Juvenile Judge Out

Last week the Colorado Supreme Court handed down a decision declaring that Benjamin Barr Lindsey was, on Nov. 4, 1924, illegally re-elected to the judgeship of the Denver Juvenile Court. An ouster impended.

The Denver Juvenile Court, if not the first in the world, was the first to have almost arbitrary powers--over parents as well as children--for aid or correction. Benjamin B. Lindsey was its "father" and has been its only judge. The important cases he has heard in a dim secluded office. They make good stories. The "trouble" is nearly always sex. Last year, 1,000 girls came to him; 800 "had not let mother in on the secret." In one case, the Judge will personally arrange for the baby to be smuggled away at birth to a childless couple. In another, he will summon a proud citizen and make him agree to let his son marry the grocer's daughter. Almost always he fixes it. But, in 26 years, he has found that what happens sexually is so different from the current sex-mores that he has finally (TIME, Jan. 24) come out for a change in the law to permit trial or "Companionate" marriages.

His views have nothing to do with ouster from office. The illegality of his election is a story beginning and ending in Precinct 6 of District J. It happens to be the Jewish precinct of Denver, and in the autumn of 1924 was marked "easy" by the politicians of both sides. The Republicans said they wanted all the votes for State Senators--the Democrats could have the rest. One of Judge Lindsey's minor assistants asked the precinct-tsar to "look after Ben out there," and paid him $25. The vote-counters counted the votes to make the answer come out right, and Judge Lindsey, among others, was elected. His opponent, one Royal R. Graham, died violently soon after, "and not of suicide," said his family. At Mrs. Graham's request the Supreme Court said none of the votes of Precinct 6 would be legally counted. That done, Judge Lindsey has no right to his post since, in a Republican landslide, he, a Democrat, was only able to win by the 100 odd votes of Precinct 6.