The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1903-07-30
Only Two Of the Long List OF Tenants
Of the City Remain on the Rolls
After the Grand Cleaning.
NEW PLANS PROVE PROFITABLE.
Washington Home, the Poor Farm and
the City Grocery Greatly Reduce the
Cost of Pauperism in Kenosha.

The committee on paupers of the
common council will in the near future
issue report which will be great
surprise to the people of the city and
one which will be a source of great
qualification to the tax payers.
The report will show that the pres
ent committee on paupers has struck
the tree of pauperism an awful blow
at the root and that the number of
people receiving aid from Kenosha as
a city has been reduced from about
hundred to about dozen. The clerk
has been kept busy notifying the de-
pendents that they must either go to
the institutions of the city or else find
money for rent and victua1s from other
sources. Only two of the twenty people
on the city's rent roll remain and it is
probable that they will be cut off in
the next few weeks. The city has had
its cleaning up and the work has been
done in way that will have decided
1y good effect on the paupers. Four
ed not only rent money but groceries
and clothing from the city have been
cut off entirely. The families have
been housed in Washington Home
where it is possible for the city to give
free rent.
Four or five of the Older people who
drew their living from the city are
now at the poor farm, and their sup
port is costing the city less than four
dollars a month where formerly this
much was paid for rent alone. The
municipal grocery store under the
guidance of Alderman Peter Jacobs is
proving a great success and is attract
ing the attention of the entire state
to the city. From the grocery every
thing needed by the paupers is being
supplied, and the city is earning the
midd1eman's profit in this manner.
The bills for the supplies for the
poor house as furnished by the grocery
stores of the city for the last three
months were but $41.50 and of this
amount the poor farm paid 1897 1eav-
ing the entire amount for groceries at
$27.53. In few months it is thought
that the crops at the poor house will
be ready for the harvest, and the sale
of the surplus will practically make
this institution self supporting.
Members of the pauper committee
have always claimed that pauperism
was unnecessary in Kenosha, except
in few extreme cases, but Chairman
Jacobs found way to prove this
theory when he opened the Washing
ton Home On the island. Twelve of
the families for whom the city was
paying for rent, and in many cases
for entire support, were offered homes
in the old poor house and only two OF
them accepted the offer. The others
we're at once cut off from all support
from the city and they seem to be liv-
| ing without any trouble. Some of
these people have left the city and
gone far from the eagle eyes of the
committee and it is probable that they
will never return. Others have gone
to work and are now proving self sup
porting.
The rent list of the city today is less
than ten dollars month and in a
couple of weeks it is expected that this
expense will be entirely done away
with.
The city is no longer buying food
and clothes for lazy people and the tar
payer can rest assured that the money
spent on the paupers in the city is
wholly necessary.
Last year the pauper appropriation
amounted to nearly six thousand
dollars and this year the paupers will
be cared for at a cost of one-third this
amount.
Great credit is due City Clerk Jacot
and to the members of the committee
for the smanner III which they have
established this new regime among
the city's dependents.