Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1913-06-19
SOME GRIMES OF PEssDnsM.
BIZ secretary =. D. cObdrn.
: eeeAAAAAAeAeAAA A AA4AAAAA ZEE

Il the wheat crop. in practically tn
Q same territory that has had D.
It much damning notoriety within th
4 past thirty days on account o
= weather conditions. Gossips ant
= scandal mongers made the worlt
: believe that Kansas would be bread
: less, yet In spite of this when ohl
= wheat was garnered out It out.
Q weighed and outmeasured that Of
!. any other state In all the land. Thai
years green bug scare is remem-
. bered around the world, but the
story Of our having that year "A
million bushels of wheat, worth 81
million dollars, is recalled only by
statistics.
We are constantly advertising the
state as a failure, yet the govern
ment reports show that in the
~ years ending with 1911 Kansas
raised more wheat by AZ million
bushels than any other state in the
Union. The wheat grown in Kan
sas in the last twenty years amount
ed to 1.236,9O8.S1S bushels, worth
at the threshing machine 1884,
201 ,463; the corn raised in the
same years was 1927, 4S7, 666 BUSH
els worth $1,OS1,678,S17, and we
! raise nearly twice the alfalfa grown
in any other state. Would 1t not
be the part Of wisdom to emphasize
substantiated facts like these rather
than burden the wires and the press
with details of how grasshoppers
have appeared in Ford county GEM
etery, or that failure to rain in
Stevens county weuldl mean q, dryJ
spell threatening hurt to the gocsesl
berry crop?
Kansas needs no booms, boomers
nor booming. No community or
section ever had boom" that was
not in the long run injurious. What
she needs is to be fair with herself, i
having the truth told of her ad-
vantages and attractions as a whole
and less advertising of temporary
adverse conditions that are in the
main local and by no means repre-
sentative of the state. Volunteer /
purveyors of pessimism, professional
discoveries and the Pullman night
riding experts have cost the state
of Kansas more than all the noxious
insects, whether misfOrtunes and
animal diseases with which she is
likely to be afflicted in the next
fifty years. They invent misfortunes
and thrive upos their inventions.
No sane man maintains that ideal
conditions prevail everywhere in
Kansas all the time. There is no
disposition to ignore sometime visi-
tations of insects, nor deny the re-
currence of unfavorable seasons, too
wet as well as too dry. These or
their like are common to every
country where man tills the soil or
wherever there is seed-time and har-
vest, but strenuously insist that
Kansas should not be published ,
from within as the self-confessed
breeding ground and headquarters ,
for all the ills, chronological ana
that beset and mini
mize agriculture. Further, that to
be constantly giving them promin- !
ence along with the suggestion that :
they especially pertain to ours as to y
no other state, is disloyalty, and 1
unworthy Of any citizen who would
,e a patriot.
Here's to the citizen who declines
o wear mourning in public places,
Who maintains no wailing place, and q
Who keeps his spare skeleton in :.
loset instead Of on parade!
Here's to the public employee wEo
an deal to some effect with I'M =,
ortunate conditions he may find =,
nd keep his mouth shut at the =,
anne time, leaving defamation of -
is state to others than those who :,
ay his salary! -
Here's to the Kansan who be- =,
Ieves in Kansas, and believing =.
lands pat; who for her shortcom- =.
1gs has neither ears nor tongue, :,
nd to whom she is ever lovely, no :"
ess in affliction than when radiant :.
18th smiles of prosperity! -,