Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1903-11-11
A Criminals Finger
Print is His Nemesis

A great deal has been written and
said in late years concerning the lack
Of progressivencss i'll England. and
by way of contrast and compa rison,
concerning the abundance of enter
prise characteristic of Americans at
home and abroad
Englishmen themselves have helped
t. further the belief that their coun-
try is far behind the United States;
their papers are continually printt-
ing articles and correspondence meant
to illustrate and prove American su-
periority.
The purpose of this article is TO
show that England is far ahead of
the United States in an activity which
has -ften been thought to be only
supremely we'll attended to in Amer
ica.
| refer to the detection and identi-
t!cation of professional criminals.
The average reader of newspapers
in the United States is of the opin-
ion that the American detective is
the most astute and the cutest person
in the world when it comes to putting
his nose t.. the ground in pursuit OF
criminal
The average boy in the United
States. if asked who is the greatest
sleuth in existence, would in nine
cases out of ten reply: "Pinkerton.'
We have become very provincial
to the police business. and perhaps
in no particular more so than in this
conceit about our proficiency as
sleuths.
After all has been said to our cred
it on this score that we can possibly
uGSeINt, tlle ldtl IeHldlllS tndt tHel =
is rot police organization from New
Ysfk to San Francisco which equals
the criminal investigation departme 1t
of Scotland Yard in means and meth
DDS whereby professional criminals
may be identified.
This statement is made without any
intended Or implied reference to the
alleged corruption in American p~.
lie life.
Quite apart from this consideration
indeed, assuming for the sake of ar
gument that honesty in police life
in the United States is quite as pre-
valent as in police life in England
it may be safely stated that Lon
don:s detective organization has in
Tenders. once caught, while the Amer
lean officers are identifying five in
the same space of time.
Now Preparing Plans.
Meanwhile. however. committee
of police chiefs is now at work pre-
pairing plans for adopting a new sys-
tenn, and report is shortly t, be
made
Londoners have long discarded en-
tirely the anthropometric system OF
measurement, popularity known as the
Bertillion system.
They have supplanted it with
something a great deal better.
The Bertillion system. which has
been in vogue in nearly all continent
al countries. as we'll as in America,
fcr number of years. calls for Ger
! tain measurements of the criminals
head. arms, fingers, feet and ears.
The idea CT its originator WAS that
! if the measurements were carefully
made and saved great advance
would have been made in the identi-
faction of men and women who make
, crime their regular business.
1t is fair to state that with the in
PRODUCTION of this system an advance
; on previously accepted methods was
achieved, and that great many mcTe
professional offenders were identl'
fed than formerly had been the case
At the same time it was recognized
by every body who gave any attention
to the subject, that the system was
after all Very fallible