THE GROWTH OF KANSAS UNDER REPUBLICAN RULE.
What, then, has been the history of Kansas under Republican rule? Its growth is without parallel in the history of American States. In 1860 Kansas had a population of only 107,206, and ranked as the thirty-third State of the Union. To-day our population is fully 1,500,000, and Kansas ranks as the fourteenth State. During the past quarter of a century Kansas has passed ahead of all the Northern States except eight, and all of the Southern States except five. All of the other great States of the Union were from fifty to a hundred years in attaining the population Kansas has reached in thirty years. In 1860 we had only three towns with a population exceeding 1,000; we have now over one hundred each having a population in excess of 1,000; twelve having each over 5,000, and four with over 15,000 inhabitants.
Twenty-five years ago we produced only 6,000,000 bushels of corn and 194,000 bushels of wheat per annum; last year we produced 194,000,000 bushels of corn and 11,000,000 bushels of wheat. In 1860 the farm crops of Kansas were valued at less than $150,000; last year their value exceeded $92,000,000. In 1860 the farm products of Kansas, including crops, products of live stock, etc., were valued at less than $5,000,000; in 1885 their value was nearly $144,000,000. In 1860 less than 150,000 acres were under cultivation; last year the area was nearly 15,000,000 acres. In 1860 only 1,778,400 acres were taxable; in 1885 over 27,710,000 acres. In 1860 the live stock of Kansas was valued at less than $3,000,000; in 1885 the valuation reached nearly $118,000,000. The value of the farm products of Kansas for the year 1885 aggregated near three-fourths of the value of the gold and silver products of the whole civilized world, and were more than double the value of the products of all the gold and silver mines in the United States. In 1860 the assessed valuation of all the property of Kansas, real and personal, was less than $23,000,000; for 1885 it was nearly $249,000,000. The railroads of Kansas are assessed, for the year 1886, at $32,434,936, or more than double the valuation of all the real estate in 1860. We had not a mile of railway within our borders in 1864—we now have 5,117 miles. Every county in the State, except twenty, is now traversed by one or more railroads, and within the present year fully 500 miles of new road will be added to the lines we already have.
In educational privileges, what State can equal Kansas? Our State University, Agricultural College and Normal School are institutions of which every intelligent Kansan is justly proud, and our common-school system, supplemented by dozens of denominational or private academies and colleges, is wonderful in the scope and extent of the educational facilities provided. We had only 154 school houses and employed only 189 teachers in 1860; we now have more than 7,000 school houses, in which fully 9,000 teachers are employed to instruct 350,000 scholars. In 1861 the amount expended for the support of common schools was only $1,700; the expenditures in 1885, for the same purpose, aggregated $2,977,763. During the past quarter of a century Kansas has expended, for school buildings and the support of public schools, including our institutions for higher education, fully $35,000,000.
Churches have multiplied with proportionate rapidity. In 1860 we had only ninety-seven church buildings, costing an aggregate of only $143,950; in 1885 we have over 3,000, valued at more than $3,000,000.
In 1860 only twenty-seven newspapers were published in Kansas; we now have over 650, of which fully forty are dailies, and their aggregate circulation exceeds 400,000 copies. Every county in the State, organized or unorganized, now has one or more newspapers, and no other State in the Union can boast of a more enterprising and intelligently-conducted press than that of Kansas.
The provisions made for the unfortunate have been most generous. Two asylums for the insane have been erected; and the institutions for the blind and for the deaf and dumb are among the largest and best in the United States. An asylum for feeble-minded children has been provided. The Soldiers’ Orphans’ Home, a noble charity, illustrating the grateful loyalty of our people, will soon be completed. A Reform School for wayward boys is in successful operation; and the State, following the example of the most advanced commonwealths, is now erecting an industrial reformatory for the confinement of law-breakers who are not hardened criminals, thus removing this class, who may possibly be reclaimed by wholesome discipline, from the degradation of the penitentiary.
KANSAS, THE CHILD OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY.
In citing these facts and figures showing the marvelous growth of Kansas, I am not asserting or intimating that our fellow-citizens of other political organizations have not contributed their full share of the revenues necessary to build and maintain the institutions enumerated. Nor do I claim that to Republicans alone is due all credit for the marvelous growth of Kansas. That would be a folly of which I hope I am not capable. But it is true that this wonderful development could not and would not have occurred if the government of the State had been what our political opponents assert it has been—corrupt, tyrannical, weak and bad. I appeal to the average common sense of any good citizen to make answer whether Kansas could possibly be what it is to-day, one of the greatest and most prosperous States of the Union, if its government had been the weak and wicked thing Democratic orators and newspapers assert that it has been? I appeal from Philip drunk with partisan prejudice, to Philip sober enough to realize the wonderful growth and to be proud of the splendid State we inhabit. Here is the Kansas of our love and our faith—look around you and see it. Every citizen of the State, no matter what his political opinions may be, is proud of Kansas. And yet Kansas, more than any other region under the shining stars, is the product, the child of the Republican party. Republicans have guided and directed its growth and development from its infancy to the full stature of its splendid manhood. Republican intelligence, Republican policy, Republican courage, enterprise and sagacity, have inspired its laws, established and moulded its institutions, and controlled every step and stage of its marvelous development. There is no State in the American Union where there are, in proportion to population, so many happy and prosperous homes as are found in the State of Kansas. There is no State where so many men sit down every day to substantial meals, nor where so many wives and children are comfortably clad—no people anywhere on earth of whom so large a proportion are sober, intelligent and contented with their lot, as here in Kansas. And this great State, as I have said, is the child of the Republican party—bone of its bone, and flesh of its flesh. It has grown great and powerful and prosperous, because it has grown up under Republican laws and Republican direction. Its schools, its churches, its charities, its institutions, its industries, have been planted, nurtured and promoted under the encouragement of Republican intelligence. Kansas is a shining illustration of the beneficence of Republican policy and principles. Its growth has surpassed that of any other American State, because Kansas has always been a Republican State. The people know this. The most bitterly prejudiced Democrat in the land realizes it, wonders at it, and in his secret heart rejoices over it.