The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1915-12-02
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 2, 1915.
What Helps Themselves.

What Helps IH6uScAVco'
Ben Franklin lived good many
years ago and he did several things
beside establish the Saturday Evening
Post and fly kite with key on it.
He had wit of his own and he had
way Of expressing things which left
it unnecessary to draw a diagram that
even the most ordinary man might
know what he meant. Among other
things he made up bunch Of axioms
which he published under the caption,
9TPoor Richard g Almanac. These
same sayings of Franklin have come
to be sort of a guide for men who
want to do things and do them right.
A favorite with Franklin was this one,
a'God helps them that help them
selves. F"
Just now the members Of the finance
committee of the common council are
busy making up the budget for the
coming year and they have struck
something Of a $4,000 snag in the
county tax levy. Most of them seem
to think that the county board slipped
Kenosha a lemon Of considerable sour
ness. They haven't reached this deci-
sion on account Of any interest shown
by the committee in the making Of the
county levy and that just recalls
Franklin IS favorite "that help them
selves. The finance committee Of the
common council or all of the members
of that honorable body can not expect
to get a great deal of cooperation
with or consideration from the county
board unless they go out after it. The
minutes of the recent session of the
board do not show that the finance
committee or any one else from the
council took any interest in the ses-
sions of the county board or appeared
to make any suggestions in connection
with the equalization of values or the
making Of the tax levy. Some people
may think that an alderman has enough
to do to look after his business on the
council. This may be all well and good
but the man that really deserves well
of the public does just a little more
than is expected from him. Members
of the county board elected from the
city wards, protested against the
equalization, but they had no one to
back them up. The supervisors who
come in from the rural towns are not
adverse to making political capital
Nests must be feathered in the politi-
cal precincts Of the county as we'll as
in the city. The best way that a
supervisor from a rural town can
feather his nest is to get minimum of
taxes to be paid by the town. If the
city aldermen sit idly by and allow
something to be "slipped to them
one can not blame the rural supervisor.
On the other hand, while his action
may not be along the broad line of
honest service that we are coming to
expect from the public life, to those
who revel in politics, he is entitled to
credit for putting it over' The
county and city are Independent and
the city sholld probably pay larger
share of the taxes of the county than
the rural towns, but there should be
limit to which this shifting of
burdens goes.
Sixty-four per cent of the county
tax is too much to be charged against
the city. Statisticians who have ex-
amined the figures assert that it is this
year about twenty thousand dollars
too much. But the question is who is
to blame. Certainly not the man who
wanted to save his own constituents
Rather the city officials themselves who
went blindly on fighting over the put,
ting in of a street crossing or the dis.
counting of few cents off bill
while the county solons calmly landed
them for twenty thousand more than
was necessary for the city to pay
Kenosha could use this added twenty
thousand dollars in lot of ways
We appreciate the fact that it is a
late time to lock the door after the
horse is stolen, but at that there may
come a time when there will be an
other horse in the barn and the failure
of the past may prove warning fol
the future. The city's business is the
business of the aldermen and they must
keep eternally at it if the people
they represent are to be properly
protected.