Jasper County Democrat, Volume 18, Number 28, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 July 1915 — WHAT DOES RENSSELAER AND MARION TOWNSHIP GAIN? [ARTICLE]

WHAT DOES RENSSELAER AND MARION TOWNSHIP GAIN?

Voters Should Consider These Matters Before Casting Their Ballots Next Wednesday. On next Wednesday, July 14, Marion tp., and Rensselaer >will vote on the proposition of giving $61,000 of their hard-earned money free gratis and lor nothing to the so-called Lafayette & Northwestern Railroad, as a donation to said road for building a line through our township and the westerly side of Rensselaer. Before casting their votes on the proposition the question of what we are to get in return and what advantages it will be to us, should be carefully gone . over by the voters. They should remember that the matter of voting aid or subsidies to private corporations—or a quasipublic corporation, as a railroad company is considered in law—has long since become unpopular in most of our states, and, quoting Mr. Brown, the chief promotor of the railroad now asking us for $61,000, there are but three states in the Union that now permit such an imposition to be foisted upon the people Illinois on our west, does not permit of the taking of money from one’s pocket against his will by this means, as Mr. Brown himself admitted when before the Lafayette Chamber of Commerce a few days ago, and he could therefore get no subsidies from the state line on to Kankakee, the

northern terminus of the proposed road. The law permitting it in Indiana v,as passed nearly 50 years ago, in iB6O, when there was not he Capital waiting profitable investment such as there is today and our state was in need of better railroad :acilities to develop the country. Now, what advantages does this proposed road offer to the citizens of Rensselaer or Marion township? It gives us connection with Wolcott on the south, a town in another county with which we have nothing in common, and which has nothing in common with us, and there would probably not be one passenger a day, on an average, between the two towns. ThenroacTTs'supposed" To run to'tSn' fayette, which would be the next town on the south we could reach by this road, if built. But we already have splendid railroad service over the Monon to Lafayette and all intervening points along the Monon road. it would give us, if it were built, railroad connection with Mt. Ayr, Morocco and Kankakee-—after we had gone a half-mile from the court house to take a car on said road. But we have railroad connections now whereby we can reach all three of those towns by rail and get home the same day, while we have gravel and stone roads connecting us with Mt. Ayr and Morroco, so that a tri]) to either of those places by automobile is of small moment. In fact, an auto-bus service has been estab-1 lished and is now in operation be-' tween Rensselaer and both these towns; .' . -. ■ The road, if built at all, must go over the line of the profile filed with the clerk of the Jasper circuit court when asking for the election, and this profile, as previously stated by The Democrat, shows that it runs in a diagonal direction across the county from Wolcott and cuts tip all the lands through which it passes in such a way as to damage them many times more than any value they would receive by the construction of the road. It runs several hundred feet west of the Indian school; about 1 1 mile east of St. Joseph college, and passes through Rensselaer nearly a half-mile west of the court house, crossing McCoy 1 avenue near the old A. McCoy homestead, runs on north along the east Weston cemetery, and its nearest point to the Monon railroad is several hundred feet west of the Monon depot. Therefore it gives ; no accommodations whatever to the very few people here who would care to go any place that the proposed road is to run, should it be constructed. The Democrat does not believe that there is any more prospect of this road ever being constructed than there has been of the many other lines of “paper railroad" projected through Rensselaer. Should the tax be voted, however, it simply means that this company has the matter tied up so that no other railroad could get in here for perhaps several years, and it may be that one of these days some “real railroad" will conie along and want to go through Rensselaer. Under the present law—thanks to Hon. W. L. Wood—these blue-print paper railroad proinotors must put up a bond covering the expenses of holding the election in the event the proposition does not carry; if it carries, the expense of holding the election is taken out of the money raised by the tax levied, should it progress far enough for the tax levy to be placed on the duplicate. Should it not get this far:—and none of them have in the past twenty years —the taxpayers are again stuck for the expense, the same as they have been in the past. Therefore, the only way for the voters to place this expense where it properly belongs, is to defeat the proposition: The proposed road, npuid it ever be constructed, is pl hot one penny’s benefit to Rensselaer or Marion township-—in fact, it would be a detriment to us because it would no doubt be the means of keeping us from securing a road; some of these days that would con-i nect us with Remington and thus be of accommodation to us; If the farmers of Marion tp. will turn out next Wednesday they will find that Rensselaer is not going to be so foolish this time as she has been in the past, and that they will secure much help right here in defeating this proposition. Scores of Rensselaer people who have always supported these subsidy schemes in the past, are now openly’ opposing this one and their vote, will be cast against it. Let the farmers all turn out next Wednesday and w*e believe that the worst proposition ever presented to Rensselaer along this line will be voted down by a good substantial majority.