Page:Upbuilders by Lincoln Steffens.djvu/180



There we have one all-sufficient reason why he has to fight; but there’s a second: Ben Lindsey does not limit his labours to the cause of the children. He is celebrated for his juvenile sys- tem, and in Denver you hear that he is “a philan- thropist, and if he would stick to his philanthropic work, he might go on forever.” That’s a lie. But, as I said, this man should not be known only as the founder of the Juvenile Court; he is doing a man’s work for men. The “kids’ Judge” of Denver was elected as the County Judge of Den- ver, and as such he dealt out justice to bad men as well as to bad boys, and when by accident one day he discovered evidence of graft in his Court, Judge Lindsey forced the grafters to trial and to conviction.

Ben Lindsey does his duty, his whole duty as a man, as a citizen, and as a public official, and that’s what makes him a menace to Things As They Are in Colorado and in the United States. Like Heney, and La Follette, and Colby, and (even) Mark Fagan, Ben Lindsey is up against the Sys- tem, and, therefore, like them and like every hon- est man you hear of in this land, the just Judge has to fight.

A large part of the opposition to Judge Lindsej, especially at first, was honest. It was ignorant, but sincere and natural. For, yo