Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-11-19
PROTECT THE MAILS
FORCE OF INSPECTORS SAFE
GUARD THE PUBLIC,s LETTERS.

the increaseT repeated an old post Office
inspector to Star reporter yesterday.
THAT query covers very broad scope OF
criminal investigation, too comprehensive to
be briefly answered. but will say that one
serious crime against the postal laws has
decreased during the past year, and that
is the burglarizing of post offices. To give
the public an idea of the operations of the
enterprising post Office burglar I will say
that trif1e less than 1000 post offices were
burglarized during last year. or about one
post office to every forty-four of the total
number established OF all classes.
This class of crime maintains about the
same average year after year, with slight
variations on one side the other. But
we got in our good work on the burglars
themselves however for we ran the ar
rests of the perpetrators of this onense up
to II per cent increase over the NUMBER
made the previous year. This is the high
est percentage of increase In the number OF
burglars arrested over any year for over
decade.
There are many causes for the decrease
of the number of post Office robberies ana
for the increase of the number OF burglars
apprehended for this crime. The Bertlllon
system Of measurement Is used whenever
practicable, and there are now on ME the
descriptions and histories of many crlml-
nails. In addition to this. the information
compiled by the national bureau of identin-
cation Is at the command OF the pOSt oAiSo
inspectors. The standing rewards which
an annual appropriation of $4,000 for that
purpose permits the Postmaster General TO
offer for the apprehension of postal service
criminals is a great incentive to the locaA
peace officers and to the police and detec-
tive forces throughout the entire country
There are few small individual appropria-
lions made by Congress which are product
I've of such tangible and gratifying results
as from this little appropriation for rewards
for postal crimes.
Detection Sure.
''The most recent and important arrest
of an employee in the service was that of
the railway mail clerk who was caught with
the goods upon him a few days ago in
Baltimore. This man had not only been
postal thief for years, and had stolen
enough to buy and stock small farm In
the environs of the Monumental city, but
he had been base enough to make his mail
distractions from the section of fellow
clerk in the postal car to throw suspicion
on him. To the credit of the inspectors,
who finally caught this fellow red-handed,
he failed in his efforts, his would-be In
nocent victim was not even under suspicion
by our men, even though the letters came
from his section and were handled at GER
tain stages by him.
1T is a mystery to me why men IN the
service yield to the temptation of stealing
letters. Their detection is only matter
of time, perhaps not Immediately upon com
plant, but it is ultimately certain, and
practically in all cases of actual guilt their
conviction is moral certainty. We do not
take cases into court until We have
sure evidence for conviction
Perhaps 1t Is because they are not I'm
mediately detected that gives postal
thieves a sense of false security. They
usually begin with few petty thefts, Sc
cure small sums of money and wait to
If these are discovered. Finding that no
notice Ia taken of their
they fiatter themselves with the belief that
they very shrewd and cunning, become
holder, and finally every piece of mail mat
ter that seems to them to contain money is
fish in their net. In most cases inspectors
have been patiently watching them for
weeks to secure the positive discriminating
evidence, and very often the men working
on either and some times on both sides Of
their cases are inspectors only biding their
time to catch them with the discriminating
letters actually upon their persons. We
make of patience fine study In our busi-
ness of protecting the public.
Clerks Generally Honest.
Considering the vastness of the army of
postal employees, nearly three times the
size OF the regular army Of the country.
and of the different classes and tempera-
ments from which it is recruited, the gem
eral honesty of It's members is noteworthy.
as very heavy percentage of the offenses
os dili't the postal laws are committed by
persons outside of the service
The temptations to minor empIoves Of
the service, such as mail carriers, are very
great, especially to those on the rural free
delivery routes These men are usraJIIy
alone and free from observation This ia
one reason why they rank third in number
TO postmasterS arrested, fffty-six having
been locked up last year. When it is con.
stdered, however that there are apnroxi
nately 25,0G0 rural free delivery routes in
operation this Is not such a very bad
showing 1t is not as difficult as would
be supposed to catch these mail carriers
once route is located upon which thefts
are reported
Assistant postmaSters as class are far
more honest than their superors, since
only thfrty-four were taken into custody
last year, as against siXty-one clerks in
post Offices. this latter class running the
postmasters fairly good second. 1t is
not so easy to detect and to catch clerks
In post offices in their acts of dishonesty,
as they have opportunities for the alb
stractfon and concealment of mail matter
not open to other employees in the service.
Sometimes clerk in a post office is watch
ed for months before he is caught. Letter
carriers have abundant opportunity for pill
fering from the mail in their charge but
as q great class they are an honest set of
men. This may be shown briefly and
forcibly when 1 say that out of big army
corps of 1900 only 80 were arrested dur
Ing the past year. The Baltimore railway
mail clerk was the exception to the gem
gularly honest and trustworthy as well as
a fearless set of postal employees Only
eighteen of these fell by the wayside and
suffered the disgrace of arrest. There are
about 10000 of these employees and they
constitute one of the very best branches Of