Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 63, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 March 1913 — PETITION PASSED; EVERYBODY SIGNED [ARTICLE]

PETITION PASSED; EVERYBODY SIGNED

Rensselaer Interested in Having y Passenger Service Continued ■- On the C. & E. L ~ Jown Bowie, editor of the Kankakee Valley Review and active worker in the Wheatfield Improvement Association, was a Rensselaer Visitor Wednesday and called on D. M. Worland, president of the Rensselaer Commercial Club, and told him of the effort the C. & E. I. was making to have the passenger train between LaCrosse and Goodland, which passes through Wheatfield, Kniman, Virgie, Pair Oaks and Mt. Ayr, taken off. Mr. Worland at once recognized the importance pf doing all that could be done in Rensselaer to keep the train running, and caused a petition to be drawn up and circulated. Although he has been feeling poorly for some time and was in poor physical condition for the task, he presented the petition in almost every business house in Rensselaer, and in not a single instance was a signature refused. “If it is a good thing for ‘Rensselaer, and it certainly is, we want it,*’ was the general spirit everywhere. One merchant said: “We receive lots of business from the northern part of Jasper county and we want the trains-to run so that the people can come to Rensselaer with as little inconvenience as possible; we appreciate their business to the full est extent and join heartily in the movement to help them retain this train which has proven so convenient.”

The petition, signed by 89 businessmen of Rensselaer, will be presented to the state railway coimnission by Mr. Bowie, who goes to Indianapolis today to present the claims of the people along the route for the retention of the passenger train. Nothing could have more. completely refuted the knocking tactics employed by the discordant local newspaper and its “me, too” friend at Remington, than the unanimous action of Rensselaer businessmen >n signing the petition to keep the passenger train running on the C. & E. I. railroad. The knockers and critics have been completely brushed from the path of progress and the ‘Tour Corners" Correspendont has gone deeper in his hole than the groundhog did not February 2nd.