Page:Upbuilders by Lincoln Steffens.djvu/154



as organizations of men. The only trouble with gangs is that they absorb all the loyalty of the members, turning them from and often against the home, the Law, and the State. But that happens in grown-ups’ gangs, too. Railroad and other corporations are gangs which, in the interest of their “business,” corrupt the State. Churches are “gangs” whose members submit to evils because, if they fought them, the church might be hurt. So with universities, and newspapers, and all kinds of business organizations. Tammany Hall is only a gang which, absorbing the loyalty of its members, turns it, for the good of the gang, against the welfare of the city. Judge Lindsey simply taught the members of his kid gang what many gangs of grown-ups have to learn, that they are citizens also, and he turned the loyalty of the Kid Citizens’ League back to the city, using the honour of the gang as his lever.

Another similar case came up when two boys were brought in by a policeman from the Union Station. The policeman said they belonged to a gang the members of which stoned him wherever they saw him. Why? Well, he was trying to keep them out of the station and off the grass around the station. What were the boys doing at the station and on the station lawn ? They