The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1907-05-22
WHAT'S THE MATTER?

Kansas had a population of 1857
sos in 1901 Five years thereafter, or
in 1905, the population of the state
was 1,611s 460, an increase of 143,652.
being an actual increase of less than
$4,000 a year. In 1896, ten years ago,
the population OF the state was 1885,
$50. The population has therefore in
creased but PA. 801 in ten years, or at
the rate of less than $4,000 year.
Will somebody please explain the fig
ures? Thousands of people come to
the state every year, while the natural
increase in population exceeds these
figures. The state is not making good
in the matter of increase in inhabi-
tants. and we most respectfully ask
an explanation from somebody who
knows the truth about It'll Dorado
Republican.
This is an oft-discussed question,
and one over which statisticians have
puzzled much in an effort to explain
it.. Some Kansans appear to think it
is disgrace to the state that 1t does
not show a faster growth, but is it
when the facts are analysed?
We might say that Kansas had
ninety million bushels of wheat last
year, and now it hasn't one-f1fth Of,
that amount. Where is it? The
world demanded 1.-THE miIlers Of
Minnesota, and Illinois, and Missouri.
and California, and Germany, and
went forth to feed the hungry all over
the world. So Kansas has raised a
crop of boys and girls of such high
quality that the world demanded them
and they have gone forth to supply the
demand.
Think a minute and see if this is
not so. In the newspaper world the
managing editor of one of Chicago's
nf he
greatest newspapers of the world
was a Kansas boy a few years ago.
The city editor of the same paper grad
uated from a Holton printing office.
Other high journalistic jobs are held
by other Kansans. In theology Kan
sas men fill high pulpits in Chicago,
Baltimore, Seattle, Kansas City
everywhere they are found. One of
the prominent young Methodist
preachers of Massachusetts was, a few
years ago, a Cheyenne county boy. In
pulpits, professorships, on the profess
sional baseball diamond, in legislative
are Kansas men.
One of the leading physicians and sur
geons of Los Angeles-a man with an
income of $4,000 a year-was a boy
on a Mitchell county farm back in the
eighties. His brother holds chair in
a weIl-known eastern college. A Kan
san is ona of the most famous gem
erals of the United States army Kan
sas has furnished governors and
statesmen for several of her sister
states. .-a se .s
This tells something Of where Kan
sas' best crop-the boys and girls she |
has raised-have gone. In the far
thest corners of the earth they are |
India, South Africa, |
the Philippines. Near at home state |
nearly as great in population as Kan
sas itself has been built on Kansas |
border in less than two de- |
cades. and to it Kansas has naturally |
a very large percentage of |
its people. At the eastern gateway to |
Kansas a great city has sprung up, |
builded by Kansas wealth and Kansas
people. Is it any wonder that the |
population of Kansas increases no |
faster when the Sunflower state has to
send so many OF it's bright sons and |
daughters out to the rest of the world? i
Kansas likes to brag of her big |
wheat crops. her corn and alfalfa. her
blooded cattle and fine horses, her gas
and zinc and salt. But Kansas finest |
crop is her boys and girls, her men |
and women. The prairie produces |
fine blood in them as we'll as in cattle |
and horses. Kansas ozone makes |
brain as we'll as wheat and alfalfa. If |
Kansas raised the same sort of boys /
and girls as do the hills of Arkansaw |
or South Carolina, she would have
little difficulty in keeping them at /
home; but as long as she grows the
kind that have intellect and determi- |
nation and ambition to do things, the !
world will demand them the same as
It demands Kansas bread and Kansas
beef.
That's what the matter with Kansas
from a population standpoint.