Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 82, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 April 1915 — GOOD CITIZENS SEEK TO DISPOSE OF SALOONS [ARTICLE]

GOOD CITIZENS SEEK TO DISPOSE OF SALOONS

Petition For Elections in Wheatfield and DeMotte and Same Are Ordered For May Ist. The county commissioners have issued an order for option elections to be held in Wheatfield and DeMotte on May Ist. Petitions were filed signed by temperance people in Wheatfield and Keener townships asking that the elections be held and it is probable that a stiff battle between the dry and wet forces will ensue. A saloon has been operated in each town since the county option, law.was repealed and the temperance people have decided that there has been sufficient change in sentiment and improvement in the spirit of moral development to defeat the saloons. Jim Anderson conducts the saloon at Wheatfield and Albert Konovsky the one at DeMotte. Both are regarded good citizens,.we understand, and there will not be the personal feeling in the effort to rid the towns of the saloons that is frequently the case. It would be an advanced step if both of these localities could be made saloonless and it ft very desirable that they are. During the period when they were dry it reported that there was clandestine liquor selling and that some of those who handled it became very bold about it The work of correcting this fault will devolve largely upon those who are taking the lead in disposing of the licensed saloon and if the communities are freed of the saloons there should follow a very vigorous prosecution of bootleggers and. blind tiger keepers. The saloons and the'liquor business are on the run and we hope to see Keener and Wheatfield townships abolish them from the only places they now exist in Jasper county.