Rocky Ford enterprise., 1900-10-19
THOMAS AS CITY BOSS.
. How Tic wrested Control Of the
City Machine From Ma'oney-A
Carnival Of csime-Lcwed wo.
men hcrdrd TO the Polls for
Thomas.

lsy the provisions OF the orcsFrf chnr-
ter y. The city OF Denver. city MI airs
are mingled IncStricabiy with state
affairs. The governor has absolute
control over the DIRE and police boards
OF the city. and this has caused troubi:
under previous administrations. not.
ably that OF Waite. But II remained
FOR Thomas to make the departments
under his control In the city per.
feet political machine. which has en-
nblcd him to wrcst the control of city
politics from Mnloncy and TO pack the
Democratic primaries In his own luicr-
est. II may be said without fear OF
denial, that much more OF the COVER
nor's time during the past Few mouths
has been taken mp with city affairs
than with state affairs. although lie
has been served by such a capabl.
lieutenant rs II. w. Specr In rounding
w the vicious and criminal elements
OF the city FOR political purposes.
Reference has been made to the pard-
ons OF Ryan and Mccoy: and the rca-
son why they We're let out OF the pen
itcntiary appears In the political work
they did perform Tor the Thomas ma
chine ut the time OF the contest In
the Democratic primaries. II may he
that Maloncy would have used them
II 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 wrcstcd 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-
ploycd In rounding up and running In
mt the primaries by the hackful the
lcwd women OF the slums and OF
Market street. Ordinarily such women
do not care TO vote: but II 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 were also rounded up in the
same interest. and Thomas won a
great victory over Maloney. and got
his delegation seated in the state con-
vention. When reproachcd by men,
bers of his own party for the use of
such methods, he incautiously remark
ed: "They don't criticise the work of
our boards OH election day" The in
ference as to the method by which if
possible the Governor and his party
expect to carry Arapahoc county ut
the coming election is very plain.
While the police were thus engaged
and they have been engaged In polit-
ical work for the Governor ever since
seven assaults OH women have been
committed in the city of Denver, in
the most pCpulous residence districts.
The women have been beaten and
-,
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-fight bill is well known. He has
said that he signed 1t with his eyes
open. and 1t would be no compliment
to his intellect to suppose that he
signed 1t 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
eff orts to stop the carnival of prize
lighting tHut mas SOiie VII III lHlS 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 baked by Il
little thing like that; and the police
board made new regulation, permit
ting glove contests" of not more than
ten rounds in duration; and 1t is under
this police regulation, and not under
any law, that the fights are now held.
A Few Other natters.
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 withdrawing Investigations made
under the governors direction. There
is the hypocrisy of getting up in the
Democratic convention in person to
nominate Judge Wells for n place ON