Kansas City daily journal. [volume] (Kansas City, Mo.) 1892-1897, 1896-09-19
PROPERTY OWNERS WILL DO GOOD
WORK FOR HONEST ELECTIONS.
TO CHEcKMATE POLICE BOARD.
WON'T SIGN PETITIONS OF GANG
STERS FOR SALOON LICENSES.
Democrats Open the Old Novelty The
ater With "a Very Chilly Meet
inE-The Eighth Ward Re-
pubIicans VIII Meet
Tonight.

A movement Is on foot among property
owners of the city to effectually check
mate the openly expressed intention of the
police board to organize the tough saloons
into an auxiliary to the Democratic gangs
machine. just as has been done for years
past. 1t is hardly necessary to state that
this attempt of the board is met with the
vigorous but unfortunately Intellectual op-
position of Mayor Jones.
AS regularly as election day draws near,
the police board issues saloon licenses to
men devoid of character, many of whom
have police court records, who can be
counted upon to be tools of the court house
gang. The only manner in which this can
be done is for the applicants to secure the
necessary number of signers te their petit
tons. The board can pass over the moral
qualifications of the applicants. but even
the Kansas City police board cannot grant
license to a man who does not have the
required signers to his petition. Therefore
the only manner in which the attempt of
the board can be successfully blocked is for
property owners to refuse to sign for men
who run their saloons as adjunctS to the
gangs machine.
This is just what some property owners
propose to do. They have grown tired of
seeing gang bosses and assistant bosses
granted saloon licenses for no other pur-
pose than to run their places as a rendeZ-
vous for gang repeaters. In previous cleo
tions, the disreputable saloons of the city
have been the vote factories whence is
sued gangs of hired ballot box suffers,
who set the rights of the people at def
ance and carried the elections to suit the
bosses. This cannot be done on such a
wholesale scale this year, but the police
board has started out TO do all it can in
ic Il Ton, bx,c tiv,cr tn
whose moral qualifications are far from
coming up to the legal requirements. There
can be but one purpose in view, and that is
to continue the ballot box manipulations Of
the past. That purpose is to provide places
where the dirty work of the gang can be
carried on as of old, only modified and re-
stricted by present conditions.
By organizing and agreeing to refuse to
sign for disreputable saloons, property
owners hope to be able to check the police
board in its scheme. They will perfect
their organization at an early date. and be-
fore the election is over the organization
will extend to all parts of the city.
During the closing weeks of the cam
paign the police board usually sends ennis
saries to the saloon men with threats to
cancel their licenses If the saloon men fail
to support the bosses ticket, and there Is
no reason to suppose that this practice will
be changed this year, especially when the
leaders OF the gang are hghting with the
energy Of desperation to maintain their al
ready slippery hold on the county offices.
AS long as the people have no right to
choose their own police board, it will re-
main Democratic adjunct for the purpose
of trampling upon the rights of the peo-
pie, But the property owners hold it in
their power to practically nullify the ef-
forts Of the board in this direction, and
they have determined to exercise this
power.
The gang bosses know that If the coming
election in Kansas City and Jackson coun-
ty Is fairly conducted their candidates will
be buried beneath an avalanche of votes.
Hence they are now preparing to resort
to their old methods. The decision rem
dered by the supreme court that men who
were not judges and clerks of election
could not be convicted of conspiracy to
stuff ballot boxes and commit other crimes
against the suffrages of the people caused
the abandonment of criminal proceedings
against number of the bosses, and they
are consequently emboldened: They are
now predicting majority of between 5000
and $500 in the county outside of the city,
and are asserting that they can reduce the
Republican vote in the city to such an ex-
tent that the average majority for the
gang candidates will be between 1,5O0 and
1000.