Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 40, Number 57, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 March 1908 — The Saloon Applications In Union. [ARTICLE]

The Saloon Applications In Union.

In no township in Jasper county should there be any going backwards in the matter of temperance. There are two applications pending in Union township, that of Chas. A. Gundy to conduct a saloon at Fair Oaks and that of Joseph H. Conway to engage in the liquor traffic at Parr. Mr. Gundy publishes his notice in the Rensselaer Republican and Mr. Conway employs the Jasper County Democrat to publish his notice. It is two years since the remonstrance was filed in that township and during that time the towns have been practically free from the sale of liquor and have been much beter off tjjan they would have been had the liquor shop maintained. Every youth in the neighborhood of the two towns is free from the temptation that always exists where there is a saloon, the old topers have largely sobered lipT aud men who • preyiously spent their money and time in the saloons are now spending it at their homes. Union township is a growing township, its farms have been improved by drainage, and its population has increased and its business has enhanced and more of the money of its good people has gone for groceries and dry goods than ever before, and Union township should not back up on this kind of progress. The return of the saloon will place temptation in the way of the young men and entice those who have reformed during the saloons absence back to the old haunts. In Borne years gone by there used to be some very bad occurrences at Fair Oaks and the saloons or the liquor bought at them were to blame. But there have been no disgraceful df fairs there in recent years—not since the saloons went out. The refusal to grant a license to an applicant is no guarantee that there will be no liquor sold or drank in a community, and there is usually a little effort made in a spirit of rebellion to show how much can be brought into a community, but this effort soon wears out and most of the drinkers soon come to their senses and realize that the benefit of not having the liquor close's!Hand is an important one to themselves. There are localities where the hardest drinkers have been the most ardent In favor of getting rid of the saloons, their idea being to take the temptation out of the way. It has been said that in some pices the breweries and their agents are spending a great amount of money to reinstate the Baloons and the good people should all get active and watch this up. There are probably very few people that could be bought to take sides against what they believe to be right, and Union township farmers and business men will not sell themselves, but will beyond most doubt, meet these applications with crushing defeats^— ..