Page:Upbuilders by Lincoln Steffens.djvu/179



he makes from these lectures, and out of the $4,600 which the county pays him, he retains some other judge to fill his place while he is away. I ask the thousands of men and women who have heard Judge Lindsey tell his stories of boys and girls, to consider what it means, that powerful men in Colorado have drawn a bill that shall “put a stop to this little whipper-snapper’s run- ning around all over the country lecturing.” This is hate. And the other attacks upon him and his work show a deeper-seated opposition. Why ?

There’s a reason. There are two reasons. One is that Judge Lindsey does not confine him- self to saving the children that are “ lost in crime”; he began early to inquire into the causes of juve- nile crime. He asked what made bad children bad. That led him to a study of the conditions of child-life; that led him to the conclusion that the typical environment of an average Christian community was such that even little children could not be good; and that led this man to attack those conditions. In other words, Judge Lindsey has sought not merely to cure but to prevent the evils of child-life.

“Don’t tear down all the time,” men shout at reformers. “What we want is reconstructive work.” It was Lindsey’s “reconstructive work” that threatened to “hurt business.”