Evening star., 1923-07-08
Presidents Railroad Speech
Unpopular in Kansas City
Hit Pet Aversion of Missouri Folks Who
Dread Thought of Absentee Land
lord in Transportation.
BY FREDERIC WILLIAM VILE.
,iBpatch to The Star.

Special Dispatch to The Star.
KANSAC CITY, Mo-, July s.-Kan-
sas City's reluctance to become
railroad "whistling station" like
Lawrence, Kan, was the one fly in
the ointment Of Presidents Harding s
splendid welcome to the hub OF the
southwestern universe. The sugges-
ton that the transportation systems
of the country should be consolidated
into a handful Of regional combi-
nations strikes genuine terror to a
community which, after Chicago, is
the second largest railroad center In
the United States. In such a project
Kansas City discerns the possibility
Of economic disaster. 1t Is not an
agreeable thought for a town that
las ambitions and plans to be the
metropolis of the west some day.
Eleven independent railroad COM
panies now make" Kansas City.
While only one of them, the Kansas
southern, maintains it's general
headquarters here, all the others
look upon it as vital terminal or
transshipment point. They have
joined In building the finest union
station west of New York city. Their
lines branch out in all directions
east. west, north and south. Mr..
Harding, having Kansas City's in
comparably central situation in mind,
called it the heart of the country"
Then he almost broke the heart by
espousing a scheme which. on it's sur
race, threatens dislocatfon of the in
dustry upon which the city's wonder
rul development was founded and
upon which il mainly Is building for
the illimitable future.
Frightened Citizens.
The Presidents Kansas City rail-
road speech sent shiv-
ers down the community's back, even
though Mr.. Harding did not specifi-
cally indorse the Interstate Com
merce Commission plan of nine
teen road consolidation. He spoke
only in general terms of the economic
advisability of amalgamation. Kan
as CITY businessmen agree that con-
Solidation in some form is desirable.
Indeed. certain "interstate'' or inter
regional schemes to that end are
quietly brewing at this moment. But
the advantage of such arrangements
.ng at Washington, and which Kan
sas city jumped to the conclusion Mr..
Harding is fathering, is that control
and management would be vested
locally. That is to say. the consoli-
datfonS would be administered by
men alive to the needs of the COM
munities the roads serve. rather than
10 the dividend necessities of alien
owners.
Kansas City-and when one speaks
OF Kansas City in a railroad connec-
ton, one means vastly father-reach-
ing regions than the city limits con-
template-fears what Irish malcon-
tents in Erin used to denounce as
~, L.. a
transportation system manipulated in
Wall street, regardless of the genuine
interests of the midwest. 1t is afraid
western railroad systems would be
run to an even greater extent than
they now are, by cliques of eastern
capitalists. with no fundamental re-
gard for the welfare of the grass
roots country. And then, as herein
before narrated. Kansas City. militant
and magnificent in its bound pros
perity, Seriously objects to being re-
duCed in metropolitan rank to that
of a way station.
TranscOuntry Stop.
The great transcontinental trains
of the Union Pacific, the Rock Island,
the Wabash and the Santa Fe now
pull up at Union station, backing and
filling. switching and transferring
Kansas City. What they're afraid of
out here, after hearing President
Harding, is that the day may come
when the California Limited and the
other trains de luxe will flash by with
out stopping. That would be the end
of the world, say these new empire
builders of the southwest, and they
are determined to avert it at all
costs. If Warren G. Harding seeks
reelection in 1924 on the platform of
railroad consolidation on Interstate
Commerce Commission lines the dem
ocrats need hardly conduct a cam
paign in the Kansas City country. 1t
will be a walkaway for their man.
Apart from the anxieties that fill
them with regard to Kansas Citys
own future, her business men and the
farm folk around about, in both Mis-
souri, and Kansas. are not definitely
convinced that consolidation means
railroad millennium. Only this week
defiant thunderboltS to the contrary
were hurled at President Harding by