TnE SUNDAY OREGONIAN, PORTLAND, MAT 28, 1916.
HIGH TAXES CAUSE
OF DENVER CHANGE
Prominent figures in trial of dr. waite, convicted of murder in new york.
PURE worsteds these
days are almost as rare as
blue moons.
But -we have them and not 10 per cent cotton nor
even 5 per cent cotton, but 100 per cent all wool in
our selections of
Abandonment of Commission
.Form Comes After Four
v. Years' Trial by City.
I MAYOR NOW HOLDS POWER
Ill -5 .d ;' H
Voters SJiow They Regard Recent
Method as Extravagant and the
Cause of Big Expense, With
t Little to Show for It.
V
BY H. B. CURTISS. .
DENVER. Colo.. May 27. (Special.)
C6mmission form of municipal gov
ernment has proved a failure in Denver.
A commonwealth of 225.030 people,
after a trial of three years of the com
mission form, has abandoned it, by a
large majority of votes and gone back
to the more centralized Mayor form of
municipal rule.
Although many elements enter Into
the cause of reversion, the primary and
fundamental one is the Denver tax
payers believe they get more for their
dollar's worth of taxes under the Mayor
form than under the commission form.
The voters have come to regard
municipal government as a business
proposition. an economic problem
rather than one of politics or senti
ment. It has cost more to run the city
under commission form than it did
under the Mayor form when practical
ly all the modern permanent civic im
provements Denver possesses were
constructed and most of them paid for.
Few Improvements Made.
During the three years of commis
sion government there have been prac
tically no permanent Improvements
made.-. Taxes have Increased but the
cost of running the city seemed to
keep proportionate step with the tax
gatherer, leaving no money for making
new improvements or carrying out
those already planned.
The commission form, or "headless"
government as It Is called In Denver,
made for extravagance, for duplication
of work, inefficiency and useless office
holders. There was no graft. The
commissioners of Denver were honest'
but of mediocre ability. Even had
there been a commissioner of .unusual
executive ability it is doubtful If, under
the commission form, he would have
been able to impose his views on the
other commissioners and benefited the
city other than in his own department.
There were five different depart
ments, each with its own head, pos
sessing rights equal to the other com
missioners. One of these commis
sioners was nominated "Mayor" by
courtesy, but his powers were as
limited as those of the other commis
sioners and his duties as "Mayor" were
largely clerical and social.
Each commissioner endeavored to get
as much as he could for his depart
ment in the annual budget and showed
little or no regard for the needs of
the other departments. It was a case
of five hungry men around a pot pie.
each trying- to see who could eat the
most.
Taxes increased year 'by. year. The
pie grew larger each year-but so did
the hunger of the men. There was no
money for permanent improvements;
there was no money to buy new kitchen
utensils.- Practically everything was
going for the increased cost of running
the city.
People Believe Speer Honest.
Certain psychological reasons as
sisted in bringing about the reversion
to Mayor form. The principal candi
date for Mayor was ex-Mayor Robert
Speer. He was of the "boss" type and
a "machine" man. but a man of almost
National reputation because of his
executive ability and as a student of
municipal affairs. He had capably
filled the Mayor's chair for eight years
and during that time he placed Denver
on the map and made it one of the
great attractive centers of the United
(States.
Despite the fact that one yellow
Journal of Denver waged a campaign
of vtllification against him in the re
cent .election, in which the term
"grafter" was among the mildest of
those applied, Denver voters restored
Speer to office. The people believe
him honest.
New Mayor's Record ' Good.
The things Speer accomplished for
Denver is one big reason for Denver's
reversion to the Mayor form of gov
ernment. While email, compared to the
large civic improvements in New York,
they mean as much to the Denverite as
Riverside Drive does to the New York
er. To name some of the things he ac
complished is necessary to understand
Denver's appreciation. Under Speer's
administration the great municipal au
ditorium and the public baths were
built, many of the city parks created,
others enlarged; the first playgrounds
and bathing beaches established, the
boulevard system planned and practi
cally completed; a municipal band
formed, giving the people free concerts
in the parks in Summer and in the
auditorium in Winter; the civic center
purchased and a great plan for beauti
fying the city begun; the city deco
rated by the municipality during holi
days and large conventions.
They all cost money, but most of
them were paid for during those years.
Taxes increased, but the taxpayers felt
they were getting something for their
money the Improvements increased the
value of their property
Then came another civic revolution.
Denver has been controlled for a num
ber of years by a set of men who paid
little or no taxes, and who largely
earned their livelihood by "reform.
Through the influence of these men and
several newspapers, the people of Den
ver about four years ago administered
what was thought a stinging rebuke
to Mr. Speer by electing one of these
reformers, Henry Arnold, to the office
of Mayor. Arnold carried every pre
cinct except one in the city when he
was elected. Ten months later he lost
every precinct in the city by a larger
majority than he had previously car
ried them. Denver had declared the
Mayor form of government a failure
and gone into the column of cities be
ing run by the commission form of
government.
Since then the pendulum has slowly
been swinging backward. Taxpayers
found the commission form inefficient
and extravagant. They remembered
"Bob" Speer and the things he had
done for Denver. They remembered
the men who had "made good" on the
Job.
"Bob" Speer, who had done prac
tically nothing since his retirement as
Mayor except sit in a quiet office up
town, study civic government and plan,
also remembered. He was awaiting the
psychological moment.
He had drawn an amendment to the
city charter restoring the Mayor form
of government to Denver and con
ferrine on the office of Mayor more
power than he had ever had in his
"boss days. Then he came rortn from
retirement, presented himself and that
document, and the people of Denver ac
cepted him and it. A novel situation
indeed. Within four years a great
commonwealth had shaken off the so-
called shackles of a "boss" and then re
placed theio tighter than ever,
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Vv' " , ..1 N i'J Li
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WAITE IS GUILTY
Prisoner Abandons Hope and
Seems Resigned to Fate.
SENTENCE TO BE JUNE 1
Trial Concludes AVHh Evidence of
State's Alienists, Who Sec-lure
Confessed Murder Sane; Court
. Ignores "Moral Imbecility."
(Continued From Tirt Iase.
to the Clerk of the Court and had been
taken to the Tombs he was allowed to
exercise. He marched up and down a
corridor whistling "La Paloraa." War
ren W. Waite, of Grand Rapids, the
dentist's" father, and Frank and Clyde
Waite, his brothers, were in the court
room when the verdict was returned.
Frank Waite led his father from the
room without having spoken to the
convicted man.
Clara Peck Waite, the dentist's wife.
whom he admitted he might have killed
had she inherited her father's fortune,
heard the verdict in one of the rooms
adjoining tlie- courtroom.
"God's will be done," was her only
comment.
Percy Peck, son of the murdered man.
heard the verdict without giving evi
dence of any emotion. It was reported
tonight that Peck had said to Assist
ant District Attorney George N. Broth
ers, the prosecutor, when the trial be
gan :
I realize the importance or Keeping
any apparent desire for vengeance on
my part out of this case, but I want
to ask you this one favor: Give me a
seat in the courtroom, from the be
ginning of the trial to the end, where
I can keep my eye on that man and so.
moment by moment, watch the hope
fading from his face."
Verdict Generally- Expected.
Few persons in the courtroom, if
anv, doubted that the verdict would be
guilty after Dr. Waite went on the
witness stand and told, with every ap
pearance of calm Indifference, the de
tails of his crimes, declaring his main
motive for them was to obtain moncyj
Tho opinion of his alienists 'that he
was a "moral imbecile" was swept
aside by the assertions of the state's
alienists that he was sane and knew
the nature and consequences of his
crimes, and by the charge of Justice
Shearn that "moral imbecility naa no
place in the law.
Waite married Clara PecK in urana
Rapids last September. He expected
$50,000 in a lump sum from his lather-ln-law
as a wedding present, but re
ceived instead $300 a month. The den
tist and his wife took an apartment
in Riverside drive, this city. Waite
received a gift of $3000 from Miss
Katherine Peck and Induced her to let
him invest $40,000 of her fortune. Waite
admitted that he sent $10,000 of it to
his brother in Grand Rapids and used
the remainder to speculate In stocks.
Mrs. Peck First to Die.
Mrs. Hanna E. Peck, his mother-in-
law, came here to visit the Waites on
January 10 laut. Waite placed disease
germs In her foca. She died January ao
and her body was taken to Grand
Rapids, where it was cremated.
John E. Peck came to visit the Waites
after his wife died, and Waite vainly
sorayed his throat and impregnated his
food with disease bacilli, finally re
sorting to poison, with the result that
Mr. Peck died March 12 last.
Notable In Dr. Waite s trial was the
appearance of his wife, Mrs. Clara
Louise Peck Waite, as a witness for
the prosecution. ,
Mrs. Waite testified concerning her
father's visit from Grand Rapids . to
New York and said that Waite sug
gested that Dr. Albertus A. Moore be
called to see her father.
Some time after her father s arrival
here, Mrs. Waite said, he developed
fainting spells.
- l'olson In Fond Told Of.
The witness told of an occurrence
at dinner three days before Mr. Peck's
death, when Waite served her father
with oysters, and later he remarked
that he felt unusually drowsy. She
said her father's condition grew gradu
ally worse, and she called in Dr. Moore
several times; .
Mrs. Waite said her husband went on
"calls" at all limes of the day and
night. The night before her father
died, she said, Waite gave him an egg
nog, and Peck Complained that it made
him ill. Next morning her father was
dead.
Mrs. Waite said that Waite slept on
the sofa in the parlor the night before
her father died and awakened her to
tell her ef his death. After the body
was removed to Grand Rapids. Waite
was anxious to know whether an
autopsy had been ordered, said the
witness. There had been nothing to
indicate that an autopsy would be held,
but Waite asked her to telephone the
undertaker and Percy Peck to ask if
there was to be an autopsy.
Cremation Is Suggested.
Mrs. Waite asserted that on the night
when she and Waite arrived in Grand
Rapids, Waite suggested that he would
go to Detroit with Peck's body and
have it cremated, "so as to relieve her
mind.".
Mrs. Waite also said her husband was
.Present ..when', her. father's U1 ' .was
'5s.
1
Top Mrs. Margaret Horton, W Bite's
Companion in "Studio," ami Snap
(hot of Wnlte'n Father and Brother.
Brlon- SnapHhot of Dr. 'Waite, Made
in Prison Corridor.
made and suggested to her that she
make a will also. This she did, rhe
continued, and made Waite tho chief
beneficiary.
Airs. Waite added that her husband
had complained because her father had
not given her more money as a wedding
present.
SALE PRICE IS SET
Court Fixes $18,000,000 Min
imum for Western Pacific.
BIG BONDHOLDERS VICTORS
Judiro Ioolittle Decides Thiit ioxi
.Figure Shall Bo Xamefl Inas
, mucJi as Money Is to Be
' Used for Betterments.
SAN FRANCISCO. May 27. United
States District Judge Maurice T.
Dooling today fixed $18.00-9.000 as the
"upset" price for the sale of the West
ern Pacific Railway, in the fore
closure suit brought by the Equitable
Trust Company, of New York.
In fixing the minimum price at $18.
000.000; the court said that its judg
ment was based on the only concrete
facts before It as to the present earn
ing capacity of the road which is now
about $1,000,000 annually, above taxes,
maintenance and operating expenses.
A special master is to be appointed
today to proceed with the sale of the
road as directed by the court.
Contcntants Widely Variant.
The decision of Judge Dooling brings
to an end a protracted contest between
the various interests concerned with
the future of the "Western Pacific Rail
jvay. The majority bondholders, rep
resented by the .Equitable Trust Com
pany, of New York, and the reorganiza
tion committee, asked that the sale
price of the road be fixed at not more
than $15,000,000. The minority bond
holders, represented by the Savings
Union Bank and Trust Company, of
San Francisco. asked that the price be
fixed at $40,000,000.
In arguing for a low sale price the
attorneys for the reorganization com
mittee argued that the road, which had
been built at a cost of $77,000,000. had
a net annual earning capacity of $800,
000. They announced that it was the
plan of the committee, however, to ex
pend $18,000,030, to be raised by a new
bond issue, for extension and Improve
ments Of which the road was badly in
need. This bond issue had already
been underwritten.
Money to Go Into Road.
In his decision. Judge Dooling said:
"If this sum ($18,000,000) were to be
lent solely on the properties of the
road as they now exist, i should have
fixed the sale price at considerably
' - vf
V -
" I V 'A
Clothes
A. B. Kirachbaum C6
$15, $20, $25 and up
Nothing like them in town for soft lustrousness, for
tailoring qualities, for all-round service ability.
Add to such a fabric the surpassing beauty of
Kirachbaum design and the thoroughness of Kirsch
baum workmanship and you have a suit value which it
is utterly impossible to duplicate under conditions pre
vailing in the clothing world today.
PHEGLEY & CAVENDER
At the Sign of the Cherry Tree,
COR. FOURTH AND ALDER STS.
Hi l t-t.
more. But this money is furnished to
go into the road, thus increasing the
value of the securities, so that the new
bondholders will have as security the
present value of the road plus the
value put into it by the use of the
borrowed $18,000,000."'
The fixing of a sale price favorable
to the majority bondholders meana that
the reorganization of the road and tne
construction of feeders, without which
the road has been unable to earn suf
ficient Income to pay interest on its
$50,000,000 of first mortgage bonds,
will be undertaken as soon aa pos
sible. The decree of sale, signed lste to
day by Judge Maurice T. Dooling.
called for the public auctioning of the
Western Pacific Railway at the n:aln
station In Oakland. Cal., on June 9.
The successful bidder will be required
to give bonds of $1,000,000 cash or
$2,000,000 in securities.
Bandon Election Is Juno SI.
MARSHFIELD, Or.. May 27. (Spe
cial.) Bandon will hold its annual elec
tion June SI and the nominating caucus
on May 31. The offices to he filled this
year Include those of v Mayor, three
Councilman and Recorder. Mayor
Oeorg -Topping Is said to be desirous
of retiring, but there has been a re
quest for his retention In office, owing
to his able management of the city af
fairs during his incumbency.
Union County Pioneers to Gather.
LA GRANDE. Or., May 2$. (Special.)
Union County's Pioneer Association
has chosen La 'Grande as the next
meeting- place, and the session will b
held July 3. following the close of the
annual Chautauqua, for which event
about 100 famllle will be camped. Ex
Oovernor Oeer, of Portland, will prob
shly he the chief sneaker of the dv.
DEATH TO BE INVESTIGATED
Inquest Over Albert Arndt, Killed
by Auto, to Be Tomorrow.
An inquest on the death of Albert
Arndt, aged 19. who died at St. Vin
cent's Hospital Friday night, following
his injury in a traffic accident, will
be held by Coroner Dammasch tomor
row night.
Armlt and Emil Gross, also 19 years
old. were riding a motorcycle on Grand
avenue parallel with an American Ex
press Company's truck, driven by J.
B. Hubbard, of 509 East Seventeenth
street. At the Glisan-street intersec
tion the truck turned to go west and
the motorcycle crashed into it. Gross
was also seriously injured and Is now
In St. Vincent's Hospital. Three ribs
penetrated Arndt's lungs.
DRAIN EXERCISES PLANNED
Iflpli Scliool Commencement Starts
With Sermon Tonight.
DRAIN, Or.. May 27. (Special.)
Commencement week of Drain High
School starts tomorrow night with the
baccalaureate sermon by Rev. Mr. Jef
fries, of Portland. Commencement night,
June 1, Dr. Sheldon, of Eugene, will
give the address, and the president ot
the Board of Education will deliver the
diplomas.
Harold Carter is class salutatorian
and Gladys Joslyn valedictorian. Other
members are: Stuart L. Horner. Jew;l
Deik, Harold Samuel Csrter, Joseph P.
Hedrlck and Gladys M. Wilcox.
The class play, "The Junior," will be
given on Monday night.
Hood's SarsaparlMa, the Great Blood
Purifier, la the Best.
Spring sickness comes in some de
gree to every man, woman and child In
our climate..
It is that run-down condition of the
system that results from impure, im
poverished, devitalized blood.
It is marked by loss of appetite and
that tired feeling.-and in many cases
by some form of eruption. -
The best way to treat Spring sickness
is to take Hood's Sarsaparllla. This
old reliable family medicine purifies,
enriches and revitalizes the blood. It
is an all-the-year-round alterative and
tonic, and is absolutely the best Spring
medicine.
Get your blood in good condition at
once now. Delay may be danb'eroua.
Ask your druggist for Hood's Sarsa
parllla. and insist on having it. for
nothing else can take Its place.
Portland.
Largest and itiindrat Theater
nuw up JiN
11 A. M. to 11:30 P. M.
Excluslv motion picture clualcs ex
ploiting the photo-dramatic art.
K'ELROrS SC1-EBB ORCHESTRA.
Matinees 10c. Evening.
nd aunJays. 15c; loses. 25c.
Assets $9,900,000.00. .
' Beatrice, Nebraska, January 11, 1915. Payment Life PollCY
M. W. C. Wilson, President Bankers Life TFY vi . 5.., Vt tr-vr
Insurance Company, Lincoln, Neb. TEN-YEAR SETTLEMENT
Dear Sir: I wish to thank you for Matured in the
your prompt and liberal settlement No. Old Line Bankers Life Insurance
18297, which I just matured in your com-
pany. Your general agent, Mr. A. H. Company ,
Gray, handed me your draft for $430.46, ' of Lincoln, Nebraska.
7? rvT-r,Z r rrr5r Name Ema P. Hubka
"VL.u?"r r ;:C7 .V "El Residence Beatrice. Neb,
t ;,tmCTt. .nH T oWrfnilv Amount of policy $1000.00
Jf a Row, uf t,,,,,.,, ' Total premiums paid com-
r r oil m frmc P311 400.00
Again thanking you for your prompt SETTLEMENT
and liberal settlement, I remain, yours Total cash paid Mr. Hubka $450.46
respectfully, And 10 Years Insurance for
400 EMIL P. HUBKA. Nothing.
Ask the man who owns one of our policies. Have you an agency?. Have you
a policy
Agents Duplex Fireless Cookers
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MONARCH
Malleable Ranges
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These are the
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as Cash, S Menth.
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You are not re
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OUT-OF-TOWN FOLKS YOUR CREDIT IS GOOD!
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a A GOOD PLACE TO TRADE ESSES:
ti i a i f 1 1 i i ! i i i " a i
TiFtFiOAKSTRSf
Agents
for New
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Member Greater Portland Association
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