The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1899-05-21
THE POPTT. ATrON" on WICHITA.


facts may be, or however many the city
may have increased in population, no one
can gainsay the assertion that houses ito
let are scarce, and that there are more
new houses and tenement houses being
built this spring than at any time within
the past ten years There is another fact
noted and numerously commented upon
and that IS. despite the large number Of
added inhabitants these are more univer-
sally employed and buster than when the
town was at its lowest ebb with hundreds
Of vacant dwellings and business houses
and six or eight Thousand fewer people
than now.
These facts, observable to all, have led
to estimates or guesses at the number Of
inhabitants now, and to conjectures as to
the probable number the city will boast
five or ten years hence
Wichita commands every advantage and
dominates every interest save one, neces-
eary TO sweeping her upward to $1,000 or
10000 inhab itans in the briefest time.
There are a score of inland cities in this
country Of from $1,000 to 100000 inhabi-
tants which do not boast half the adj
NdlitdeS IDtd llDIls nan the IIIIIlcN.1dtCiS
contiguous auxiliaries, nor near the num-
Der of acquired transportation facilities
boosted of. pertaining to and held by
Wichita. The wonder is not that Wichita
has twenty-five or thirty thousand inhabi-
tants, after all that has happened, but in
view Of all her possibilities that she has
not already 10000 people.
This IS a great country. of which W;ch-
ita is the center, a wonderfully fertile and
magnificent domain, and healthful; coun-
try finer and greater and one susceptible
Of more close cultivation and develop
ment than that which holds the two Kan
sas Cities, Leavenworth, Atchisol and St.
Joseph combined. with their aggregate
population Of 100000 or BOZ 59n. more equit-
able and richer than the 20O-mile circ1:t
Of land which holds Omaha, or the one
which supports Minneapolis and St Paul:
infinitely better in every way than the re-
g.on around Denver. a hundred fold su-
perior TO the country contiguous to San
Antonio. Texas with its 10000 people, or
that Of Houston, with its 100000 From an
agricultural view point there is no coun-
try Of greater possibilities, none in which
value Of every other acre; no section in
which there are more thriving communi-
ties and prosperous towns; no district ca
pable Of sustaining a denser population.
than the circle Of 100 miles in diameter Of
which Wichita is the center. TO say nothing
of the new domain on her southern border
which IS greater in itself than was all
Kansas twenty-five years ago.
From cursory view, in the absence of
the explanation OF a single specific and
significant fact, no man, however aetute.
acute. experienced or observant, could tell
why Wichita has not 100000 inhabitants
today, with all the industrial and COM
mercial interests that go with sue ha
population From the superior character
of the country. from the wealth Of her
surroundings, from the prosperity of the
communities which she as a greater cen
ter serves, as from every other reasonable
and logical conclusion. ner population
should be five times what it is today
When Wichita tonnage shall have receiv-
ed the consideration from the railroads to
which it is entitled in the way of COM
mensurately adjusted freight rates; when
the car load lots and distributing sched-
uIes Of our jobbers are made to conform
10 those given other cities Of ike tonnage
and receipts; when a train load of -four
can be sent odeep water ports on the
Gulf for the same number Of dollars that
Minneapolis pays for like train; when a
cargo of goods-f from Galveston is laid down
here at the same open rate per ton per
mile, or at most for the same money the
same cargo from the same port is laid
down at Missouri River points. which is a
two hundred mile longer haul; when We
are accorded coal Tor steaming purposes
at the same rate per ton per mile vouch-
safed Kansas City; when q bushel Of
wheat, or a hog or a streer raised here,
san he sold on the Wichita market for
the same price as at the Missouri River,
less the freight rate given the Missouri
River from contiguous points to Wichita.
and when our packing house products
shall be hauled 10 mountain consumers
Or to the Pacific or to the Cuff states for
The same amount of money charged the
Missouri packers then viii Wichita reach
nor only more than the hundred thousand
-unabtant mark, hut Will be boastinS all
the mechanical industries. and all the
commercial interests. and all the financial
Importance that 20 with a city of such a
population; will not only keep on growing
as now. but increasing in number and Al a
ratio which VIII surprise the more canser-
rative of her own citizens, but nonplus. by
their increased earnings the very agencies
whose mistaken policy in holding Wichita
down has retarded the development of her
surroundings and consequently curtailed
their own receipts.
But Wichita is growing. growing in in
hahstants. in business and in wealth, and
viii continue to grow in spite Of unad-
ius-ed differentials and illogical djscrim-
nations BY the action or the Rock Isl
and one Of these was wiped out the past
week. From the very fact Of the city's
present increase others Will be wiped out
and instead Of retarded development VIII
come accelerated growth inclusive of the
hundred thousand additional Inhabitants
which her geographical position. her
which her geographical position. her
accessories have so long entitled this city
Of the prairtes.
WICHITA'S WET NIGHT.
\ snap shot Of Wichita Friday ,:eht
after the rain would have been the mast
Interesting y,ir+41rs ever taken of rt7a tytv