The Lamar register., 1900-10-17
THOMAS AS CITY BOSS.
. How He Wrested Control Of the
City Machine From Ma ioney-A :
. Carnival of Crime-Lewed Wo- .
. men Herdrd to the Polls for
. Thomas.

L
ter OF the city of Denver. city affairs
are mingled ineXtricably with state
affairs. The governor has absolute
control over the fire and police boards
of the city, and this has caused trouble
under previous administrations, not
ably that of Waite. But it remained
for Thomas to make the departments
under his control in the city pei.
feet political machine, which has en-
abled him to wrcst the control of city
politics from Maloney and to pack the
Democratic primaries in his own inter
est 1t may be said without fear of
denial. that much more of the COVER
nor's time during the past few months
has been taken up with city affairs
than with state affairs, although he
has been served by such capable
lieutenant us X. w. Speer in rounding
up the vicious and criminal elements
of the city for politifakpurposes.
Reference has been he to the pard
ons of Ryan and Mccoy; and the rea-
son Why t!.s3 Tvcrc let ,rt 80 ''."- "an-
itentiary appears in the political work
they did perform for ~ Thomas ma,
chine at the time 1.-The contest In
the Democratic primaries. 1t may be
that Maloncy would have used them
IL he could. but the fact remains that
they Were used for Thomas, and 1t was
partly through their influence. and
largely through the influence of men
like them, that the control of the ma
chine was wrcstel from AIaloncy and
secured by Thomas. The contest was
for control of the Democratic primar-
les which sent delegates to the state
convention. Under the orders of the
Police Board. the police force was en-
ployed in rounding up and running in
at the primaries by the hackful the
lcwd women of the slumS and of
Market street. Ordinarily such women
do not care to vote; but 1t was neccs-
sary for the Governor to capture the
primaries. and the women were made
to vote by the police force. and to vote
the Thomas ticket. In the same way
the gamblers. thieves and thugs gem
orally We're also rounded up in the
same interest, and Thomas won
great victory over Maloncy, and got
his delegation seated in the state con-
vention. When repronched by mem
bers of his own party for the use of
such methods, he incautiOusly remark
ed: ",fhey don't criticisc the work of
our boards OIL election day" The in
ference as to the method by which IL
possible the Governor and his party
expect to carry Arapahoe county at
the coming election is very plain.
While the police were thus engaged
ical work for the Governor ever since
seven assaults on women have been
committed in the city of Denver, in
the most populous residence districts.
The women have been beaten and
robbed: one of them has died, and an
other at this writing is not expected to
live; and yet the police have made no
arrests. and apparently no attempt has
been made to find the guilty parties.
Perhaps they are political workers for
the Thomas machine. too.
Thomas Prize Fights.
The Governors connection with the
priZe-fght bill is well known. He has
said that he signed it with his eyes
open. and it would be no compliment
to his intellect to suppose that he
signed it in any other way. He need
ed the votes of the sporting" element
for his political game, and to get them
he catered to the element that wants
to have Denver wide open" The
decent people of the city have made
efforts to stop the carnival of prize
fighting that has gone on in this city
ever since the passage of the bill; and
finally the law was declared uncOnsti-
tutional. But the governor and his po-
lice board were not to be balked by II
little thing like that; and the police |
board made a new regulation, permit
ting glove contests" of not more than
ten rounds in duration: and it is under
this police regulation, and not under
any law, that the fights are now Beld.
A Few Other ratters.
Space fails to enumerate all the "mis-
takes or worse that have been made
by this administration. There is the
scandal of the Paris commission and
the Golden Girl There is the record
of whitewashing investigations made |
under the governors direction. There |
is the hypocrisy of getting up in the
Democratic convention in person to |
nominate Judge Wells for place ON |