The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1916-11-02
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 1915.
Kenosha,s interest in the Election.


the question, What difference does it
make to Kenosha what sort of an adj
ministration we are going to have dur
ing the next four years. 1t is peril
nent question and right in the shadow
of the, election it is one deserving OF
careful consideration. Ii we were to
draw the slime to govern our votes on
the personality of candidates, it would
make little difference which were elect
ed. Hughes orlWilson. Both are courte-
GUS, refined, intelligent gentlemen. 1t
is not case of personalities, however,
so far as Kenosha Is concerned. The
pulse Of Kenosha is to be felt in the
whirling Of lathes, the dropping of the
trip hammers, the whirl of the knitting
machines. when the monotonous Choir
uses Of these stop, the prosperity OF
Kenosha is o an end. The buzzing of
machinerysis the real music for the in
dustrial center and when that buzzing
stops, the whole city stops with 1t. The
conservation of prosperity is the real
interest to Kenosha. The great issue
of the present campaign so far as we
people of Kenosha are concerned
greater than the Adamson bill--greater
than the a Mexican question--gr greater
than any problem growing out Of our
relations with any Of the warning ma
Itions4of Europe-is the issue Prepared
mess, After the War.
in recent months speculation and
prices have touched levels undreamed
of. Wars demands have been absolute
ly Unsuitable. Men, munitions and
money have been demanded regardless
of cost; waste is going on upon vaster
scale than ever known to history, and
supplies Of all necessities have been de-
pleted. While such forces are at work,
high prices are inevitable and no one is
sufficient of prophet to predict where
the end will be.
We in Kenosha in common with the
rest of nation have profted by the
demands of war. We have sold goods
in foreign lands and domestic trade has
been greatly stimulated on account of
the world paralysis of all lines of bust
ness in the nations where war stalks
unchecked. We have been fighting for
a reasonable preparedness to resist ply
steal attack, but we of Kenosha should
at this time show an equal or greater
interest in the preparedness to resist
the far more dangerous commercial
warfare which is certain to follow the
end of war.
From the standpoint of the man who
is interested in Kenosha, the real issue
of this campaign is the restoration of
the protective tariff. 1t is useless for
us to deceive ourselves into thinking
that the present prosperity is built ON
solid foundation. We can hope but
what we want is some insurance of
prosperity. This week the pay roll of
the city of Kenosha appropriated
$275,000. This means pay roll in ex-
cess of thirteen millions a year. No
other city in Wisconsin save one can
boast of such a vast sum of money be-
ing paid over the pay counters in this
or any other year. Kenosha has the
heighth of a prosperity which if it is
to be maintained, must be maintained
by the protection of American indus
tries and American labor. Memories
are not so short but that Kenosha men
can remember the short period which
came between the opening of the pres
emit administration and the passage of
the Underwood tariff bill and the open
ing of the world IS war.
We as a nation had begun to buy
abroad the things which we had form
erly bought at home and as result our
own mills were idle and our own people
were out Of work. Kenosha in those
years had pay roll of not to exceed
four million dollars and at that Keno
sha was more fortunate than most of
the cities of the nation. The great Eu-
ropean war came on and created an
artificial protective tariff so far as Ke-
nosha and this country was concerned.
1t cut off importations from Europe to
vast degree and made absolutely i'm
possible importations from many of the
great producing countries. This was
the cause of the war made prosperity.
1t may be that the war will 90 on to
the point of physical exhaustion, but
even at this the war can last but a
short time. With American shipping a
joke, the seas will be open to the ship
ping interests of the world and Ameri-
can markets will be flooded with prod
ucts from nations which must sell at
any price in order to get money neces-
sary to pay the price of war.
European nations will seek to regain
their grip on the markets of the world
regardless of the cost to them. Their
people will work long hours and for
scant pay, not from choice but from
necessity. A billion dollars worth of
goods made in Germany alone will be
turned upon the markets of the world.
Kenosha must come into competition
with the storehouses of Germany. The
man who works at the bench in Rano