The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1915-03-11


to give away medals to corporations
who have boosted Standard Oil the city
of Kenosha will be seeking honorable
mention as the city as corporation
is one of the largest users of gasoline to
be found in this section of the country.
Figuratively speaking Kenosha is a.
motor driven city. All the wheels of
it's many departments are driven by the
aid OfgaSoline. 1t has complete motor
equipped fire department, its patrol is
motor driven, the vehicles used by the
chief of police, chief Of the fire depart
ment, city engineer and health commits
sioner are all operated with gasoline
and the street commissioners are just
waiting for some one to patent motor
driven dump wagon to put them in ser
vice on the Kenosha streets.
Kenosha was a pioneer in putting
the motor driven vehicles into service.
In fact it is claimed that Kenosha was
the first city in the United States in
which the horse driven vehicles of the
fire department were entirely supplant-
ed by automobiles. 1t takes time for
large cities to change over their equip
ment and for this reason Kenosha was
better able to make the change than
cities like Milwaukee and Chicago.
Kenosha has now been operating on
gasoline for more than year and the
result of the change is plainly appa-
rent in the efficiency of the depart
ments and in the cost of maintenance.
A suggestion that the Kenosha Fire
and Police departments return to horse
drawn equipment would be laughed out
of order and the men who were slow
to support the proposed change are
now the most enthusiastic supporters
of it.
Here is the list of motor drawn We
hicles in the city departments. In the
fire department there is the big hook
and ladder wagon at the Central Sta
ton, two combination wagons at the
North and West Side stations and an
other wagon is to be installed just as
soon as the Grand Avenue fire house is
built. Then there is a small runabout
used by the chief of the department.
The police department has the auto
driven patrol wagon which has been
run thousands of miles without any
large expense and the small car used
by the chief of the department. The
city engineer and city health officer
both use small cars, the expense of
their operation being paid by the city.
The men in charge of the various
city departments are enthusiastic over
the use of the motor driven vehicles.
"There can be no comparison made
between service now and service with
the old equipment" said Chief Iser-
mann when interviewed on the subject.
"Of course there is very large saving
in operating expense, but that is only
part of the benefit The auto driven
equipment in the Kenosha department
has met every demand made on it and
without delay. We have never found
weather when the auto driven trucks
could not be used and you can bet that
with these trucks in service here you
can get any where that you could have
gone with all the horses ever owned
by the fire department. The motor
driven vehicles are speedy and save
lot Of time in reaching fires and this
fact is reflected in the big reduction in
fire losses in the city. What we want
now is an automobile that has pump
attached to it so that we will be able
to supplement the pressure in the wa
ter mains in case of being forced to
! fight fires in high buildings. With such
an equipment the Kenosha department
would be in as good shape as any de-
partment in the country. A lot of Wis
conSin cities have sent representatives
to KenOsha to make an effort to follow
our plan of equipment, These cities
have taken records of expense of up
keep and in nearly every instance they
have bought motor driven trucks. The
men in the department take a real
pride in handling these big machines
and they take as much care of them as
an old time farmer would have taken
of the family carriage. The cost of
maintenance is decidedly small and the
possibility of the machines being put
out of order when they are needed has
been shown to be very small We con-
slider motor equipment a great success
in this department
| The records of the police department
show that the patrol wagon is used
more than twice as much as when the
wagon was horse DRIVEN and is is used
for many purposes. 1t is not only the
paddy" wagon to pick up offenders,
but it also serves as an ambulance for
the use of the poor of the city. From
sixty to seventy calls year are made
for the wagon for purely humanitarian
uses. Added to this it must be said that
the patrol wagon nearly takes care of
itself by being used to collect delin-