Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1899-12-19
The Fight In Davenport.

A telephone war is in sight for
Davenport; in fact, IS already here,
and business men are beginning to
consider the probable end of the mat
ter. There is no doubt that the new
company that has located here and
has opened quarters in the McCul-
loug building, means business. Men
are behind it who have capital, and
thew are men who have had expert
ence in telephone work in Iowa and in
other states. The Iowa Telephone
company admits this fact, and the
officers of the company state that
hard fight will be on should the COM
pany ever get located here. That the
company Will get in there seems to be
little doubt Business men state that
they can see no reason why a new
company that offers the right induce
ments should not get foothold in the
city and do away with monopoly
The new company has a large and
cons family increasing list of sub
scrlbers. and thus far, the downtown
business houses have been solicited
alone. What the company will do in
the residence portion of the city re-
mains to be seen, but in other cities
where opposition companies have
sprung up, the greatest numbe of
su bscribers have been among those in
the residence portion of the city,
where the cheaper prices offered have
power to cause many to forget their
allegiance TO the older company.
A reporter for the Times called on
Auditor Dalzell, of the Iowa Telephone
company. in his office today, and
questioned him Ill regard to the atti-
tude the Iowa company would assume
toward the new company. I'VE have
little to say" said MIR. Dalzell IF
the company gets foothold in the
city and starts active competition we
will fight them. We have done it
elsewhere, and we can do it here if it
becomes necessary. All that we will
have to say to the citizens of Daven-
port is: We are here to stay. We
will not be run out of the city, hap
pen what may. The Iowa Telephone
company has it's headquarters in Dav-
export, and is largely a Davenport
institution. Whether you patronize
our company or another company,
the result with US will be the same.
We will remain.
The Iowa company has always
treated the Davenport people right.
We have regular rates, and we can
not consistently charge less. Should
material necessary to the life of a tele-
phone company be so reduced in price
we would be able to cut prices lower
than at present. We have few COM
plants from patrons, and l think we
give as good service as the best.
Should the city allow US an ordinance
which we have desired for some time,
we stand ready to put in conduit
system, such as the larger cities en-
Joy, at a cost OF at least 500 900. Will
the new company promise TO do the
same?
L do not know what the new COM
pany proposes to do here. The men
that are behind the proposition are
men who have been interested in such
work before and our company has
been forced into opposition with them
in several parts of the state. We have |
always met them fairly and squarely, |
and can DO so in Davenport, if the |
necessity arises. The best that the |
people of the city can hope for in the |
allowing of another company admis- |
sion here is that the business men and |
many of the houses will have two
phones where they have but one. The |
price will be cut. We, of course, will |
have to follow the example of the new |
company in that particular. Yet, |
with that, it may easily be seen that
both companies will cut prices one
half and the result will be that the |
majority of users will have two phones
to use where they had one before.
This may sound very nice. but there
never was q business man in the state |
that had to undergo the nuisance of
the use of two phones that did not
wish the opposition company had new
er struck town. "-Davenport Times. !