Judge Ben B. Lindsey

              Judge Ben B. Lindsey
SUBJECT

“The Misfortunes of Mickey"
JUDGE LINDSEY:   Friend of Children
THE  MAN WHOSE WORK  IN   THE JUVENILE  COURT  IN   DENVER IS   SOLVING
THE  PROBLEM OF THE  BAD  BOY.
By WILLIAM MCLEOD RAINE.
DURING the four years that Judge Lindsey has been on the bench of the Denver County Court, his work among delinquent juveniles has made him a national figure. From all over the civilized world come inquiries regarding the methods and the administrative system of the juvenile court of this young man of 35. It would be within the truth to say that Ben B. Lindsey's matinee court is the greatest single factor counting for righteousness in the State of Colorado.
Ben Lindsey, like Joe Folk, came from Tennessee. Left penniless by the death of his father the day after a fifteen thousand-dollar life insurance policy had lapsed, he came to Denver with his mother. He went to work as an office boy for a law firm, and added to the family income by doing janitor work for Judge Robert W. Steele.
It was in a fight against jury fixers that Ben Lindsey began his political career. Twice he and his partner tried a celebrated damage case, and twice their bulk of well-massed evidence was brought to naught by the twelfth juryman. So he "broke into" politics in or¬der to obtain the passage of a three-fourths jury law in civil cases.
His ability soon became recognized, and he served as counsel for one faction of his party in a political fight for control of the machine. He received the appointment to an unfinished term as county court judge, for party services rendered. But before he had been judge a month it was plain that he was no tool of a machine or even of a party. The problem of the children first came home to Judge Lindsey in a strange way. Some street gamins were brought to his court charged with robbing a pigeon roost. As he talked with the trembling youngsters his memory jumped back fifteen years to a time when another party of boys had planned to rob that same cote, and in the attempt some had been caught and some had escaped. He recalled that one of those boys had died for his country on San Juan hill, that another was doing time in a State penitentiary, and that a third was now sitting in judgment on other lads whose futures as good citizens or as criminals might depend upon his wisdom in dealing with them.
And while he was still seeking light, young girls were brought to him charged with fre¬quenting wine rooms. "Why don't you ar¬rest the dive keepers?" he asked of the of¬ficers, and began at once a crusade against the evil. But the fire and police board had reasons of its own for not wanting to close the wine rooms. It actually secured from another judge an injunction against action by the board on the plea that the woman suf¬frage law gave a woman as much right as a man to visit saloons. Judge Lindsey refused to recognize the authority of the other judge, and the Supreme Court later sustained him. From that time mere politicians have feared and hated Ben Lindsey, not because he is a friend of the children, but because he is of necessity an enemy of "graft" in protecting the  interests of the young.
More than half of the inmates of the re¬form schools and the penitentiaries of the country are under the age of twenty-three. Surely this implies on the part of the State atrocious neglect or a colossal error in the training of its youth. So it seemed to Ben Lindsey, and with characteristic energy he be¬gan to look for the cause of this waste of lives.
In his few years on the bench, Judge Lind¬sey has not only conducted the work of the county court, of which he is the head, but has inaugurated and done much to perfect a system of treating juvenile delinquents that is already revolutionizing the cruel and thoughtless old-time methods of the criminal court. He has organized the probation sys¬tem, fought and downed the nauseous jail so far as juveniles are concerned, established a pleasant home-like house of detention for de-linquents, made parents, merchants and em¬ployers responsible for the moral health of the children under their care, prepared and forced through the Colorado legislature a code of laws governing the treatment of juveniles that is the most perfect in existence, and has found time also to carry on an effective cru¬sade in other cities, states and countries, for his method of treating erring children.
Specifically, he has broken up "gangs" of young toughs by turning the individual gang members into staunch adherents of the law. He has built rain baths and originated im¬provement clubs, has found employment for hundreds of reclaimed boys, and has brought up sharply to a sense of their legal responsibil¬ity, by fine or imprisonment, many scores of parents and other adults who were contribut¬ing directly or indirectly to the waywardness 0f children. He has made his court a very potent but honorable means of assisting the boys of the ctiy by turning many of its two hundred ragamuffin members into a volunteer police detective corps which has done more in one year than the police has in 20 to enforce the laws for the protection of the youth of the city,—laws forbidding the sale to them of fire¬arms, cigarettes, liquor and immoral literature.
Partly by reason of his position, but in greater degree because he is the man he is, Judge Lindsey is a mighty power in the Court of Boyville. To the youthful offender he occupies a position unique and unassailable. He stands between the boy and the "cop"!
Every Denver boy knows that he will get a "square deal," that the "Kids' Judge" will stand by him long after others have given him up, and so long as he has a shred of honesty left in him. This intense loyalty calls forth a responsive loyalty on the part of the boys. It is this fealty that holds true ninety-five per cent of the boys in the juvenile court. It is this same instinct that has led thirty of the most persistent of these little law-breakers to take their wTrits of commitment to the industrial school, go down to the depot en¬tirely without surveillance, board a train for Golden, and deliver themselves to the super¬intendent of the reform school "to take what was comin' to them." Could loyalty go farther than this,—that a street gamin should volun¬tarily deprive himself of the liberty to roam about at his own sweet will simply because he would not "t'row down de judge?" Not one of them has failed,—not one out of thirty !
The boys trust Judge Lindsey, make a clubroom of his chambers, and are proud to be seen out walking or at the theater with him. They are glad to have it understood that they have a friend at Court.
It may be taken as an accepted fact that the Juvenile Court of Denver and its founder count mightily for character building among the submerged youngsters of the congested districts of Denver. That is why President Roosevelt took occasion to indorse the court in his latest message to congress. That is why letters pour in from all over the civilized world for information as to the workings of this unique boys' court. And that is one of the reasons why the people of Denver,—boss-ridden though they are,—have twice fought Ben Lindsey's battles for him and insisted on his renomination by the party machines. There is another reason for the people's unan¬imous endorsement of Lindsey for a renomi¬nation.    He had defied the corrupt party ma chine that originally put him in power, and had refused to use his place to shield it against an investigation of ballot-box frauds. He had uncovered a "steal" of some of the ma¬chine leaders. Over and over again he had offended the bosses by showing his inde¬pendence. Therefore, politicians said he was not "right," and he was slated for defeat.
But he was "right" enough for the people. The newspapers exposed the plan to defeat him. Next day at a packed convention, dom¬inated by the public utility corporations of the city, there was a dramatic scene. The long-suffering people revolted. The party bosses felt the tension. They saw their own delegates yielding to the tug of the popular will. The bosses tried to drift the nomina-tion to a committee. The people would have none of it. When a speaker referred by im¬plication to Lindsey as the "boys' judge," the audience went wild. Men flung up their hats and women waved their handkerchiefs. The convention was stampeded. Ben Lindsey was made by acclamation the nominee of the party to which he did not belong.
The band played "Hail to the Chief," while the slight, boyish figure of the man who is a prophet in his own country was escorted to the platform. When the cheering mob had quieted, the chairman introduced him:—
"Judge Lindsey, an honest man."
That was all, but it sent the hats and hand¬kerchiefs up again for another season of wild cheering. Then Judge Lindsey made his brief pledge. He would do his duty, if elected, neither Democrat nor Republican, but as a citizen, believing that in serving the people he would best serve his party.
That same afternoon the 'Populists and the Prohibitionists endorsed him. Then his own party machine, fighting for votes with its back to the wall, and clinging to his skirts to cover its corruption, fell into line and made his nomination practically unanimous. There was more knifing and more deals, as is the way of Denver politics, but Lindsey received sixty-one thousand votes out of a possible sixty-one thousand five hundred.
Which merely illustrates again that when the people know a man to be worthy of their confidence they will sometimes stand by him to the utter rout of political bosses and ma¬chines, which in the last analysis exist by the suffrage of a people careless of their rights.
Ben Lindsey is a man full of enthusiasm. He believes that the safety of the State to¬morrow lies with the children of to-day. That is why he has his coat off to save the street gamin from his environment and to give him a fighting chance in the struggle of life.
IT is with pleasure that the management of the Redpath Lyceum Bureau announces that they have the honor of directing a limited tour of lecture engage¬ments which Judge Ben B. Lindsey of the Juvenile Court of Denver has been persuaded to give.
By way of introduction to our clientele we know of nothing better to offer than the fascinating article by William McLeod Raine, pub¬lished in the American Illustrated Magazine for July, 1905. We gratefully acknowledge permis¬sion from Mr. Ellery Sedgwick, editor, to publish this copy-righted article herewith.