Jasper County Democrat, Volume 17, Number 91, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 February 1915 — W. L. Wood's Subsidy Election Bill Recommended for Passage. [ARTICLE]

W. L. Wood's Subsidy Election Bill Recommended for Passage.

. • ■ ’ • • . . • •. Representative W. L. Wood's bill, | regarding subsidy elections, passed 1 the committee without a scratch, and came up for second reading Tuesday. ’*r. Wood writes The Democrat that be believes it will pass! the house with a good majority. This bill places the costs of holding subsidy elections on the petitioners, where the proposition fails to carry, and it is likely to cause people to hesitate about signing a petition for such an election when there is a prospect of their having to pgy the costs. v It is said that there are but three states now permitting the voting, of a tax upon the people of a-Commun-ity to give to private corporations, and Indiana is one of these. The people of certain sections of Jasper county have been hounded for years

■ • '■■ '• \ •• u* by subsidy hunters, and while this proposition has always carried in Rensselaer, where there are a bunch of easy marks who bite on fake proposition that conies along and would vote for anything that would take money out of the pockets of the taxpayers and. give it to a bunch of strangers, we have heard a great many people express themselves in the past year against voting for any more subsidies, The statement that it costs but S4O or SSO to hold a subsidy election is very erroneous. The notice of election alone costs from $25 to S3O; the printing of the ballots is from $lO to S2O more. Tho per diem of the members of the election board and meals is about $25 to the precinct, ahd in Marion , township, where rooms must be hired for holding the elections, $5 more per precinct must be added. It will thus bo seen that it costs over S6O per precinct in townships where there is but one pr» - cinet, while, in Marion tp., the cost of holding a special elect ion is; about S2OO, la addition to all this is tho loss of time and trouble of coming to tho voting place of the voters should be taken into consideration.

This proposition of giving away the people’s money, or taking it from many of them against their will, bo the per cent large or small, is altogether wrong and should not be permitted by our statutes. So far as Rensselaer is concerned, it is probable that another railroad through herlS would benefit tho town to some extent; on the other hand we must not lose sight of tho fact that it would also cut off much of the trade we are now receiving by reason of little stations springing up along the line. Rensselaer has the largest territory to draw from, we believe, of any town in the state, and a territory, too, that is Improving all the time. If some of the people—and, unfortunately, a few of them are businessmen, too—who sit around and whittle store boxes and whine that “another railroad would cure all our ills,” —would reach out ana try to take advantage of the opportunities that we now have instead of chasing rainbows, Rensselaer might soon become a much better town than it is, and it now enjoys the distinction of being “the best town on the Monon.”

With our improved roads and the methods of transportation which we now have, with thousands of the farmers and people who have money to spend owning automobiles, if we jffer them inducements and win 'reach out after their trade, as we should, and keep persistently at it, treating them cordially and fairly wten they come here, Rensselaer will stay on the map regardless of whether we get another »ailroad through here or not. And whenever the proposition looks good enough to capitalists—whenever they see that it is a proposition that will pay them—tho railroad will come without our getting down on Our knees and handing over our pocketbooks to the promotors. That old gospel hymn, “If You Cannot, on the Ocean Sail Among the Swiftest Fleet, Riding on the llighesi Billows, Laughing at tho Storms You Meet,” etc, is very applicable to Rensselaer and every other town that is inclined to indulge in rainbow chasing.