Denver labor bulletin., 1918-05-18
The Optimistic
Philosopher

ROBERT w. SPEER WAS AN
optimist. He always met callers with
smile and the glad hand. Further
than that, he was living illustration
of what Colorado sunshine and our
vitalizing atmosphere can and does do
to reclaim thousands who come here
in the hope of cheating the Grim
Reaper. His cheerful disposition was
infectious, so that those about him, in
large measure, took on the same at
tribute. This characteristic was the
underlying thought which impelled him
to make of Denver "The City Beauti-
full" He desired that others, in fact,
all of Denver's population and visitors
within our gates, should be cheerful
and face the sun. When % years of
age, in 1877, Robert w. Speer came
to Denver as ''lunger" in the hope
of regaining his failing health. His
first two years were spent on cattle
ranch with cowboys. Then he came
to Denver and accepted job as clerk
in the Daniels & Fisher store at So
per week. Less than two months ago
at dinner in the Brown Palace hotel,
held to raise funds to buy the site for
the army recuperation camp, Mayor
Speer sat at q table with a party of
laborites, among them the o. P. One
of the speakers, in advancing reasons
for the recuperation camp being To-
Gated here, told of what the health
giving climate had done for the mayor,
one of the most robust and vigorous
appearing men in a gathering of $50
representative Denver citizens. When
the mayor died last Tuesday he was in
his sixty-third year, and he agreed
with the speaker that had he remained
in Pennsylvania, where he was born
December l, 1855, he would probably
have been dead thirty years ago.
Mayor Speer's optimism, his smile and
glad hand won health, confidence of
the people, votes and popularity sec
ond to no man in the state.
:. :: :.
IT IS GIVEN FEW MEN THE
privilege of building their own monu-
ment and of placing it in a garden of
living plants. Yet such was the
unique fortune of Mayor Speer. He
was an idealist, a dreamer who made
his dreams come true. With him poll
tics was a vehicle used to achieve
greater things. When first elected
mayor in 1904 Denver was not the
most desirable place in which to live.
Passing along Lawrence street, in
front of the Daniels & Fisher store,
where he was formerly employed as
clerk, he saw pair of rubber boots,
feet to the surface, sticking in the
mud, indicating that the wearer had
submerged, head foremost. Such was
the condition of Denver streets then
that the boots gave evidence of not
an impossible tragedy, tho they were
probably placed in that position by
some citizen who thought thus to en-
phasize the need of street improve
ment. And under the administration
of Robert w. Speer improvements be-
gan to be made. One of the compli-
ments often paid the mayor was that
he always gave the people something
for the money they paid into the city
treasury in the way of taxes.
:. :: :.
DENVER, THE CITY BEAUTI-
full" was the dream of Mayor Speer,
and he made this come true. Parks,
boulevards, paved streets, sanitation,
bright lights at night and an atmos-
phere of cheer-up came as the result
of his exceptional ability as a mu-
nicipal executive. He had the faculty
of inspiring others to see the possibili-
ties of Denver as city to be visited
and talked about by people from all
sections of this nation and from other
lands. Nor did citizens kick when he
asked for more money to carry out
his plans. They saw the worth of it
to themselves individually and to the
city as a whole.
YET NO PUBLIC OFFICIAL
ever suffered such vindictive and