Jasper County Democrat, Volume 11, Number 79, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 March 1909 — Page 1

THE TWI6E-A-WEEK

Jasper County Democrat

•1.50 Per Year.

PECULIAR DAMAGE SUIT BEGUN.

Richard Fuller, et al. of Shelby, have brought suit in the Lake circuit court agalnßt the C. I. & L. Ry. Co., to recover damages for losses due to the floods on the Kankakee river, Which are alleged to have been more destructive on account of building embankments along the railroad right-of-way, which at times of high water obstruct the natural water course of the river and cause it cover a greater area than it would naturally do. This water caused Mr. Fuller to lose several valuable hens and destroyed a strawberry patch, apple orchard, etc. Schuyler C. Dwyer of Lowell is the attorney for the plaintiff.

ROBINSON FAMILY HOLD REUNION.

The thirteen Robinson children,, and their children, held a family reunion at the home of their mother, Mrs. Mary E. Robinson, on River street Sunday. Those Absent from out of town were: fharles and daughter of Battle Ground; George and little son from Connersvllle; Miss lima from Indianapolis. Those from here are: IJloyd, John, Mrs. Grant Warner, Mrs. Fred Phillips, Mrs. Chas. Blue, Grace, Clara, Louis, Vern and Harve, late of the regular aymy. Besides the immediate family, Mr. and Mrs. S. F. Hayden of Lowell and Mr. and Mrs. Eldon Hopkins and son Walter, who was with Harve in the army, were guests at the dinner. George and Charles ' returned to their homes Monday.

EMIGRATION CONTINUES.

The exodus of Jasper county farmers to the promised land of the Dakotas continues, and each day some family leaves to seek their fortune in the great northwest. Monday morning Henry Shide and family, Mrs. Joe Shide and children, Jake and Henry Wagner all of Carpenter tp., left for Larimore, No. Da. The Wagner boys have purchased a quarter section of good land near that place. Mrs. Nick Wagner accompanied them as far as Chicago. On the same train R. B. Porter and family left for their new home near Mitchell, So. Dak. Last Tuesday evening twenty cars of household goods from the neighborhood of Goodland and Brook left for the Dakotas. From Pulaski county, near Star City, over forty families will leave for Montana and North Dakota this spring.

FALLS FROM TRAIN AND IS KILLED.

R. H. Grow received word Saturday that his neice’s husband, Robert Richards, a conductor on a Panhandle freight running between Logansport and Columbus, Ohio, had fallen from his train Tuesday night and was killed. The accident, it seemS, occurred in going out of Chicago—he being off his regular run—but just how is not known. He is supposed to have been on top of the cars and was either knocked off or fell off. When found the hack of his head was caved in and one leg was broken in two places. He lived for some seven or eight hours after he was hurt, but was unconscious and unable to tell anything of how it occurred. He was about 30 years of age and leaves a wife but no children. Only a few days before getting the letter containing the sad news of his death, Mr. Grow’s had got a card from Mrs. Richards, stating that they were both well and enjoying life. They resided at Logansport.

MANY MORE CHANGES.

Since last Wednesday’s issue of The Democrat we have received notice of change in postoffice address of the following subscribers: Ed Bullis, R-3 to Larimore, No. Dak. Delos Pass, McCoysburg to Pleasant Ridge. J. O’Riley, Remington R-3, to Brook. A. A. Courtwrlght, Remington, R--1 to Larimore, No. Dak. A. A. Gorbet, R-l to McCoysburg. Nathan Keen, R-3 to Parr. Henry Simonin, Goodland to Emorado, No. Dak. John Southard, Monon to Wolcott. Mrs. S. M. Pettet, Wheatfleld to Laura. Mary E. Taylor, Remington, R-3 to Rensselaer, R-4. Omar Wilcox, Mitchell, *So. Dak., to Mt. Verno’n, So. Dak. John E. Sayers, Goodland to Wolcott. Henry Klein, Remington to Chatsworth, 111. Chas. McSweeney, Centerville, * lowa, to Moulton, lowa.

NEW HITCH BARN MANAGEMENT

Having purchased an interest in the former Kresler hitch barn on' Cullen street, I invite my old friends and the public in general to call and Bee me, assuring them fair treatment at all times. HUGH LEAVEL.

ACTION DEFERRED.

Attempt to Rush Telephone Franchise Fails.

A BIG REMONSTRANCE IS FILED

Against Granting the Proposed Raise In Rates, Signed By 140 Users of Phones, Several of Whom Have Two Phones—Matter Con tinned To Special Meeting To Be Held Thursday Evening—Not Much Done Except Argue Telephone Franchise At Monday Night's Meeting of the City Council.

At the meeting of the city council Monday night not much was done except to argue the proposed granting of a new franchise to the Jasper County Telephone Co., for a period of 20 years from April 1, 1909. A petition signed by 146 representative telephone users of Rensselaer, many of whom have two phones, one at their residences and one at their places of business, protesting against the granting of the franchise by which the present rates are to be increased from $1 and $2 per month to $1.50 and $2.50. Councliman Spitler moved to Suspend the rules and place the proposed ordinance on passage, granting the franchise asked for by Delos Thompson, president of the company. The motion was lost. Mr. Spitler then moved to place the ordinance on passage in the regular way, but no action was taken, and the council after arguing for some time, voted to adjourn until Thursday evening, when the matter will again come up. The remonstrance which was filed did not contain but 146 names but was representative of the business men and resident telephone users of the city, and it was not thoroughly circulated, either. It is likely that many more names will be filed before the Thursday night meeting. We have not the space to publish the entire ordinance asked for, but here is one section at least that ought to be modified, should the council over-ride public’ sentiment and grant the franchise: Section fc, provides that any farmars’ mutual lines that may be established in the territory served by said company, it (the J. P. T. Co.) will furnish switch board connections at 35c per month per phone, if at least eight subscribers are furnished on each line and the prompt payment of all tolls originating on said farmers’ lines. (Now here is the joker), "and provided said company’s competing lines are purchased at a .(air appraised value.” In other words, before any farmers’ line could secure switchboard connections it would have to purchase the lines of the old company. We know nothing about the rate asked for conections, after any new company had been compelled to buy up the old country lines now in use or that may be put in in the next 20 years, whether it is too high or not, but it would seem that the advantages of such connections ought to be mutual.

FRED GILMAN PAROLED.

Former Goodland Banker Released From Penitentiary After Serving Two Years. According to newspaper reports Fred D. Gilman, the ex-Goodland banker, whose bank went busted during the summer of 1904, has been paroled from the Michigan City prison and is now at liberty. His wife went to Michigan City from Goodland last Wednesday to meet him, but what if any plans they have for the future has not bQpn stated. The failure of Mr. Gilman’s bank in 1904 was a great surprise to most people, as such things usually are. Fred had grown up in Goodland and had the respect and confidence of the (entire community, but bad loans and the failure of trusted friends to make good when he asked them to repay the money he had loaned them forced a show-down. Not having the courage to meet those whom he had known .all his life and who had trusted their money to his keeping, he left town the night before the crash came, aiyl for some two years managed to conceal his whereabouts from the officers of the law. Finally he was located at Bloomington, 111., where he was employed in the office of his brother-in-law, H. B. Patton, who is engaged in the poultry buying business there. He was arrested

RENSSELAER, JASPER COUNTY. INDIANA. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 10, 1009.

and brought back to Newton county, where he was tried and found guilty of embezzlement, and in February, 1907, was sentenced to fcerve an Indeterminate sentence of to three years in the penitentiary. Two years of this sentence has been served, and now—broken in health, it is reported—he is released. His wife, who was formerly Miss Dora WlckwPe, well known to many Rensselaer people, having frequently visited here, has some money in her own right, .and as she has stuck by him in his misfortune, it is likel£ will set him up in business again some place. She is Mr. Gilman’s second wife, his first wife having been killed some eight or nine years ago in a railroad wreck while on her way to attend an Epworth League convention in San Francisco, the pre§ent Mrs. Gilman being her traveling companion. Many people who have known Fred from boyhood have always felt much sympathy for him. He was not a gambler nor a sport, lived economically, and, these people say, was more the victim of circumstances and his supposed friends than any intent to defraud.

“JUST A WOMAN’S WAY”

Which will appear at Ellis’ Theatre on Wednesday, March 17, is a new play by a new author and is being received everywhere by crowded houses and welcomed as a new departure in melodrama, startling in conception and daring in treatment. In his treatment of a great fault that besets the people of today, Mr. Pascoe has handled cleverly, boldly and with tact a play that, until now, no playwright has ventured to expound to the public. He deals with the most complex situations truthfully, naturally and his dialogue is clean and convincing and leaves the audience with a clear conception of what they have witnessed. No play in recent years has been so successful from the start and the reason is readily understood.

OVERFLOW IS WORSE THAN BEFORE.

Another blunder that was made by some one in the Iroquois ditch, was that of throwing the excavated rock and dirt south of the Washburn and Day pastures all on the south side of the river, where there was already a high bank, and thus throwing the water all over north whenever a big rain comes. Had this excavated rock been about equally divided a levee would have been thrown up on the north that would have kept most of the water off this land during freshets. Instead, the ten or twelve acres comprising the Washburn and Day lands is rendered almost valueless for any purpose, judging from the overflows that have thus tar occurred. The damage to these lands if the owners wanted to dispose of them is $1,500 to $2,000, or more, as the lands would be worth S2OO to s3uo per acre were it immune from overflow' every time the water raised a few feet. Whether the owners have any recourse against anyone for the damage to their property reason of this “bull,” we do not know', but they certainly ought to have.

MRS. IMES RECOVERS PURSE.

Lost In the Eastern Star Rooms Last November. While searching for the parts of a floral star, under a short flight of steps in the w'ardrobe room of the Eastern Star quarters in the K. of P. building Friday night, Mrs. June Henkle discovered the purse that was lost by Mrs. L. M. Imes last November. The purse, containing a watch—highly valued as a gift from Mr. Imes before their marriage—a few personal letters’ and a smaller purse containing $32.50 in money, lay forgotten by Mts. Ir_es on the secretary’s desk in the lodge room, and it was not until the next morning that she remembered of having left it there. She later hunted up the caretaker and they made diligent search for the bag, which had in some mysterious manner disappeared during the night. But someone had evidently been there before them and the finger of suspicion pointed to a certain party, but it was impossible to prove their guilt, and Mrs. Imes had given up all hope of ever recovering the lost bag. Friday night at a rehearsal of the Star Chapter she suggested to Mrs. June Henkle that they search for a floral star which she believed was in the wardrobe ro,om. Mrs. Henkle while Mrs. Imes was absent in a search for matches, discoveredthe missing purse with everything intact but the smaller purse which had been rifled and the $32.50 taken. Mrs. Imes is overjoyed with the recovery of the watch and will Investigate no further. The Democrat office for horse bills.

THE TELEPHONE COMPANY’S SIDE

The telephone company is asking for a new franchise at a higher rate. It is an undisputed fact that unlike most businesses the cost of the installation and operation of the telephone system per telephone, increases in direct proportion to the number of telephones. The reason for this is that as the number of telephones increase, the sources of trouble multiply, the equipment is more expensive and the operation of the switch-board is more complicated and requires more operators for a given number of telephones. In'a small exchange one operator cares for only about 250 telephones; in the largest plants one operator cares for onl yabout 35 telephones. Again the value of telephone service to the subscriber is measured solely by the number of telephones in the exchange. It is obvious that servlca to eight hundred subscribers is worth more than service to two hundred.

When the present franchise was granted there were only seventyfive telephones in the Rensselaer exchange, and it was never expected that the exchange would grow to its present proportions. The telephone company is giving more to its subscribers when it offers eight *hundred free telephones than when it had only seventy-five, and it is costing the company more per telephone to give this service. The company has forty-eight thousand dollars ($48,000) invested in this plant, and during a business existence of fourteen years, has never paid over a six per cent, dividend, and that only four of the fourteen years, and has been unable to accumulate any surplus whatever for natural depreciation and stohm calamities. It is estimated by the best authorities that a telephone plant depreciates ten per cent, per annum, and that to be on a sound business basis the company must accumulate a surplus pf that amount to take care of this depreciation. The Company is now facing a large financial loss' owing to the recent storm, and to repair this damage will necessitate the borrowing of the money to pay for it, and there is no possible way to pay this debt except to suspend all dividends until this loss is in this way cleared. Perhaps before it is paid another storm will wreck the plant again, and in the meantime there is a steady depreciation in the value of the property at the rate of at least |en per cent per annum These storms come periodically, and the damage resulting is necessarily a legitimate part of the operating expense, and if the revenue does not provide for these losses how can they be paid? This Company has suffered storm damage twice in two years, and a loss resulting will exceed eight thousand dollars ($8,000). Can any one suggest a method of meeting these losses except by providing a revenue sufficient to cover them? Does the public have any moral right to expect or demand that any public service corporation serve it without a fair return on the capital invested? A considerable part of the Company’s equipment is old and out of date, and the people have a right to expect and to demand modern, up-to-date telephone service, but the Company also has a right to expect a fair price for what they sell. It is proposed that if an increase in rate is granted, to rebuild the plant, put in a new and modern switch-board that will dispense with all ringing when “central” is called, simply remove the receiver and “central” is thereby notified that a connection is desired. All lines will be metallic, thereby removing all cross-talk and electric light noise. To make the lines metallic means two wires Instead of one, to each subscriber, thereby doubling the present wire mileage, and consequently requiring cable and more and heavier poles to carry the additional load. A large per cent of the bare wire now obstructing our streets will be removed and in their place cables will be strung. It is only a question of a comparatively short time until this plant will have to be rebuilt and modernized, and now when it is practically wrecked, seems the proper time to make this change. To repair it now, and then in a few years to throw this all away and modernize it then, seems a poor business policy. It is estimated that the advance in rates, which is only one and two-thirds cents per day per telephone, will enable the Company after its debts are paid, to pay a six per cent dividend and accumulate some surplus for renewal and storm damages. Surely six per cent is not an unreasonable income on capital invested in an undertaking as hazardous as the telephone business. The proposed improvement will necessitate the outlay of a sum estimated at' fifteen thousand ($15,000) dollars, and with the present franchise expiring

Continued on Third Page.

MORE WATER WAGON PASSENGERS

Whitley, Hancock and Shelby Hang Out the Dry Sign. The “jlry” counties in Indlapa under the epunty option law now number 31, Whitley, Hancock and Shelby counties having voted since our last issue and giving dry majorities of 1,150, 1,302, and 745, respectively. Thirteeen saloons are put out . business in Whitley, 12 in Hancock and 17 in Shelby, making a grand total of 466 saloons put out of business thus far by the county option vote. The following counties are to vote yet this month: Miami County, March 16; Greene County, March 23; Benton County, March 23; Montgomery County, March 23; Ohio County, March 24; Elkhart County, March 25; Jennings County, March 30; Bartholomew County, March 30; Vermillion County, March 30; Henry County, March 31.

Twenty-one counties and 1,800 saloons had been remonstrated out, making a total of 52 of the 92 counties in the state now dry and 2,266 bars closed. The counties voted dry are: Shelby, Whitley, Hancock, Marshall, Sullivan, Jay, Rush, Carroll, Gibson, Fayette, Fountain, Hendricks, Howard, Grant, Newton, Daviess, Adams, Randolph, , Noble, Hamilton, Tipton, Lawrence, Switzerland, Putnam, Decautr, Pike, Wabash, Huntington, Parke, Clinton, Morgan—Total, 31. Those remonstrated dry: Boone, Brown, Clay, Crawford, Dekalb, Fulton, Henry, Johnson, Kosciusko, Lagrange, Monroe, Orange, Owen, Pulaski, Scott, Steuben, Union, Warren, Wells, White, Washington—Total, '2l.

WHY DID THEY NOT ASK IT THEN?

In another column we present the “other side” of this telephone proposition. In our humble opinion, however, no city council should be permitted to vote away valuable franchises without the question having been submitted to a vote of the people of such city at an election held for the purpose. We have not the time to comment at length on this article, it having been handed us for publication but a short time before we go to press, but the statement that the present franchise was granted when there were but 75 phones here is an error, unless we ignore the fact that an extention of some ten years was granted under the old Tom McCoy regime of running city affairs, This extention was asked for by the present company and granted without any increase of rates then in force, and there ngist have been 500 phones in use here then.

ILLEGAL USE OF PUBLIC FUNDS.

Practically everyone in Jasper county knows the fight The Democrat has made during its eleven years of usefulness for the benefit of the general taxpayer, and the ineffectual efforts that have been made by its enemies to drive it out of business because of its w r ell known position against graft and steals of every kind and character. A part of this effort has been directed toward keeping of public printing to which this paper was entitled, from it and giving it to the so-called Democrat Sentinel, a sheet that is a libel on the name “newspaper” and which is not taken nor read by twenty-five democrats in the entire county; that no ( one subscribes for, reads or advertises in—for not a merchant or business man in Rensselaer advertises in its columns or has done so for j^ears. The law is that certain legal notices of a public character shall be published in the "two leading newspapers in the county representing the two political parties casting the greatest number of votes at the last preceding election,” the object being to place the matters published jsefore the greatest possible number of taxpayers of the county-r-the people who pay the expense of county government and who have a right to know where their money goes—as nearly every family in a county subscribes for and reads a county seat paper, either democratic or republican, and this law is supposed to give everyone an opportunity to, read such notices. By reason of the action of certain republican officials in this county, the democratic taxpayers of Jasper county have heen and are being deprived “of their rights and The Democrat is deprived- of the legal advertising to which it is entitled. During the almost eleven years The Democrat has been doing yeoman service for its constituency, and the general public as well, it has been repeatedly endorsed by the democratic county central committee as the leading and only recogniced democratic paper in Jasper county. During all this time

not a democratic officer having a legal notice required to be published in a democratic paper—and we have had during this time a county clerk four years and from five to eight township trustees—has been made in any other paper than The Democrat. Every official call for district, county, tojynship or city conventions have been made only through The Democrat. Its advertising columns have been filled with paid advertisements by all the leading business firms of Rensselaer, and at times by merchants in other towns in the county. It has by several hundred a larger paid subscription list than any other paper printed in the county and probably 100 times greater than the sheet in which these peanut politicians make the publications to which The Democrat is entitled—for we do not believe it has two t dozen paid subscriptions all told,

In view of all this, the action of the county commissioners last in ordering the financial statement for the past year made in the so-called Sentinel is most reprehensible. They knew when they made such order that they were deliberately violating both the spirit and letter of the law, which is intended to give publicity rather than secrecy. These men have a right to spend their own private funds as they please, but as public servants, handling the money of the tax-paying public, we do not believe they have a right either legal or moral to defraud a part of the people of the county in this way.

The county central committee is the only tribunal that has any authority to say what newspaper represents their party, and the fact that The Democrat has been time and agalh endorsed as such, that democratic county conventions have so endorsed it by resolution without a dissenting voice; that every democratic official for years has and still is regarding it as the only paper in Jasper county representing their party; the fact that it is a NEWSPAPER in all that the name implies, ought to convince any honest man or any court of justice that its claims are just and should be respected. We can get along without the few dollars these officials are wrongfully withholding from us in their efforts to set themselves up as greater than but the readers of The Democrat are entitled to this legal news that is being given elsewhere in an effort to annoy and cripple our news service, and the matter has reached a point where we propose to test the question in the courts and determine whether the officer is superior to the law which created him and can say this or that is so, because they chooses to say it is so. We regret to be forced to lake this step, but it seems the only recourse we have to get our rights, and the matter will be fully tested. So‘far as we know Jasper county is the only county in Indiana where a newspaper has been compelled to tfcke this-step, but there are few counties That have been blessed with such narrow-minded officers—or political bosses who control such officials—as Jasper.

PUBLIC SALES.

The Democrat has printed bills for the following public sales: Thursday, March 18, Hugh Brosnan, 3 miles west and 3 miles north of Rensselaer. General sale of horses, cattle, hogs, chickens, farm tools, household goods, etc. ENGRAVED CALLING CARDS. The Democrat has made arrangements with a large engraving house In Chicago whereby we can furnish engraved calling cards or" business cards, wedding invitations or announcement cards in any of the popular styles of engraving, at prices that will surprise you for this class of work. Engraved cards are the par excellence of the printing art, and when you have an engraved card you know that you have the very neatest and best there is to be had. Call and see samples and get our prices. public sale. I will offer at Public Sale at Rensselaer, east side of Public Square, on Saturday, March 13, 1909. at 2 o’clock p. m., the following* described property: 1 Team Horses, weighting 3100 pounds, bay horse 7 years old and grey horse 8 years old. 1 Cow. 1 Lumber Wagon, 4 inch tire, triple box. 1 Top Brfggy. 1 set Heavy Team Harness, 1 set Single Harness. 1 Hay Rack, and other articles. Terms—Six months credit will be given on sums over $lO without interest if paid when due, otherwise 8 per cent from date; 5 per cent off.for cash. THQS. LARSON. <#iwS| . - BIRTH ANNTJONCEMENTS. Saturday, March 8, to Mr. and Mrs. Bert Amsler, a son.

Vol. XI. No. 79.