Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1908-10-05

! A good name is more to be valued
than great riches. The chief asset of the
first annual Rock Island Exposition,
in the face of contrary elements is a
good name. This is of far more i'm
portance than the tangible assets pre-
served by the company in ground i'm
provements of substantial and per-
manent nature with which to start an
other year. Greatest of all honor is
reputation, and reputation, added rep
utetion is what the Exposition has
| brought to itself and to the city.
Confronted by disadvantages which
no man can control. the Exposition
has come through unscathed 1t has
made good. 1t has lived up to its
promises, its advertisements anu more
1t has exceeded anticipations. many
times. Who was not pleased with it?
Who was not delighted with it? Who
was not proud of it?
And the people of Rock Island stood
by it nobly In shivering cold and
piercing wind, they showed their ap-
probation and appreciation of the en-
terprise. The people of Rock Island
| were game. They stood by their own
institution. Hardly more gratifying
| than this fact was the spirit of CO.
operation with which Moline and Mo-
line people entered into the spirit of
the undertaking. Without interest in
| the proposition other than a neigh
borly feeling, they cooperated in the
effort that makes for success. They
patroniZed the Exposition literally
They participated in the contests of
various natures. The extremely
| in sending down his firemen to take
part in the fire department events
proved a strong evidence of friend
| ship. Mayor Scott of Davenport like
| wise gave his sanction to the fire de-
partment contests as far as the rep
resentatives of the department on that
| side of the river We're concerned.
| Davenport entered, too, in numerous
of the track events and won much
favor. 1t is to be regretted that the
people as a whole in Davenport did
not see fit to extend the patronage
that the Exposition on the square ques-
| ton of merit deserved Davenport,
| however, has suffered from the car
nival fever this fall Two street fairs,
| the first held there in many years,
| one exactly a month ahead of Rock
| Islands Exposition and one a week
| in advance of it to the day, the latter
passing under the name of river
carnival with exposition attachment,
gave the people over there all they
wanted of amusement undertakings of
| this kind. The first Davenport dash was a
| street fair pure and simple and fake at
| that. The other was a Success as a
river carnival, but even worse than its
predecessor as street show. 1t
] ended in collapse. If these two sud-
den bursts of public spirit had
been designed to hurt Rock Is
land, they could rot have succeeded
more beautifully. They soured the
people there on the open air PROPOSE
| ton, and until some of them came
over and saw for themselves what
Rock Island was offering, that this
city's amusement enterprise was of
| the Exposition order, and in no sense
| of the town lot or street fair order,
| they did not realize that Rock Island
had the real thing and Davenport the
| sham.
What effect the Davenport idea cut
in the way of detraction would have
cut little figure, nevertheless but for
the condition of the weather. The
Rock Island Exposition just happened
to hit it wrong, ard for that nobody
is to blame. The projectors selected
the week of the year in which the
Cedar Rapids Exposition has been
showing successfully for years. This
year the Cedar Rapids people moved
forward week, and as Rock Island