BEN B. LINDSEY 311 York and Massachusetts, statutes which made possible the trial of youthful offenders apart from adults. In 1899 Colo- rado and Illinois enacted laws which enabled courts to deal in a special way with delinquent children. It was these laws which made possible a beginning, and it was not until the juvenile court idea had been fully developed and its success assured that the Colorado legislature passed an act giving it a legal basis and providing that every county in the state might have such a court. Judge Lindsey was the author of this act. Learning from experience what legislation was most needed to aid and strengthen the first act he afterwards asked for and obtained the passage of a Contributory Delinquency Law which provides for a maximum penalty of a heavy fine or even a year's imprisonment for contributing to the delinquency of any child, whether the offender be the parent or not. The in- tent of the law as first framed and passed was to enable the court to reach parents who keep their children away from school to work. It was later amended and changed so as to cover all cases of persons instructing children in crime or al- lowing boys to go into saloons or other immoral places. It also applies to the employees of railway companies who per- mit boys to steal rides or to carry off coal or other articles of small value from the yards. This was the first law of its kind ever passed. Judge Lindsey has always stood for good government and has been active in the fights of the last decade against the corrupt politicians and the ** Interests*' in his own city and state. His private life has always been above reproach. The esteem in which he is held by all good citizens has been amply demonstrated by the results of the last two elections in which he was a candidate for juvenile judge. In 1908 when the pol- iticians refused to place his name upon any regular ticket he made an independent campaign with the aid of his friends, and was elected by 14,272 votes over his nearest competitor. Pour years later he was elected on a Citizens* ticket by 41,478 votes as against 16,249 for his nearest opponent on a regular party ticket.
