Jasper County Democrat, Volume 12, Number 58, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 November 1909 — WIND DON’T BUILD RAILROADS. [ARTICLE]

WIND DON’T BUILD RAILROADS.

But why this unseemly haste to rush through that proposed electric railroad franchise? Nobody believes for a moment that the road will be built in a month, if at all. No harm can come in any way to the promotors or to Rensselaer by let* ting it take its regular course before the council and allowing every member to vote os he feels is right and proper. It takes something more than mere wind to build railroads, and,

candidly, that is all we believe there is behind this move. We have personly looked up the financial rating of Eugene Purtelle, the Chicago "board of trade” man who Beems to be the main “push,” and do not even find his name mentioned at all by Bradstreets, one of the recognized authorities on financial ratings in this country. We are also told by others that he has no financial standing. He is the reputed proprietor of something like a dozen branch "boards of trade” commonly called "bucket-shops,” in this section of Indiana, a business that is outlawed by public opinion if not by statute. George W. Goff, the Rensselaer director of the proposed railroad company, is his local manager of the Rensselaer bucket-shop, and is not generally credited with having any great amount of money to invest in building and equipping railroads. This franchise ties up Washington and South Vanßcnsselaer streets for three years. If ar>y other company with' ample capital and influence wanted to come here it could not enter the city over either of these streets without first making terms with Purtelle’s company. If his company is successful in securing franchises in all the towns in northwestern Indiana it will undoubtedly have something to sell that has cost it absolutely nothing when some company comes along that really has means behind it, or the latter company must wait until the Purtelle franchises expire. In any event, it would seem to us, it would be better as a semblance of good faith, to take the public into its confidence to some extent and not try to steal a franchise, as was done in Rensselaer. Such tactics do not promote confidence, and we believe it would be advisable for everyone to he a little careful about what they sign in granting, rights-of-way to this or any other company, for we want a north and south railroad and do not want to be too closely tied up when some company with ample backing comes along that really means business.