Jasper County Democrat, Volume 8, Number 40, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 January 1906 — IT'S TO BE “DRY." [ARTICLE]

IT'S TO BE “DRY."

Liquor License Remonstrance Held Good. COMPLETE VICTORY FOR “ARTIS.” Win Out With 18 Majority In Heretofore Invincible Flrat Ward.— Appeal Not Probable. After intermittent efforts extending over a period of ten or twelve years, the anti-saloon people have apparently succeeded in ousting the licensed sale of intoxicants in Rensselaer, that is, when the present licenses expire, which will be next fall. The remonstrance filed last Friday night contained 92„ names, 18 more than a majority of the votes cast at the city election in November in the first ward, and the commissioners sustained the remonstrance and refused the applicant, Chas. Garling, a license. The attorneys for the applicant claimed a conspiracy existed on the part of the “antis” to stay away from the polls and thus cut down the majority necessary to successfully remonstrate against the saloons in that ward, also raised other technical objections to the remonstrance filed, but the commissioners upheld it in every particular, and held that 74 legal remonstrators was a sufficient number to defeat the applicant on the vote cast, 147. It has been rumored that the saloon people would appeal from the decision of the commissioners to the circuit court, then take a change of venue to some other county, try to get a jury trial and, in the case of defeat, appeal to the supreme court, but as there is so large a majority on the remonstrance, and the chances for defeating it are so very slim it would seem that it is simple folly to pursue the matter further, and it is not likely that it will be appealed. As the other two waros have been without saloons for about ten years, every applicant for license having been successfully remonstrated against, this means that Rensselaer joins the “dry” town ranks, the remonstrance being of the two-year feature.