Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 125, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 May 1915 — SUBSIDY DEFEATED IN NEWTON TOWNSHIP [ARTICLE]

SUBSIDY DEFEATED IN NEWTON TOWNSHIP

Vote Was 57 to 76 Against Tax Aid For Lafayette & Northwestern -—Friends Disappointed. f* The subsidy election in Newton township resulted in a defeat for the proposition by a majority of 19. The vote stood 57 for and 76 against. It was a red hot election and the supporters and the enemies of the subsidy were busy from early morning until the pollSv closed and the vote was counted. O. L. Brown, promoter, H. E. Shelllhouse, engineer, Perry O’Connor, an ardent worker in Round Grove township, White county, and C. H. Stucker, who was one of the busy workers in Jackson township, Newton county, when- the subsidy was voted there, were all working for the tax, and Erhart Wuerthner and Joe Kosta Were the main workers against the subsidy. The opponents claimed that they would defeat it by 30 votes and the supporters had hopes of carrying it by a narrow margin, but when the votes were counted the defeat by the above vote was shown. It is not known what effect the defeat of this one election will have on the proposition, but it has been understood that Mr. Brown, the promoter, was informed by the men who have been asked to back the construction, that’i t will be necessary to have the tax aid voted in substantially all' the townships along the route of the road to secure the needed financing. “E” Wuerthner, the chief noise maker of the opposition, is said to conceitedly point to the job and announce that, he is the chief railroad destroyer, but a Newton township farmer aptly describes Erhart as being like a bellowing calf that belongs to an otherwise orderly herd. That he makes all the noise but don’t make any converts. It is too bad that Newton township, which would doubtless receive much of the benefit and which is the first township in Jasper county to

vote, opposed the proposition, for Rensselaer is so near the geographical center of the territory the road proposes to traverse that it would get the chief benefit and what is good for Rensselaer is good for every person in Newton township. The die has been cast, however, and if the road is never built the opponents can have what measure of satisfaction they wish for retarding the progress of Rensselaer and the surrounding country.