Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1914-07-31
atliseellaneuus Rraaing.
THE MATTER WITH KANSAS.
Once In Bankruptcy, Now It Is Rich
and Prosperous.


one would waste pity on the people OF
his state.
II He told the world they were taking
the medicine nature at some time OF
other deals out in some way or other
to every community and that no people
ever were so we'll prepared to meet a
; situation.
With more than $2OO,OOO,OO on de-
post in our state and national banks,
we could weather a worse storm than
this without hardship he said.
And when you stop to think that
this money, divided equally among the
men, women and children and babies of
Kansas, would give each of them Sis
in cash, not to mention the tidy sum
of 1854 each is credited with as his
or her share of the states assessed
wealth, you can see the force of the ar
gument.
AS a matter Of fact, Kansas, which
last year produced s325,OOO,O00 worth
of farm products. can better afford
such a roasting and drying up than
anv 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 constantly paying out huge sums
for the care and keep Of criminals,
paupers, insane and feeble minded.
In eighty-seven of her los counties
there are no insane. In fifty-four or
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 last
years locust shell, and most Of these
have been so for the best part of
decade.
The pauper population Of the state
falls a little short Of 600. That is one
pauper for each 5000 Of the kind max
ing a living and a good one-the kind
that now own $255,O00,000 worth of
livestock and in the last twelve months
have added $45,OOO,O00 to their taxable
personal property.
| At one time not long ago the jails
| in fifty-three counties were empty ana
siXty-five counties were on the roll as
having no prisoners serving sentence
| in the penitentiary. Some counties
have not called grand jury to try
criminal case in ten years. and the at
torney general says. "a grand jury is
so uncommon that half our people
would not know what it is and how to
use it."
] For still other reasons Kansas can
afford to lose two-thirds of one corn
crop without having to renew the ca
lamity howls which once went rasplng
through the nation from that grassy
quadrangle whose dream is the reali-
zation of the impossible" and which
for twenty-five years has been making
the dream come true.
Instead of being plastered from END
to end with mortgages held by east
erners, as was the case two decades
ago, her own people this year hold
more than s67,OOO,O 900 in this form of
wealth, an increase Of over 500 per
II
cent in five years.
| Instead of being hampered by
large mass of lliterates-thirty years
ago 40 per cent of her population came
under this head-her present ratio OF
per cent is next to the lowest in the
land and two-thirds lower than Mas
sachusetts including Boston.
Where "Sockless" Jerry Simpson
once preached populism now William
Alden White delights world with his
wit and wisdom. In place of Carrie
Nations creeds, punctuated with
hatchet thwacks, we have Ed Howe's
uncomfortable book of travel. But the
| pride of Kansas is not penned up in a
few names that shine out against a
dull background of mediocrity. Her
boast is an average of physical and
mental ability not equaled by any 9TH
er state.
1t is this uncommon prevalence of
sound minds in sound bodies that has
reduced her death rate from II to
per 1000 in thirty years, though the
former percentage still holds among
her neighbors. 1t 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 unquestiona-
1 L ln lnS or
years they've made this "unproduc-
tive" soil yield corn and wheat worth
$2,517,9O2,64O. They've shown the
nation the worth of alfalfa as money
maker, a soil rejuvenator and an ideal
| feed for stock. The wheat crop, har-
vested before the late hot spell, is
worth $63, 100000 at current prices.
And in 1907, when the panic was
on, Kansas forwarded $50,0OO,O0O 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,
Sne creates wealth. llluCH ldSteI iie'H
any other; she keeps her own healthier
and richer than any other, and offers
for the worlds consideration a record
of moral and material 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 it strange.
The people who settled Kansas were
not different on the whole, from those
who pioneered in Illinois, Iowa and
Nebraska Nor are the soil and eli
matte conditions greatly unlike. In
deed. the odds are unfavorable to-
Kansas, so far as natural conditions
are concerned. Yet many of the facts
here arrayed could not be spoken of
these states.
SO something would seem to be the
matter with Kansas.
Something is the matter with her.
That something, we believe, can be
fret t4an