The San Francisco call., 1909-09-27


Juvenile court Of Denver. Colo.
- who. during all his professional
life has been vigorous foe to cor
ruption, has been invited to be one of
the speakers at the Francis j. Heney
campaign mass meeting to be held Oc-
been learned from the foregoing letter
to Mr.. Heney that Judge Lindsey can
not come to San Francisco at this
time.
Judge Lindsey, whose popular sobri
quet is the kids jedge," has had fight
on with graft and the influences of
corruption ever since the beginning Of
his professional career. The expert
ences of that conflict the Denver judge
is now publishing In loose form of
autobiography In Everybody's maga-
zine under the title of THE Beast and
the Jungle" The Beast, of course. is
graft, and the Jungle in which he
ranges, devouringly, is the society and
political system of the present day. The
articles comprising the judges biog-
raphy have been rewritten and worked
over by Harvey j. O'Higgins. the novel;
list and story writer, and the pen
marks of the latter stick out rather
conspicuously at places; but amid the
polished, balanced handiwork of the
New York literary man. sticks sut
daringly the natural narrative of the
Judge, who has filled his story with
sidelights on the political system of
Denver, which must make many OF
the politicians of that place wish to
rush for the deep gorges OF the Rocky
mountains.
1t is with frank audacity that Lind
sey has attacked corporation tools in
Denver-picking them out boldly by
name and unhesitatingly relating in-
cidents of his early associations with
the men. There are thinly veiled i'm
putations of jury bribing related;
there is a fiat charge made of legisla-
tive corruption committed and the
names of the alleged offenders are
published in the magazine. He has
related how the public service corpo-
rations of Denver controlled the courts
through hung juries."
1t is lively reading. and the publica-
ton of this life story of Judge Lind
sey would make his appearance here
as a speaker in the cause of Heney
doubly interesting and exciting.
Lindsey tells naively how he came to
Denver in the spring of 1880 and of the
desperate battle with poverty which he
and his widowed mother and brother
and two other children had. He tells
of working at various occupations, but
ever held to his desire to study law.
He nominates as his preceptor in in
tegrity r. D. Thompson. who, he says,
still practices in Denver; and his ex-
ample as an incorruptibly honest law
yer has been one of the best and
strongest influences of my life"
He, tells vividly of his first experience
with political corruption and Of his
anna cement at the apathy Of the public
toward the CRATER. He says:
.I had read in the newspapers of
how the Denver republicans won the
elections by fraud-by ballot box stuff
fing and what not-and / had followed
one 'Soapy' Smith on the streets from
precinct to precinct. with his gang OF
election thieves. and had seen them
vote not once, but five times openly.
What puzzled me still more
than this-although the ministers in
the churches and prominent citizens
in all walks of life denounced the
election crooks with the most laudable
fervor--the election returns showed
that the best people In the churches
ioined the worst people in the dives
to vote the same ticket and vote 1T
straight. And I was most of all puz-
z1ed to find that When the elections
were over the opposition newspaper
ceased it's sco1ding. the voice of minis
teriaf denunciation died away. and the
condoned and forgotten
And then I came upon some more
of the brute's anatomy. Members of
the legislature in Denver were ac-
cused of fraud in the purchase of state
supplies. and-some months later
members of the city government were
accused of committing similar frauds
with the aid of civic officials and prom
inent businessmen" The officials were
accused of ordinary grafting-raising
bills from SO to $300, paying outrageous
sums for supplies. etc. An Official of
the police department was found guilty
of conniving with gambler to rob an
express train. The narrative continues:
II watched the cases in court. I ap-
plauded at the meetings of the lead
ers and passed resolutions in support
of the candidates of the opposition
party. I waited to see the criminals
punished. And they were not pun
ished. Their crimes were not denied.
They were publicly denounced by the
courts and by the investigating COM
mittees, but somehow, for reasons not
clear. they all went scot free on ap-
peals. Some mysterious power pro-
tected them
In his first lawsuit young Lindsey
had his eyes opened to the corruption
of the jury system. He was attorney
for young man whom Lindsey con-
sidered to have been the victim of the
malpractice Of we'll connected phvsi-
ciap- At that time Lindsey was in
partnership with a lawyer to whom he
gives the avOwedly fictitious name ~
Charles Gardner but whom the nAn-
Yer Post Identifies to its own satts
faction al Fred w po~,- o>-s-o