Reform
While the new political faction identified themselves as reformers it seems more likely that they wanted to reap the profits of the whiskey trade for themselves. Mayor Alonzo B. Webster, elected mayor in 1881 owned two saloons himself. The new mayor lost no time in firing Bat's brother, Jim Masterson, as city marshal and posting a series of new 'moral' ordinances, complete with a warning.
"To all whom it may concern: All thieves, thugs, confidence men, and persons without visible means of support, will take notice that the ordinance enacted for their special benefit will be rigorously enforced on and after tomorrow."
Read more about this topic: Dodge City War
Famous quotes containing the word reform:
“One point in my public life: I did all I could for the reform of the civil service, for the building up of the South, for a sound currency, etc., etc., but I never forgot my party.... I knew that all good measures would suffer if my Administration was followed by the defeat of my party. Result, a great victory in 1880. Executive and legislature both completely Republican.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)
“... most reform movements in our country have been cursed by a lunatic fringe and have mingled sound ideas for social progress with utopian nonsense.”
—Agnes E. Meyer (1887–1970)
“All reform aims, in some one particular, to let the soul have its way through us; in other words, to engage us to obey.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)