The Lamar register., 1900-09-05
SGOVERNMENT IN DENVER.
..IIold Ups" and Rnbberies While Police
Are busy with PoIitics-City and Coun-
ty OniciaIs Nearly All Negiecting Their
Work to Fix Primaries for Thomas or
MaIoney-Thc General Political situa-
tiOn in County and state.
Especial Corr"spondencc)
Denver, Colo. Sept


The past week in Denver has been
remarkable for the number of 'hold-
ups" and highway robbcricS committed
in this city. Several women hay" been
assaulted and badly beaten and
robbed. and in one case Il team was
stopped. IL man and woman taken OUT
of the buggy. and both were beaten
and robbed. There have been no ar
rests at the time of writing this; and 1t
is not expected that any will be made.
The natural question. when such
things occur in Il large and presun-
ably civilized city is, Where were the
pOlice?'
The answer to that question may be
found in the Denver Republican of
last Thursday. Here it is:
There were only ten regular police
men on duty yesterday. All the rest
We're doing political work preliminary
to the primaries next Tuesday. Both
Were drawing pay. There might have
been IL score of highway robberies in
broad daylight on Sixteenth street and
not an officer near enough to blow Il
whistle or run around the corner and
come up after ii was all over to ask
what had happened. The sixteenth
street policemen We're nt the court
house. So was nearly every other po-
liccman in the city.
president Il. W. Spcrr of the Fire
and Police Board is determined 10 roll
up n majority at the primaries which
will end. he hopes, the political career
of T. j. Maloney, who has carried the
last three elections for the Democrats
of Arapahoc county. Governor 1hom-
as has left Denver for a short time and
has left the entire charge of the local
fight in the hands of Mr.. Speer."
All this is part of the present sys-
TEN of politics in Denver. BY the pres
ent charter. II large part of the eNecu-
tive power is taken away from the
mayor and other city officials ana
lodged in the hands OF the governor.
He it is who appoints the Fire and 70
lice Board. and the tircmcn and police
men are. of course. expected TO act as
his political henchmen and carry pri-
maries for him. and in other ways to
act ms his personal agents. 1t is prob
ably no rxaggcraiion 10 say that Il very
much larger part of the time of the
present governor has been taken up by
the local affairs of the city of Denver
than by the affairs of the state at
,l ,liYnrnnt this
state of affairs might be somewhat bet
tered. but SO long as part of the proper
powers of the mayor of the city are
delegated to the governor. so long the
governor will be II power. If he chooses
to be. i'll Denver city politics. and so
long the responsibility for the good
government of the city will be divided.
and the government will he compare
lively inefficient and wastcful.
1t is not to be expected that If the
governors appointccs are hard at
work. the other city Otficials-those who
own allegiance to Mr.. Thomas J. Ma
loney, will he entirely idle. 1t comes
about. therefore, that nearly all the
city and county officers in Denver are
at work politically just now. and nee
essarily are paying but little attention
to the regular duties Of their offices.
Further details of the manner in
which the city and county officials are
kept busy these days are furnished by
the Republican as follows:
James Maloney. head of the street
superintendent of street cleaning, and