The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1898-02-17
PRAISE FOR KANSAS.
Head of the U. P. Reorganization
Committee Compliments Kansas

Head of the U. P Reorganization
Committee Compliments Kansas
Willard S. Pierce, of New York, chair
man of the reorganization committee
of the Union Pacific and chairman of
the board of directors which will con-
troll the property acquired by the new
company at the sales going on this
week, is not a stranger in Kansas. He
was associated with the receiVerShip
of the NJ. K. & T., later with Missouri
Pacific affairs, having during that time
much business which brought him to
the state.
Mr.. Pierce is, comparatively, a young
men. He is below the average in size.
He is especially direct and forceful in
his manner and conversation. He is
smooth-shaven, and the lines about his
mouth indicate determination and en-
ergy which accounts for the high place
he has attained in the affairs of this
great corporation.
Il have always been interested in
Kansas said Mr.. Pierce today, stop
ping work in his room at the Throop,
to talk TO a Journal reporter. MY Wis
it's to the state in past years convinced
me that the people were just as good
as those found anywhere in the United
States and that the mere matter of
~+ate lines has no influence upon the
character of the people.
1T is true that in the east cOnsidera-
BILE criticism has been directed against
the state and some have gone so far as
5.
The manifest injustice of such state
ment directed against the people of the
state is so apparent that it needs no
contradiction. There are some people
in all places who See no good in any
thing but enterprises for localities in
which they are deeply and seriously in
terested. To this class belongs the dis
tinction of having at all times unkind
things to say of the state, or her peO-
pie and the filings at Kansas emanate
from such sources.
$50 far as I am individually concern
ed / am sure, from what I have heard
in New York and throughout the east
in fact, the reputation of this state has
l<been redeemed this year. Kansas has
made wonderful strides forward. The
debts of the people are being paid with
astonishing rapidity and everything
| seems to indicate that prosperity is
really visiting the people here.
L have great faith in Kansas, and it
is my opinion that the state will soon
have a reputation equally as good as
have those states which criticise her."
Upon being asked if the board of
directors of the company which is Sc
curing control of the Kansas Pacific as
it is known in the sale, has completed
plans for any improvements in the
property, Mr.. Pierce said:
No nothing of that kind has been
considered. There has been cOnsidera-
BILE uncertainty connected with the sale
of the property, and the details of the
transaction in Which we are now en-
gagged have occupied all of our atten-
ton and no time has been at our dis
posal for other matters.
There has been no suggestion along
that line and 1 really cannot say what
is proposed. Immediately after the
sale is made and confirmed, I presume
the directors and officers will make a
tour of the road and investigate its
needs, after which the plans for i'm
provements, if any are to be made,
will be considered"
President H. C. Burt, who attended
| col info +O
pany the party of officials to Denver for
the sale under the consolidated mort
cages Monday but he was called home
to Omaha last night by sickness in his
family and the official trip will be post
poned until later in the season.
1t was the intention to make the trip
referred to by Mr.. Pierce, to investigate
the physical demands of the property,
at this time, but the absence of Mr..
Burt necessitates a pOstponement
Mr. A. w. Krech, secretary of the reor-
ganizatiOn committee, who bids the
property in, endorses the compliments
to Kansas expressed by Mr.. Pierce