The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1915-10-21
TO BRING SUITS IN COURTS
People Refusing to Pay for the Care
of Relatives Will Be Named as De-
PENDANTS in Suits to Be Brought by
District Attorney Later.

In an effort TO nave the people OF
Kenosha and Kenosha county pay for
the support of their relatives in the
state institutions for the insane,
County Clerk R. Ell. Jones today com
pleted the work of sending out more
than hundred bills to residents of the
city and county. The total of these
bills is in excess of three thousand dol
lars and they are all for the keep of
Kenosha county patients in the vari-
Gus institutions of the state. Already
people of the county who realize the
fact that they are responsible for the
keep Of these unfortunates, have paid
TO the county clerk between four humid
red and five hundred dollars.
Under the resolution passed by the
county board all of these bills must be
settled by the first day of November.
The resolution provided that after this
time the bills remaining unpaid must
be turned over to the district attorneys
Office for collection. The board has al
ready instructed the district attorney
w tAJloblbdbC olIOp LII COul clSdlILSb oil
delinquents in this matter with view
of lifting as far as possible this bur-
den from the shoulders of the county.
Fully forty per cent of the Kenosha
have no relatives to whom bills for
their care may be sent and as in other
years the care of these people must be
paid for by the county at large. These
amounts have already been charged
off to the general fund of the county.
The county officials are going to
every possible trouble to secure the col
lection of these bills. In one case
man was found to have been a member
of a Croatian society with headquarters
in Illinois. 1t was discovered that I'M
der the rules of the society he was
entitled to receive certain sick benefits
and efforts are now being made to col
lect these benefits in order that they
may be used to provide for the man.
care and treatment.
The public administrator Of Kenosha
county has been directed to 90 into
the county court and have a guardian
appointed for the patient and the Of
ficials of the association have promised
to pay to this guardian the amounts
which would be payable to the man in
benefits. Tt is said that the amount to
be collected in this manner will paw not
only all charges for the care of the
man since he has been in the asylum,
but it will pay for his care for a year
in the future.
Other cases of this nature are being
looked into and it is probable that the
county officials will find that it is pos
sible to provide for the support of
several patients which have been book
ed as "charity patients" by collect
ing benefits due to them from organiza-
tions to which they belonged
This will be the first year in which
actual suits have been filed for the
collection of fees for the care of the
insane. Under the resolution of the
county board the district attorney s
Office win have no choice in the matter
and the suits must be fled against ali
people who decline to pay. Tt is ex-
pected that fully thirty suits will be
filed, the first to be brought shortly af-
ter the first of November.