Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-01-16
POST OFFICE ROBBING
INCREASE IN THIS KIND OF
CRIME DURING PAST YEAR
AN inspector Talks Of Burglaries and
Thefts of Mail and the Capture
of the Offenders. B

Inc very heavy and steady increase In
crime In post office burglaries and mail rob-
| oeries during the past few years, and par
| ticularly during the past year, knocks the
theories of those who believe that crime IS
most rampant during hard times into
cooked hat said an experienced post office
inspector to a Star reporter this morning,
ior at no time has the country been more
prosperous than now, and at no time do our
records show such heavy Increases in penal
oHenses against the postal laws and reg
| ulations
The efforts Of the thief catchers of the
inspection force have been correspondingly
increased. with the result that more Offend
ers nave been arrested and convicted than
ever DeIore during stated period. Thus
out OF l, ~ arrests of postal offenders last
year We secure the conviction of 100 Grim
mails, leaving 500 cases pending In the
Cnlted states courts. Eleven prisoners
FORFEITED bail, ten escaped and seventy-eignt
were acquitted. The fact that the acquit-
tals show SO small beside the large number
OF convictions, and the many cases pend
ing, OF which large proportion are sure to
result in convictions, testifes very satisfac-
torily to the efficient way the Post Office
Department police force work up their cases
against postal thieves, and proves their con-
tentlon that arrests are seldom made until
sure that they have their man or men
dead to rights with sufficient evidence at
hand to carry conviction at the trial.
Outsiders the Principal Criminals.
The burglarious entering Of post offices
increased last year over the preceding year
about 10 per cent. OF the total number of
arrests made, 1,721, which was III over the
preceding year, heavy increase, 112 Of the
culprits We're postmasters, twenty-five
slstant postmasters, sixty-four clerks in
post Offices thirteen railway mail clerks,
twenty nine letter carriers, forty-three mail
carriers, and eighteen men employed in
minor positions in the postal service.
The remaining 1,417 persons arrested
were men outside of the postal service, and
these 2S7 were post office burglars. II
will be seen, therefore, that out of the total
1,721 arrested men, but 3O4 were attached
to the postal service. and when il is re-
membered that there are rs 600 postma sters,
and with these, those employed in the many
other branches OF the postal service swell
the total army up to about 10000 men,
nearly three times the present strength OF
the regular army now under arms. II will
be observed that 30f dishonest men against
such great army is very small indeed and
speaks in the loudest terms for the general
honesty of those in the service. In the
state courts III cases were prepared, re-
sulting in forty-two convictions, ten ac-
qu1tals, with siXty-one pending cases, in
dicating that such offenders as came under
the state judicial jurisdictions were actively
prosecuted.
But as to the post Office burglar. the
outsider, 1t is different. The percentage in
the increase of the arrests for. post office
burglaries during the past ten years was Al
per cent. That IL per cent more post office
burglars were arrested last year than in
1852 shows conclusively that this handy
criminal is being run down with greater
certainty than before. just as does the fact
that there was an increase in the number Of
,nct nT1 h,,, Io,;1 80 81.
that this same handy criminal is making a
speciality of post offices, and is doing we'll,
so long as he evades capture. 1t cannot
be expected. of course, that federal and
state police officers will catch all post Office
burglars. but that they have done exceed
ingly well during the past decade is evil
denced by the fact that the arrests are but
IA per cent behind the number of bur
glarieS committed.
Interesting Pathological Information.
Psychologists can find instructive facts for
specializing on the cause and the cure Of
crime by clipping these figures from The
Star, and remembering that while the post
offices in the United States have increased
in number 10 per cent during the past ten
years the increase in the number of post
offices destroyed by fire (often for the pur-
pose of burglary or to conceal the evidence
of burglary during that period was "a per
cent, the number of post offices robbed in
creased 81. ana the NUMBER OF arrests Tor
this last offense increased Al per cent.
THE matter of Identification Of criminals
in the problem Of the suppression of crime
is one of prime Importance. The Bertillon
syste-- of measurement and description is
used by the department inspectors when
ever pra cticable, and we have On file the
descriptions and histories of many GRIM 4
inals. The Identification section, through
the chief inspector, is a subscriber to the
national bureau of Identification, now To-
Gated in Washington. To this national bu-
reau are sent photographs, measurements
and descriptions of criminals when arrest
ed, and the information of that institution
is at the command of our inspectors This
feature of thief-chasing has produced most
valuable results.
There is another feature regarding the
capture of postal criminals that the public
shouIu be more fully Informed of, and that
is the matter of rewards offered by the de-
partment for the arrest and conviction of
postal thieves in the United States courts
Liberal Rewards offered for Capture.
about $4,000 year is annually appro-
priated for the payment of rewards, and
there is money in catching postal thieves
for peace officers. Another important point
is this: Train robbery ought to be punished
by the life penalty, but there Is a United
States statute not generally known that
means life Imprisonment for these rascals
The government offers 81 600 reward for
the arrest and conviction of any person in
any United States court on charge of
robbing the mails while being conveyed in
any car attached to railway train This