Chapter X: Part 10

_Physiography._--Three physiographic regions may be distinguished within the state--the first, a small portion of the Ozark uplift in the extreme south-east corner; the second, the Prairie Plains, covering approximately the east third of the state; the third, the Great Plains, covering the remaining area. Between the latter two there is only the most gradual transition. The entire state is indeed practically an undulating plain, gently sloping from west to east at an average of about 7 ft. per mile. There is also an inclination in the eastern half from north to south, as indicated by the course of the rivers, most of which flow south-easterly (the Kansas, with its general easterly course, is the principal exception), the north-west corner being the highest portion of the state. The lowest point in the state in its south-east part, in Montgomery county, is 725 ft. above sea level. The average elevation of the east boundary is about 850 ft., while contour lines of 3500-3900 ft. run near the west border. Somewhat more than half the total area is below 2000 ft. The gently rolling prairie surface is diversified by an endless succession of broad plains, isolated hills and ridges, and moderate valleys. In places there are terraced uplands, and in others the undulating plain is cut by erosion into low escarpments. The bluffs on the Missouri are in places 200 ft. high, and the valley of the Cimarron, in the south-west, has deep cuts, almost gorges. The west central portion has considerable irregularities of contour, and the north-west is distinctively hilly. In the south-west, below the Arkansas river, is an area of sandhills, and the Ozark Plateau region, as above stated, extends into the south-east corner, though not there much elevated. The great central valley is traversed by the Kansas (or Kaw) river, which, inclusive of the Smoky Hill Branch, extends the entire length of the state, with lateral valleys on the north. Another broad valley is formed in the south half of the state by the Arkansas river, with lateral valleys on the north and south. The south-east portion contains the important Neosho and smaller valleys. In the extreme south-west is the valley of the Cimarron, and along the south boundary is a network of the south tributaries of the Arkansas. Numerous small affluents of the Missouri enrich and diversify the north-east quarter. The streams of Kansas are usually fed by perennial springs, and, as a rule, the east and middle portions of the state are well watered. Most of the streams maintain a good flow of water in the driest seasons, and in case of heavy rains many of them "underflow" the adjacent bottom lands, saturating the permeable substratum of the country with the surplus water, which in time drains out and feeds the subsiding streams. This feature is particularly true of the Saline, Solomon and Smoky Hill rivers. The west part is more elevated and water is less abundant.

_Climate._--The climate of Kansas is exceptionally salubrious.
Extremes of heat and cold occur, but as a rule the winters are dry and
mild, while the summer heats are tempered by the perpetual prairie
breezes, and the summer nights are usually cool and refreshing. The
average annual temperature of the state for seventeen years preceding
1903 was 54.3 deg. F., the warmest mean being 56.0 deg., the coldest
52.6 deg. The extreme variation of yearly means throughout the east,
west and middle sections during the same period was very slight, 51.6
deg. to 56.6 deg., and the greatest variation for any one section was
3.7 deg. The absolute extremes were 116 deg. and -34 deg. The dryness
of the air tempers exceedingly to the senses the cold of winter and
the heat of summer. The temperature over the state is much more
uniform than is the precipitation, which diminishes somewhat regularly
westward. In the above period of seventeen years the yearly means in
the west section varied from 11.93 to 29.21 in. (av. 19.21), in the
middle from 18.58 to 34.30 (av. 26.68), in the east from 26.00 to
45.71 (av. 34.78); the mean for the state ranging from 20.12 to 35.50
(av. 27.12).[1] The precipitation in the west is not sufficient for
confident agriculture in any series of years, since agriculture is
practically dependent upon the mean fall; a fact that has been and is
of profound importance in the history of the state. The line of 20 in.
fall (about the limit of certain agriculture) approximately bisects
the state in dry years. The precipitation is very largely in the
growing season--at Dodge the fall between April and October is 78% of
that for the year. Freshets and droughts at times work havoc. The
former made notable 1844 and 1858; and the latter 1860, 1874 and 1894.
Tornadoes are also a not infrequent infliction, least common in the
west. The years 1871, 1879, 1881 and 1892 were made memorable by
particularly severe storms. There are 150 to 175 "growing days" for
crops between the frosts of spring and autumn, and eight in ten days
are bright with sunshine--half of them without a cloud. Winds are
prevailingly from the south (in the winter often from the north-west).

_Fauna and Flora._--The fauna and flora of the state are those which
are characteristic of the plain region generally of which Kansas is a
part. The state lies partly in the humid, or Carolinian, and partly in
the arid, or Upper Sonoran, area of the Upper Austral life-zone; 100
deg. W. long. is approximately the dividing line between these areas.
The bison and elk have disappeared. A very great variety of birds is
found within the state, either as residents or as visitants from the
adjoining avifaunal regions--mountain, plain, northern and southern.
In 1886 Colonel N. S. Goss compiled a list of 335 species, of which
175 were known to breed in the state. The wild turkey, once abundant,
was near extermination in 1886, and prairie chickens (pinnated grouse)
have also greatly diminished in number. The jack-rabbit is
characteristic of the prairie. Locusts ("grasshoppers" in local usage)
have worked incalculable damage, notably in 1854, 1866, and above all
in 1874-1875. In the last two cases their ravages extended over a
great portion of the state.

Kansas has no forests. Along the streams there is commonly a fringe of
timber, which in the east is fairly heavy. There is an increasing
scarcity westward. With the advancing settlement of the state thin
wind-break rows become a feature of the prairies. The lessened ravages
of prairie fires have facilitated artificial afforesting, and many
cities, in particular, are abundantly and beautifully shaded. Oaks,
elms, hickory, honey-locusts, white ash, sycamore and willows, the
rapid growing but miserable box-elder and cottonwood, are the most
common trees. Black walnut was common in the river valleys in
Territorial days. The planting of tree reserves by the United States
government in the arid counties of this state promises great success.
A National Forest of 302,387 acres in Finney, Kearney, Hamilton and
Grant counties was set aside in May 1908. Buffalo and bunch, and other
short native prairie grasses, very nutritious ranging food but
unavailable as hay, once covered the plains and pastured immense herds
of buffalo and other animals, but with increasing settlement they have
given way generally to exotic bladed species, valuable alike for
pasture and for hay, except in the western regions. The hardy and
ubiquitous sunflower has been chosen as the state flower or floral
emblem. Cactus and yucca occur in the west.

The soil of the upland prairies is generally a deep rich clay loam of
a dark colour. The bottom lands near the streams are a black sandy
loam; and the intermediate lands, or "second bottoms," show a rich and
deep black loam, containing very little sand. These soils are all
easily cultivated, free from stones, and exceedingly productive. There
are exceptional spots on the upland prairies composed of stiff clay,
not as easily cultivated, but very productive when properly managed
and enriched. The south-west section is distinctively sandy.

_Agriculture._--The United States Census of 1900 shows that of the
farming area of the state in 1900 (41,662,970 acres, 79.6% of the
total area), 60.1% was "improved." The value of all farm property was
$864,100,286--of which land and improvements (including buildings),
livestock and implements and machinery represented respectively 74.5,
22.1 and 3.4%. Almost nine-tenths of all farms derived their principal
income from livestock or hay and grain, these two sources being about
equally important. Of the total value of farm products in 1899
($209,895,542), crops represented 53.7, animal products 45.9 and
forest products only 0.4%. In 1899 the wheat crop was 38,778,450
bushels, being less than that of Minnesota, North Dakota, Ohio or
South Dakota. According to the _Year Book_ of the United States
Department of Agriculture, the crop in 1906 was 81,830,611 bushels,
almost one-ninth of the crop of the entire country for that year, and
much more than the crop of any other state. In 1909 it was 87,203,000
bushels (less than the crops of either Minnesota or North Dakota).
Winter wheat constitutes almost the entire output. The hard varieties
rank in the flour market with the finest Minnesota wheat. The wheat
belt crosses the state from north to south in its central third.
Greater even than wheat in absolute output, though not relatively to
the output of other states, is Indian corn. In 1906 the crop was
195,075,000 bushels, and in 1909 it was 154,225,000. The crop is very
variable, according to seasons and prospective markets; ranging e.g.
in the decade 1892-1901 from 42.6 (1901) to 225.1 (1899) million
bushels. The Indian corn belt is mainly in the eastern third of the
state. In the five years 1896-1900 the combined value of the crops of
Indian corn and wheat exceeded the value of the same crops in any
other state of the Union (Illinois being a close second). In the
western third irrigation has been tried, in the earlier years
unsuccessfully; in all Kansas, in 1899, there were 23,620 acres
irrigated, of which 8939 were in Finney and 7071 in Kearney county. In
this western third the rainfall is insufficient for Indian corn; but
Kafir corn, an exceptional drought-resisting cereal, has made
extraordinary progress in this region, and indeed generally over the
state, since 1893, its acreage increasing 416.1% in the decade
1895-1904. With the saccharine variety of sorghum, which increased
greatly in the same period, this grain is replacing Indian corn. Oats
are the third great cereal crop, the yield being 24,780,000 bushels in
1906 and 27,185,000 in 1909. Alfalfa showed an increased acreage in
1895-1904 of 310.8%; it is valuable in the west for the same qualities
as the Kafir corn. The hay crop in 1909 was 2,652,000 tons. Alfalfa,
the Japanese soy bean and the wheat fields--which furnish the finest
of pasture in the early spring and ordinarily well into the winter
season--are the props of a prosperous dairy industry. In the early
'eighties the organization of creameries and cheese factories began in
the county-seats; they depended upon gathered cream. About 1889
separators and the whole-milk system were introduced, and about the
same time began the service of refrigerator cars on the railways; the
hand separator became common about 1901. Western Kansas is the dairy
country. Its great ranges, whose insufficient rainfall makes
impossible the certain, and therefore the profitable, cultivation of
cereals, or other settled agriculture, lend themselves with profit to
stock and dairy farming. Dairy products increased 60.6% in value from
1895 to 1904, amounting in the latter year to $16,420,095. This value
was almost equalled by that of eggs and poultry ($14,050,727), which
increased 79.7% in the same decade. The livestock interest is
stimulated by the enormous demand for beef-cattle at Kansas City.

Sugar-beet culture was tried in the years following 1890 with
indifferent success until the introduction of bounties in 1901. It has
extended along the Arkansas valley from the Colorado beet district and
into the north-western counties. There is a large beet-sugar factory
at Garden City, Finney county. Experiments have been made
unsuccessfully in sugar cane (1885) and silk culture (1885 seq.). The
bright climate and pure atmosphere are admirably adapted to the growth
of the apple, pear, peach, plum, grape and cherry. The smaller fruits
also, with scarce an exception, flourish finely. The fruit product of
Kansas ($2,431,773 in 1899) is not, however, as yet particularly
notable when compared with that of various other states.

According to the estimates of the state department of agriculture, of
the total value of all agricultural products in the twenty years
1885-1904 ($3,078,999,855), Indian corn and wheat together represented
more than two-fifths (821.3 and 518.1 million dollars respectively),
and livestock products nearly one-third (1024.9 millions). The
aggregate value of all agricultural products in 1903-1904 was
$754,954,208.

_Minerals._--In the east portion of the state are immense beds of
bituminous coal, often at shallow depths or cropping out on the
surface. In 1907 more than 95% of the coal came from Crawford,
Cherokee, Leavenworth and Osage counties, and about 91.5% from the
first two. The total value of the production of coal in 1905
(6,423,979 tons) was $9,350,542, and in 1908 (6,245,508 tons)
$9,292,222. In the central portion, which belongs to the Triassic
formation, magnesian limestone, ferruginous sandstone and gypsum are
representative rocks. Gypsum (in beautiful crystalline form) is found
in an almost continuous bed across the state running north-east and
south-west with three principal areas, the northern in Marshall
county, the central in Dickinson and Saline counties, and the southern
(the heaviest, being 3 to 40 ft. thick) in Barber and Comanche
counties. The product in 1908 was valued at $281,339. Magnesian
limestone, or dolomite, is especially plentiful along the Blue,
Republican and Neosho rivers and their tributaries. This beautiful
stone, resembling white, grey and cream-coloured marble, is
exceedingly useful for building purposes. It crops out in the bluffs
in endless quantities, and is easily worked. The stone resources of
the state are largely, but by no means exclusively, confined to the
central part. There are marbles in Osage and other counties, shell
marble in Montgomery county, white limestone in Chase county, a
valuable bandera flagstone and hydraulic cement rock near Fort Scott,
&c. The limestones produced in 1908 were valued at $403,176 and the
sandstones at $67,950. In the central region salt is produced in
immense quantities, within a great north to south belt about
Hutchinson. The beds, which are exploited by the brine method at
Hutchinson, at Ellsworth (Ellsworth county), at Anthony (Harper
county) and at Sterling (Rice county), lie from 400 to 1200 ft.
underground, and are in places as much as 350 ft. thick and 99% pure.
At Kanopolis in Ellsworth county, at Lyons in Rice county and at
Kingman, Kingman county, the salt is mined and sold as rock-salt. In
the south-west salt is found in beds and dry incrustations, varying in
thickness from a few inches to 2 ft. The total product from 1880-1899
was valued at $5,538,855; the product of 1908 (when Kansas ranked
fourth among the states producing salt) was valued at $882,984. The
development has been mainly since 1887 at Hutchinson and since about
1890 in the rock-salt mines. In the west portion of the state, which
belongs to the Cretaceous formation, chalks and a species of native
quicklime are very prominent in the river bluffs. The white and
cream-coloured chalks are much used for building purposes, but the
blue is usually too soft for exposure to the weather. The quicklime as
quarried from the bluffs slakes perfectly, and with sand makes a
fairly good mortar, without calcination or other previous preparation.
The lignite found near the Colorado line makes a valuable domestic
fuel.

Natural gas, oil, zinc and lead have been discovered in south-east
Kansas and have given that section an extraordinary growth and
prosperity. Indications of gas were found about the time of the Civil
War, but only in the early 'seventies were they recognized as
unmistakable, and they were not successfully developed until the
'eighties. Iola, in Allen county, is the centre of the field, and the
gas yields heat, light, and a cheap fuel for smelters, cement-works
and other manufacturing plants throughout a large region. The pools
lie from 400 to 950 ft. below the surface; some wells have been
drilled 1500 ft. deep. The value of the natural gas produced in the
state was $15,873 in 1889, $2,261,836 in 1905 and $7,691,587 in 1908,
when there were 1917 producing wells, and Kansas ranked fourth of the
states of the United States in the value of the natural gas product,
being surpassed by Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio. Petroleum was
discovered about 1865 in Miami and Bourbon counties, and about 1892 at
Neodesha, Wilson county. There was only slight commercial exploitation
before 1900. The production increased from 74,714 barrels in that year
to 4,250,779 in 1904; in 1908 it was 1,801,781 barrels. Chanute has
been the most active centre of production. The field was prospected
here in the 'nineties, but developed only after 1900. In 1877 an
immense deposit of lead was discovered on land now within the limits
of Galena. Rich zinc blendes were at first thrown away among the
by-products of the lead mines. After the discovery of their true
nature there was a slow development, and at the end of the century a
notable boom in the fields. From 1876 to 1897 the total value of the
output of the Galena field was between $25,000,000 and $26,000,000;
but at present Kansas is far more important as a smelter than as a
miner of zinc and lead, and in 1906 58% of all spelter produced in the
United States came from smelters in Kansas. In 1908 the mines' output
was 2293 tons of lead valued at $192,612 and 8628 tons of zinc valued
at $811,032. Pottery, fire, ochre and brick clays are abundant, the
first two mainly in the eastern part of the state. Coffeyville has
large vitrified brick interests. In 1908 the total value of all the
mineral products (incompletely reported) of Kansas was $26,162,213.

_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.

At the first election (Nov. 1854), held for a delegate to Congress, some 1700 armed Missourians invaded Kansas and stuffed the ballot boxes; and this intimidation and fraud was practised on a much larger scale in the election of a Territorial legislature in March 1855. The resultant legislature (at Pawnee, later at Shawnee Mission) adopted the laws of Missouri almost _en bloc_, made it a felony to utter a word against slavery, made extreme pro-slavery views a qualification for office, declared death the penalty for aiding a slave to escape, and in general repudiated liberty for its opponents. The radical free-state men thereupon began the importation of rifles. All criticism of this is inconsequent; "fighting gear" was notoriously the only effective asset of Missourians in Kansas, every Southern band in Kansas was militarily organized and armed, and the free-state men armed only under necessity. Furthermore, a free-state "government" was set up, the "bogus" legislature at Shawnee being "repudiated." Perfecting their organization in a series of popular conventions, they adopted (Dec. 1855) the Topeka Constitution--which declared the exclusion of negroes from Kansas--elected state officials, and sent a contestant delegate to Congress. The Topeka "government" was simply a craftily impressive organization, a standing protest. It met now and then, and directed sentiment, being twice dispersed by United States troops; but it passed no laws, and did nothing that conflicted with the Territorial government countenanced by Congress. On the other hand, the laws of the "bogus" legislature were generally ignored by the free-state partisans, except in cases (e.g. the service of a writ) where that was impossible without apparent actual rebellion against the authority of the legislature, and therefore of Congress.

Meanwhile the "border war" began. During the (almost bloodless) "Wakarusa War" Lawrence was threatened by an armed force from Missouri, but was saved by the intervention of Governor Shannon. Up to this time the initiative and the bulk of outrages lay assuredly heavily on the pro-slavery side; hereafter they became increasingly common and more evenly divided. In May 1856 another Missouri force entered Lawrence without resistance, destroyed its printing offices, wrecked buildings and pillaged generally. This was the day before the assault on Charles Sumner (q.v.) in the Senate of the United States. These two outrages fired Northern passion and determination. In Kansas they were a stimulus to the most radical elements. Immediately after the sack of Lawrence, John Brown and a small band murdered and mutilated five pro-slavery men, on Pottawatomie Creek; a horrible deed, showing a new spirit on the free-state side, and of ghastly consequence--for it contributed powerfully to widen further the licence of highway robbery, pillage and arson, the ruin of homes, the driving off of settlers, marauding expeditions, attacks on towns, outrages in short of every kind, that made the following months a welter of lawlessness and crime, until Governor Geary--by putting himself above all partisanship, repudiating Missouri, and using Federal troops--put an end to them late in 1856. (In the isolated south-eastern counties they continued through 1856-1858, mainly to the advantage of the "jay-hawkers" of free-state Kansas and to the terror of Missouri.)

The struggle now passed into another phase, in which questions of state predominate. But something may be remarked in passing of the leaders in the period of turbulence. John Brown wished to deal a blow against slavery, but did nothing to aid any conservative political organization to that end. James H. Lane was another radical, and always favoured force. He was a political adventurer, an enthusiastic, energetic, ambitious, ill-balanced man, shrewd and magnetic. He assuredly did much for the free-state cause; meek politics were not alone sufficient in those years in Kansas. The leader of the conservative free-soilers was Charles Robinson (1818-1894). He was born in Massachusetts, studied medicine at the Berkshire Medical School, and had had political experience in California, whither he had gone in 1849, and where in 1850-1852 he was a member of the legislature and a successful anti-slavery leader. In 1854 he had come to Kansas as an agent of the Emigrant Aid Company. He was the author of the Topeka government idea, or at least was its moving spirit, serving throughout as the "governor" under it; though averse to force, he would use it if necessary, and was first in command in the "Wakarusa War." His partisans say that he saved Kansas, and regard Lane as a fomenter of trouble who accomplished nothing. Andrew H. Reeder (1807-1864), who showed himself a pro-slavery sympathizer as first Territorial governor, was removed from office for favouring the free-state party; he became a leader in the free-state cause. Every governor who followed him was forced by the logic of events and truth tacitly to acknowledge that right lay with the free-state party. Reeder and Shannon fled the Territory in fear of assassination by the pro-slavery party, with which at first they had had most sympathy. Among the pro-slavery leaders David Rice Atchison (1807-1886), United States Senator in 1843-1855, accompanied both expeditions against Lawrence; but he urged moderation, as always, at the end of what was a legitimate result of his radical agitation.

In June 1857 delegates were elected to a constitutional convention. The election Act did not provide for any popular vote upon the constitution they should form, and was passed over Governor John W. Geary's veto. A census, miserably deficient (largely owing to free-state abstention and obstruction), was the basis of apportionment of delegates. The free-state party demanded a popular vote on the constitution. On the justice of this Governor Robert J. Walker and President Buchanan were at first unequivocally agreed, and the governor promised fairplay. Nevertheless only pro-slavery men voted, and the convention was thus pro-slavery. The document it framed is known as the Lecompton Constitution. Before the convention met, the free-state party, abandoning its policy of political inaction, captured the Territorial legislature. On the constitutional convention rested, then, all hope of saving Kansas for slavery; and that would be impossible if they should submit their handiwork to the people. The convention declared slave property to be "before and higher than any constitutional sanction" and forbade amendments affecting it; but it provided for a popular vote on the alternatives, the "constitution with slavery" or the "constitution with no slavery." If the latter should be adopted, slavery should cease "except" that the right to property in slaves in the Territory should not be interfered with. The free-state men regarded this as including the right to property in offspring of slaves, and therefore as pure fraud. Governor Walker stood firmly against this iniquitous scheme; he saw that slavery was, otherwise, doomed, but he thought Kansas could be saved to the Democratic party though lost to slavery. But President Buchanan, under Southern influence, repudiated his former assurances. There is reason to believe that the whole scheme was originated at Washington, and though Buchanan was not privy to it before the event, yet he adopted it. He abandoned Walker, who left Kansas; and he dismissed Acting-Governor Frederick P. Stanton for convoking the (now free-state) legislature. This body promptly ordered a vote on the third alternative, "Against the Constitution."

The free-state men ignored the alternatives set by the Lecompton Convention; but they participated nevertheless in the provisional election for officers under the Lecompton government, capturing all offices, and then, the same day, voted overwhelmingly against the constitution (Jan. 4, 1858).

Nevertheless, Buchanan, against the urgent counsel of Governor Denver, urged on Congress (Feb. 2) the admission of Kansas under the Lecompton Constitution. He was opposed by Senator Stephen A. Douglas, the leader of the Northern Democracy. The Senate upheld the President; the House of Representatives voted down his policy; and finally both houses accepted the English Bill, by which Kansas was virtually offered some millions of acres of public lands if she should accept the Lecompton Constitution.[4] On the 21st of August 1858, by a vote of 11,300 to 1788, Kansas resisted this temptation. The plan of the Administration thus effectually miscarried, and its final result was a profound split in the Democratic party.

The free-state men framed an excellent anti-slavery constitution at Leavenworth in March-April 1858, but the origins of the convention were illegal and their work was still-born. On the 29th of July 1859 still another constitution was therefore framed at Wyandotte, and on the 4th of October it was ratified by the people. Meanwhile the Topeka "government" disappeared, and also, with its single purpose equally served, the free-state party, most of it (once largely Democratic) passing into the Republican party, now first organized in the Territory. On the 29th of January 1861 Kansas was admitted to the Union under the Wyandotte Constitution. The United States Census of 1860 gave her a population of 107,204 inhabitants. The struggle in Kansas, the first physical national struggle over slavery, was of paramount importance in the breaking up of the Whig party, the firm establishment of an uncompromisingly anti-slavery party, the sectionalization of the Democracy, and the general preparation of the country for the Civil War.

Drought and famine came in 1860, and then upon the impoverished state came the strain of the Civil War. Nevertheless Kansas furnished proportionally a very large quota of men to the Union armies. Military operations within her own borders were largely confined to a guerrilla warfare, carrying on the bitter neighbourhood strife between Kansas and Missouri. The Confederate officers began by repressing predatory plundering from Missouri; but after James H. Lane, with an undisciplined brigade, had crossed the border, sacking, burning and killing in his progress, Missouri "bushrangers" retaliated in kind. Freebooters trained in Territorial licence had a free hand on both sides. Kansas bands were long the more successful. But William C. Quantrell, after sacking various small Kansas towns along the Missouri river (1862-63), in August 1863 took Lawrence (q.v.) and put it mercilessly to fire and sword--the most ghastly episode in border history. In the autumn of 1864 the Confederate general, Sterling Price, aiming to enter Kansas from Missouri but defeated by General Pleasanton's cavalry, retreated southward, zig-zagging on both sides of the Missouri-Kansas line. This ended for Kansas the border raids and the war. Lane was probably the first United States officer to enlist negroes as soldiers. Many of them (and Indians too) fought bravely for the state. Indian raids and wars troubled the state from 1864 to 1878. The tribes domiciled in Kansas were rapidly moved to Indian Territory after 1868.

After the Civil War the Republicans held uninterrupted supremacy in national elections, and almost as complete control in the state government, until 1892. From about 1870 onward, however, elements of reform and of discontent were embodied in a succession of radical parties of protest. Prohibition arose thus, was accepted by the Republicans, and passed into the constitution. Woman suffrage became a vital political issue. Much legislation has been passed to control the railways. General control of the media of commerce, economic co-operation, tax reform, banking reforms, legislation against monopolies, disposal of state lands, legislation in aid of the farmer and labourer, have been issues of one party or another. The movement of the Patrons of Industry (1874), growing into the Grange, Farmers' Alliance, and finally into the People's (Populist) party (see FARMERS' MOVEMENT), was perhaps of greatest importance. In conjunction with the Democrats the Populists controlled the State government in 1892-1894 and 1896-1898. These two parties decidedly outnumbered the Republicans at the polls from 1890-1898, but they could win only by fusion. In 1892-1893, when the Populists elected the governor and the Senate, and the Republicans (as the courts eventually determined) the House of Representatives, political passion was so high as to threaten armed conflicts in the capital. The Australian ballot was introduced in 1893. In the decade following 1880, struggles in the western counties for the location of county seats (the bitterest local political fights known in western states) repeatedly led to bloodshed and the interference of state militia.

TERRITORIAL GOVERNORS[5]

Andrew H. Reeder July 7, 1854-Aug. 16, '55
Wilson Shannon Sept. 7, 1855-Aug. 18, '56
John W. Geary Sept. 9, 1856-Mar. 12, '57
Robert J. Walker May 27, 1857-Nov. 16, '57
James W. Denver May 12, 1858-Oct. 10, '58
Samuel Medary Dec. 18, 1858-Dec. 17, '60

_Acting Governors_[6]

Aggregate
Daniel Woodson 5 times (164 days) Apr. 17, 1855-Apr. 16, '57
Frederick P. Stanton 2 " ( 78 " ) Apr. 16, 1857-Dec. 21, '57
James W. Denver 1 " ( 23 " ) Dec. 21, 1857-May 12, '58
Hugh S. Walsh 4(5?) " (177 " ) July 3, 1858-June 16, '60
George M. Beebe 2 " (131 " ) Sept. 11, 1860-Feb. 9, '61

STATE GOVERNORS

Charles Robinson Republican 1861-1863
Thomas Carney " 1863-1865
Samuel J. Crawford " 1865-1869
N. Green (to fill vacancy) " 1869 (3 months)
James M. Harvey " 1869-1873
Thomas A. Osborn " 1873-1877
George T. Anthony " 1877-1879
John P. St John " 1879-1883
George W. Glick Democrat 1883-1885
John A. Martin Republican 1885-1889
Lyman U. Humphrey " 1889-1893
Lorenzo D. Lewelling Populist 1893-1895
Edmund N. Morrill Republican 1895-1897
John W. Leedy Democrat-Populist 1897-1899
W. E. Stanley Republican 1899-1903
Willis J. Bailey " 1903-1905
Edward W. Hoch " 1905-1909
Walter R. Stubbs " 1909-