Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 41, Number 10, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 October 1908 — HANGING GROVE TOWNSHIP [ARTICLE]

HANGING GROVE TOWNSHIP

Omar Church is helping J. R. Phillips with some of his fall work. W- R- Willits is building a fine big •«ellar on his farm east of MeCoysl»urg. Eugene Smi h is doing the anaeon work. R. S. Drake hulled clover Friday -end Saturday. Trustee Cook wen; to Crawfordsville last week to buy a car load of sewer Coir road work. A three foot sewer 'will be put across the road south of HPI C. Rosse’s farm. There is a large swnount of water comes down ti e ditch ht this point and really a culvert would dome nearer carrying the water, but *ewer seemed easier to get, as lumjber is scarce and high priced. Mrs. Kate Parcels got her right Hand badly bruised Tuesday morn3»g, while assisting in giving a sick Horse some medicine. She was holding a rope and the horse lunged forward, drawing her hand over a timher, which resulted in the inju'y mentioned.

The soldiers marching from Fort JBenjamin Harrison enroute to Fort 'Sheridan, 111., passed through Hanging Grove about 10 o’clock Friday j morning. The men all seemed to be 3b fairly good spirits, save one or two that was a little footsore. One j man remarked as the soldiers were ( gtassing,“yes that's nice to look at but we have to pay for their fun.” Hard- j 9r had he finished this remark, till ( another man asked him, “who would protect us in case of war?” And the •oldiei-s were marching on. The Winamac Bridge Co., have unloaded the lumber and part of the steel beams for the fridge across the dredge ditch. Mr. and Mrs. P. B. Downs returned Shame Sunday morning from a visit at Lafayette. Mrs. Dan Robinson and children “'•felted at J. R. Phillips Friday. Dan &as traded for a store near Bluff ton ! this state, and the family will locate 1 there soon. Mr. Hobbs, of Kersey, did some Purvey work on the Gifford right-of-vway,, .south of McCoysburg last week. * -J’rank W. Fisher, of Tefft, came down Saturday to see after his ' Jam. Mr. and Mrs. Lockwood are visiting at R. B. Porter's. Mich. Ringeisen is getting along sicely with his barn, and will soon fcave it completed. C. W. Bussell now has a phone on Ihe long distant line between Rensselaer and Med&ryville, and C. C. Hand e and Jerome Harmon 1 have Leen Pttaci.ed to the line between Rensselaer and Monon. Very fhw phones Site on these lines, hence they surely will get good service. The “night riders" or bee robbers, that was made mention of in lest Wedsesday’s Democrat, proved- to be a son of the owner of the land and 1 snother party. The owner got the 1 Money and the other fellow got the 1 bees. The only trouble stirred up 1 was with the bees, two or three of the buzy insects bit a Il’tle hard on their intruders. ; , Mr. Floyd Porter and Miss Grace Peregrine, a young couple <. f cur t >wn-1 ship, sprung a neat little surprise on ' their friends Saturday afternoon when they went to Rensselaer and were ■harried at 2 p. m. Returning to the bride’s home the same evening, where * gay crowd of young folks gathered about 8 o’clock and pounded tin- I pans etc., until they were let in and treated to candy and cigar s

*T r Bryan’s Trust “Remedy.’* Apart from Bryan's acknowledgement that It would take him about two yearn, even with a friendly house of representatives, to begin to do anything in the way of inflicting his “vagaries," as Governor Hughes calls them, on the American people, his scheme for “preventing" trusts has attracted most attention during his late visit to New York. Bryan and the Democratic platform propose to “prevent” trusts by prohibiting any corporation from doing more than 50 per cent of the - domestic business In any particular line. That is, one corporation could appropriate for itself only one-half of the home market. Even were such a restriction constitutional and practicable there wo.pld be uotbiug to stop another corporation under the same control from doing the other 50 per cent of the business. The scheme would, however, be utterly Impracticable. Say John Jones and John Smith own a patent for manufacturing an article that comes into general demand- They have a monopoly of all the business in that line in the United States. Does Bryan propose to compel them to part with half their business to Bryan and a following of “grafters” waiting for such chanees? Of course Jones and Smith would not do it, and no court iu America would order tbem to do It. Bryan, being a lawyer, ought to know that the business of any concern Is a valuable asset, treated as property by the courts Ma twaglit and sold as property. If conducted In a lawful manner the business is legitimate, no matter how enormous. The extent of a business does not constitute a wrong, provided the business has been acquired by methods not in of law and equity. Whether a business be great or small. If conducted In an Illegal manner, those guilty of the Illegal acts should be punished. Bryan and the Bryan platform assume that because a business is a monopoly—and, as we have pointed out, the manufacture and sale of every patented article is a monopoly —half of that business should be confiscated.

Remarkable how Bryan and bis platforms stick to the 50 per cent confiscation programme! He wanted to take 50 per cent off the value of every dollar of American money twelve and eight years ago, and now he wants to take away 50 per cent fit the business of any one who has a monopoly, even though it may be only a patented toy or toothpick. It may be assumed that Bryan sees the absurdity of it all himself and knows that he is simply trying to fool his bearers into believing that he really means to do something terrible to the trusts if the people will give him a chance. He is mistaken, however. The people are not such fools as he thinks; they are not so readily deceived, and the count of votes on the night of Nov. 3 will remind him sharply that it is no easier to mislead the American electorate now than it was in 1896 and 1900. If Bryan means What he says, he would be as dangerous in the White House as a Moro running amuck in an American garrison in the Philippines. "If Bryan does not mean what he says, he is a humbug and a charlatan. In either caSe the only course for the self respecting voter Is to give his ballot for Taft, whose public career is his platform and whose principles are as honestly entertained as they are sound and consistent.