CanÌƒon City record. [volume] (CanÌƒon City, Colo.) 1883-192?, 1900-10-18
THOMAS AS CITY BOSS.
How He Wrested Control Of the
City Machine From Ma'oney-A
; Carnival of Crime-Lewed Wo-
men Herded to the Polls for
, Thomas.

1
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 1t remained
for Thomas to make the departments
under his control in the city n per-
feet political machine, which has en-
abled him to wrest 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 mouths
has been taken up with city affairs
than with state affairs, although he
has been served by such a capable
lieutenant as X. w. Speer in rounding
up 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 rea-
son why they were let out of the pen
itentiary appears in the political work
they did perform for the Thomas ma
chine at the time of the contest in
the Democratic primaries. 1t may be
that Maloney would have used them
If he could, but the fact remains that
they We're used for Thomas, and IL was
partly through their influence, and
largely through the influence of men
like them, that the control of the ma
chine was wrested from Maloney 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
lewd women of the slums and of
Market street. Ordinarily such women
do not care to vote; but 1t was neces-
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 gen.
orally were also rounded up in the
same interest. and Thomas won
great victory over Maloney, and. got
his delegation seated in the state con-
vention. When reproached by mem
bers of his own party for the use of
such methods, he incautiously remark
ed: "They don't criticise the work of
our boards on election day" The in
ference as to the method by which If
possible the Governor and his party
expect to carry Arapahoe county at
the coming election is very plain.
While the police We're thus engaged
and they have been engaged in polit-
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 1t 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 uncOnstl-
tutional. But the governor and his po-
lice board We're 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 beld.
A Few Other rlatters.
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 tie
Democratic convention in person to
nominate Judge Wells for place on