Mr. Daubendiek Holds the Phone

Most people who work for telephone companies believe in the doctrine of the voice with the smile. Last week it looked as if strapping, 49-year-old Carl Daubendiek of Jefferson, Iowa stood a good chance of going to jail because, for a two-hour stretch one night last December, he faltered in that belief.

Carl Daubendiek is manager and part-owner of the Jefferson Telephone Company in Greene County. When his A ration book for a company car was close to running out, irascible Carl asked for a C book. The ration board asked him to fill out a new application form. That request so empurpled the Daubendiek temper that for two hours on the night of Dec. 15 no Jefferson phone subscriber could get anything out of his instrument except a voice which said, variously, "Daubendiek speaking; no gas, no calls; speak to the rationing board" or "The service is kind of punk --just like the gasoline situation." One subscriber tore his phone from the wall by the roots for emotional relief. The muted town foamed at the mouth.

But an Iowa law provides that failure to transmit telephone messages "with fidelity and without unreasonable delay" is a misdemeanor, punishable by a $500 fine, a year in jail, or both. Carl Daubendiek, father of six, was indicted, tried and found guilty. (A county poor overseer had testified she was held up in getting an ambulance for a patient, who later died.) This week, while a district judge pondered his sentence, Carl Daubendiek was out on bail. Jefferson telephone operators were eschewing editorial observations and confining themselves strictly to asking for the number, please.

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