotten institutions is
augmented until today there is a snoa II
/ army of eastern people who believe that
| our state is populated with a class of
| constituencies rascals whose sole bust
ness is to prey upon the people OF the
east"
The crash of the boom came. with its
awful wreckage in Kansas and other
| states The crops were fair in Kansas
| up to that time, and even unusual as
| late as the year 1892. Then the hard
| times set in. Crops were light the
| farmers had little money to spare for
/ debts and eastern investors were called
| upon, under the double liability act. to
! put up more money in the state. Some
4 Of them did So in the hope of saving
i part of what they had invested. Most
| of them let their investments go at
/ once. and took what satisfaction they
| could by denouncing the people of the
! state lndlScflm1nateiy as SWindlerS.
Men in the east raised their hands
| and cried: '-Can any good thing come
| out of Kansas %
Men in Kansas lifted their voices in
! reply and shouted: Have the men of
the east any sod but money!
So the misunderstanding continued
until the great crops of 1897 came along
and spread a blanket of prosperity all
over the state The effect has been like
l a refreshing sleep to a strong but phvs-
| icaily exhausted man. The state has
| awakened in good humor- It has ceas-
ed to rail at the east It is eager to
pay its debts It even has money of its
l own tn loan Tt wants the east tn