Denver labor bulletin., 1917-01-06
''UNION" BOOZE
JOINT IS RAIDED
ON NEW YEARDAY
Door Battered in and the Bar
Fixtures Smashed
Chief Armstrong Determined These
Parasites Who Dope and Rob Their
Victims Shall Cease to 0per-
ate in Denver

Following their raid of the Union AS
sociation club at 17l5 California street
on Christmas day, the bootlegging squad
OF the police department repeated ON
New Year night. Upon this second visit
the door OF the club was broken in with
axes and the raiding squad, consisting or
Sergeant Berry, Detectives Lane and
Watson, and Patrolmen McCabe. Lack
ner and Townsend, busted up the bar
and gambling paraphernaia with sledge
hammers
Twenty-one guests were arrested
and taken to the police station. These
included the owners, managers, gambling
decoys and victims.
When the police began breaking in the
outer door there was a scramble of the
clubs frequenters for hiding places
However, they were all corraled by the
police and charged at the station with
gambling and being patrons of blind
tiger. Poker tables, chairs, slot ma
chimes, music box, cards, poker chips
and whiskey glasses were confiscated. As
the police made their spectacular en-
trance, one of the bartenders threw a
pitcher of whiskey on the floor.
1t IS very evident that it is going to
be mighty hard for these so-called union
labor joints to do business in Denver
this year. They have been condemned
BY the Denver Trades and Labor Assem-
bly, and the police and public put on
notice by The Bulletin that they are not
only reprehensible to union labor but are
robbing many men OF their wage earn
ings- The poor dupes who frequent
these places are doped with liquor, then
enticed into card game and relieved
OF their weeks pay.
After last weeks issue of The BuIle-
TIN, containing an account of the Christ
mas raid on the Union Association club,
had reached the homes of subscribers,
several women, wives and mothers of
men who had been victims of these So
called union clubs, called this office on
the phone to express their heartfelt
thanks for the fight being made by The
Bulletin and the Denver Trades and La
Dor Assembly upon these degrading
joints. One mother stated that her two
sons had been robbed of their weeks
wages, and the wife of another union
man said that she frequently had to GO
to one of these so-called union clubs in
search of her husband on payday. FIRE.
quent complaints are made to The Bull
letin office and to the police depart
ment by men who have been inveislec
into card games at these places, after
being doped with poison whiskey, and
robbed OF their earnings
Since the statewide prohibition law
became effective on January l, 1916, two
OF these places have been operated by
gamblers and former saloonkeepers un-
der the title OF union labor clubs" One
is the so-ealled Trades Union Benefit
Association club on the second floor OF
the Quincy building, and the other is
the Union Association club on the second
floor at l7l5 California street. In both
these places after victim has been
doped and robbed he is invariably kicked
out to shift helplessly
Two months ago this matter was
brought up at a meeting of the Denver
Trades and Labor Assembly and a pub
lie declaration adopted that these So
called union labor clubs We're being op-
Grated without the sanction or approval
OF organized labor. This decls ration was
published in the succeeding issue of The
Bulletin, since which time the police
have made frequent raids, and Chief of
Police Armstrong declares that they will
either stop their nefarious traffic or
the owners and managers will be kept
IN jail as vags. This determination on
the part of the police has the sincerest
commendation of organized labor in Dem
Yer and thruout the state.