The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1918-05-30

plant IN Bennington VT CO.
oper Underwear Company opens new
plant at Dowgaiac, Mich.
Have you noticed these head lines
in recent months?
We are very free to admit that these
head lines and other like them do not
appeal to us. 1t is the province of a
Newspaper to ask pertinent questions
and we want to ask right now the
most pertinent question that has been
put up to Kenosha people in a good
many years.
Is Kenosha Slipping?
There is only one answer to this
question and it is found in the head
lines quoted above. If the Simmons
Company, The Black Cat Textiles Com
pany, the Cooper Underwear Comp any,
all with great parent plants in Keno
sha are going to other cities it must
be that Kenosha is slipping.
The heart of Kenosha is its indus
trial enterprises. It's entire life has
been built up about them, its entire
financial support comes from the dol
lars that these companies pay out.
They have developed in great strides
in the last few years but the city has
not kept pace with the strides and the
fact that these companies have found
it necessary to open plants in other
cities is most bitter arraignment of
lack Of progression in our own
town.
No one is going to question the 10y
atty of Kenosha s great industrial
leaders to Kenosha but these men are
fighting an industrial battle in which
they are forced to take into considera-
ton something besides the "home
town.. They are met with the great
problem of production and more pro-
duction-they are being prodded to
action by a nation at war demanding
immediate outputs in excess of what
has ever been demanded before.
They have looked in vain to Kenosha
60 make possible this increased out
put.
If these men were asked why they
were building in plants in other cities
many of them would answer "Be-
cause we can not get the labor in Ke-
nosha.
The really pertinent question is
Why can they get the labor in Ke-
nosha?" Labor answers promptly.
Because Kenosha is not prepared to
take care Of men and women who want
to build homes, because Kenosha is not
fore sighted enough to make it possible
for homes to be built at a price that
men who work can pay, because Ken
osha has not been able. to offer people
the things that they demand for build
ing homes.
If today company employing a
hundred and fifty people would come
into Kenosha and ask for bonus of
$4,000 to locate here it would probably
get it. We would scrape around and
pass the hat md sell lots and one
thing or another and get the money to
land the factory. That plant Of the
Cooper company which has just gone
to Dowagiac, Mich, might just as well
have been in Kenosha, but when one
looks over available home sites and
sees the streets packed full of sewer
pipes but without sewers, when he
sees a lack of gas and water extensions
and a lack of every encouragement to
home builders he just naturally gets
| disguised and says 'tLet' s go to some
place where our coming will be appre-
ciated.
Big industrial companies do not de-
sire to scatter their business. Execu-
tive management and over head costs
are large in the handling of big bust
ness and the manufacturer wants to
concentrate. He wants to keep his
| business just as close to one place as
he can but he can not sacrifice his
business growth to being loyal to q
backward city.
| This is not aimed as a criticism of
any one but as a warning. 1t is the
red light at the switch and we want
to turn it in the right direction. We
want the men who are responsible for
Kenosha' IS future to see that this light
may be turned on the main line and
mean straight ahead 20 a greater adj
vancement or it may turn toward the
switch which leads to nothing but a
side track.
Kenosha must be ready and be ready
now to defend her own future. Other
cities are jealous of her. They are
ready and willing to offer opportuni-
ties to men-Kenosha men-who have
money to invest. These men are not
seeking money from Kenosha. What
| they want is action to make Kenosha
the proper place for the development
of their great industries. They want
to know that the city is going to an
ticipate just little the demands Of a
greater city by the building of sewers,
by the extensions of gas and water
lmainS Thew want tho common council