Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1899-05-18
WICHITA'S BOOM AND COLLAPSE.
How tho Kansas Towns Bright Hopes
Were Blasted by a Newspaper Writer'S
Well-Meant warning.

Wichita (Kan) Letter to Chicago Record. |
Wichita is a typical boom" town.
Twelve years ago it had population OF
A.. 0o0 To-day it has perhaps 5000 which
Is a considerable recovery from low tide
in 1896 when it had less than 1900 accord
ing to estimates based upon the number
OF names in the directory. In 1SS6-SS, he
fore the boom broke, Wichita real estate
was selling at New York prices, and they
point out lots on the main street that sod
for 81 500 front foot for which the owners
would now be glad to get $500 or $780, The
real estate exchanges in New York in good
times will reach about $32OO0,C00 a year;
in Chicago in 1892, just before the Worlds
Fair. the transfers as shown by the rec
orders books were about $40, 00. 900, but at
Wichita during the five months preceding
the collapse in 1883 more than So. 900, COO Ia
town lots changed hands.
There was never such a craze for spec
ulation anywhere else in the world Town
lots We're sold a auction night after night.
The trading at real estate exchange was
like the speculation in stocks on the New
York Stock Exchange and in wheat on the
Board of Trade in Chicago. Compare
lively few of the sales were followed by
actual transfers Before the deed could be
made out the property would be sold to
some one else at an advance or a loss, is
the case might be, for values were effect
ed daily by plans for improvements and
Z TuinOTS OF street car lines, new railroads.,
! factories, and fine residences, to be erect
ed in the neighborhood. Blocks and streets
were laid out over an area sufficient to ac-
commodate !, 0Co, 900 people.
J When the boom burst it is said that 600
houses We're torn down and the material
used for firewOod. Town lots that cnce
were severed and sidewalked and piped
for gas and sold for hundreds of thousands
of dollars are now cultivated as cornfelds.
One man sold a quarter of his homestead
ON the outskirts of town for 81, 900. 900, and
spent large part of the money ia build
ing and equipping n street-car line to
reach 1t. He took the land back from the
purchasers upon the payment of a small
part of the purchase price and surrendered
the notes they had given him for the
amount of $500 The rails of his tram
way were sold for old iron, the ties for
tirewood and the cars, which were brought
all the way from Philadelphia made a
picturesque group around his barnyard.
One of the real-estate men who survived
the boom tells me that his commissions on
sales of town lots were $500 oo0 the week
before the break. The week after they
were less than $1,000.
The collapse of the boom in Wichita is
traced directly to an editorial written by
Marsh Murdoch and published In his news
paper, The Eagle. That editorial probab-
ly caused more commotioN in this ltttlo
Western world than any other article that
was ever published, because it knocked all
the wind out of Wichita and the rapid
panic that followed became contagious
and spread to every Kansas town. It is Il
question whether MIR. Murdoch realized
the possible results of his admonition. He
was pioneer In Kansas-a State Builder.
He started the first paper west or south of
Topeka in 1863. and he came to Wichita
before railroad. He loved the town more
than any other man In it. His ambition,
his pride, his hopes were all involved in
its interests, and he did more than any
other man to create the fiction of "a me-
tropolls which he himself exposed. and 10
inspire the decisions that he destroyed
Nobody ever Questioned the honesty OF his
motive, but IT Is doubtful If wider or deep
er or more vigorous imprecatons were
ever heaped upon any other man. Thous-
ands OF spectators who thought they were
millionaires were bankrupt the next morn.
ing. Every line OF that editorial cost 81 =
10000 to the town of Wichita, and withou;
doubt 1t was the most costly article that
ever appeared in type.
But the boom would have broken sooner
. or later The balloon had become so dis.
tended that it must have burst within a
few months, and 1t was the knowledge
which prompted Mr.. Murdoch to Cali q
Halt" Under that title, In a few impress
sve words he warned the people of Wich
} ita that they had reached the limit of hu,
, man folly, and in the name of honest cit
izenship and ordinary business sense he
demanded that insane speculation in towT
lots should cease, and that the energies OIL
the people should be employed In the full
!: fillment of the promises and the develop
ment Of the resources upon which the
boom had been ba sed. He called the at
tention OF the public to what was already
painfully apparent to evsryone-that l,
would require half century OF pa tien'
toll to carry out the plans that had beer
made for the improvement OF Wichita
and that there was not enough money In
the State of Kansas to settle the obliea
J tons that had been assumed In that town