The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1917-01-11
Statistics or Service.

appointment men of the city, and
this means lot of fellows who have
been willing to climb on political band
wagons without being given any of the
horns to play, are getting volumes of
mail containing statistics of the vari-
GUS state department. Wisconsin de-
partments are strong on statistics.
Pretty nearly any old department can
get out a thousand pages to show
either what it has done or what it
ought to have done. Few people ever
look at these books and for the most
part they are sold to some junk dealer
in an effort to relieve the paper situa-
ton. If the departments were as ac-
tive in getting real results in work as
they were in making statistics, the
:. Wisconsin Idea would be a regular
guiding star to the other common
wealths of the union. IF you go up to
Madison and get into the Office of the
state tax department, they can take
down the big books and tell you to a
fraction of cent what the value of
John Jones farm out in Brighton is.
1t is important to the state to know
just what John Jones is worth SO that
it can collect the stipend on his wealth.
The state knows pretty well when some
man who was worth little money
dies IN Kenosha county and the man
who adjusts Inheritance taxes is right
Johnny on the Spot to see to it
that the state gets it's ninety-three and
some fraction percent of the tax that
can be laid on the estate. The state
collectors all get around pretty regu-
larly and the fact that Kenosha is
close to the Illinois line does not seem
in any way to make Kenosha money
SO dirty that the state is not eager to
get it. Promptness is the real nick
name of the state departments which
collect money. There is a different
story when it is case of 'Fall going
out and nothing coming in. All of
this is suggested by the promptness in
which the state fire marshall came to
Kenosha to investigate the biggest in
cendiary fire ever known n Wisconsin.
When the walls of the sixty-fve thou
sand dollar ice building, to which the
torch had been applied, were falling,
one would have naturally believed that
the state fire marshall would have been
interested. One of the chief duties is
to guard the state against incendiarism
and punish fire bugs. Did this busy
state official come to Kenosha? He did
not. Did he get into touch with the
local officials and show how much he
was interested in protecting .Kenosha
county property and in the capture of
fire bugsa Not that any one knows of.
Last Friday afternoon, two whole days
after the big ice house had been burn
ed, deputy of the state DEPARTMENT
dropped into Kenosha and asked a DO
lice officer where he could find the
sheriff and the. district attorney. Then
this under official went into court and
made complaint against man who
had been arrested by the sheriff and
against whom evidence had been col
lected by the sheriff and the district
attorney. Should this fellow be- CON
vlcted, the statistics of the department
next year will probably tell how the
state department "hounded to prison y
fire bug. The day after the COM
plant had been made the deputy mar
shall went out to make an investiga-
fIOn PnGcIhlu ha IL
men who set fire to the ice houses
would have been considerable of the
fact that the department at Madison
was busy writing statistics and stick
around to be arrested until the depart
ment found time to take up. the mat
ter. One might have been bold enough
to think that the fire marshall of the
great state of Wisconsin could have
left his work at Madison in the hands
OF his statistical secretary long enough
to come to Kenosha and personally
take charge of the investigation of
this, the largest ineendiary blaze in the
history of the state. Most any police
officer can tell you that criminals and
especially tire bugs have no sentimen-
tai desire to linger about the shoulder
ing ruins Of the place they have burn
ed. 1t you want to catch these fell
lows, it takes speed. Our idea of a
real fire marshall is a man who would
have been out of Madison the minute
he heard of the burning of this big ice
house and be right on the Job himself
Governor Philip has had something to
say in regard to practical work rather
than statistics. We would respectfully
suggest to him that he impress this on
the state fire marshall. We believe
that nice little essays on " Fire Pre-
vention' and "How to Run the Fur.
mace are valuable, but these can be
written at time when fire bugs are
not burning buildings. We believe
that the state has been negligent in
this matter and that very little con-
sideration has been given to the rights
OF the people of Kenosha county. It
is simply repetition of lot of other
incidents. We are not thinking of Sc