Los Angeles herald., 1909-01-03
JUDGE LINDSEY'S COURT
BECOMING WORLD FAMOUS
Colorado Institution Is Copied in the
East and West with Result
ant Saving of Chill
dren

Everything is young in Colorado. The
Juvenile court, it's chief civic feature
is only eight years old. During thai
time it has cut a national figure AND
been copied, lOngO intervallo, by TWEEN
ty-f1ve states and three countries, Can
ada, England and Australia. 1t is fast
becoming a world power, and Denver
in the limelight at this moment be-
cause of the kids judge does not
know the hour of her greatness. She
was expected to turn down this man
of genius and character and replace
him with a partisan judge. At the
doors of seventy-five churches in Den
yer on the Sunday before election day
10000 circulars indorsing Judge Lind
sey by the Christian Citizenship union
and the Anti-SaloOn league were given
out. Inside, the civic duty Of voting for
the non-partisan judge who is saving
the children was pressed upon the
people. Even Father Organ gave to
his Catholic pulpit a wider meaning
by indorsing the candidate who had
taken the juvenile court out Of politics.
1t means something when $4,000 voters
sign a pledge to vote for Ben B. Lind
sey and $500 offer to work for him on
election day. Lively times even for
wideawake Denver, when the kids
take to electiOneering and women hold
mass meetings. But why not? The
women vote in Colorado. They talk
practical politics in the street cars and
tt the club. They run for office, and
get elected, too They started the
juvenile court. Judge Lindsey says So
They keep it going. He says that, too
They passed the best labor laws for
women and children in the states. OF
course they stand by the juvenile court
and the law of love" They Willed to
re-elect Judge Lindsey and they did
The vote was significant of the power
of independent voting. Lindsey, denied
nomination by any party, received in
round numbers $4,000 votes while the
Democratic and Republican nominees
each received about 900 votes. Thus
Lindsey had a plurality of about Il, 00C
and lacked q few thousand votes Of a
majority over both. It was a tremen-
douS victory, says a correspondent of
the Boston Transcript.
l spent long morning in the juvenile
courtroom of Denver, and 1 think the
women know what they're about. Some
men, too, for their votes still count,
and they are 20 per cent in the lead in
this great OvergrOwn state.
Judge Lindsey, Ike ZaCcheus is small
of stature, but with a big sense of JUS
tice. l heard him tell the genesis of
the juvenile court. He attributes it's in
CSpIlOn TO T6dulDS 1OlSlOy ana talking
with Jane Adams. Ten years ago he
was a young lawyer in the criminal
court. reading the great Russians
books between whites and bordering
their basic principles-no force no VIC
lence; evil cast out by good. He found
Tolstoyan principles difficult of appl1-
cation, but ne began to mingle love
with law.
You can't compel men to be good: re-
form comes from within. Moral gym
nastic exercises succeed in the ma
jority of cases in making good citi-
zens Every mother is a juvenile court.
and must guard the child against bru-
tality on the one hand, leniency on the
other. The divinest quality in the
world, sympathy, must be used with
out justifying wrong. Interest must
be felt on the boy and the boys world.
Boys do not "snitch'' on other boys
do they?" cried the judge to the score
of juvenile offenders in the court room.
The law of the boys world must be re-
spected. A scheme of discipline must
be substituted for leniency there is no
character without conscience; it must
be developed. Hence the probation