COLORADO 783 



Voters, except for school elections, must register ten days or more before the election. 



The legislature established a court of appeals for four years to be composed of five 

 judges appointed by the governor and to supplement the overworked supreme court 

 which may transfer cases to it. 



Among labour laws passed were one establishing a workmen's compensation commission; 

 and one providing for employers' liability. A department of factory inspection was created, 

 and mining and working in smelters, stamp mills r reduction works, coke ovens, etc., are 

 classed as injurious and dangerous occupations; eight hours (except in emergencies) is made 

 a legal day in such work. A child labour law forbids any child under 14 being employed in a 

 theatre, or in a place of amusement where intoxicating liquors are sold, mercantile institution, 

 hotel, laundry, factory, bowling alley or elevator, or as a messenger or driver; a child of this 

 age must have a permit to work on a farm or in an orchard. No child under 14 is to be 

 employed during school terms or before.7 A.M., or after 8 P.M., and eight hours is the maximum 

 day for child labour. The age limit is set at 16 years (formerly 14) for hazardous and 

 immoral occupations, and children may not be employed at all in the manufacture of paint, 

 white lead, etc. Girls under 10 may not sell newspapers or engage in any street trade. An 

 anti-coercion act forbids an employer discharging an employee for membership in a lawful 

 organisation or society, or preventing an employee from joining such a society. For the 

 use of armed guards in labour disputes written permission must be secured from the governor. 

 Several labour laws, especially in regard to working hours, were referred to the people in 

 November 1912 and all were ratified. 



The 1909 law in regard to prostitution was revised and made more severe, and there is 

 a special clause making a husband or a wife a competent witness against the other. Mater- 

 nity hospitals must be licensed by the state board of health and by the bureau of child and 

 animal protection. Public drinking cups are forbidden unless they are properly sterilised. 

 The sale of cocaine and similar drugs is forbidden except by druggists on prescription or by 

 manufacturers (to registered physicians, dentists or veterinarians). 



Among interesting miscellaneous laws are those making false statements about newspaper 

 and periodical circulation a misdemeanor; making non-support a felony; and adopting a state 

 flag of three horizontal stripes with a red C on the gold design in the field. 



Municipal Government. On September 19, 1911 Pueblo adopted a commission form of 

 government with a provision, like that of the charter of Grand Junction, for preferential 

 voting (on ballots for commissioners, "First Choice," "Second Choice," and "Third Choice" 

 are to be entered if the candidates are more than twice and less than thrice as many as the 

 number of offices to be filled), and provisions for initiative, referendum and recall. A similar 

 charter was adopted by Durango in September 1912. The validity of the Pueblo charter 

 was taken to the courts: the district court decided that the commission form was valid; the 

 supreme court in December 1912 had not yet handed down a decision. 



In May 1911 the state supreme court reversed its previous decision that the merger under 

 the charter of 1904 of the city and county of Denver was unconstitutional, so that the merger 

 is now in force. Early in 1910 the people of Denver voted not to renew the franchise of a 

 private water company and created the public utilities commission of the city and county of 

 Denver; and on August 6, 1910 they voted a bond issue of $8,000,000 for a municipal water 

 plant. The New York Trust Company, a holder of the bonds of the private company, 

 secured an injunction against the issue of the new bonds, first in the U. S. District Court and 

 then in the U. S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The Trust Company argued that the franchise 

 of 1890 required the city to renew in 1910 or else to purchase the plant; the utilities commis- 

 sion that there was nothing mandatory in the terms of the franchise. 1 On May 21, 1912 

 Denver adopted two charter amendments; one for a half-mill tax for five years for the pur- 

 chase and improvement of mountain land for parks; and one for the trial of violators of the 

 excise law in the county court ; but voted against a mill tax for playgrounds and for a play- 

 ground commission. An election on a commission charter for Denver was postponed from 

 November 1912 to the spring of 1913. 



Finance. The legislature of 1911 created a state auditing board and a tax commission; 

 revised the revenue laws of 1908 and 1902; created the office of state bank commissioner; and 

 prescribed the amount of paid-up cash capital (varying according to the size of the place) 

 for banks to be organised. On February 19, 1912 the United States Supreme Court (Atchi- 

 son, Tppeka& Santa Fe v. O'Connor; 223 U. S. 280) decided that the state tax of 2c per 1,000 

 of capital stock of a foreign railway wag invalid the Santa Fe" was a Kansas corporation. 



Education. An act of 1911 establishing 6 summer normal schools (instead of 13 as for- 

 merly) was defeated by the people at the November election in 1912. The normal school at 

 Greeley was renamed in 1911 the State Teachers College of Colorado. Appropriations were 

 made for a normal school at Gunnisori, opened in September 191 1, and for a State Home and 

 Training School for Mental Defectives, opened for patients in July 1912 and for school work 

 in September 1912. The state made an interesting experiment in appropriating money to 



1 See C. L. King, The History of the Government of Denver (Denver 1911), wnich harshly 

 criticises public utility corporations. 



