The Wichita daily eagle., 1904-02-03
DAVIDSON MAKES
REPORT AT MEETING
Man Says Gas Cannot Be
Gotten.
IN SOUTHEASTERN KANSAS
Regular Gathering Chamber
| of Commerce Members

A, enthusiastic meeting Of the Cham
Der of Commerce last night there were
several important questions taken UP ana
considered. the chief one of which was
the gas proposition. President Davidson
who is also member of the gas com
mittee. gave an elaborate account of his
.r,n through the oil fields. and according
70 the careful deductions which he made
ne concludes that Wichita cannot get gas
from those sources. He made the state
,4ent that the city would have to seek
.w fields.
MIR. Davidson has also come to the con-
elusion that Wichita will have to lease
about forty or fifty thousand acres OF
undeseioped oil land and pipe their %
gas In part. he said;
There is no use talking, southeastern
Kansas. in which I have been making
INV Investigations. cannot possibly sup
plv Wichita with gas. In every town
shere are factories which require pract-
caliy all the gas that is now to be gotten
from those wells. Nearly in every little
4 r,ace one can find smelters. glass faeto-
les, brick kilns and other manufacto-
u es which consume the largest part ol
the OUTPUT of gas. II they haven't got
enough gas down there. how are we going
20 pipe it up here? Our only salvation
Is to hunt for new oil regions. thlnk
there is no doubt but that we can easily
find that. l have estimated that 1t VIII
take about $S00o0J to pipe gas INTO
Wichita from where we are now figuring
70 the city limits. But we will know
more about this matter when our COM
nnittee makes its full investigation, which
will be in the course Of few days
more"
A general discussion followed Mr. Da-
i<-idson's explanation. Some thought 1t
= $sould require more than $4,000 acres of
AA nd to furnish gas for the city. and Pat
Hsaaly estimated that it would take, any
how, one-half of a county.
J. E. Howard said that it would be a
pretty good idea to lease the land where
there was also coal SO that when the
gas was exhausted the city could manu-
facture its gas the same as it is doing
now. 1t was considered that i would be
Just as cheap, after the gas supply was
exhausted, to manufacture the gas and
use the pipe, which would already be laid,
as to ship coal into the city.
After a thorough discussion of the gas
proposition. other important matters were
taken up in their regular order. Several
lsters pertaining to the location OF vari-
& Is institutions and enterprises were
fistened to and referred to their proper
committees for further consideration.
A committee was appointed by the chair
60 investigate the advertising of Sedgwick
county at the Worlds Fair, which con-
sisted of Messrs. Healy. Howard and
Grafton. These gentlemen will see what
can BE- accomplished toward making a
large and thorough display of the pro-
ducts OF this county.
At the next meeting Of the Chamber Of
Commerce there will be some new de-
velopments which will be looked to with
interest. It now appears like the citi-
gems OF Wichita were getting in earnest
} about the gas business, and they are
-oing to put forth their utmost efforts in
> the right direction and get the gas.
Beyond a particle of doubt Wichita will
have gas inside of two years at the most.