Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 41, Number 114, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 October 1909 — Something About the “Boy” Candidates for City Councilmen. [ARTICLE]

Something About the “Boy” Candidates for City Councilmen.

The criticism is made from democratic sources that all of the republican candidates for ward council positions and one of the councilmen at large candidates are boys. Let .us see. George W. Hopkins, nominee in the first ward, is 35 years of age, was born and brought up in Rensselaer, and no young man in the city has a better record for business application than he. Mr. Hopkins has been a drug clerk for many years and his ability to successfully manage his affairs is proven by his success. He is in the first rank of fine citizenship and there is no reason to doubt his ability to serve the property owners of the first ward capably and honestly and the entire city with honor. ElZie Grow, the candidate in the second ward, is 35 years of age. He has been employed at the Babcock & Hopkins elevator for the' past ten years as bookkeeper and weighmaster and has, conducted a coal business for himself on the side. He built a home for himself across the railroad and lived in it until he saw a favorable opportunity to buy a home nearer the central part of the city, which he did almost two years ago. He bought the Mrs. C. L. Benjamin property, on Cullen street at that time and has occupied it since, renting his other property. It will thus be seen that he is interested in the material welfare of the city and qualified to have a voice in the councils that control it. Mr. Grow is another young man who has grown up in Rensselaer and whose life is an open book, from the pages of which may be read a life of industry, thrift and success, the very things that are needed in the administration of a city. Frank G. Kresler, the candidate in the third ward, is the youngest of the candidates, being 28 years of age. He was born in the country not far from Rensselaer and has lived here ever since. He has grown up from the ranks of clerk in a general store and the owner of a small news business, later as a partner with G. B. Porter in the dry goods and shoe business, and finally into the bus line business, which he bought about two years ago. Mr. Kresler has the very qualities that should commend him to the voters. He is a hustler, a hard worker, a good thinker and these qualities have made him a successful business man. During the few years since he attained his majority he has acquired a fine residence property, a bus line business and a farm of 80 acres. This is a record few have made at his age and if elected a councilman he will undoubtedly employ the same business sagacity in the management of the city’s affairs that he has in the conduct of his own-business. His citizenship, too, ranks high in quality and he is one of the most respected young business men in Rensselaer. Dr. A. G. Catt is 31 years of age and is another sample of the Rensselaer self-made man. He is the son of Allen Catt and was one of quite a large family and found it necessary to get out and hustle early in life. He learned the jewelry trade, but later worked for some time as a barber, and saved his money until he could get a start in the jewelry business, which he did several years ago. During the time he was in the jewelry business in a small town In Illinois he made a study of the eye and decided that he would become an eye specialist. He did something then that not many men would think of doing and which requires the kind of nerve that tests a man out. He was married and engaged in a successful business, but he sold out his business, moved to a college city and used the money he had saved in acquiring an education as an optician. After his graduation he came to Rensselaer and located, in the face, of plenty of opposition, but he had confidence in himself and he has lived here ever since, building up a splendid practice in his profession and establishing himself as one of our successful citizens. During this time he has bought and paid for a nice home on River street, which is one of the best kept premises in Rensselaer. This is another case where determination and industry has brought about a success and where the voter can well expect honest representation on jthe city council. „ These are‘the "boy" candidates referred to by a democratic newspaper. They range from 28 to 36 years of age, have all been raised in Rensselaer, have all made excellent business successes and rank in the front row of fine citizenship. This criticism of youth comes as a strange objection from a party that nominated a school boy 21 Fears of age for state representative a year ago. Consistency is evidently a small quality in the objections from democratic sources. The other candidates, Charles J. Dean, as councilman at large; George F. Meyers, as mayor; Charles Morlan, as clerk; and Ray D. Thompson, as treasurer, are of equally high standing, and all of them successful in a , business way and of unquestioned trustworthiness. It is a ticket from top to bottom that a man could get out and shout for and that voters irrespective of party will delight in casting their ballots for, This "boyish” crttlclsm is a very puerile form of objection.