The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1912-02-14
NEED A TRAFFIC MAN
So Says George McEntire in Discuss
ing Freight Situation.


There is a. move on foot to ask for a
reduction of freight rates as pertaining
to Topeka, and 1 confidently believe re-
lief will come" said George P. Nc
Entire in speaking this noon before the
members of the Topeka Real Estate
Dealers association
This move,' continued Mr. Nc
Entire, "contemplates going about the
question in the most approved manner,
namely, by the employment of a high
class traffic man, who knows what We
are entitled to, and furthermore knows
how to proceed to get il. The freight
rates are today iii Topeka what they
were 80 years ago.
1.-THE Commercial club of this town
could not do better thing than to sup
port a traffic bureau. There is not an
other city in this section of the country
as large as Topeka that does not now
have such bureau In many cities the
municipality appropriates money for
the support of traffic men,"
The speaker said that the only adj
vantage that Topeka has in freight
rates is in a restricted area west Of
here, which has a population of $4,000
persons, and that this means that in
dustries locally have no chance to de-
velOp into large concerns, with the pos
sible exception of those Industries such
as the mills, creameries, the pickle and
preserving works and few others that
procure their supplies IN the near
vicinity of the capital city
Are you real estate men, contin-
ued Mr. McEntire, willing to say that
flour mills, packing house, cream
cries and a pickle factory are all that
our town is entitled to, especially in
the face of the fact that only 81 miles
east of US, not only such industries
as these can thrive, but that every
industry mentioned in the prohibited
list for Topeka can do business at
Il xJo5 Il 4.,--
me if I say that many of you are hon
estly misled by the fact that these
that all other lines of wholesale bust
ness are well represented here and
are prospecting into the assumption
that because these concerns prosper
that all other lines of wholesale bust
ness could do as well if only as we'll
managed.
May 1 beg of you real estate men
that you shall not assume, simply be-
cause freight rates do not enter di-
rectly into the sale of real property
that they are not of the utmost i'm
portance to the wholesaler who must
find as wide a market for his product
as his competitors if he is to do bust
ness on a profitable basis and whose
competitions are not alone those in his
same line in his town, but he must
meet competition from far and near
"One thing is certain-its just
joke to talk about Topeka as an at
tractive location for general manu-
featuring and WhOlesaling as matters
now stand, and unless we mean BUSH
ness to the point of having ordinary
manhood enough to take our case in
a determined but sensible and ap-
proved way before those having the
power to right our wrongs, we ought
to quit 'humbugging' ourselves 1--WE
have long since quit 'humbugging'
outsiders) and quietly admit that
while we are a political center of
considerable importance and the
home town of the great railroad, that
when it comes to jobbing in any large
and general sense we let about every
body else put it all over u.s."