Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 41, Number 65, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 May 1909 — JASPER COUNTY TO CONTINUE “DRY” [ARTICLE]

JASPER COUNTY TO CONTINUE “DRY”

Sixty-Three Per Cent of the Voters at Saturday’s Election are Against the Licensed Saloon

A SMALL VOTE CAST Two Townships and One Precinct In Union Voted “Wet” But All Others Were “Dry” By Good Majorities. The official “dry” majority in Jasper county is 590. This is not at much as many had thought and not so much as many had hoped, but i: sufficient to show that this county it against the licensed saloon and it satisfied with the conditions that have existed here for the past two or more years. Both Rensselaer and Marion town ship and Remington and Carpentef township gave big majorities against the saloons and as these were 4.h< places where the majority of the sa loons of the county were formerly located it seems that their abolition has had the beneficial affect of creating a conviction with the people that the saloons are undesirable. At Wheatfleld, where the saloons were defeated by remonstrance, a determined effort was made by friends of the saloon to carry the township for the “wets” and the effort was successful, the township giving a negative vote with a majbrity of 17. Walker township, which also has been saloonless for some time, gave a “wet” majority of 18. There are a numbe: of foreigners in that township. Nortl Union township, including the towr of Fair Oaks, gave a “wet” majority of 3, and it is saitl that a great effort was made by the saloon sympathizers at that place and that the dries did not work together very well. South Union, however, cast a good vote, be ing dry by 54, and making the town ship “dry” by 51. The appended table shows the result by precincts. The total vote at shown is 2,286, but there were about

twenty mutilated ballots that were not counted. The vote last November in this, county was 3,504. So it will be seen that about 1,200 or more than one-third of the voters of the county failed to vote. In some townships only about one-third voted. The effect in this county is that no saloons can be run for two years, and not at that time unless another election is held and it goes “wet.” Jasper county seems quite thoroughly intrenched in the “dry” column. Not an unpleasant incident marred the election at any precinct and there was a very friendly feeling between the temperance workers and the sympathizers with the other side of the question. Jasper county was the 51st to vote against the saloons; 4 have voted for them; 11 countieE are “dry” by remonstrance and election dates have been set in six others. The other counties of the state have taken no action against the saloons. Dry Wet Maj Marion, 1 149 63 96 Marion, 2 131 105 26 Marion, 3 86 46 4(5 Marion, 4 89 53 36 Carpenter, E 106 49 57 Carpenter, W 88 29 59 Carpenter, S ..100 41 59 Barkley, E 35 27 8 Barkley, W 54 33 21 Union, N 45 48 *3 Union, S ...... 90 36 54 Jordan 50 21 29 Milroy 19 11 8 Hanging Grove 40 16 24 Newton 63 31 32 Gillam 58 21 37 Walker ~. 34 52 *lB Wheatfleld 77 94 *l7 Kankakee 45 22 23 Keener 79 60 19 1,438 848 848 Dry majority 590 * “Wet” majorities.