Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1915-05-18
TO THE PEOPLE OF WAUSAU.

| the location of the new packing
plant and want to say at the start,
that in opposing the location of
this plant z the First Ward,
that l have no property to pro-
tect (unless il. is my home IL
the Fifth Ward and the only inter
est have in the matter is the good
of the city. Anyone that has lived
near packing plant, or mas been in
a city where one is located, knows
what they are. They are objection
able to the last degree, and why
any set of men would want to locate
a plant of this kind inside the city
limits of Wausau, is past my under
standing. We take good deal of
pride in our city and spend a good
deal of time and money cleaning up
and identifying it and we certainly
do not want a packing plant with
its smells and disagreeable odors
located inside the city limits.
/ do not think this is question to
be fought out only by the citizens
of the First Ward. If it is objec-
tionable, it is Objectionable to every
one in the city, no matter what
part of it they live in, and we ought
to stand together on this question
and see that the plant is located
somewhere near the suburbs where
it will not be Objectionable to the
inhabitants
The people generally have been
passive in this matter, relying on
the statements of Mr.. Rosenberg
and other directors of the company
and feeling that they would not
bring into the city anything that
was Objectionable; but the fact re-
mains that they cannot point to a
single packing plant, anywhere in
the country, that is not offensive.
Mr.. Gardner, whom the Company
has secured as engineer and who
has drawn plans for the new plant,
is supposed to be an expert, and he
tells us that he can build a plant
that will not be Objectionable and
that there will be no smell at all
from it but he cannot point to
single plant of this kind and admit
ted TO me that he did not know of
plant that did not have bad odors.
don't think we want to go too
much on what an expert claims he
can do. The city has had some
experience with experts, particu-
larry with the water works ques-
ton, and | think learned, to it's sor-
row, that the experts did not know
much more about it than someone
else.
In talking with DR.. Kickbusch,
the government inspector at the
Grand Rapids packing plant, last
Saturday, he stated that he had
visited large number of plants in
this country and that he had been
told by government experts that a
| plant could be built that would not
have any bad smells, but he admit
| ted that he had never been in
plant that was not Objectionable.
AS matter of fact, this question
of building a packing plant that is
not Objectionable is all dream, as
as far as anything that has been
actually done is concerned, and
even if a packing plant could be
built that would not have the objec-
tionab!e smells, you still have the
| stock yards to reckon with.
Right here the experts come in
again and say that by having con-
crete floors in the stock yard and
washing out two or three times
week that there will be nothing of
fensive from them; but l leave it for
your own sound judgment to say
what you think aboutit. One mans
think is about as good as another
on this subject, and don't believe
| it is possible to handle 900 or 400
hogs or hundred cattle day and
do it continuously without the stock
yards being very Objectionable. The
packing house people claim that the
cattle would be killed as fast as they
come in +; but, as matter of fact,
a good many are carried over. On
Saturday, when we were at Grand
Rapids they had 100 hogs which
they had to carry over Sunday, and
that plant is smaller than the one
TO be built here.
want to call attention to the
fact that if the plant is located out
side the city limits that the city
will obtain just as many benefits
from it as though the plant
were located in the First Ward.
There is nothing to be gained by 10
eating it in the First Ward except
that it will be a little handler for
the company to do business, and
arguing along the same lines, they
might just as well ask to locate it
on the Court House Square.
Wausau is a splendid city, not
only for business but as town to
live in, and we ought to keep it
that way and not allow anything
Objectionable TO be put up inside