Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1898-02-09
PAY OUR DEBTS.
Kansas the Greatest Debt Pay
er Of Them All.
Truer Estimate of Our state and
Her EesOurces'

Weekly writing of personal visit tc
Kansas, says:
The investor, remembering only the
loss of his money, would be likely to
agree with Mr.. Ingalls, in declaring
the arithmetic of Kansas more daz-
zling and bewidering than poetry.
The truth is there is light in Kansas
and it has been shining like d beacon
in the middle west ever since the
enormous crops of 1897 were harvest
ed, and il is also true that Kansas
arithmetic has become more bewilder-
ing 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 Kansas
and its people better by going to the
state and by speaking with its farm
ers, 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
visited the state and, in this and
other articles to follow, the exact
truth about Kansas and other western
states is to be told as it was learned
after di1igent investigation.
One needs to be in Kansas only d
few days to learn that the east has mis-
understood the people of the Sunflow-
er state as much as the people Of that
state have misunderstood the east
The real people of Kansas are no more
repudiators and cranks than the real
people of the east are shylocks and
fanatics. There is no patent process
of arithmetic whereby the eastern in
vestor must pay losses and the west
ern investor must not. And despite
all that has been said to the contrary,
it is easy to show that Kansas people,
Notwithstanding the fact that millions
of eastern dollars have been lost and
swallowed up forever through reck-
less money lending as much as through
reckless money borrowing, are not
only debt-payers, but among the best
of debt payers in the country.
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 were no
less than 400 of these companies. Ad-
Venturers in the east and in Kansas
formed many of them; it was so easy
for time to make money by the mere
signing of notes and putting them up
as collateral in your own loan compa-
ny. The people of the east showered
money over the state. 1t couldn't be
kept out. Bonds of electric light COM
pan1es, of waterworks and sewer en-
terprises, of street car companies,
stock in banks, investment companies,
and what not, i'll places that were
mere cross roads, and in places that
did not exist at all, were subscribed
for.
TH1EvING LOAN COMPANIES.
sof 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.
Companies with a capital of $4,000
perha ps 900 of which was paid up
had guarantees for millions out.
Thousands upon thousands of dollars
which the Kansas farmers paid on
their loans we're stolen deliberately,
and hundreds of lawsuits over such
cases are yet pending. One company,
according to the report of the state
bank commissioner in 1895, collected
more than $375, 900 from the Kansas
peoole. and deliberately stole it all.
Forged satisfactions of mortgages
were made out, and hundreds of thous-
.ands of dollars were borrowed on them
under false pretenses. One company
did S1OO, 900 of such business. Then
there were bogus banks. The Nc
Pherson county bank was one OF these
There was no such institution, yet
hundreds of eastern investors sent
their money to buy stock aud bonds
without investigating the matter
The famous Citizens bank of Wichita
was a vcr;table quicksand for eastern
mOnex. 1t was supposed to have {
caDital of one half million dollars, and
a surplus of $500, 200. 1t all vanished
like a mist. wichita's town lots ant
tremendous Office buildings out in thu
corn fields still remain, but the none,
in gone. No investors apparentl.
were more reckless than the saving
hanks of New Hampshire, most o
which have since been wrecked be
cause of their western investments
The variety and scope of the swind
ling that grew out of this unbusiness
like way of doing business were sue
that the bank commissioner, IN his re
port for 1895, said:
4The list of those who have bee
robbed by those rotten Institutions
augmented i. until today there IS a smal
army Of eastern people who 0eliev