Cañon City record., 1900-11-01

demonstration; 1t was gotten up by
Tammany Hall, and its purpose was
to honor Mr.. Croker equally with Mr..
Bryan, and to show that the old line
Democrats like William @. Whitney,
David b. Hill and others are no longer
in control of the Democratic machine,
and that Mr.. Croker and Tammany
Hall now dominate the New York stu
alton completely. Mr.. Bryan In his
speech that evening was SO impressed
with the size and fervor Of the DEM
onstration that he announced publicly
from the stage: Il am now prepared
to say, great is Tammany Hall and
Croker is its prophet
What Tammany Hall is, and what 1t
has done are known in general way
to every one who reads. A more de
tailed description of its recent doings
is of interest, however, as showing the
sort of organization which Mr.. Bryan
deems worthy of peculiar honor. 1t
may also be of interest as showing the
pattern of the "wide-open town" which
Governor Thomas. and his police off,
cials in Denver seem to be trying to
initiate on u smaller scale in Colorado.
The following are extracts from an ar
ticle in Harpcr's Weekly by Franklin
Matthews, entitled 1.-The Cost of Tam
many Hall in Flesh and Blood.:"
Tammany Hall has become supreme
in the Democratic party of New York
state. Never before has it dominated
completely the state management of its
party. How did it succeed? Bluntly,
it had the money, and its opponents in
the state, not having any office-holders
to assess, not having any share in
.'ground-floor" stock speculations, not
having power to levy tribute from pub
lie treasures through the increase of
salaries, through the partial fulfilment
of public contracts and the like, not
having opportunities for certain kinds
of political blackmail, had no money,
and the side with the fat purse and
the power to furnish treachery won.
Every one who knows politics in New
York state knows how 1t was DONE The
''wide-open" town. the plunder from
contracts and stock market CRAFTS"
have given Tammany Hall its suprem-
acy in state politics, have made its lead
ers rich men. and now in the great
game of politics they are looking to-
ward Washington. Take away its
blackmail tribute, many of its leaders
would be poor. its power would be Grip
pied, and common decency would not
be the loser.
Every few months some newspaper
In New York city discovers that the
town is wide open. There have been
two such discoveries within year. In
each case there has been tremendous
agitation. In each case, Bernard J.
York. president of the police board, has
been a most surprised man. This town
bad? Why, such a thing must not be.
And forthwith the order has gone to
Devery, the notorious man who is chief
of police, to be good and to have the
town made good. And Devery has
hustled around. During the last agi-
tation, when it was discovered that
Gamblers Syndicate" ran the town,
as 1t practically does in certain lines,
Devery began to raid the dining rooms
of flrst-class hotels, because they had
music In them, forsooth. 1t raised a
storm, but it did the trick. Gambling
went on, pool rooms that had been
closed opened againSunder police pro-
lection, blackmail of people in certain
houses and of others who walked the
streets went on, petty extortion thrived,
aud the money rolled in again to the
pockets of Tammany Hall men. Dew
cry took long breath and quit wiping
his brow, Police Commissioner York
went into his shell and played politics,
Tammany leaders said the people
wanted a wide-open town, and Mayor
Van Wyck said, Look at London or
Paris" Meanwhile the assessment of
gamblers in hundreds Of places con-
tinued, the police collected the weekly
and monthly tribute from places that
were protected, the woman that walked
the streets at night gave up her money
before and after midnight, saloon keep
ers paid to sell openly in prohibitive
hours, dens of infamy Haunted their
signs brazenly before all men, decent
people We're stopped on the streets and
asked If they didn't want to gamble,
and Tammany was happy. Every dol
lar that rolled in made her stronger in
the politics of the city, of the state, of
the nation. Her leaders were rolling up
their wealth, and when they went to
other commonwealths they were looked
upon as profound politicians, almost as
statesmen. men of great ability, men
whose example was worth following,
men who were worth cultivating, men
who really couldn't be so very bad.
men who wouldn't look out of place,
for example, at dinner in the White
House, even IL their influence and su-
prenacy were practically due to skill
in levying blackmail tribute and to
playing the great game of emptying
public treasury with the smallest pos
eible return.
The wide-open town, as all New York
knows, is Tammany Halls visible
means Of support. The person who
lives in New York and doesn't know
that lacks ordinary intelligence. 1t isn't
a debatable proposition. Every one
knows that the town is wide open; the
real question is who is paying the bill?
What does it cost? Upon whom does
the real burden fall? Can Tammany
Hall stop it, IL 1t would? Is the Tam
many Hall policy, of which former
Mayor Gilroy complained indirectly in
a public interview several months ago,
making New York city, as he said,
mosst expensive place for the poor to
live in? Is the poor man paying part
Of the wide-open-town bill In rents that
are unnecessarily high? Are the sick
suffering because ice bills are doubled?
Is this policy costing the lives Of the
young and old? Is the system of filth
and cOrrIuffOU vfafbla af ayorx, hand