The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1911-08-25
More Paper Railroads in Kansas
Than Any Other State.
Lines Are Built Of COlOred
CrayOns and Wall Maps.
PROMOTERS DOING 1T
Their Line of Talk Is Music to
Ambitious Ears.
other Items of General Interest
in Traffic World.

A prominent railway publication said
recently that more railroads were buil'
through the newspapers and on Jllle
prints in Kansas than any other state
in the Union
The publication was right
Hardly a day passes when some dis
patch does not come to the State Jour-
nal from a town in Kansas telling OF
the great plans for new railroad in
that locality. other newspapers take 1t
I'D A road that starts as feeder
from one section of a county to anoth-
er will be proposed from Canada to he
Gulf in two weeks. In three weeks it
will be in the course of construction
then the articles fail to come in and
everyone knows that one more pro
moter' has left nothing behind him but
the noise.
Upon investigation it viii be found
that at no time was the new railway
a possibility. Probably 1t was needed
When this was announced ready pro-
moter rushed to the spot to assist in
the lighting Of the candles around the
grave.
There are many reasons in expiana-
ton of this attitude taken about the
railway situation in Kansas.
Too Many Managers
In the first place Kansas is overrun
with railway managers''-men VINO
spring up like mushrooms, relate their
experiences, their immense capital and
their financial backing. They may not
know a roadbed from a cabOose but
they scratch their heads, make big
speeches before the town commercial
clubs and smoke black fleshy cigars
The simple matter of building a rail-
road is nothing with them. They laugh
at the route taken by the old estab
Iished roads and sneer at their hills
and grades. Yonder hill although 1t
may be undermined with rock will melt
before their steam shovels
I'VE will have dirt flying in so days.
] have a construction company of 800
organized men awaiting your answer
comes his assurance to the commercial
club.
"Hooray for our new railway qresi-
dentr clamors the town boosters and
they throw their hats in the air. Here
IS where we show that Santa Fe, that
Rock Island and that Union Pacific
that we can build a road of our own"
The village editor sends a big tele-
gram to the Topeka newspapers
charges collect-and the town mas very
little sleep that night.
by the way" say the business men
next day, what are we to do 70 help
this road along. Surely you viii allow
US to donate toward the proposition"
Then comes the clever work Of the
promoter.
LAS long as you insist he answers,
any help, Il viii just allow you to pay
the cost of the preliminary surveys. I
believe $4,000 will cover it. Will you
have the money for me so that 1 may
send for my men immediately"
"Surew shouts the populace.
The money is subscribed. Five quiet
suspicious men dressed in blue trousers
and shirts with instruments, stakes, a
flag and a hammer come the next week.
The town turns out to watch them
4srlTr
they leave the city limits beginning at
the site chosen for the union station"
and disappear over the horizon.
Map Tells the Story.
The promoter collects his money for
a neatly drawn series of checked lines
across an cid map of the state of Kan
sas. He stays in town long enough to
keep the country editors columns fill
ed for two weeks and then he leaves
for other fields.
And all there is to do to complete
the road is to secure a right of way,
grade lay the track buy terminals, buy
equipment and hire employees. Easy
isn't it?
Then another road springs up in an
other part Of the state.
That's one reason why there have
been so many railroads built through
the press in Kansas.
Another reason is that Kansas wants
better railway facilities so badly that
she is trying to scare the big railroads
into building them. But these railroads
are big Red Dragons and they are
not easily scared. They have eyes that
see through the promoters who build rail-
roads in q single night.
And anyway the big railroads know
that very few Kansans are going to
spend $4,000 a mile trying to build
branch line-to say nothing of buying
terminals, equipment and fight the la
Dor unions for rights on the wage
question
Right now in Kansas there are several
parties building what is known as
north and south line. They have good
sized towns with sensible people work
ed up over Canadian-Gulf project that
has nothing to show it's permanency
more than a beautiful set of wall maps
and a laxative general manager"
But you can't blame the general man
ager-and surely not the map.
More Railroads Eventually.
Kansas will have better railroad IA
cilities when such roads as the Santa
Fe, Rock Island and Union Pacific wish
to build them. Slowly these roads are
connecting their branch lines and build
ing new ones. Only the other dav the
Santa Fe decided to penetrate rich ter
ritory in the southwest-territory that