The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1900-05-17
Fifty Years.
Or. 7. T. Hewitt


so1ute1y unknown what a day may
bring forth" If the future should be
as progressive and changeab1e as has
been the past, particularly the last
half century, the world can have nc
conception as to what and where it
will be at the expiration of the next
six hundred months About all we
can predicate with any c4'tainty is
that, the generation that is he front
and active now will at that time either
be in ''inoccuous desuetude" c. de-
funct.
Five decades ago, no liquid air, nc
X-ray, no arc light, no electric car, nc
bicycles, telephones, Photographs, and
no type writer's, save, perhaps, that
by a preceding editor of the TELE-
GRAPH-CoURIER, no sewing machines
that were practical. Eighteen thous.
and two hundred and fifty days ago
wheat was cut with a cradle, made
into bundles by hand, and threshed
with fail.
But each and every day of the flown
eighteen thousand was marked with
Improvement. We do not live in the
same world our fathers lived in. Our
children will not abide sunder existing
conditions and civilization, they will
create new heavens and new earths
| for themselves. Decades will change,
years work out splendid evo1utions,
each day will introduce some fresh
phase of advancement The world of
today will be out-1ived, and that which
is prominent will fade into ;ncon-
spicuousness. AS the messenger has
been superseded by the telegraph, and
as the electric car is rapidly RELOCATING
the horse to the chestnut grove, so ex-
listing methods of transit may pass
away and modes less expensive and
cumbersome appear and supp1ant
them.
Would it be wise thea, to give a
franchise for a street railway in Ke-
nosha, however excellent it may
be and harmonious with the nee
essities and demands of this de-
cade, but so and so, fixed and i'm
mutab like the laws of the Medes
and Persians, for five decades, for
fifty years, for an evo1uting period of
eighteen thousand two hundred and
fifty days? Shall we fasten upon
ourselves anything, though fitting
and agreeable this moment, which
we may desire to shake off in a
comparatively brief period? Can we
be just, to say nothing of being sensi-
BILE, and bind a generation unborn to
our peculiar modes of life and methods
of managing municipal affairs? In
face of the fact that probably twenty
FIVE years from this time but little
that pertains to present fashion and
motive power will be in vogue, can we
| be so unreasonable as to saddle on the
backs of the people who shall COM
mand the destiny of our fair city a
quarter of a century hence, system
| of street railway, and a method of
! transfer from one point to another, as
if it were the Ultima Thule, the jump
| ing off place, the north pole, with the
expectation that they, despite the new
world-1ife that shall throb around
them, must abide under one banner for
three hundred moons longer?
Half century is too long a time for
the tenure of a street railway fran
chise. If it is the plan of the City
Council to grant such long tenure to
any company or syndicate the whole
population better cry loud an en-
phatic halt! The life of the proposed
franchise better be reduced by one half.
It will be easier to renew the privilege
after having tried it for two decades
and half, than to conduct it twenty
five years longer if, at that time the
system is antiquated and out of date.
Besides, to grant a franchise for half
a century will inspire the company
with indifference; if secure for fifty
years, the plan will be to make the
most Of it, to keep the road simply in
a disable condition, but privilege of
shorter duration will induce the rail-
road syndicate so to build and improve
as the years pass away as to insure
from the people renewal of the tenure
for another quarter of century The
street railway is a pressing demand at
the present time, but let the aldermen
beware how they fence and limit the
expanding city for FIVE decades.
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