Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1908-04-03

or in the future, the Central Union
reserves to itself. It peremptorily in :
formed the council to this effect in
advance of the meeting. The conse-
quence was that the general ordinance
proceeding, which was proposed as
means of meeting the Bell company
haH way, so the advocates of that
order of business claim, was not pre-
scented to the council nor was any
ordinance applying in any way to the
central Union offered Instead the
original ordinance of the Union Elec-
trio company was read and laid over
under the rules until next Monday !,
evenings regular meeting. The next |
move on the part of the Bell company
will in all likelihood be to prevent
the passage of the Union Electric or
dlnance. Having refused to stand for
any course of action not entirely ac-
,cording to its dictation, it will play
tss, dog in the manger as heretofore.
1t is. believed, nevertheless, that the
council will not be deferred further
from granting the relief the Union
Electric asks in order to give to Rock
Island the first class facilities that
are demanded, in the way of auto
matte service and otherwise to enable
it to. compete with the Central Union.
The latter corporation seems deter
mined to remain in the field whether
| it submits to regulation by ordinance
or otherwise
The attitude of the Central
Union in declining to accept any
compromise, which some of the alder
men who favored it, including the
mayor, say was the part of pro-
cedure to give it fair chance, in
order that hereafter it may not be
said that the city had not attempted
| to go to any extremes to relieve itself
lof the cost of litigation, demonstrated
what has been maintained from the
first 1t is that the Central Union
will yield to no regulation wheth-
er by general or direct ordinance
that will permit the people to
protect themselves from exorbitant
rates. That is the situation as it de-
veloped last night to the letter.
With the abandonment of the pro-
posed program, attendant upon the
Central Unions refusal to be govern
ed, went glimmering every argument
that may have been raised in Rock
Island for a single telephone system,
and substantial vindication was at
the same time given to the
theory, oft advanced, that the only
safeguard that the people have
is reposed in the continuance of the
independent company in the field.
The Central Union company never
abandons any territory where it is
once established. 1t will not leave
Rock Island even if the supreme
court eventually rules against it. 1t;
will fight as long as it can and then it
will come to time in some way or an
Iother. In the meantime, realizing the
desperate straits to which it has
driven the Independent company be-
cause of the vast resources at its COM
mand, its policy has been to admin
lister to its competitor a slow DEATH
by cultivating or seeking to cultivate,
quietly and cunningly during the pro-
the cheapest policy for the telephone
user in the end will be to have but
one telephone service. 4
The Central Union knows as we'll
as the Union Electric company itself
! that the salvation of the latter de-
ponds upon the new ordinance that
! it now seeks. The Central Union
I l. hot
fused the Independent company will
i be forced into bankruptcy and into
| the hands of a receiver This accom-
plished the Central Union will be in
| a position to emphasize the advan-
tages of a single telephone system
according to it's own way of thinking.
Arrogant now as of old, even in the
face of suggestion of compromise
by fixing the maximum rate by gen.
eral ordinance applicable to all tele-
phone franchises, and which on the
face of it, as The Argus pointed out
when it printed the three ordinances
before the council in the committee
of the whole meeting, gave the Cen
trail Union the better of it. it still
stubbornly stands out for it's own way
Tor none. What under these circcm-
stances would be expected from such
a corporation with its competitor dead
at its feet, and itself in the role of
absolute dictator? This. as The Argus
has said over and again during the
past few days, would be the inevita-
Bile result of any plea, however honest
ly made by citizens for a single tele-
phone system in. Rock Island.
The keeping of the Union Electric
on its feet is the only salvation of
Rock Island against a monopoly that
in the end would be more burdensome
and exacting in it's tributes than the
cost of two phone lines.