The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1925-01-08
FACING A GREAT OPPORTUNITY.

at the Office of the District Attorney an assist
ant, in complete touch with what has been
going Oh in the county has been moved up a
notch and invested with the full power of the
Office Entangling alliances which may have
hampered other administrations have been cut
off and the new officials start out today with a
clean sheet and with a rare opportunity to keep
it clean and make the record of the coming two
years one which will reflect credit on them as
officials and make their term of office beneficial
to Kenosha county.
The people are going to expect much from
this new corps of officials going into office to-
day. In no uncertain words the voters have
declared themselves pretty well Disguised with
the way things have been going in Kenosha
county and they expect the new broom" to
sweep clean and the new officials to better con-
ditions The people are not going to be peevish
and expect all the work to be done in an hour
or a fortnight, but they are going 70 look for
early results.
The enforcement of law is at low ebb in
Kenosha county. The roadhouses and the soft
drink parlors have reached the point where
they have become nuisance and the men
operating these places have shown brazen
effrontery which has come to be public
scandal. Trafficing in liquor has been shown
to be the usual rather than the unusual thing,
the hip liquor is to be found at nearly every
dance hall and the bootlegger runs, riot in the
streets plying his trade almost without an at
tempt at secrecy. ,s.e@r..
Conditions of lack of enforcement of law
have proven inviting to the bandit and the
murderer. In the last two months, two men
have been shot down in cold blood by bandits
who possibly sought to rob him, an oil filling
station has been invaded by thugs probably
from some other state, the keeper locked in a
closet and the cash register of the place
emptied of it's contents. These things indicate
that Kenosha county is being considered the
happy hunting grounds of the thugs of other
states who will not stop at murder to carry out
their desires to violate the law.
We are of the opinion that these conditions
have developed from one reason and that is
the lack of Kenosha county officials in the past
to enforce the law.
We believe that the conditions will get
worse that human life will be made more un-
safe in Kenosha county if the officials who are
going into office today do not take strenuous
and prompt measures to see that the law is en-
forced and that the brazen defiance of the law
is stopped
Enforcement of the law in any county ma
turally centers about the vigor or lack of vigor
Sheriff. Both the Sheriff and the District At
torney have let it be understood that they be-
lieve that the law should be enforced and they
have been elected to office with the promise
that they will carry out these beliefs.
The new District Attorney has been an out
standing character in Kenosha. His personal
life has been closely related to the portion of
the community which believes that the law
should be enforced 1t is not believed that he
will divorce his personal life from his life as
public office holder.
People who believe in the enforcement of the
law believe that District Attorney Powell
is sufficiently intelligent to realize the condi-
tions which exist in Kenosha county today and
that he is sufficiently acquainted with the law
of the state and nation to know where to find
the remedy and good enough lawyer to know
how to apply it. These people believe that he
should not be satisfied with prosecuting such
warrants as may be laid on his desk, but that
he should be vigilant to seek out the violations
of the law and initiate such prosecutions as
may be necessary to make Kenosha county
safe place to live in.
1t is expected that the District Attorney
will be given the fullest cooperation from the
Office of the sheriff and from the police depart
Snels. OF tie city and that along with this Off
cial cooperation that he will be given the as
sistance of every private citizen of Kenosha
county who may have information which will
aid in making it possible for him to make his
tenure of Office of greatest value to the people.
1t is expected that the courts of record in
the county will show willingness to aid in
this work by making sentences imposed on
convicted men, sentences which will have a
tendency not only to provide proper penalties
for violation of the law, but also proper warn
ing to others that the field of law violation is
one which leads to no uncertain punishment.
We believe that the District Attorney, the
Sheriff and the, Police department should be
able to bring much better conditions to Keno
sha county without the necessity of the call