The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1918-11-07


Wisconsin Patriotic Press Association
and pledges It's uncompromised loyalty
TO our Government in this war.
O~0~~~o~~-o-~oS~-o-o~~o~ ~o~~~~o0~o-~~~~~~~o-o
Let's Get Court House Fund.
When the County Board of Supervis-
ors meet this month it is to be hoped
that the board will take some action
to provide a sinking fund for the
building Of new county building.
We are not suggesting that at that
time the board calling horde of archi-
tects and telling them to go ahead and
provide sketches for new court house
or that active steps be taken for the
erection of q new county government
center. We simply want the board to
recognize the needs Of the county and
begin to make preparation for them
It would be impossible for Kenosha
county to build a new county building
now if it had million dollars in the
treasury waiting to be spent. But some
time the war is going to be over and
when it is over there is going to be a
chance for internal development of the
nation.
There are some other things that
are going to happen when the war is
over, Wheat is going to sell at normal
rates, cattle and hog prices are going to
drift back to the place where they
were before the ante-bellum days, and
money is going to flow into the public
treasury nearly as rapidly as it is now.
We are going back to normal manufac-
turing conditions and these normal
manufacturing conditions are going to
mean normal income tax payments and
normal mill tax payments. Just as the
farmer is paying off his mortgage this
year and sticking up the latest i'm
proved machinery out Of the profits of
war, so the county of Kenosha should
be paying off a mortgage that it owes
to the people of the county. We have
for years realized the need of real
county center in which all the business
of the county government could be GEN.
tered. We have dreamed of a great
pile of stone and marble which would
house all of the county Offices, which
would offer proper home for the Cir
cult, County and Municipal Courts, a
place free from cockroaches and vermin,
place fit for real county to do
business in and real courts to hold ses-
sion in. This dream has usually met
with the demand "Where is the money
coming from" We want to say now
that there is place for the money
to come from if the proper steps are
taken to provide it. This year and
next year great corporations are going
to pay on the profits Of war. The coun-
ty is going to get large sum Of money
in both of these years. Tt is going to
be windfall--if you will volunteer
contribution the county is not going to
tender any service for it. Tt is not go
ing to increase its expenses one cent in
the collection of it. All that the county
has to do is to keep the front door of
the dilapidated old county building
open so that the men with the money
bags can come in. 1t is not going to
take cent in taxes from the people
who live out in the rural districts and
it is not going to effect the mill tax
cent.
What we want the board to do now
is to put every cent of this vast contri-
button from the income taxes into
sinking fund for the erection of a de-
cent home for Kenosha county's gov
eminent. This year it will probably be
more than hundred Thousand dollars
and next year it will not be any less.
The cost of the county government can
easily be paid out of mill tax on the
county without cent of the income
tax receipts being diverted to meet
such expenses. This is the one great
chance of Kenosha county to meet
crying need and meet it without skimp-
ing or straining. Let the county take
this great sinking fund and invest it in
the bonds of the nation and when
the piping times of peace come and the
soldiers come back with honors Ken
osha county will have sinking fund Of
possibly three hundred thousand dol
lars to build a modern county building
It is just possible that this sinking
fund can be made large enough to pro-
vide every cent necessary for the cost
Of such building.
After the war is over and normal
conditions are restored it is not going
to cost nearly so much to build county
building as it would today Three hun
dred thousand dollars will then buy a
lot of brick and mortar and the labor
that is NECESSARY to put them together
into q great, fine buildng.
The important thin Is that the start
be made now. q curse, members of
the board could find better way to