The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1912-09-05
HOW LITTLE LINDSEY
KICKED OUT THE BOSSES

George Creel in ~Eyerybody's Mag
azine: The day of the bocs and cor
poration control in municipal affairs
is waning. MacNichol has been driven
from the politics oil Philadelphia;
Cox from Cincinnati; Cleveland has
o its freedom; half a dozen other
cities have at least partly rid them
selves OF their boss-run machines.
But no boss ever got kicked out SO
thoroughly as Boss Evans vas kicked
out Of Denver in the spring munici-
pal election. Tuesday, May p, the
citizens of Denver reelected Ben 3.
Lindsay 10 the Office of juvenile Judge
by 4l,47s votes against 16,249 cast
for the candidate of the bipartisan
forces. And the entire Citizens ticket
Ia third party protest against the
conditions attacked and exposed by
Judge Lindsay-was elected, from
mayor to constable, by a majority of
ten thousand votes over the demo-
cratic and republican tickets.
An entire country watched this
municipal election and found it's re-
suit satisfactory.
What 1t Means.
'"Ao ''tNcb A'aAAS AA' ' ina
that a great city has ban shed oppres-
sion and enthroned freedom. 1t is a
clarion call Il all who sweat in bond
age. and a heartening to the forces of
revolt. 1t is proof OF the peoples pow
er. For years the Guggenheim-Evans
bipartisan machine had rumbled its
ugly way along-menacing, arrogant,
seemingly invincible; yet when the
! panule rnge vpaGSa6 and attarkeI II
fell into rusty remnants, and was
seen to be no more than an evil bug
bear of lies and fears and supersti-
tions.
For twenty years the honest men
and ONE of Colorado have been
fighting for fairer and better things;
but it remained for Judge Lindsay
to make the struggle real ard vivid
by linking special privilege with vice
and crime, and connecting political
corruption with the sufferings of lit
tie children.
AS he sat in the juvenile court,
heart tori by the sorrowful process
sion that streamed through the doors
he saw hat the system which gave
privileges and m~onopolies to the
many, was responsible for involun-
- wv Una ihsoi
untary poverty that bred the sores
and testers of society.
He saw the cat" And an investi-
cation strengthened his c%retitude, he
commenced these terrific denunciat-
ions of Big Business that made him
the object of more malignant attack
than has been heaped upon any other
man in modern public life.
L%indsay's Campaign.
He charged that municipal corrup-
ton had its source in the scramble
of public utility corporations for un-
fair favors. That slums were encour-
aged and maintained by the respec-
table privilege seekers as vote
mills" That the entire political sys-
tenn was a compact among criminals,
rich and poor, for the protection of H.
legal profit. With a ~fearlessness that
took no thought of personal conse
quences, he pointed out hat the bri.
bes of special privilege, tricking like
some evil acid into every nook anG
Granny of public service, had SCARED
manhood and ~self-respect in council
and in courts, and that it's unclear
formed high standing citizens into
tHt eIltlHlcS " ! SOOu SONtI HicIt
In 1908 E~verybody's detailed Har.
vey j. O'Higgins to go to Denver and
work with Judge Lindsey in the pre-.
paration of an photographic nara.
tive that would tell of the struggle
against those evils that beset every
American municipality. Published
serially in ~Everybody's Magasine.
every instalment of THE Beast and
the Jungle" brought screams from
the exposed Beast.
All that Judge Lindsey had been
called upon to endure for ten years
paled beside the new hates and per
secutions. He vas called an ill bird
public enemy" "blackener OF the
fair name of Colorado and mad
man" The great civic bodies revileC
in solemn resolutions and countless
thousands were spent in the nationa,
circulation of obscure sheets that
branded him as a liar and a degener-
ate, utterly without reputation in
his own community.
And the Beast. enraged beyond
caution, rushed out into the open.
The Turning Point.
The high water mark of insolenct
was supposed to have been reached in