Jasper County Democrat, Volume 18, Number 21, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 June 1915 — A FEW PERTINENT QUESTIONS. [ARTICLE]

A FEW PERTINENT QUESTIONS.

Now that O. L. .Brown, the Lafayette and Northwestern railroad promoter, is asking the taxpayers of j Rensselaer and Marion township to give hint some $61,000 of their hard-! earned money to run his proposed i road here from Wolcott and through! the west side of Rensselaer, he he should be willing to give our people a little more information regarding the present status of his company and at the same time tell us what official position he himself occupies in the said company. In the first place, who' is Ihe president of the organization at this time, as The Democrat understands that I)r. Pettigrew of Logansport, who was the president when the company was first organized, resigned some time ago and got out of the company? If a new president has been elected in Dr. Pettigrew’s place, when was he elected and who composed the board of directors at the time his successor was elected? Who, if anyone, has succeeded directors, A. P. Rainier, Bert Sheets and W. T. Elmore of Remington, all of whom The Democrat is reliably informed resigned and got out of the company several months ago? If their successors have been elected, by whom, when and where were they elected? , WJio are the present j board of directors of the company and where are they located? ( The Democrat understands that May 7 last was the regular date for the annual stockholders’ meetins Was a call for this meeting ever made or published and was such a meeting held? If so, when and where, and who were the officers elected at the meeting? What amount of stock has already been issued and what per cent of the stock isued has been paid in? Who are the present stockholders in the company and how many shares of the stock do they hold? If the bonds could not be floated

to build such a road through Rensselaer and Ja-per county when money matters were easier and he business interests of the country were not unsettled by reason or the great European war and the possibility of our own country being drawn Into it ere it is over, what assurances can you or the president or officers of your company give us that you can secure the balance of the money to build and equip this road shoulu y.e give you < of our money.' 'ln conclusion; do not avoid these question by saying it i« none of our d business, but answer them all fully and frankly, that the voters here may have an intelligent understanding of the matter and know whether you are the whole works or, have a lull force of officers behind you, and who those; officers are. Remember that the people whose money you are asking for have a moral right to know and should know something more about your company than they now do. and, if you are honest and sincere you will U'’'' he-; it ate to be frank with them.

Over in White county one-balf of the subsidy tax recently voted for the so-ealed Lafayette, & Northwestern Railroad, in Princeton and Round Grove townships, was ordered placed on the tax duplicate by the county commissioners at their session last week, and will be collected by the county treasurer the coming winter, when the 11* 14 taxes are collected. The other half is to be levied next year. Now if this road is never constructed, so that the money may he paid over to the company, the amounts will probably in time be paid back to the taxpayers, but it is a “long way to Tipperary,“ and some of it will never get back to the pockets of those who paid it in. People of Jasper county once had some experiencel with the old “Continental’’ railroad, where the tax was levied and collected and the road never built, so The Democrat, is informed, and our older citizens still rememjber about it. By the way, the promotors I of the L. A- N. W. R. R. Co. did not, | apparently, consider the people over in White county such easy marks as those of Rensselaer, as they only asked for per cent in Wolcott and Princeton tp„ instead of 2 per cent as here.

And now Chicago has a big street railway stfike on its hands, 14,500 men quitting, their jobs on the surface and elevated railroad systems of that city at midnight Sunday night, and thereby tleing up the entire street railway system of the city. As The Democrat has stated many times, we. must have compulsory arbitration laws to settle these labor disputes, and pending the time the matters are being arbitrated work shall go on the same as before. The people will not much longer stand for the paralyzing of the entire business and industries of a city or community at the behest of a few “walking delegates.”

Let The Democrat supply you with typewriter ribbons and carbon papers. We have ribbons for all makes of standard typewriters, and handle the very grade of carbon papers.