The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1901-02-09
KANSAS AND HYSTERIA.

KANSAS AND HYSTIIRIA.
Kansas is still keeping up its reputation
as field for all manner Of psychological,
sociological and political vagaries, and
the student finds there material from
which any amount of deductions may be
drawn, for the results are apparent,
though the causes are more than often
obscure.
The New York Sun has recently been
discussing the monstrous crime perpe-
trated by the Inhabitants of Leavenworth.
Kansas, in burning the miserable wretch
who was accused of crime at the stake,
and the Sun says that this form of neu-
rosis is nothing but the present results
of the hysteria that was developed in
Kansas by the Jay Hawkers and John
Brown.
The Kansans are, at best, says the
Sun, a wild, eXcitable and more or less
Unbalanced people. Sometimes their
state of mind shows itself in the widest
dreams of Populistic panaceas, some
times by a scene of suffering and over
Wrought I-iSelS lilStt NoUiI Acii t'1hiS WIN
the worst orgies Of Nero's butcheries. But
sometimes the dream of Kansas takes a
higher flight, and we see the religious
fervor that has led Mrs. Nation, or Sis
ter Nation, as she is affeCtionately called
by the police of Topeka, to sally forth
with sticks and slaves and furnish free
drink for every hoodlum in town by
breaking up the bar-rooms that are pay
ing a license to the Mayor, if not to the
State
There is a great deal to be said for
Kansas. Certainly SO far as Populism is
concerned, for in that mad craze the peo-
pie had good reason to know that they
were suffering and an excellent excuse
for not being able as a people to deter
mine the cause of their misery.
In regard to this subject the New York
Journal of Commerce says:
The conditions favorable for propagat-
ing, if not for the spontaneous generation
OF, Populism are disclosed by statistics
contained in the report Of the Kansas
Board of Agriculture covering the last
two years. The valuation OF lands and of
city lots at Quinquennal periods was as
follows:
Lands City Lots.
1880. S7,1I9,l01 $50, 90, 92l
1SS5............ 122,Sl,339 IS, SOL
1881. .......... i6S, IS, 1893 I2,S1tS13
lS95........... 113, zoe, S13 62,0I6S2S
1900. ....... l63, SCI ,Gl3 61,3I1 ,G9i
Between 1850 and 1890 the population
of the State increased more than 43 per
cent; in the past decade the increase has
been Insignificant. The history of the
real estate boom which affected the en-
tire West is detailed in this table of
valuations. In the first five years the
value of farming lands increased nearly
90 per cent, and in the first ten years it
fell little short of doubling. People were
pouring into the State from the East and
bidding against each other for farm
lands, and prices were going up at a rate
that was making the early settlers laugh
over the prosperity that was visiting
them. OF course, the effects were more
strikingly displayed IN the valuation o.
town lots. In five years they nearly
doubled: in ten years they increased more
than three and one-nalf fold.
Such rates Of increase could not pos
sibly continue. People who bought farms
and town lots at the top OF the boom
found their property depreciating on
their hands; the high prices themselves
checked the rush to get into the State and
secure property, and these conditions
were aggravated by some unfavorable
haryests. The wheat crops OF 1893 and
1894 were SMALL and that of 1895 was not
much more than a quarter of the crop of
1891 The corn crop OF 1894 was less than
half that of 1881 and 1892. The prices
were comparatively unmportant when
quantities fell SO low.
OF course, no one recognized that the
situation was due to the speculative over
valuation OF property and to partial crop
failures; these things could not be rene
died. and men in misfortune instinctiveiy
hold something responsible which can
be changed. The railroads were attacked
for their charges, and where they have
been exempt from competition they have
often charged ''aS much as the traffic
would bear" They attacked the Govern
ment for the crime of 1873" They de-
nounced everything except speculation
and the clements which were the imIne-
date causes of their SufferingS.
If we compare the valuation of farm
lands and city lots in 1900 and in 1880,
we find that in twenty years farm land
values have nearly doubled and city lots
have trebled; that surely is progress
enough The trouble was that all the adj
vance, and more too, came in the first
ten years, aud there. was nothing but
stagnaton and Shrinkage III the second
ten years. There is every reason to ex-
pect prolonged period of prosperity now
that the wind is out of the bubble; prices
are where they belong, or somewhere near
there, and the values of farm products
are steadily increasing. Since 1890 the
population has remained almost station
aY-yZ hilt tl1e yalres of farm products has