Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 279, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 November 1919 — Central Longitudinal Line of the United States Runs Through State of Kansas [ARTICLE]

Central Longitudinal Line of the United States Runs Through State of Kansas

Discussing the frequently used term “middle West,” an - American writer remarks that the territory so designated might more reasonably be called ,the “middle East.” The central longitudinal line of the United'- States passes through Kansas not far from Topeka. On one side of the line, geographically speaking, lies the true West; on the other the true East, and the eastern side includes what is ordlnarHy called the “middle West,” whereas the geographical “middle West” would cover the region of the Rocky —mountains. The expression originated on. the eastern seaboard, just when or how it would perhaps be difficult to discover, and seems in the beginning to have been a patronizing phrase indicating that, compared with the older cultural condition of the states bordering the Atlantic, the nearer, states toward the west were wellmeaning but somewhat backward, although noThing like so lacking in the amenities as those younger states which were growing up still nearer the sunset. The idea has vanished with the development of the nation, and the term remains as a convenient but rather Indefinite way of referring to what many people think is really a geographical division of the country.