The Topeka state journal., 1914-02-28
1t VIII House Population Of %
Cities of State.
GOULD HOUSE SO COUNTIES
Cost Larger Than Entire As
sessed Valuation.
But Little ssUpstairs" Offices
Are Best After All.

The entire population OF many cities
and counties In Kansas will no more
than fill comfortably the spacious Of
fees of a new building under course of
construction in New York city. 1t Is
the Equitable Life building, to be 32
stories in height and to house 5000
persons. Three structures like this
could provide shelter for all of To-
peka-and the city would not have to
build more than six or eight blocks OF
paving to surround its population.
The magnidcence and enormity Of
immense Office buildings Of this kind
cannot be appreciated by mere photo
graphs or even by strangling igazes
from the street-canyon below. Out here
in Kansas. 10-story building, housing
about 1000 persons is considered big
enough for the average city skyscraper.
In fact Topeka and Wichita are the
only cities with buildings Of this
height. But when a Kansan. living
either on the prairies. in the valley or
in the settled community. allows his
Imagination to grasp the immensity
of a building that will furnish a roof
for as many persons as there are in
Hutchinson or Atchison, or Coffeyville
or Pittsburg or Parsons or in the
counties of Anderson, or Clay or Cof-
fey or Ellis and scores of others, he
is face to face with the value of mother
cdTtn III new 1OTk CITY.
Think of collecting the population of
Hutchinson, placing the people on 20
passenger trains of 10 cars each, haul
ing them to New York and providing
a big roOmy Office quarters with every
necessity of living. all in one building.
under one roof!
That's what can be done in the Equi-
table Life building.
Why. it wouldn't take any more than
half dozen Sfrnofnroo 0f this cfx
take care of every down town worker
in Kansas City, Mo-and Kansans look
upon K. c. as quite little burg for
this section of the country.
Could House Sixty Counties.
Using the figures from the last state
census report in Kansas, take a peek
at these random facts.
The Equitable Life beehive of of
fices could house the entire popula-
ton Of each of the following Kansas
counties: Anderson, Barber, Chase,
Chautauqua. Cheyenne, Clark Conan
che, Decatur, Doniphan, Edwards, Elk,
Ellis. Ellsworth. Finney. Ford. Geary,
Hamilton. Harper, Haskell, Hodge
man, Kearny, Kingman, Kiowa, Lane,
Lincoln. Logan, Meade, Mitchell, Nor
ris Morton. Ness, Norton. Osborne.
Inns. Rice. Rocks. Rush. Russell, Scott,
Seward. Sheridan. Sherman. Stafford,
Stanton, Stevens, Thomas, Trego, Wa
baunsee. Wallace, Wichita and Wood
son.
In other words this structure could
accommodate all of the people in a
good majority of Kansas counties.
There are only IS counties in Kansas
with larger population than that
which will occupy this New York sky
scraper.
One more dip into population fig
ures-of the 100 cities in Kansas with
a population Of more than 1000, only
five have more inhabitants than could
be seated in the swivel chairs of the
Equitable Life building!
These five cities are Topeka, Kan
sas City. Wichita. Leavenworth and
possibly Hutchinson-althoug Hutch
insOn Is SO close to the $4,000 margin
that it could be designated as an
Equitable Life inhabitant without the
necessity of stretching the imagina-
ton.
The men, women and children Of
fifteen Kansas towns above 1000
population could be given office room.
with windows and all modern con-
veniences in that mass of steel and
stone and concrete and marble.
And the space that that building oc-
cupies could be bought out in these
Kansas counties for less money than
In all probability there will be oper-
ated in that one office building more
typewriters than there are in the en-
tire state of Kansas.
Features of the Building.
The Equitable Life property will
have other features of the we'll regu-
lated Kansas town. 1t will have
heating plant, a water department.,
public service and ice plant, a restaur-
ant. a health department, a police de-