Pullman herald. [volume] (Pullman, W.T. [Wash.]) 1888-1989, 1911-04-14
BEN LINDSEY,
SATURDAY, APRIL ~
Judge of Denver Juvenile Court and
Friend of the Children Will Lee
ture at College Auditorium,
Saturday Evening, April %.


Judge Ben b. Lindsey, who needs
no further introduction to the pub
lie, will lecture at the College Audi
forum, Saturday evening, April o.
owing to his arrival on the $40 o.
w. r. e N, the lecture will not begin
until $3.50. No reserved seats.
The regular admission will be fifty
cents to all who do not hold season
tickets. The lecture will be along
the line of Judge Lindsey's recent
magazine articles.
Judge Lindsey's work among de-
linquent Juveniles in the Denver
county court has made him ma
tional figure. From all over the
civilized world come inquiries re-
garding the methods and the admin
Iistratiye system of the juveline court
OF this man. 1t 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 $4,000 life insurance policy had
lapsed, he came to Denver with his
mother. He went to work as an Of
flee boy for law firm and added TO
the family income by doing janitor
work for Judge Robert w. Steele.
1t was in fight against jury fixers
that Ben Lindsey began his political
career. Twice he and his law partner
tried celebrated damage case, and
twice their bulk of well-massed evil
dence was brought to naught by the
twelfth juryman. So he broke in
to- politics in order to obtain the
passage Of three-fourths jury law
in civil cases.
His ability soon became recog-
nized, and he served as counsel for
one faction OF his party in political
| fight for control of the machine. He
received the appointment to an I'M
finished term as county court Judge
for party services rendered. But be-
fore he had been judge month it
was plain that he was no tool of a
machine or even of a party.
The problem of the children 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 talk
ed with the trem bling youngsters his
memory jumped back fifteen years to
time when another party of bows
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 bows 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
."r 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 frequenting wine
rooms. why don't you arrest the
dive Keepers" he asked of the offfc- |
ers, and began at once a crusade
against the evil. But the fire and
police board had reasons of it's own
for not wanting to close the wine
rooms. 1t actually secured from an
other Judge an injunction against ac-
ton by the board on the plea that
the woman suffrage law gave a wo-
man 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
] 1 necessity an enemy of graft
in protecting the interests of the
young
More than half of the inmates of
the reform schools and the peniten-
tiaries of the country are under the
Iage of twenty-three. Surely this i'm
plies on the part of the state atroci-
Gus neglect or a colossal error in the
training of its youth. So it seemed
TO Ben Lindsey. and with character
istic energy he began to look for the
cause of this waste of lives.