Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1906-01-05

and we will endow number OF de-
serving institutions into the bargain,
I'll tell you that" said S. S. Davis of
the Peoples Power company to an Ar
gus representative. No sir" he went
on, ''its nothing but dream. Moth
ing of the sort has ever been submit
ted formally to the directors of the
companies with which | am connected
or talked over privately among them
so far as | know. Neither has sin
gle share of stock been sold by any of
the 800 stockholders in the three cities
to my knowledge. s
I'll tell you just what has passed
between us and George kobusch, OF
st. Louis, who is mentioned as one of
those chiefly interested. Several weeks
ago Kobusch came here and asked our
terms. We told him the same story
as we tell ali others who approach us
in the same manner. AT the same
time Kobusch was here it happened
that there were two others here On
the same kind of mission. One was
from Boston and the other from New
York Neither knew that the other
was in the city. l may add that hard
ly week passes that some bond house
does not have man here to look over
the field and get our terms for the sale
of our properties. We tell them all the
same thing and never hear of them
again.
well, Kobusch returned to st.
Louis and a couple of weeks afterward
letter came from him. l did not
think it worth while to submit it to
the directors and did not do so. 1t
was given absolutely no consideration
1t has never been answered.
"Kobush tells me the Washes who
own or control the Davenport & Subur-
ban railway aid the Davenport Gas &
Electric company across the river, have
been to him with proposition but that
he has not given them any satisfaction.
kObusch Denies 1t.
when this story came out last
night l called up Kobusch by phone,
because if there was any pie cutting
going on | wanted to know about it,
and get in. l found out that the news
was too good to be true. Kobusch told
me that month ago all five of the
Washes came to see him with refer
ence to the sale of their property, but
they had nothing to offer that looked
good to him. There was no business
transacted, so Kobusch told me, and
just a few days ago one of the mem
bers of the Walsh family again went
to st. Louis with a proposition. but
Jared no better than all did on the pre-
vious visit Furthermore, Kobusch
told me that he was not associated
with George Edwards & Sons and Ed
ward Hidden, all of st. Louis, who are
mentioned in the published story as
having interested themselves in the
supposed deal in the three cities. But
noticed a week or so ago that a new
company called the Peoples Gas .& I'm
provement company had been organ
lied by the Washes at Clinton. 1t is
capitalized at 100000. Both Edwards
G Sons and Hidden are connected with
this.
The fact is that the Washes want
to sell their holdings and and have
been for some time looking for some
one on which to unload them. They
may be trying for consolidation such
as has been suggested for the three
cities, but so far they haven't got any
concerns other than the ones they al
ready control into it. But, as | said
before, if they have found the man
with s10.000,000 to spend we will listen
to him
Walsh is Reticcnt.
j. w. Walsh. of the Davenport Gas
& Electric company, when asked by
The Argus today for a statement said:
I'VE can't say a word about this mat
ter. No, nor about the new Clinton
corporation either Not word for the
present.
The Tri-City Railway company is. of
course, the largest and the most inn
port of the corporations involved in
the alleged merger. it's capital in
stocks and bonds being $2,50O,O0 and
its trackage amounts to 65 miles in
the three cities and contingent terri
tory. The Davenport & Suburban
claims a capital of $1,400.OO0, with
eight miles of track on the Davenport
side exclusively. The Peoples Power
company of this city has a capitaliza-
ton of $1,000,000, while the Peoples
Light company in Davenport is capital
lied at $350,000. The Davenport Gas
& Electric companys capital is $780,
O00
Would Prove Unpopular.
1t is almost needless TO say that
such an amalgamation as is spoken
of would SO far as Rock Island is con,
cerned, at least, prove both unpopular
and unfortunate. in the first place.
the merger idea is not popular one in
the country anywhere, and its execu-
ton has never been attended by re-
suits advantageous to the people, the
almost invariable rule being the reduc-
ton and restriction of public convent
ence and accommodation, and the run
ming down of the property for the sake
of running up the profits In the sec
ond place the consolidation of light
and traction companies has never
oil h. lot . LA