Middletown transcript., 1898-02-05
BRIGHT SKIES IN THE WEST.

One needs to be in Kansas only rev
DAYS to learu that the East has misun-
derstood the people of the Sunfower
State as much as the people of that
S ate have misunderstood the East.
The real people of Kansas are no more
repudistors and cranks than the real
people of the East are shylocks and fam
atics. There is no patent process of
arithmetic whereby tbs Eastern in
vestor must pay losses nd the Western
investor must not. And despite all
that has been SAID to the contrary, it is
easy to show that Kansas people, not:
withstanding the fact that millions of
Eastern doll als have been lost and swal-
lowed up forever though reckless money
lending as much as through reckless
mony-borrowing, are not only debt
payers, but among the best debt
payers in the country.
Before producing figures to prove
this assertion, a little recspitulation of
recent events is necessary. 1t was late
in the eighties that The boom fever
struck Kansas. The get rich-quick
bacteria superheated its blood, and the
State was soon in delirium. To ac-
count for this Dndition Editor White
has said recently that Kansas is so
highly educated that she is more re-
sponsive to psychological currents and
conditions than her sister States, and
therefore has done more queer things
than they. During the boom times it
became known that many investors in
the East had been quietly making enor-
nous profits in the State by lending
money at high rates of interest. Forth
with there was a rush of capital from
the East to share in this prosperity. A
regiment of loan companies was formed.
AT one time there was no less than 400
of these companies. Adventures in
the East and in Kansas formed many of
them; it was so easy for time to make
money by mere signing Of notes and
putting them up as collateral in your
own loan campany. The people of the
East showered money over the State.
1t couldn't be kept out. Bonds of
electric-light companies, of water-works
and sewer enterprises, of street car
companies, stock in banks, investment
companies, and what not, iu places that
we're mere crossroads, and in places
that did not exist at all, were subscribe
ed for.
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 guar
anteed- that was an easy matter-both
interest and principal. Companies with
a capital of $50, ,000-perhaps $40, 900 of
which was paid up-had guarantees for
millions out. Thousands upon thous-
ands of dollars which the Kansas farm
ers paid on their loans were stolen de-
liberately, and hundreds of lawsuits
over such cases are yet pending. One
company, according to the report of the
State Bank Commissioner in 1895, col
lected more than $3.50 from the
Kansas people, and deliberately stole il
all. Forged satisfaction of mortgages
were made out, and hundreds of thous
ands of dollars were borrowed on them
under false pIetences. One company
did 100000 of such business. Then
there were. bogus banks. The McPher.
son County Bank was one of these.
There was no such inst tuition, and yet
hundreds of Eastern investors sent he'll
money TO buy its stock and bonds witt
out investigating the matter, The ia
nous Citizens Bank Of Wichita was q
veritable quicksand for Eastern money
1t was supposed to have capital ol
$500, 600, and surplus of $500, 900. Il
all vanished like mist. Wichita:
town lots and tremendous Office build
ing out iu the corn-6elds still remain,
but the money is gone. No investors
apparently were more reckless than the
sayings-banks of New Hampshire, ,mosI
of which have since been wrecked be-
cause of their western investment. Th'
variety and scope of the swindling thai
grew out of this unbusinesslike way Of
doing business were such that the Banl
Commissioner, In his report for 1895
said:
"The list Of those who have beeI
robbed by these rotten institutions /
augmented, until to-day there is |
small army OF Eastern people who be
lieve that our State Is populated with