The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1924-10-16
RUBBING THE MAGIC LAMP.

An announcement from Chicago says thai
S15000,00 is to be expended IN laying OUT ane
improving the model village" which IS TO Jolf
the limits of Kenosha on the south. The pro
perty is owned by Edith Rockefeller McGor
mick and this vast sum of money IS to. be eX
pended in getting it ready for the coming o.
the people who are to inhabit it later.
Public improvements are to come along WITT
the regularity of Standard Oil dividends, it is
to have its wonderful paved road with princl
pal streets wide enough to be spacious" anC
narrow enough to be home like. It is to have
a water plant Gle luxe without even q specia
election to vote on the bonds, it is to have
hotel costing millions without even a promoter
approaching anyone to sell stock, it is to have
full fledged country club without anyone being
asked to subscribe and without the players
being forced to endure the seasons OF temper
airy greens. 1t is to have play grounds anc
parks without even colder residents suggest
ing that 1--WE can't afford them or we, ought tx
put part of the cost of them on the next gen
Grafton"
1t is going to be village which never hao
swaddling clothes and city without traditions
It's going to be thirty years before 1t is going
to have an old mans council, and fifty years
before there will be even the suggestion OF ar
"Old Settlers association" =
ICS people are going 10 lIIlu IL ~ City lIloUS "
order and not hand-me-down. Possibly they
won't like lot of the things, but just the same
they are going to be the things that people
ought to like It's every street and alley vii
be laid out with the idea of having the whole
the last word in city planning, it will have nc
smoke from factories to suggest that men &C
to work no whistles will shrek to disturb the
rest of late sleepers in the morning, and the
only disturbing element might be an early golf
er daring to shout .fore" before the last of its
sleepers have awakened for the day.
Rubbing the magic lamp will be great stuff
and Aladdin will come out in all his glory anC
show what unlimited money can do TOWARD
building a city.
It's wonderful experiment-bu butt can bt
said, that the people who come to take over
this made-to-order city, are going to hear the
same water tapping in the reeds along the LAKE
shore, they are going to look with Kenoshs
people on the same morning sun peeping over
the eastern horizon, and the wonderful harvest
moon will cast no more radiance over the made
-to-order city than it does over the rather neg
lected stretches of lake front in Kenosha.
Modern ingenuity and modern engineering
will make of it model, but it is not improb
able that now and then a fighting mosquito vii
slip over the boundaries from Kenosha anC
bite the mayor of this made-to-order city,, The
whistling of the lake winds in the winter vii
not be stilled and the rough waters Of the lake
may lull them to sleep there the same as il
does here.
Truly we are envious, but certainly we are
curious. We wonder if a built to order city
will guarantee to it's citizens happiness anc
contentment, we wonder if some of the people
who come to- the city of lavished wealth vii
not miss the luxury of honest toll. We sus
pect that there will be something lacking anc
that something will be the thing that money
cannot buy. The people who live in this city
will be proud of it, but possibly they will not
be able to be contented in it. 1t will be a city
where lack of sacrifice to bring things to beal
will bring lack of interest in the things which
it has.
1t may be that it will be wonderful thing
for Kenosha. It may be that seeing other
people have all these things, will suggest to the
people of Kenosha the desire for them It may
be that the building of this model city which
will start out with a greater investment fol
civic purpose than Kenosha has expended il
all its history as a municipality, will bring de
mands for the betternent of its nearest neigh
Dor.
The people of Kenosha cannot rub the magic
lamp, they cannot make public improvements
as regular as Standard Oil dividends, but they
can have things by sacrifice, and these things
when they get them, will be sweeter, because
the people will recognize that they have paic
for them and that paying for them gives then
an inalenable right to enjoy them.
AS we have said before, we are envious
but we are amused.