Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 130, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 May 1916 — B. E. Keeney Objects to Mentions of Springer Ranch. [ARTICLE]

B. E. Keeney Objects to Mentions of Springer Ranch.

B. E. Keeney, who has been spending some time here this spring in getting or trying to get operations started at the. Springer ranch, objects to the mentions The Republican made of the effect of rains on the land he has for sale. He accuses us of making false statements about the need of drainage there and says that he has been able to plow right through the worst of the rainy season with two tractors and eighteen teams. The Republican feels a mighty big interest in the development of the trucking interests of Jasper county and in the location on the lands of families wherever they have a chance to succeed and we have no doubt that in time when drainage that is ’ependaible has been established there are parts of .the Springer ranch that will be valuable for trucking purposes. We have never aimed to make any statement that .would act as a drawback to this development for it is a part of the county in which we have every interest we have in the world, while with Mr. Keeney and those associated with him it is probably to be their abode only a short time. In the early spring Mr. Keeney called at The Republican office and we talked frankly with him about the land he v was trying to sell and gave him some impressions we had gained from the methods pursued by some others who have undertaken to sell land in that section. We told him that if the land was purchased in bulk for prices ranging from S3O to SSO and was to be sold to innocent and inexperienced persons unfamiliar with the values of land at S2OO per acre we believed that plan should not succeed and 'that we could not give it favorable mention. We also said that we believed every purchaser should be told just what the drainage limitations were and that no deceipt should be used in the sales. Mr. Keeney said that he proposed to sell the land at a lower price than S2OO per acre and left the impression with the writer that it would be $125 pei acre and that he would employ Jio deception about his selling methods. He offered recommendations which we did not investigate. So far as we know he has been entirely honest in every respect and his investors may be entirely satisfied and they may succeed, but what he thinks about the crop possibilities of that section does not in the least change the fact that it has been there all the time and has failed to attract favorable attention because,of the fact that no sufficient outlet for the water that has made much of it untillable has s*o far been provided. Mr. Keeney says that he has been spending SSO per day in Rensselaer and thinks this fact deserves come boosting and he may be right but he should not expect any one to give it the'kind of boosting that requires to misrepresent it in any way to prospective buyers. At best it will be a year .before the Ryan ditch will be dug and when this is done and drainage is established then the land can be sold and there Won’t be any lottery about the thing in which the purchaser’s money is invested. We are not knocking the Springer sanch; we are boosting it and even if the sales are delayed a year or two it will be for the permanent benefit of Jasper county and will mean that the purchasers will then be satisfied and consequently more valuable to ®ur city and county than they will be if they drown -ut for a year or two. The interests of Mr. Keeney and those associated with him depend upon the success of those to whom the lhnd is sold. If they succeed with the crops that it is planned to raise we will be as well pleased as Mr. Keeney and we wish him success provided it does not come a.t t 3 expense of investors who have not been told of the true conditions ; revailing there.