Jasper County Democrat, Volume 18, Number 3, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 April 1915 — CONFLICTING STATEMENTS. [ARTICLE]

CONFLICTING STATEMENTS.

Railroad Promoter Condemns Sub- - sidy Proposition. O. L. Brown, chief promotor of the so-called Lafayette ft Northwestern (paper) Railroad Co., may now say that ;he never told anyone that his company would not ask for subsidies and that he never authorized anyone else to make such statements, but scores of as reliable people as we have in Jasper county will make oath to the contrary. They will also testify, if asked, that Mr. Brown not only made such remarks time and again and denounced the subsidy proposition in almost every conceivable manner, even going so far as to state that he did not believe that a subsidy could be collected by law; that it was taking money from the pockets of the taxpayers and giving it to a private corporation, and if contested in the courts he was positive the law would be declared unconstitutional. Mr. Brown claims to be a lawyer, and his opinion in this matter was no doubt based on a careful investigation of the law. He and his colleague, Mr. Peoples, gave an interview to the Logansport Journal , about February 20, 1914, regarding their proposal to build a railroad through this vicinity, following precisely the same route or line as at present proposed from Rensselaer to Kankakee, in which the Journal quotes Mr. Peoples as saying:

“Peoples was informed that Logansport people had"frequently been called upon to discuss paper railroads and such discussion always -ended in bonus talk. iHe said: ’Well, in times past that plan worked well often, but things have changed in the traction business. A bonus is a bad proposition for two reasons. If the rdad is a good thing and can be built front righty of way to time table at the right figure, a bonus is unnecessary.. If there is no real field for the road the bonus is a bad thing for the community giving it. If this proposed line on which we are working materializes, I ASSURE YOU THAT THERE WILL BE NO SUCH THING AS A BONUS FIGURE IN IT.”,’ Now, after all the evidence to the contrary, Mr. Brown has the unlimited nerve, according to the Rensselaer Republican, to call The Democrat man a liar, in effect, when the latter stated that he (Brown) had made the statement time and again that his road would not ask for subsidies.” The statement has also been made

by friends of the subsidy proposition that Brown would put up bonds to cover the cost of the elections asked for in Jasper county, as has been done by him or by the petitioners in the three townships in White county in which elections have been called, but HE HAS NOT DONE SO. In view of all this, will the people of Newton tp., or the other townships in neighboring counties where elections have been called, place any confidence in anything that Mr. Brown may say? Isn’t it about time for the people to sit down on these promotors who are putting them to the trouble and expense of holding subsidy elections so frequently? It is probable that some of these days some real, practical railroad men, with plenty of capital behind them, will want to build a railroad through this section of country, and will do so without calling upon the taxpayers for subsidies. When that time comes, do the people of Rensselaer or Newton township—or even the other townships in which subsidies are being asked , for In neighboring counties—want to be tied up in such shape that no other road can build within a certain number of miles of a “blue-print” line of mere promotors? Mr. Brown himself used this same argument against the proposed Indiana Northwestern Traction Co., which, so far as the public knows, had as much behind it at least as Mr. Brown’s company has. If the argument was good against the Indiana Northwestern Traction Co.—good enough, it seems, for Mr. Brown to use at that time —why is It not good argument now to use against his company? It is no doubt true that 90 per cent of our people would like to see an electric line go through here, and they care nothing about who builds It. They do object, however, to being “played horse” with, by every bunch of promotors that springs up. And as Mr. Peoples stated to the Logansport Journal, a bonus (subsidy) is a bad proposition. “If there Is a field for the road, a bonus is unnecessary; if there is no real field for the railroad a bonus is a bad thing for the community giving it.”