The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1917-09-13
THURsDAY, SEPTEMBER Is, 1917.
Road signs-A Real Need.

fence Of the people who may at this
time or some other time, be guests
within it's borders. Men who drive
automobiles and who ride in other con-
veyances, grope along through the
county over unmarked roads without
hardly a single sign board to guide
them on their way They lose hours
on the road just finding their way
through Kenosha county. 1t is to be
hoped that one Of the first things the
County Board of Supervisors does at it's
next meeting in November is to make
provision, for road signs large enough
to put rad sign at every cross roads
in the COUNTY and that after it makes
the apprd priation it will turn the work
Of putting up these signs over to some
one who will do it and not wait three
or four years to get started.
We want motor travellers to hesitate
within our gates. We want them to
spend their money at our stores; we
want them to look at the big industrial
plants that have and continue to make
us famous, but wo want them to do all
Of these things with the feeling that
when their money is spent we are go
ing TO speed them on their way with
a series of road signs that will make
it possible for them to reach the next
hospitable city. We want few signs
put up right in the heart of Kenosha
directing travellers along the way to
Milwaukee and Chicago. Of course,
crosses on telephone poles may act as
a guide to some people, but neat read
able signs pointing the way and tell
ing how far away the next city is, are
a lot more representative of the spirit
of progressive community. Kenosha
is far behind other counties Of Wis
consin in this work. Up to the present
the county has left the work of mark
ing the roads to few commercial CON
Germs who were interested more in adj
vertising the products they had for
sale than they were to directing trav-
elers to proper routes of travel. Some
Of these signs are direct loss to the
business men Of Kenosha. They di-
rect travellers to the shortest way
through the county without even Civ
ing him the option Of seeing Kenosha.
Attractive signs along the roadways
calling attention to our city, our towns
and our villages, are certain to bring
people to them. People touring follow
the road signs and they are nightly
interested in seeing them. They 60
into cities rather than follow through
routes because the road signs point
the way to these cities.
Of course it would cost little
money to mark all the roads in the
county. Some automobile club estl-
mated the cost at fifteen hundred dol
lars. Undoubtedly large amount Of
this sum would be contributed by me1-
chants who would advertise on these
road signs if the members of the
county board felt that the county was
too poor to do the thing like lot Of
other counties do it. One of the real
things that Cos to make up good reads
is to have them properly marked. A
good road built where no one can find
it is not of any great value, either
to the travelling public or to the oe1ple
who live along it. There are lots of
good roads in back woods territory,
but they are not of any great value TO
the world at large and in most cases
less to the people who build them.
There is no doubt but properly
marked roads in Kenosha county would
mean much increase in business to
Kenosha. Possibly it would mean in a
single year lot more than the cost of
the signs. Outside of roads which run
directly into the city, people have no
chance of knowing that there is
beautiful and hospitable city on the
shores of the lake here. They Just
naturally jog along to Burlington and
Racine and Milwaukee-simply because
they do not know that Kenosha exists.
1t is one 5hing to have the name of
8 city on the map. 1t is another thing
to have the roads leading to it marked
SO that other people will know that it
Is on the map. Motor tourists don It
care a great deal for maps. They care
q lot for road signs.
Aside from the gain that such signs
would be to the cities and villages of
Kenosha county, there is the great
idea of being neighborly. Just at
present Kenosha is the most un-neigh-
borly county in this section of Wiscon-
sin. Other counties have gone way
beyond her in advancing their own in
terests and in advancing neighborli-
ness. Can t the members of the county
board see the need of road signs in
this light and provide for them9 Will
the members of the board forget that
they have talked over this matter be-
fore and that some one fell down on
the work and get busy all over again
and see to it that the work is put in
the hands Of some one who will take
care of it2 The organized placing of
sign boards must come from the county
IL l.