Part 25

Kansas City was founded in 1886 by the consolidation of "old" Kansas City, Armourdale and Wyandotte (in which Armstrong and Riverview were then included). Of these municipalities Wyandotte, the oldest, was originally settled by the Wyandotte Indians in 1843; it was platted and settled by whites in 1857; and was incorporated as a town in 1858, and as a city in 1859. At Wyandotte were made the first moves for the Territorial organization of Kansas and Nebraska. During the Kansas struggle Wyandotte was a pro-slavery town, while Quindaro (1856), a few miles up the Missouri, was a free-state settlement and Wyandotte's commercial rival until after the Civil War. The convention that framed the constitution, the Wyandotte Constitution, under which Kansas was admitted to the Union, met here in July 1859. "Old" Kansas City was surveyed in 1869 and was incorporated as a city in 1872. Armourdale was laid out in 1880 and incorporated in 1882. The packing interest was first established in 1867; the first large packing plant was that of Armour & Co., which was removed to what is now Kansas City in 1871. Kansas City adopted government by commission in 1909.

KANSAS CITY, a city and port of entry of Jackson county, Missouri, U.S.A., the second in size and importance in the state, situated at the confluence of the Missouri and Kansas rivers, adjoining Kansas City, Kansas, and 235 m. W. by N. of St Louis. Pop. (1890), 132,716; (1900), 163,752, of whom 18,410 were foreign born (German, 4816; Irish, 3507; Swedish, 1869; English, 1863; English-Canadian, 1369; Italian, 1034), and 17,567 were negroes; (1910 census) 248,381. Kansas City, the gateway to the South-west, is one of the leading railway centres of the United States. It is served by the Union Pacific, the Missouri Pacific, the 'Frisco System, the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe, the Chicago Great Western, the Chicago, Milwaukee & St Paul, the Chicago & Alton, the Wabash, the Kansas City Southern, the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific, the Missouri, Kansas & Texas, the Leavenworth, Kansas & Western, the Kansas City, Mexico & Orient, the St Louis, Kansas City & Colorado, the Quincy, Omaha & Kansas City, and the St Joseph & Grand Island railways, and by steamboat lines to numerous river ports.

The present retail, office, and wholesale sections were once high bluffs and deep ravines, but through and across these well graded streets were constructed. South and west of this highland, along the Kansas river, is a low, level tract occupied chiefly by railway yards, stock yards, wholesale houses and manufacturing establishments; north and east of the highland is a flat section, the Missouri River bottoms, occupied largely by manufactories, railway yards, grain elevators and homes of employes. Much high and dry "made" land has been reclaimed from the river flood-plain. Two great railway bridges across the Missouri, many smaller bridges across the Kansas, and a great inter-state toll viaduct extending from bluff to bluff across the valley of the latter river, lie within the metropolitan area of the two cities. The streets of the Missouri city are generally wide and excellently paved. The city-hall (1890-1893), the courthouse (1888-1892), and the Federal Building (1892-1900) are the most imposing of the public buildings. A convention hall, 314 ft. long and 198 ft. wide, with a seating capacity of about 15,000, is covered by a steel-frame roof without a column for its support; the exterior of the walls is cut stone and brick. The building was erected within three months, to replace one destroyed by fire, for the National Democratic Convention which met here on the 4th of July 1900. The Public Library with walls of white limestone and Texas granite, contained (1908) 95,000 volumes. The Congregational, the Calvary Baptist, the Second Presbyterian, the Independence Avenue Christian, the Independence Avenue Methodist, and the Second Christian Science churches are the finest church buildings. The board of trade building, the building of the _Star_ newspaper, and several large office buildings (including the Scarritt, Long, and New York Life Insurance buildings) are worthy of mention.

Kansas City has over 2000 acres in public parks; but Swope Park, containing 1354 acres, lies south of the city limits. The others are distributed with a design to give each section a recreation ground within easy walking distance, and all (including Swope) are connected by parkways, boulevards and street-car lines. The Paseo Parkway, 250 ft. wide, extends from N. to S. through the centre of the city for a distance of 2(1/2) m., and adjoining it near its middle is the Parade, or principal playground. The city has eight cemeteries, the largest of which are Union, Elmwood, Mt Washington, St Mary's and Forest Hill. The charitable institutions and professional schools included in 1908 about thirty hospitals, several children's homes and homes for the aged, an industrial home, the Kansas City school of law, the University medical college, and the Scarritt training school. The city has an excellent public school system. A Methodist Episcopal institutional church, admirably equipped, was opened in 1906. The city has a juvenile court, and maintains a free employment bureau.

Kansas City is primarily a commercial centre, and its trade in livestock, grain and agricultural implements is especially large. The annual pure-bred livestock show is of national importance. The city's factory product increased from $23,588,653 in 1900 to $35,573,049 in 1905, or 50.8%. Natural gas and crude petroleum from Kansas fields became of industrial importance about 1906. Natural gas is used to light the residence streets and to heat many of the residences.

Kansas City is one of the few cities in the United States empowered to frame its own charter. The first was adopted in 1875 and the second in 1889. In 1905 a new charter, drawn on the lines of the model "municipal program" advocated by the National Municipal League, was submitted to popular vote, but was defeated by the influence of the saloons and other special interests. The charter of 1908 is a revision of this proposed charter of 1905 with the objectionable features eliminated; it was adopted by a large majority vote. Under the provisions of the charter of 1908 the people elect a mayor, city treasurer, city comptroller, and judges of the municipal court, each for a term of two years. The legislative body is the common council composed of two houses, each having as many members as there are wards in the city--14 in 1908. The members of the lower house are elected, one by each ward, in the spring of each even numbered year. The upper house members are elected by the city at large and serve four years. A board of public works, board of park commissioners, board of fire and water commissioners, a board of civil service, a city counsellor, a city auditor, a city assessor, a purchasing agent, and subordinate officers, are appointed by the mayor, without confirmation by the common council. A non-partisan board composed of citizens who must not be physicians has general control of the city's hospitals and health department. A new hospital at a cost of half a million dollars was completed in 1908. The charter provides for a referendum vote on franchises, which may be ordered by the council or by petition of the people, the signatures of 20% of the registered voters being sufficient to force such election. Public work may be prevented by remonstrance of interested property owners except in certain instances, when the city, by vote of the people, may overrule all remonstrances. A civic league attempts to give a non-partisan estimate of all municipal candidates. The juvenile court, the arts and tenement commissions, the municipal employment bureau, and a park board are provided for by the charter. All the members of the city board of election commissioners and a majority of the police board are appointed by the governor of the state; and the police control the grant of liquor licences. The city is supplied with water drawn from the Missouri river above the mouth of the Kansas or Kaw (which is used as a sewer by Kansas City, Kan.); the main pumping station and settling basins being at Quindaro, several miles up the river in Kansas; whence the water is carried beneath the Kansas, through a tunnel, to a high-pressure distributing station in the west bottoms. The waterworks (direct pressure system) were acquired by the city in 1895. All other public services are in private hands. The street-railway service is based on a universal 5-cent transfer throughout the metropolitan area. Some of the first overhead electric trolleys used in the United States were used here in 1885.

The first permanent settlement within the present limits of Kansas City, which took its name from Kansas river,[1] was established by French fur traders about 1821. Westport, a little inland town--platted 1833, a city 1857, merged in Kansas City in 1899--now a fashionable residence district of Kansas City--was a rival of Independence in the Santa Fe trade which she gained almost _in toto_ in 1844 when the great Missouri flood (the greatest the river has known) destroyed the river landing utilized by Independence. Meanwhile, what is now Kansas City, and was then Westport Landing, being on the river where a swift current wore a rocky shore, steadily increased in importance and overshadowed Westport. But in 1838 lots were surveyed and the name changed to the Town of Kansas. It was officially organized in part in 1847, formally incorporated as a town in 1850, chartered under its present name in 1853, re-chartered in 1875, in 1889 and in 1908. Before 1850 it was practically the exclusive eastern terminus on the river for the Santa Fe trade,[2] and a great outfitting point for Californian emigrants. The history of this border trade is full of picturesque colour. During the Civil War both Independence and Westport were the scene of battles; Kansas City escaped, but her trade went to Leavenworth, where it had the protection of an army post and a quiet frontier. After the war the railways came, taking away the traffic to Santa Fe, and other cities farther up the Missouri river took over the trade to its upper valley. In 1866 Kansas City was entered by the first railway from St Louis; 1867 saw the beginning of the packing industry; in 1869 a railway bridge across the Missouri assured it predominance over Leavenworth and St Joseph; and since that time--save for a depression shortly after 1890, following a real-estate boom--the material progress of the city has been remarkable; the population increased from 4418 in 1860 to 32,260 in 1870, 55,785 in 1880, and 132,716 in 1890.

See T. S. Case (ed.), _History of Kansas City, Missouri_ (Syracuse, 1888); William Griffith, _History of Kansas City_ (Kansas City, 1900); for industrial history, the _Greater Kansas City Yearbook_ (1907 seq.); for all features of municipal interest, the _Kansas City Annual_ (Kansas City, 1907 seq.), prepared for the Business Men's League.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] "Kansas"--in archaic variants of spelling and pronunciation, "Kansaw," and still called, locally and colloquially, the "Kaw."

[2] Before Kansas City, first Old Franklin (opposite Boonville), then Ft. Osage, Liberty, Sibley, Lexington, Independence and Westport had successively been abandoned as terminals, as the transfer-point from boat to prairie caravan was moved steadily up the Missouri. Whisky, groceries, prints and notions were staples sent to Santa Fe; wool, buffalo robes and dried buffalo meat, Mexican silver coin, gold and silver dust and ore came in return. In 1860 the trade employed 3000 wagons and 7000 men, and amounted to millions of dollars in value.

KANSK, a town of eastern Siberia, in the government of Yeniseisk, 151 m. by rail E. of Krasnoyarsk, on the Kan River, a tributary of the Yenisei, and on the Siberian highway. Pop. (1897), 7504. It is the chief town of a district in which gold is found, but lies on low ground subject to inundation by the river.

KAN-SUH, a north-western province of China, bounded N. by Mongolia, E. by Shen-si, S. by Szech'uen, W. by Tibet and N.W. by Turkestan. The boundary on the N. remains undefined, but the province may be said to occupy the territory lying between 32 deg. 30'40 deg. N., and 108 deg. and 98 deg. 20' E., and to contain about 260,000 sq. m. The population is estimated at 9,800,000. Western Kan-suh is mountainous, and largely a wilderness of sand and snow, but east of the Hwang-ho the country is cultivated. The principal river is the Hwang-ho, and in the mountains to the south of Lan-chow Fu rises the Wei-ho, which traverses Shen-si and flows into the Hwang-ho at Tung-kwan. The chief products of Kan-suh are cloth, horse hides, a kind of curd like butter which is known by the Mongols under the name of _wuta_, musk, plums, onions, dates, sweet melons and medicines. (See CHINA.)

KANT, IMMANUEL (1724-1804), German philosopher, was born at Konigsberg on the 22nd of April 1724. His grandfather was an emigrant from Scotland, and the name Cant is not uncommon in the north of Scotland, whence the family is said to have come. His father was a saddler in Konigsberg, then a stronghold of Pietism, to the strong influence of which Kant was subjected in his early years. In his tenth year he was entered at the Collegium Fredericianum with the definite view of studying theology. His inclination at this time was towards classics, and he was recognized, with his school-fellow, David Ruhnken, as among the most promising classical scholars of the college. His taste for the greater Latin authors, particularly Lucretius, was never lost, and he acquired at school an unusual facility in Latin composition. With Greek authors he does not appear to have been equally familiar. During his university course, which began in 1740, Kant was principally attracted towards mathematics and physics. The lectures on classics do not seem to have satisfied him, and, though he attended courses on theology, and even preached on one or two occasions, he appears finally to have given up the intention of entering the Church. The last years of his university studies were much disturbed by poverty. His father died in 1746, and for nine years he was compelled to earn his own living as a private tutor. Although he disliked the life and was not specially qualified for it--as he used to say regarding the excellent precepts of his _Padagogik_, he was never able to apply them--yet he added to his other accomplishments a grace and polish which he displayed ever afterwards to a degree somewhat unusual in a philosopher by profession.

In 1755 Kant became tutor in the family of Count Kayserling. By the kindness of a friend named Richter, he was enabled to resume his university career, and in the autumn of that year he graduated as doctor and qualified as privatdocent. For fifteen years he continued to labour in this position, his fame as writer and lecturer steadily increasing. Though twice he failed to obtain a professorship at Konigsberg, he steadily refused appointments elsewhere. The only academic preferment received by him during the lengthy probation was the post of under-librarian (1766). His lectures, at first mainly upon physics, gradually expanded until nearly all descriptions of philosophy were included under them.

In 1770 he obtained the chair of logic and metaphysics at Konigsberg, and delivered as his inaugural address the dissertation _De mundi sensibilis et intelligibilis forma et principiis_. Eleven years later appeared the _Kritik of Pure Reason_, the work towards which he had been steadily advancing, and of which all his later writings are developments. In 1783 he published the _Prolegomena_, intended as an introduction to the _Kritik_, which had been found to stand in need of some explanatory comment. A second edition of the _Kritik_, with some modifications, appeared in 1787, after which it remained unaltered.

In spite of its frequent obscurity, its novel terminology, and its declared opposition to prevailing systems, the Kantian philosophy made rapid progress in Germany. In the course of ten or twelve years from the publication of the _Kritik of Pure Reason_, it was expounded in all the leading universities, and it even penetrated into the schools of the Church of Rome. Such men as J. Schulz in Konigsberg, J. G. Kiesewetter in Berlin, Jakob in Halle, Born and A. L. Heydenreich in Leipzig, K. L. Reinhold and E. Schmid in Jena, Buhle in Gottingen, Tennemann in Marburg, and Snell in Giessen, with many others, made it the basis of their philosophical teaching, while theologians like Tieftrunk, Staudlin, and Ammon eagerly applied it to Christian doctrine and morality. Young men flocked to Konigsberg as to a shrine of philosophy. The Prussian Government even undertook the expense of their support. Kant was hailed by some as a second Messiah. He was consulted as an oracle on all questions of casuistry--as, for example, on the lawfulness of inoculation for the small-pox. This universal homage for a long time left Kant unaffected; it was only in his later years that he spoke of his system as the limit of philosophy, and resented all further progress. He still pursued his quiet round of lecturing and authorship, and contributed from time to time papers to the literary journals. Of these, among the most remarkable was his review of Herder's _Philosophy of History_, which greatly exasperated that author, and led to a violent act of retaliation some years after in his _Metakritik of Pure Reason_. Schiller at this period in vain sought to engage Kant upon his _Horen_. He remained true to the _Berlin Journal_, in which most of his criticisms appeared.

In 1792 Kant, in the full height of his reputation, was involved in a collision with the Government on the question of his religious doctrines. Naturally his philosophy had excited the declared opposition of all adherents of historical Christianity, since its plain tendency was towards a moral rationalism, and it could not be reconciled to the literal doctrines of the Lutheran Church. It would have been much better to permit his exposition of the philosophy of religion to enjoy the same literary rights as his earlier works, since Kant could not be interdicted without first silencing a multitude of theologians who were at least equally separated from positive Christianity. The Government, however, judged otherwise; and after the first part of his book, _On Religion within the Limits of Reason alone_, had appeared in the _Berlin Journal_, the publication of the remainder, which treats in a more rationalizing style of the peculiarities of Christianity, was forbidden. Kant, thus shut out from Berlin, availed himself of his local privilege, and, with the sanction of the theological faculty of his own university, published the full work in Konigsberg. The Government, probably influenced as much by hatred and fear of the French Revolution, of which Kant was supposed to be a partisan, as by love of orthodoxy, resented the act; and a secret cabinet order was received by him intimating the displeasure of the king, Frederick William II., and exacting a pledge not to lecture or write at all on religious subjects in future. With this mandate Kant, after a struggle, complied, and kept his engagement till 1797, when the death of the king, according to his construction of his promise, set him free. This incident, however, produced a very unfavourable effect on his spirits. He withdrew in 1794 from society; next year he gave up all his classes but one public lecture on logic or metaphysics; and in 1797, before the removal of the interdict on his theological teaching, he ceased altogether his public labours, after an academic course of forty-two years. He previously, in the same year, finished his treatises on the _Metaphysics of Ethics_, which, with his _Anthropology_, completed in 1798, were the last considerable works that he revised with his own hand. His _Lectures on Logic_, on _Physical Geography_, on _Paedagogics_, were edited during his lifetime by his friends and pupils. By way of asserting his right to resume theological disquisition, he also issued in 1798 his _Strife of the Faculties_, in which all the strongest points of his work on religion were urged afresh, and the correspondence that had passed between himself and his censors was given to the world.

From the date of his retirement from the chair Kant declined in strength, and gave tokens of intellectual decay. His memory began to fail, and a large work at which he wrought night and day, on the connexion between physics and metaphysics, was found to be only a repetition of his already published doctrines. After 1802, finding himself attacked with a weakness in the limbs attended with frequent fits of falling, he mitigated the Spartan severity of his life, and consented to receive medical advice. A constant restlessness oppressed him; his sight gave way; his conversation became an extraordinary mixture of metaphors; and it was only at intervals that gleams of his former power broke out, especially when some old chord of association was struck in natural science or physical geography. A few days before his decease, with a great effort he thanked his medical attendant for his visits in the words, "I have not yet lost my feeling for humanity." On the 12th of February 1804 he died, having almost completed his eightieth year. His stature was small, and his appearance feeble. He was little more than five feet high; his breast was almost concave, and, like Schleiermacher, he was deformed in the right shoulder. His senses were quick and delicate; and, though of weak constitution, he escaped by strict regimen all serious illness.

His life was arranged with mechanical regularity; and, as he never married, he kept the habits of his studious youth to old age. His man-servant, who awoke him summer and winter at five o'clock, testified that he had not once failed in thirty years to respond to the call. After rising he studied for two hours, then lectured other two, and spent the rest of the forenoon, till one, at his desk. He then dined at a restaurant, which he frequently changed, to avoid the influx of strangers, who crowded to see and hear him. This was his only regular meal; and he often prolonged the conversation till late in the afternoon. He then walked out for at least an hour in all weathers, and spent the evening in lighter reading, except an hour or two devoted to the preparation of his next day's lectures, after which he retired between nine and ten to rest. In his earlier years he often spent his evenings in general society, where his knowledge and conversational talents made him the life of every party. He was especially intimate with the families of two English merchants of the name of Green and Motherby, where he found many opportunities of meeting ship-captains, and other travelled persons, and thus gratifying his passion for physical geography. This social circle included also the celebrated J. G. Hamann, the friend of Herder and Jacobi, who was thus a mediator between Kant and these philosophical adversaries.