AMERICAN ENTERPRISE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 191, 10 February 1912, Page 10 (Supplement)

AMERICAN ENTERPRISE.

SHIFTING TOWNS. Four towns in Kansas are to be moved to new sites during the next few months,' in order that they may be placed in touch with a railway line. A new railway is being constructed in ' south-western Kansas, and the promoters have decided to follow a' direct route without making and deviations. The country that is to be traversed is a level plain, and when the citizens of Santa Fe, New Ulysses, Hugoton and Richfield discovered that the new line would not reach them, they proceeded to make arrangements for a series of moves. Santa Fe will be shifted six miles to the south on the first Monday in May, and placed beside the railway line. The little town haeT a courthouse, a public hall, two newspaper officers, a schoolhouse, a bank, a dozen business premises, and thirty or forty homes. It is proposed to have every building on wheels ready for moving ,and then take the whole town over at the same ,time in one long, spectacular procession, head; ed by the" town church a Methodist edifice with the Rev. W. H. Stanley, the pastor, riding in front. The editor of the Santa Fe Republican says that be will, mount his hand-press on a spacious platform and print a special edition of Ms newspaper during the journey. The gaol in charge of "Sheriff Bill Lucas," will be at the end of the procession. The traction engines and trolleys that have been, secured will proceed to Hugoton when ■ Santa Fe has been moved. Hugoton has to travel ten miles in order to reach the railroad. New Ulysses and Richfield will be taken in hand later, the former town requiring to be dragged twenty-five miles before it can attach itself to a railway station. Evidently the people of southwestern Kansas are animated by the spirit of enterprise that is characteristic of their country. It is to be feared that a New Zealand town under Similar conditions would have devoted all its energies to secure a deviation of the railway.