178 



COLORADO. 



are issued, fixing the deposit at $50,000 in se- 

 curities; where accident policies are issued, fix- 

 ing the deposit at $20,000 ; and where various 

 kinds of policies are issued, fixing the deposit 

 at $50,000; and providing that guarantee com- 

 panies shall make a deposit fixed at $5,000." 



A new county Mineral County was formed 

 from parts of Hinsdale and Rio Grande Coun- 

 ties. It includes the town of Creede. 



Among the measures passed were one grant- 

 ing a new charter to the city of Denver, one to 

 exempt from taxation property, real and per- 

 sonal, of Grand Army of the Republic posts, and 

 one to prevent short weight in coal; to regu- 

 late the sale of oleomargarine, and requiring a 

 license ; also a bill making Saturday afternoon 

 a legal holiday in the months of July and Au- 

 gust; a bill forbidding insurance on the lives 

 of children under ten years of age; making 

 kindergartens a part of the public-school sys- 

 tem; a bill forbidding the employment of de- 

 tectives in difficulties between employers and 

 employees, and one regulating the granting of 

 divorces. This does not change the causes for 

 which divorce is granted, but provides for 

 greater care and certainty in notifying the 

 party against whom the action is brought. A 

 bill was passed providing that after the year 

 1900 no person may vote unless he knows how 

 to read and write. This does not prevent voters 

 who can not read and write and who can vote 

 now from voting. Some amendments were made 

 to the election laws, providing among other regu- 

 lations, for the grouping of candidates on one 

 ballot, with the names of the party represented 

 by each candidate beside his name. It also pro- 

 vides for spaces in which to write names of can- 

 didates not printed on the ballot ; and allows a 

 candidate to accept a nomination from but one 

 party. 



Other bills passed and signed were the fol- 

 lowing : 



To make gold and silver coin a legal tender for the 

 payment of all debts contracted between or payable 

 to any citizen of the State. 



Directing the Treasurer and Auditor to transfer 

 upon the books of their respective offices to the gen- 

 eral fund of 1893 any unexpended balance standing 

 to the credit of the Ute War debt fund. 



Transferring certain unexpended balances to the 

 general revenue fund which stand to the credit of 

 the Bureau of Immigration cash fund, the military 

 poll fund, the saline land permanent fund, and the 

 saline land income fund. 



Amending section 12, chapter liv of the General 

 Statutes, relating to the commitment of children to 

 the State industrial school. This fixes the minimum 

 age for admission at ten years. 



A memorial was passed requesting the Sena- 

 tors and Representatives of the State in Con- 

 gress to " do all in their power to secure legisla- 

 tion that will establish a water-storage system 

 to. save the water going to waste in the irrigating 

 section of the West " ; one favoring the election 

 of United States Senators by direct vote of the 

 people ; and one protesting to Congress against 

 the setting apart and the reserving of certain 

 lands covering the sources of Ralston, Clear, and 

 Bear creeks, in Jefferson, Clear Creek, and Gilpin 

 Counties, on the ground that such reservation 

 would interfere with the mining interests ; and 



a request to the President to open mineral lands 

 in the Uncompahgre Ute reservation to entry. 



An attempt was made to impeach the State 

 Auditor, on the ground of an alleged pre-election 

 agreement on the part of the Auditor to reap- 

 point the deputy insurance commissioner, on 

 condition that the deputy should gain the sup- 

 port of the insurance men of the State for him. 

 The Auditor's defense was, that before the elec- 

 tion took place he learned that the agreement 

 was in violation of the corrupt-practices act of 

 the eighth General Assembly, and that he then 

 withdrew entirely from the compact. As a mat- 

 ter of fact, the deputy commissioner was not re- 

 appointed. The Senate Committee on Elections 

 took evidence on the subject, and the House 

 appointed a committee of five to take testimony 

 for the purpose of bringing impeachment pro- 

 ceedings. The case does not appear to have 

 proceeded further. 



Silver Convention. A State mass meeting 

 of the friends of silver was called in Denver 

 on July 11. Nearly every town, village, and 

 mining district in the State was represented. 

 The sentiments of the convention were embodied 

 in an address to the people of the United States, 

 of which 1,000,000 copies were ordered printed. 

 Of the local effects anticipated from the demone- 

 tization of silver the address said : 



The silver-mining States and Territories, embrac- 

 ing 1,000,000 square miles of the continent, with 

 2,000,000 Americans inhabiting them, depend pecul- 

 iarly upon silver mining for their prosperity. That 

 industry is the very heart from which nearly every 

 other industry receives support. 



The reduction of the price of silver to about 70 

 cents has shut down 99 per cent, of the silver mines 

 of the country, and the smelters must soon follow 

 their example. There are in Colorado to-day 15,000 

 idle miners, who know not where to turn if work is 

 not resumed. There will soon be added to this idle 

 army of labor 4,000 men from the smelters. The 

 stone quarries are nearly all shut down, the railway 

 companies are laying off train crews by the score, the 

 foundries are nearly all out of orders, the farmers and 

 fruit growers will be barely paid for the cost of sav- 

 ing their crops, and the merchants are countermand- 

 ing their Eastern orders. 



If the silver mines shall remain closed, one half of 

 the American output of lead must be lost. The 

 greatest bulk of the lead product is taken from silver- 

 bearing ores. It requires the one metal, supplemented 

 by the other, to remunerate the lead-silver miner. If 

 the market for silver is broken down, the lead can 

 not be produced. 



Not less than 55 per cent, of the gold product of 

 the country depends upon the maintenance of the 

 silver industry. The placer or creek washings, the 

 earliest and most prolific sources of our gold supply, 

 are practically exhausted. That metal is now taken 

 from leads one half of it from silver leads as a by- 

 product of silver mining, which, unless the mines 

 may be profitably worked for silver, will never be 

 added to the world's store of gold. 



Labor Convention. The State Labor Con- 

 vention met in Denver in July. The address 

 issued by the silver convention was heartily ap- 

 proved, and resolutions were adopted denounc- 

 ing private monopoly of land ; declaring for 

 public ownership and control of railroads, tele- 

 graphs, gas and electric lighting, water works, 

 ami irrigating ditches ; demanding reform in 

 taxation ; calling for a State convention to re- 

 vise the Constitution ; pledging support to the 



