Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 106, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 May 1915 — Election in Keener Not Fair Wet and Dry Test. [ARTICLE]

Election in Keener Not Fair Wet and Dry Test.

It is doubtful if there is another towijship in Indiana where the votes on a wet and dry election would show as large a wet per cent. It was officially 157 wet and 32 dry, or almost 5 to 1. There were 40 presumably dry voters signed the petition for the election. Residents of the township, however, do not consider it a fair test on a wet and dry basis. Al Konovsky, the saloonkeeper at DeMotte, is a man of. the best demeanor and his method of conducting his business has met no criticism, it is said, from any source. He is popular and even the dry forces have only the kindliest things to say about him. Another thing that figured in the result was the fact that there are wet spots all along the Kankakee river and it is said Hank Granger, for many years regarded as a terror of the temperance people, is erecting a building on the Lake county side and that liquor is being sold by him in often definance of the law. A good many thought that it was better to have a saloon well regulated \in DeMotte than a hell-hole on the river. The Republican, however, regrets to see these townships retain saloons. It is only a question of time, we believe, until saloons and the Equor traffic will be swept from the land and no real substantial moral improvement will come to Wheatfield and DeMotte until the saloons are routed out. z