Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1913-09-04
From the Philadelphia North American.
-, xxr..I- D-.


saying he hoped no one would waste pity
on the people of his State.
He told the world they were taking the
medicine nature at some time or other
deals out in some way or other TO every
community and that no people ever were
so we'll prepared TO meet situation.
"With more than S2OO.OOO,OO0 on de-
posit in our State and national banks, we
could weather worse storm than this
without hardship" he said.
And when you stop to think that this
money, divided equally among the men,
women, children and babies of Kansas,
would give each OF them $llS in cash,
not TO mention the tidy sum Of 1864 each
is credited with as his or her share of the
States assessed wealth, you can see the
force of the argument.
AS matter Of fact, Kansas, which last
year produced S325, ,OOO,OOO worth Of farm
products, can better afford such roast
ing and drying up than any other State
in the Union, for her per capita wealth is
larger than that OF any other State.
She can better afford this or any brand
of calamity, for her people are not con-
stantly paying out huge sums for the care
and keep OF criminals, pauperS, insane
and feeble minded.
In eighty-seven OF her l05 counties
there are no insane. In fifty-four OF this
number are no feeble minded. Ninety
six counties have no inebriates, and in
the other nine they're as scarce as hens
teeth. Thirty-eight county poorhouses
are as empty as a last years locust she'll,
and most of these have been so for the
best part of a decade.
The pauper population of the State falls
little short OF 600. That is one pauper
for each 5000 of the kind making living,
and good one-the kind that now own
$255, 100000 worth OF livestock and in
| the last twelve months have added more
than $45, 100000 TO their taxable personal
property.
AT one time not long ago the iails in
| fifty-three counties were empty and Six
ty-five counties were on the roll as hav-
ing no prisoners serving sentence in the
penitentiary. Some counties have not
called jury to try criminal case in ten
years, and the attorney general says "a
grand jury is so uncommon that half our
people wouldn't know what it is and how
to use it."
For still other reasons Kansas can af-
ford to lose two thirds OF one corn crop
without having to renew the calamity
howls which once went rasping through
the nation from that GRASSY quadrangle
whose dream is the realization Of the I'M
possible" and which for twenty-five
years has been making that dream come
true.
Instead OF being plastered from end to
end with mortgages held by fasteners,
as was the case two decades ago, her
own people this year hold more than
$67 900, 900 in this form Of wealth, an in
crease OF over 500 per cent in five years.
Instead of being hampered by a large
mass of illiterates-thirty years ago 49
per cent of her population came under
this head-her present ratio OF 2 per cent
is next to the lowest in the land and two
thirds lower than Massachusetts,, includ-
ing Boston. q
Where "Sockless" Jerry Simpson once
preached populism now William Allen
White delights world with his wit and
wisdom. In place of Carrie Nations
screeds, punctuated with hatchet tlwacks,
we have Ed Howe's Incompatible books
of travel. But the pride Of Kansas is not
penned up in few names that shine out
against dull background OF mediocr'ty.
Her boast is an average Of physical and
mental ability not equaled by any other
State.
II is this uncommon prevalence OF
sound minds in sound bodies that has
reduced her death rate from II to 7 per
1000 in thirty years, though the former
percentage still holds among her neigh
bors. II is this combination OF sense and
solid muscle that has kept her growing
stronger and richer through extremes of
climate which soon would decimate less
fit lot.
These people have made good in a
zone once declared to be unquestionably
unproductve. In the last twenty years
they've made this "unproductive" soil
yield corn and wheat worth s. SIT ,902, $40.
They've shown the nation the worth of
alfalfa as money maker, soil reiuven-
ator and an ideal feed for stock. The
wheat crop, harvested before the late hot
spell, is worth S63,OOO,OOO at current
prices.
And in 1907, when the panic was on,
Kansas forwarded s50,OOO,OOO TO help
Wall street out of the hole-the same
Kansas which once was laughed at by
the islanders OF Manhattan as dead broke
and done for
She hasn't as many people as some OF
the other States, but, man for man, she
creates wealth faster than any other
she keeps her own healthier and richer
than any other, and offers for the worlds
consideration record of moral and ma
terial progress the like OF which has not
been seen since civilization dawned in
the valleys of the Nile and The Euphrates.
Though forced to acknowledge this,
we cannot help thinking If strange. The
people who settled Kansas were not dif-
ferent, on the whole, from those who
ninnnnrad ~ LII ,nic Inrua and Nehracka