Judge Ben Lindsey, who has been made famous by his remarkable work in
the Juvenile Court of Denver, tells the following in _The Survey_:
A heart-broken mother whose child was becoming dependent can
tell her own story: “My husband, judge, is a good man; he
was steady at his employment as structural ironworker until
recently. Now he is neglecting his home and his work. As soon
as he quits work he goes down to the gambling-house and there
he is being ruined. He used to go to mass with me on Sunday,
and he was so good and loving to us all. Now he is indifferent,
gloomy and melancholy. I am without clothes and the children
have no shoes. He has gambled away two hundred dollars of the
money that belongs to his union, for he was highly respected
and elected its treasurer. I gave him fifty dollars to pay the
chattel mortgage on our furniture, and I did not know that he
had gambled it away until the chattel-mortgage man came and
threatened to take the stove and furniture out of the house. I
went to police headquarters and they were rude and insulting
to me. But one of the officers came up to me and whispered
confidentially to me that if I would go to the Juvenile Court
they might help me out of my troubles.”
Of course the “big business” men who commercialize political
parties had little concern about their part in the ruin of that
home and in the dependency and delinquency of that child. I sent
for their political partner, the gambler who conducted the hell
that was burning up that home. He admitted it all. I told him
I would make a noise if he did not pay back that money to the
poor mother. He paid it back. It would have been useless to talk
about arrest and prosecution, for the public officials of that
period would do neither.
(1712)
K