Part 23

_Industry and Trade._--Manufactures are not characteristic of the state. The rank of the state in manufactures in 1900 was sixteenth and in farm products seventh in the Union. The value of the manufactured product in 1900, according to the Twelfth United States Census, was $172,129,398, an increase of 56.2% over the output of 1890; of this total value, the part representing establishments under the "factory system" was $154,008,544,[2] and in 1905 the value of the factory product was $198,244,992, an increase of 28.7%. Kansas City, Topeka, Wichita, Leavenworth and Atchison were the only cities which had manufactures whose gross product was valued in 1905 at more than $3,000,000 each; their joint product was valued at $126,515,804, and that of Kansas City alone was $96,473,050, almost half the output of the state. The most important manufacturing industry, both in 1900 and in 1905, was slaughtering and meat-packing--for which Kansas City is the second centre of the country--with a product for the state valued at $77,411,883 in 1900, and $96,375,639 in 1905; in both these years the value of the product of Kansas was exceeded only by that of Illinois. The flour and grist mill industry ranked next, with a product valued at $21,328,747 in 1900 and nearly twice that amount, $42,034,019, in 1905. In 1900 a quarter of the wheat crop was handled by the mills of the state. Lesser manufacturing interests are railway shop construction (value in 1905, $11,521,144); zinc smelting and refining (value in 1905, $10,999,468); the manufacture of cheese, butter and condensed milk (value in 1905, $3,946,349); and of foundry and machine shop products (value in 1905, $3,756,825).

_Communications._--Kansas is excellently provided with railways, with an aggregate length in January 1909 of 8914.77 m. (in 1870, 1880, 1890 respectively, 1,501, 3,244 and 8,710 m.). The most important systems are the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe, the Missouri Pacific, the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific, the Union Pacific, the Missouri, Kansas & Texas, the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, and the St Louis & San Francisco systems. The first train entered Kansas on the Union Pacific in 1860. During the following decade the lines of the Missouri Pacific, the Missouri, Kansas & Texas and the Santa Fe were well under construction. These roads give excellent connexions with Chicago, the Gulf and the Pacific. Kansas has an eastern river front of 150 m. on the Missouri, which is navigable for steamboats of good size. The internal rivers of the state are not utilized for commercial purposes.

_Population._--In population Kansas ranked in 1900 and 1910 (1,690,949) twenty-second in the Union. The decennial increases of population from 1860 to 1900 were 239.9, 173.4, 43.3 and 3.0%, the population in 1900 being 1,470,495, or 18 to the sq. m.[3] Of this number 22.5% lived in cities of 2500 or more inhabitants. Nine cities numbered more than 10,000 inhabitants: Kansas City (51,418), Topeka--the state capital (33,608), Wichita (24,671), Leavenworth (20,735), Atchison (15,722), Lawrence--the seat of the state university (10,862), Fort Scott (10,322), Galena (10,155) and Pittsburg (10,112). The life of all of these save the last two goes back to Territorial days; but the importance of Fort Scott, like that of Galena and Pittsburg, is due to the development of the mineral counties in the south-east. Other cities of above 5000 inhabitants were Hutchinson (9379), Emporia (8223), Parsons (7682), Ottawa (6934), Newton (6208), Arkansas City (6140), Salina (6074), Argentine (5878) and Iola (5791). The number of negroes (3.5%) is somewhat large for a northern and western state. This is largely owing to an exodus of coloured people from the South in 1878-1880, at a time when their condition was an unusually hard one: an exodus turned mainly toward Kansas. The population is very largely American-born (91.4% in 1900; 47.1% being natives of Kansas). Germans, British, Scandinavians and Russians constitute the bulk of the foreign-born. The west third of the state is comparatively scantily populated, owing to its aridity. In the 'seventies, after a succession of wet seasons, and again in the 'eighties, settlement was pushed far westward, beyond the limits of safe agriculture, but hundreds of settlers--and indeed many entire communities--were literally starved out by the recurrence of droughts. Irrigation has made a surer future for limited areas, however, and the introduction of drought-resisting crops and the substitution of dairy and livestock interests in the place of agriculture have brightened the outlook in the western counties, whose population increased rapidly after 1900. The early 'eighties were made notable by a tremendous "boom" in real estate, rural and urban, throughout the commonwealth. As regards the distribution of religious sects, in 1906 there were 458,190 communicants of all denominations, and of this number 121,208 were Methodists (108,097 being Methodist Episcopalians of the Northern Church), 93,195 were Roman Catholics, 46,299 were Baptists (34,975 being members of the Northern Baptist Convention and 10,011 of the National (Colored) Baptist Convention), 40,765 were Presbyterians (33,465 being members of the Northern Church) and 40,356 were Disciples of Christ. The German-Russian Mennonites, whose immigration became notable about 1874, furnished at first many examples of communal economy, but these were later abandoned. In 1906 the total number of Mennonites was 7445, of whom 3581 were members of the General Conference of Mennonites of North America, 1825 belonged to the Schellenberger Bruder-gemeinde, and the others were distributed among seven other sects.

_Government._--The constitution is that adopted at Wyandotte on the 29th of July 1859 and ratified by the people on the 4th of October 1859; it came into operation on the 29th of January 1861, and was amended in 1861, 1864, 1867, 1873, 1875, 1876, 1880, 1888, 1900, 1902, 1904 and 1906. An amendment may be proposed by either branch of the legislature, and, if approved by two-thirds of the members elected to each house as well as by a majority of the electors voting on it at a general election, it is adopted. A constitutional convention to revise or amend the constitution may be called in the same manner. Universal manhood suffrage is the rule, but women may vote in school and municipal elections, Kansas being the first state to grant women municipal suffrage as well as the right to hold municipal offices (1887). General elections to state, county and township offices are biennial, in even-numbered years, and take place on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November. The state executive officers are a governor, lieutenant-governor, secretary of state, auditor, treasurer, attorney-general and superintendent of public instruction, all elected for a term of two years. The governor appoints, with the approval of the Senate, a board of public works and some other administrative boards, and he may veto any bill from the legislature, which cannot thereafter become a law unless again approved by two-thirds of the members elected to each house.

The legislature, consisting of a Senate and a House of Representatives, meets in regular session at Topeka, the capital, on the second Tuesday of January in odd-numbered years. The membership of the senate is limited to 40, and that of the house of representatives to 125. Senators are elected for four years and representatives for two years. In regular sessions not exceeding fifty days and in special sessions not exceeding thirty days the members of both houses are paid three dollars a day besides an allowance for travelling expenses, but they receive no compensation for the extra time of longer sessions. In 1908 a direct primary law was passed applicable to all nominations except for presidential electors, school district officers and officers in cities of less than 5000 inhabitants; like public elections the primaries are made a public charge; nomination is by petition signed by a certain percentage (for state office, at least 1%; for district office, at least 2%; for sub-district or county office, at least 3%) of the party vote; the direct nominating system applies to the candidates for the United States Senate, the nominee chosen by the direct primaries of each party being the nominee of the party.

The judicial power is vested in one supreme court, thirty-eight district courts, one probate court for each county, and two or more justices of the peace for each township. All justices are elected: those of the supreme court, seven in number, for six years, two or three every two years; those of the district courts for four years; and those of the probate courts and the justices of the peace for two years. The more important affairs of each county are managed by a board of commissioners, who are elected by districts for four years, but each county elects also a clerk, a treasurer, a probate judge, a register of deeds, a sheriff, a coroner, an attorney, a clerk of the district court, and a surveyor, and the district court for the county appoints a county auditor. The township officers, all elected for two years, are a trustee, a clerk, a treasurer, two or more justices of the peace, two constables and one road overseer for each road district. Cities are governed under a general law, but by this law they are divided into three classes according to size, and the government is different for each class. Those having a population of more than 15,000 constitute the first class, those having a population of more than 2000 but not more than 15,000 constitute the second class, and those having a population not exceeding 2000 constitute the third class. Municipal elections are far removed from those of the state, being held in odd-numbered years in April. In cities of the first class the state law requires the election of a mayor, city clerk, city treasurer, police judge and councilmen; in those of the second class it requires the election of a mayor, police judge, city treasurer, councilmen, board of education, justices of the peace and constables; and in those of the third class it requires the election of a mayor, police judge and councilmen. Several other offices provided for in each class are filled by the appointment of the mayor.

The principal grounds for a divorce in Kansas are adultery, extreme cruelty, habitual drunkenness, abandonment for one year, gross neglect of duty, and imprisonment in the penitentiary as a felon subsequent to marriage, but the applicant for a divorce must have resided in the state the entire year preceding the presentment of the petition. A married woman has the same rights to her property after marriage as before marriage, except that she is not permitted to bequeath away from her husband more than one-half of it without his written consent, and no will made by the husband can affect the right of the wife, if she survive him, to one-half of the property of which he died seized. Whenever a husband dies intestate, leaving a farm or a house and lot in a town or city which was the residence of the family at his death, his widow, widow and children, or children alone if there be no widow, may hold the same as a homestead to the extent of 160 acres if it be a farm, or one acre if it be a town or city lot. A homestead of this size is exempt from levy for the debts of the intestate except in case of an incumbrance given by consent of both husband and wife, or of obligations for purchase money, or of liens for making improvements, and the homestead of a family cannot be alienated without the joint consent of husband and wife. The homestead status ceases, however, whenever the widow marries again or when all the children arrive at the age of majority. An eight-hour labour law was passed in 1891 and was upheld by the state supreme court. In 1909 a law was passed for state regulation of fire insurance rates (except in the case of farmers' mutuals insuring farm property only) and forbidding local discrimination of rates within the state. In the same year a law was passed requiring that any corporation acting as a common carrier in the state must receive the permission of the state board of railway commissioners for the issue of stocks, bonds or other evidences of indebtedness.

The manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquors except for medical, scientific and mechanical purposes were prohibited by a constitutional amendment adopted in 1880. The Murray liquor law of 1881, providing for the enforcement of the amendment, was declared constitutional by the state supreme court in 1883. At many sessions of the legislature its enemies vainly attempted its repeal. It was more seriously threatened in 1890 by the "Original Package Decision," of the United States Supreme Court, the decision, namely, that the state law could not apply to liquor introduced into Kansas from another state and sold from the original package, such inter-state commerce being within the exclusive jurisdiction of Congress. That body thereupon gave Kansas the power needed, and its action was upheld by the Federal Supreme Court. The enforcement of the law has varied, however, enormously according to the locality. In 1906-1907 a fresh crusade to enforce the law was begun by the attorney-general, who brought ouster suits against the mayors of Wichita, Junction City, Pittsburg and Leavenworth for not enforcing the law and for replacing it with the "fine" system, which was merely an irregular licence. In 1907 the attorney-general's office turned its attention to outside brewing companies doing business in the state and secured injunctions against such breweries doing business in the state and the appointment of receivers of their property. The provision of the law permitting the sale of whisky for medicinal, scientific or mechanical purposes was repealed by a law of 1909 prohibiting the sale, manufacture or barter of spirituous, malt, vinous or any other intoxicating liquors within the state. The severity of this law was ascribed to efforts of the liquor interests to render it objectionable.

The constitution forbids the contraction of a state debt exceeding $1,000,000. The actual debt on the 30th of June 1908 was $605,000, which was a permanent school fund. Taxation is on the general-property system. The entire system has been--as in other states where it prevails--extremely irregular and arbitrary as regards local assessments, and very imperfect; and the figures of total valuation (in 1880 $160,570,761, in 1890 $347,717,218, in 1906 $408,329,749, and in 1908, when it was supposed to be the actual valuation of all taxable property, $2,453,691,859), though significant of taxation methods, are not significant of the general condition or progress of the state.

_Education._--Of higher educational institutions, the state supports the university of Kansas at Lawrence (1866), an agricultural college at Manhattan (1863; aided by the United States government); a normal school at Emporia (1865), a western branch of the same at Hays (1902); a manual training normal school (1903) at Pittsburg, western university (Quindaro) for negroes and the Topeka industrial and educational institute (1896, reorganized on the plan of Tuskegee institute in 1900) also for negroes. The university of Kansas was organized in 1864 and opened in 1866. Its engineering department was established in 1870, its normal department in 1876 (abolished 1885), its department of music in 1877, its department of law in 1878, and the department of pharmacy in 1885; in 1891 the preparatory department was abolished and the university was reorganized with "schools" in place of the former "departments." In 1899 a school of medicine was established, in connexion with which the Eleanor Taylor Bell memorial hospital was erected in 1905. In 1907-1908 the university had a faculty of 211, an enrolment of 2063 (1361 men and 702 women); the university library contained 60,000 volumes and 37,000 pamphlets. An efficient compulsory education law was passed in 1903. Kansas ranks very high among the states in its small percentage of illiteracy (inability to write)--in 1900 only 2.9% of persons at least ten years of age; the figures for native whites, foreign whites and negroes being respectively 1.3, 8.5, 22.3. In addition to the state schools, various flourishing private or denominational institutions are maintained. The largest of these are the Kansas Wesleyan University (Methodist Episcopal, 1886) at Salina and Baker University (Methodist Episcopal, 1858) at Baldwin. Among the many smaller colleges are Washburn College (Congregational, 1869) at Topeka, the South-west Kansas College (Methodist Episcopal, opened 1886) at Winfield, the College of Emporia (Presbyterian, 1883) at Emporia, Bethany College (Lutheran, 1881) at Lindsborg, Fairmount College (non-sectarian, 1895) at Wichita, St Mary's College (Roman Catholic, 1869) at St Mary's, and Ottawa University (Baptist, 1865) at Ottawa. At Topeka is the College of the Sisters of Bethany (Protestant Episcopal, 1861) for women. There are also various small professional schools and private normal schools. An industrial school for Indian children is maintained by the United States near Lawrence (Haskell Institute, 1884). Among the state charitable and reformatory institutions are state hospitals for the insane at Topeka and Osawatomie and a hospital for epileptics at Parsons; industrial reform schools for girls at Beloit, for boys at Topeka, and for criminals under twenty-five at Hutchinson; a penitentiary at Lansing; a soldiers' orphans' home at Atchison and a soldiers' home at Dodge City; and schools for feeble-minded youth at Winfield, for the deaf at Olathe, and for the blind at Kansas City. These institutions are under the supervision of a state board of control. The state contributes also to many institutions on a private basis. Most of the counties maintain poor farms and administer outdoor relief, and some care for insane patients at the cost of the state.

_History._--The territory now included in Kansas was first visited by Europeans in 1541, when Francisco de Coronado led his Spaniards from New Mexico across the buffalo plains in search of the wealth of "Quivira," a region located by Bandelier and other authorities in Kansas north-east of the Great Bend of the Arkansas. Thereafter, save for a brief French occupation, 1719-1725, and possibly slight explorations equally inconsequential, Kansas remained in undisturbed possession of the Indians until in 1803 it passed to the United States (all save the part west of 100 deg. long. and south of the Arkansas river) as part of the Louisiana Purchase. The explorations for the United States of Z. M. Pike (1807) and S. H. Long (1819) tended to confirm old ideas of sandy wastes west of the Mississippi. But with the establishment of prairie commerce to Santa Fe (New Mexico), the waves of emigration to the Mormon land and to California, the growth of traffic to Salt Lake, and the explorations for a transcontinental railway, Kansas became well known, and was taken out of that mythical "Great American Desert," in which, thanks especially to Pike and to Washington Irving, it had been supposed to lie. The trade with Santa Fe began about 1804, although regular caravans were begun only about 1825. This trade is one of the most picturesque chapters in border history, and picturesque in retrospect, too, is the army of emigrants crossing the continent in "prairie schooners" to California or Utah, of whom almost all went through Kansas.

But this movement of hunters, trappers, traders, Mormons, miners and homeseekers left nothing to show of settlement in Kansas, for which, therefore, the succession of Territorial governments organized for the northern portion of the Louisiana Purchase had no real significance. Before 1854 Kansas was an Indian land, although on its Indian reservations (created in its east part for eastern tribes removed thither after 1830) some few whites resided: missionaries, blacksmiths, agents, farmers supposed to teach the Indians agriculture, and land "squatters,"--possibly 800 in all. Fort Leavenworth was established in 1827, Fort Scott in 1842, Fort Riley in 1853. There were Methodist (1829), Baptist, Quaker, Catholic and Presbyterian missions active by 1837. Importunities to Congress to institute a Territorial government began in 1852. This was realized by the Kansas-Nebraska Bill of 1854.

By that Act Kansas (which from 1854 to 1861 included a large part of Colorado) became, for almost a decade, the storm centre of national political passion, and her history of prime significance in the unfolding prologue of the Civil War. Despite the Missouri Compromise, which had prohibited slavery in the Louisiana Purchase N. of 36 deg. 30' N. lat. (except in Missouri), slaves were living at the missions and elsewhere, among Indians and whites, in 1854. The "popular sovereignty" principle of the Kansas-Nebraska Bill involved a sectional struggle for the new Territory. Time showed that the winning of Kansas was a question of the lightest-footed immigrant. Slaveholders were not footloose; they had all to lose if they should carry their blacks into Kansas and should nevertheless fail to make it a slave-state. Thus the South had to establish slavery by other than actual slaveholders, unless Missouri should act for her to establish it. But Missouri did not move her slaves; while her vicinity encouraged border partisans to seek such establishment even without residence--by intimidation, election frauds and outrage. This determined at once the nature of the Kansas struggle and its outcome; and after the South had played and lost in Kansas, "the war for the Union caught up and nationalized the verdict of the Territorial broil."

In the summer of 1854 Missouri "squatters" began to post claims to border lands and warn away intending anti-slavery settlers. The immigration of these from the North was fostered in every way, notably through the New England Emigrant Aid Company (see LAWRENCE, A. A.), whose example was widely imitated. Little organized effort was made in the South to settle the Territory; Lawrence (Wakarusa) and Topeka, free-state centres, and Leavenworth, Lecompton and Atchison, pro-slavery towns, were among those settled in 1854.