Page:Upbuilders by Lincoln Steffens.djvu/245



and Mickey. He was careful to explain again what it was all about. “‘Skill in handling marble is as nothing to skill in handling men,”’ he quotes, and he wished to be sure that no false impressions were left in these boys’ minds. “I am fighting for a decent place to keep kids that are too weak to be on the level,” he said. “The jails are not decent; and Mickey, you boys have beaten the jail to-day, you and all the good kids in Denver. Go out and tell them so, for it is their victory.”

That was true. It was a victory. The pulpits rang with the story the next day. The men and women of Denver heard, and so did the grafters, . and the grafters felt the effect in public opinion. Lindsey’s bills came up from the bottom and were passed and signed and made part of the laws of Colorado within a week. And now other states are copying them.

Reformers, whose notion of reform consists in “getting a law passed,” are often amazed to find that their good law does no good. The reason is that neither public opinion nor public officials enforce the new laws. Lindsey had waited for his legislation till he had the support of public opinion, and then he enforced his new laws; he, and the boys and girls, and public opinion.

They were effective laws. They gave the