Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 48, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 February 1914 — MORE INTERURBAN TALK FOR RENSSELAER [ARTICLE]

MORE INTERURBAN TALK FOR RENSSELAER

M. A. Peoples and O. L. Brown Are Looking Over Ground for Proposed Line From Logansport.

Here is a good one. » Another electric railroad propoition that will be a great thing for Rensselaer is a line . proposed from Logansport to Kankakee. Behind the promotion are two young men, M. A. Peoples and O. L. Brown. They came to Rensselaer this Wednesday morning and talked briefly with a few business men and promised to return here within a week or ten days. Tuesday they had been in Morocco and it had been their plan to drive from Morocco to Rensselaer and thence to Francesville, Royal Center and Logansport, but the roads were practically impassable and not much idea of the country could be gained by an overland trip when the earth is laden with several inches of snow.

The Logansport Journal-Tribune of last Saturday states that Mr. Peoples is an interurban man of experience, being at this time associated with the-Northern Illinois Electric Company. He built the Ft. Wayne and Northern Indiana line, then the Ft. Wayne and Wabash Valley line from Peru to Wabash. Later he helped to promote and construct the St. Joseph Valley Electric line from Elkhart to Angola.

Messrs. Peoples and Brown are -making their headquarters at Logansport. They have not definitely established the line on which they expect to build a road and last week they went through Monticello and out to Kentland and discussed some the possibility of going from Logansport to Kankakee by way of Monticello, Reynolds, Remin ton, Goodland and Kentland, but a later trip over or partially over the line'through this city leads them to consider it as very much the best. This route would be by the way of Royal Center, Headlee, Lakeside, Francesville, Pleasant Grove, Rensselaer, Mt. Ayr, Morocco, St. Anne and Kankakee. Mr. Brown said to a reporter for The Republi can that they were not prepared to say very much about their plans, but wished to have it understood that they will not ask any subsidies. He said that if we select a route that is regarded feasible then the road will be built and there will be no delays of any kind when it is begun. When told of the ideal location Rensselaer occupies as a trading center both of the promoters were surprised to learn that no other road had been built through this territory.

Mr. Peoples declared that* the widespread opinion that steam roads are antagonistic to intqrurban lines is largely a mistaken one. That was the case when the traction business was new, but that now steam roads concern themselves with promoting efficiency with their own lines and not in fighting opposition. Both Mr. Peoples and Mr. Brown are pleasant gentlemen and have behind them, so they say, records of accomplishment in successful interurban promotion.