The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1923-10-18
CAPITALIZING PUBLIC SENTIMENT.

It is interesting to find out just what dollars
and cents value there is to public sentiment
Sentiment in Kenosha in favor of the erection
of a new hotel has been running rampant. A
lot of people have wept tears over the fact that
strangers coming into the city had no place to
Law their heads at night, more of them have delt
at length on "the shame Of Kenosha" when
discussing the fact that there was no hotel
in the city Others have declared that all that
was needed was leadership by some one who
knew how. Still others have spent considerable
time wondering why men of means who built
hotels in Milwaukee, Madison, Green Bay and
Fond du Lac were not willing to let little OF
their money drift into Kenosha
Well it has come to a show down and these
various kinds of public sentiment are going
to be tested out in the cold light of dollars and
cents It is expected that the test will be large
ly in the ability of the sentiment to reach down
to the left trouser pocket, where the average
man carries his money.
The very men who financed the building OF
the Hotel Wisconsin in Milwaukee, the Retlaw,
at Fond du Lac the new hotel at Madison and
the new one at Green Bay, are interested in
this latest Kenosha proposition to build hotel.
They have been here, looked over the ground
sized up the people, and have made definite
announcement of what they think Kenosha
should ante in the hotel game They have adj
n1itted a willingness to match at least a five
dollar bill against every dollar bill Kenosha
people will put up that a hotel in Kenosha will
be paying institution. They are men who can
write names to checks big enough to carry out
every promise they make. They do not fly by
night in the face Of disaster, but grin and bare
it, They have financed lot of institutions in
Wisconsin, and for the most part they have
been successful institutions.
In every place where they have invested
their money they have asked for evidences of
good faith and evidence of support on the part
of the people of the home town. They have
never broken the faith pade withethese people.
They are financiers and not promoters. They
want to be paid for their Service and for their
vision, but they ask the minimum of pyice for
the maximum of value in financing these insti-
tutions
These men propose to put a third of million
dollars into a hotel in Kenosha, if the people of
Kenosha will go out and get twenty percent of
it. Their proposition is that Kenosha show
that it's desire for a hotel is worth sixty thous-
and dollars in cash money. Against that they
propose to put some three hundred thousand
of their money, which is seeking investment.
They will do the work necessary to get the
hotel planned and built. They will find all but
sixty thousand dollars of the money and the
things they have done in the past, give the as
surance that when the hotel is completed, it
will be worth while hotel, and that it will be
conducted in worth while way.
The proposed partnership of public senti-
ment, backed by cash with these men who do
things, open the real way for Kenosha to get a
hotel. Certainly there is no easier way. Most
efforts in Kenosha have failed for lack of
leadership This plan proposes leadership, plus
capital and that is wonderful combination
Sixty thousand dollars is not large amount
of money to be raised in the city of Kenosha.
1t is considerably less than days pay roll.
If Kenosha does not respond affirmatively
to this, offer to give Kenosha worth while
hotel, it can be taken for granted that the pub
lie sentiment for hotel has been bunk, and
that the tears which have been shed over the
lack of a stranger to get bed here are Gro
codie tears. 1t is almost impossible to believe
that the men who can make this hotel project
possible will be so forgetful of the needs of
their community and so stingy as to withhold
their support