Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1905-04-25
is 1T WORTH THE PRICE?

| been no fire in the State capitol
fourteen months ago, there would be
any talk of new capitol now? This
talk must be justified by The extent
of the damage caused by the fire; for,
if the capitol, as it was before the fire,
was good enough fer the state, and
could be made roomy enough by an ad-
dition for the court and library, at an
expense of about 100000, it follows
that the building, restored, but
'modernized and improved,;' at a
cost of 1915, 900, would serve the state
better than it could have been served
had there been no fire, and had the
purpose of the legislature of 1903 to
provide room for the court and
library, been carried out.
The fire, about which SO much
that was false and misleading has
| been said, did real damage of less
than s275,OOO.
The expenditure of S275, 900 will put
the building back as it was, only
"modernized and improved" This
modernization and other improvement
will be of some value to the state;
therefore, we say, the real damage to
the building is less than 1915, ,000 By
the expenditure of that amount of
money the building will be put in
better condition than it was before
the fire.
Now what is the part of good busi-
ness sense under the circumstances?
And the present building at any time
been considered unfit for the state
officers, and as meeting place for
the legislature, or inadequate as to
| room, except as it did not provide
suitable accommodations for the
supreme court, there would be some
reason in the present proposition to
start to build an entire new capitol;
but there is none now. There could
be none except such as is furnished
by fire that did less than S275.OO0
damage.
The Wisconsin capitol has always
been recognized as one Of the hand
somest state buildings in the country.
1t was built on noble,lines, and it is in
harmony with it's surroundings. 1t is
as large as it is needed to be, and it is
as large as any building can be and
look we'll in the little capitol square
at Madison
What madness it is, then, to think
about committing the state to the
policy of removing by piecemeal this
noble old building in order to replace
the parts by white marble portions OF
a new monumental" structure that
is finally to take it's place entirely;
and that. when completed, will have
cost the counties the various sums
shown in the Free PreSs's comparative
table one day last week.
How this tax would hit the cities
that are always struggling with the
subject of their "debt limit" There
is Appleton, considering the building
of waterworks; going to issue bonds to
pay for the construction, and cannot
issue enough to do it because already
so close to it's debt limit, and it needs
other improvements. Appleton pays
about e-third of Outagamie tax.
An ss, 900, 900 capitol, even though the
expenditure will 'be distributed over
long term of years." perhaps will
cost the city of Appleton S55, 900.
The repair and enlarge the present
building will cost it about 5000.
The question for Appleton, there
fore, is, will new monumental
capitol be worth the difference to
Appleton? The same question applies
to other cities and villages, and to all
the counties. If the money must be
expended, how would it do after the
state institutions are put in condition
to start in on the building Of some
good roads? II the money has not
got to be expended-by the state
how would it do to leave it in the
pockets of the taxpayers.
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