.WICHITA, Kans., city and county-seat of Sedgwick County, in the south central part of the State on the Arkansas River, about half way (216 miles) between Kansas City and Oklahoma City, and on the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe, the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific, the Missouri Pacific and the Saint Louis and San Francisco railroads. It is the northern terminus of the Midland Valley and the Kansas City, Mexico and Orient railroads and the southern terminus of the Arkansas Valley Interurban. Located in the rich Ar kansas Valley its chief products are wheat, oats, corn, broom corn, kaffir, alfalfa, cattle, hogs and poultry. These agricultural products have made it one of the largest milling and packing centres in the central part of the United States. There are several factories de voted to the manufacture of breakfast foods and stock foods. Other manufactories of note are foundry and machine products, automobiles, automobile tires, shirt and overall factories, fur niture factories, boot and shoe factories, book binderies and printeries, planing mills. The city has a large wholesale and jobbing trade. The wholesale trade amounted to about $25,000,000 in 1918, the manufacturing to about $125,000,000. The city is the chief distributing point of the southwest for automobiles, tractors and trucks as well as all kinds of farm machinery. The two daily newspapers have the largest number of readers in the State. Among the principal public buildings are the United States govern ment building, the courthouse, the city hall, the Scottish Rite Masonic Temple, the Forum and Exposition hall (seating 8,000), the Catholic cathedral and the high school. The city can now boast of one of the finest hotels in the southwest. There are about 40 different
churches representing half as many different denominations. Other buildings of importance are the Wichita City Hospital, Saint Francis Hospital, the Wesley Hospital, the Wichita Children's Home, the Masonic Home and the Kansas Sanitarium. Among the educational institutions are Friends University (1898), Fairmount College (Congregational), opened 1892, All Hallows Academy (Roman Catholic), two business colleges, three colleges of music and a beautiful public library. The city has a very efficient motorized fire department, an adequate system of waterworks and a modern sewage system. The natural gas supply is suffi cient for domestic use. The park system is the largest and most beautiful in the State. There are 18 State banks and four national banks. Oil was discovered 20 miles east of Wichita in 1914. During the year 1917 the average daily output from this field was 150,000 barrels. The discovery of oil led to the invest ment of $30,000,000 in refineries in Wichita. Since April 1917, Wichita has been governed by a board of five commissioners who chose a city manager to execute the laws and ordinances and to appoint the heads of all departments and all subordinate officers. The public schools consist of six years' work in the elementary schools, three years in the intermediate schools, three years in the high school. There are 31 buildings and 375 teachers. The net funded debt is $1,363,277; the total realty assessed aluation $85,000,000, which is 85 per cent of the market value. The tax rate per $100 valua tion is $1.80. Pop. 75,000.