Short nevertheless garnered sufficient backing from organized labor to win electoral office and he went on to serve three terms as Mayor, from 1918 to 1923. Now using the Mayor's office as his pulpit, Short became a powerful spokesman for the rights of the working man and of the ethnic minorities who made up a significant percentage of Sioux City's 70,000 citizens in 1918. He embraced the Industrial Workers of the World and spoke publicly on their behalf when thousands of them congregated in the city to wage a "free speech" fight in 1914. While Short's pro-union sentiments and actions over his career resulted in an incorrect and unfair legacy of "socialist," Short was in fact a progressive Republican who possessed a deep sense of social justice and whose faith in the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights frequently put him at odds not only with fellow clergymen but also with the large industrialists of the city. At the same time, Mayor Short's sometimes naive faith in appointed members of his city administration resulted in several scandals for which he, as chief executive, must ultimately take the blame. For example, his friendship with local labor unions resulted in the appointment of an alcoholic union boss to head the city's Department of Public Safety during his first term. When the Rush building collapsed in 1918 killing 39 citizens (see below), this Public Safety Commissioner arrived on the scene of the disaster in an inebriated condition and started handing out whiskey to the city firefighters and policemen on rescue duty. This commissioner, who had previously served as boss of the Sign Painter's Union in Sioux City, had virtually no experience in law enforcement or public safety and was eventually dismissed from his post and run out of town, apparently by friends of Mayor Short.