Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 40, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 February 1914 — DIVIDES NEGATIVES INTO THREE CLASSES [ARTICLE]

DIVIDES NEGATIVES INTO THREE CLASSES

The Poverty Stricken, the Selfish and the Non-Aggressive Against the Railroad. - -

Editor Bartoo'has certainly taken a commendable stand in the matter of community progress for Remington and the following is his report of the subsity election held in that town -last Tuesday: The election Tuesday for the purpose of voting a subsidy for the benefit of the electric road, resulted ibad for the road, in that tfye voters turned the proposition down, and for the town and township, inasmuch as they have passed up what would be the only real improvement that has been offered for many years. That the voters voted against their own interests we firmly believe and if we have lost the road for good and Wolcott gets it they have only their own narrowmindedness or to say it most charitably easily pursuaded dispositions to blame for the loss. The vote cast was almost the entire one of the township and the interest taken in the defeat of the road by certain persons is only equalled by their own lack of business progress. 520 votes were cast, of which 210 were for and 310 against the proposition. Thus it will be seen that the defeat was accomplished by the lack of only 51 votes. The vote was as follows: For Against South precinct ... ...65 104 East precinct .. 93 92 West precinct .....52 114 Those opposed to the enterprise can be divided into three classes. Those who could not afford to pay the tax. Those that opposed the road for purely selfish interests. Those who opposed it simply because it meant progress for the town and who oppose any move that would result in benefit for people and in which they do not see a big percent interest immediately available to their bank accounts. For .the first set or class we feel the most sincere sorrow, but the other two classes are of little benefit to the town or community. It was a noticeable fact, however, that quite a number of tluose who' helped vote the improvement down did not feel the satisfaction they expected to feel over the result. They wanted the road but they also wanted the satisfaction of saying that it was the other fellow’s fault that we got it. Marion township voted the subsity by a big majority and it certainly looks good to the people there. A new petition is already being circulated asking the commissioners for another election, which is to be held in about six weeks. The same 2 per cent is asked for. _ ,