The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1900-11-29
RAILROAD NEWS.
Industrial Commissioner Davis
on Resources Along Santa Fe.
Activity and Prosperity General
i'm Kansas Industries.
NO IDLE MEN, HE SAYS.
Great Possibilities in Developing
Kansas Virgin Resources.
Urges Irrigation in Western
Territory.

This is the statement made by James
A. Davis. Industrial commissioner of
that line in an interview He has just
been through the Southern Kansas gas
belt After spending Thanksgiving at
his home in Chicago he will go to Cali
fornia to remain until the Christmas
holidays.
Development Of the resources along
our line has been something wonderful
said Mr.. Davis. Everybody seems to
be anxious to do something to get be-
fore the public the resources of the diff
1erent communities and I get hundreds
OF letters a day with suggestions and
offers of help.
If they want to be a genuine help
they should take up in real earnest the
matter of storage reservoirs to be built
by the government in western Kansas,
IN Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona.
All this territory would be wonderfully
productive If irrigated. Much of the
land belongs to the government. know
of one tract of over 300, 600 acres belong
ing to the government, in the near vicin-
1ty OF which nature did not, but the
government may, erect a dam for less
than $250,000 that will store enough wa
ter to irrigate the entire tract of which
I speak.
Some time the territory of which I
speak will not only raise the wheat and
other food products for the Orient, but
II viii use good part OF its production
at home because industries are being
built up all over the west and the pop
ulation is increasing with wonderful
rapidity."
Mr.. Davis spoke glowingIy of the gas
belt of southern Kansas, from which he
had just returned. AT Coffeyville q. big
company is going to develop the gas
located there, one of which is what will
be the largest vitrif1ed brick plant in
the west, making brick for street pave
ments exclusively. They have develop
ed $4,000, 600 feet of natural gas a day
in the vicinity of Coffeyville. One ton
OF coal being equivalent to 10000 feet of
gas, this means a power equal to $500
tons of coal day. There are several
plants in contemplation for the use of
this gas
'.At Cherryvale. a roofing tile plant
has just been located for the manufac-
tt1re of an improved roofing tile, some
thing in great demand in the west, be
cause Of the scarcity of slate for roofing
and the high prices Of shingles. The
adaptability for the manufacture of this
and the output of the plant Will be six
to eight cars day to begin. with
Il am now negotiating for a large
window glass plant, for which any point
IN that territory would prove an ad-
vantageous location. At lola the zinc
smelter is doing a big business, and
contemplates extensions at an early
date. All the problems entering into the
smelling of zinc-particularly refractory
ores-by natural gas have been solved.
This makes the smelling much cheaper
now than a few years ago and it was
then very profitable. The Portland ce-
ment plant at lola is increasing it's bus
mess every day. Engineers and con-
tractors are always afraid of a new ce-
ment, but the Santa Fe's tests of this
cement shows it to be equal in eff
cheney to anything that is produced
Now that this cement is standard, the
trade of the plant win be gradually in
creased until it gets to its full capacity.
There are many other concerns that
mil 71fr fra ra1-
will, in natural sequence, be located in
that territory. There is q fine oppor-
tunity in that territory for a. sulphate
soda works The proximity Of salt, ]
abundance of limestone and cheap fuel
and the sulphuric acid works in Kansas
City all combine to bring every essential
element for the manufacture of soda
ash within as low cost in the gas belt
of southern Kansas as anywhere else in
the country.
Our beet sugar plant at Rocky Falls
IS having phenomenal success. As
Sanguine as I was of what would be
accomplished, the results have surpassed
even my expectations. This evidences
the necessity for careful preparation for
anything of that kind. With the citi-
z6nS acting with me we went through
three years of very careful experiments
as to the culture of beets before we even
tried to get a sugar factory there. am
now sending farmers from western
Kansas to that district to familiarize
themselves with the culture of sugar
beets there.
In western Kansas the soil is fully as |
good for the culture of sugar beets as in |
the Arkansas valley, except so far as the |
water supply is concerned. The sugar |
beet requires only about half as much |
water as alfalfa, and it needs it, as |
rule, just at the time when water is |
most plentiful in western Kansas. Tt /
looks TO me as though this industry |
might sometime gain a profitable foot |
hold in western Kansas.
in CIV
Mexico, Arizona and southern Califor- |
MIA are very promising. w. c. Potter, |
the mining engineer connected with my |
department, IS making very full and |
comprehensive reports Of all the min /
eral districts on our line, and is making |
q special study of those districts where /
the conditions are promising but where
the owners have reached the limit OF /
Eelop them into producers These prop /
critics, as soon as get full reports on !
them, I bring to the attention Of cap
italists interested in mine development, |
with a view to their taking them up /
and carrying on the work, either as
purchasers of the properties or as stock
holders in companies in which the orig
inal owners retain an interest repre-
santing the value of the property at the
time the capitalists took hold of it.
This will be the means of helping
very deserving class of pioneers and a
large number of people, as our investi-
cations show there are q. great number
of properties in that condition, where a.
few thousand dollars ably expended viii
determine whether the property is
worthless or could be converted into a
profitable producer. This condition pre-
walls particularly in the deserts of
southern California, the richness Of
which we can hardly guess, but which /
from our Investigations, viii some day
be among the richest mining regions of
the country There is hardly a district I
out there where water can not be de-
vel0ped