The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1905-12-28
GUARD THE LETTERS
FORCE OF INSPECTORS PROTECT
THE PUBLIc's MAIL.
Number of Post Offices Burglarized
in the Last Year---Few Dis
honest Employees in
the Service.

the Service.
Are offenses against the posta
laws on the increase?" repeated al
old post office inspector to a Washing
ton Star reporter. THAT query cover
a very broad scope OF criminal investi
cation, too comprehensive to be brief
ly answered, but will say that on,
serious crime against the postal law
has decreased during the past year
and that Is the burglarizing of pos
Offices. To give the public an idea o.
the operations of the enterprising pos
Office burglar | will say that a trifl,
less than 600 post Offices were bur
glarized during the last year. or about
one post Office to every "A of tn,
total number established of all classes
This class of crime maintains about
the same average year after year, with
| slight variations on one side or the
othas But we got IN our good work
/ on the burglars themselves. however
/ for we ran the arrests of the perpe
| traitors OF this offense up to u PET
cent increase over the number made
the previous year This is the high
est percentage of increase in the mum
ber OF burglars arrested over any year
for over a decade
There are many causes for the de-
crease of the number of post Office
robberies and for the increase of the
number of burglars apprehended for
this crime. The Bertilon system of
measurement is used whenever prac-
ticable. and there are now on file the
descriptions and histories Of many
criminals In addition to this, the
information compiled by the national
bureau of identification Is at the com.
mand OF the post Office inspectors.
The standing rewards which an an.
nual appropriation Of $25. 900 for that
purpose permits the postmaster gen.
eral to offer for the apprehension OF
postal service criminals IL great in
centive to the local peace officers and
to the police and detective force
throughout the entire country. There
are few small individual appropria-
tions made by congress which are pro-
ductive OF such tangible and crafty.
ing results as from this little appro.
priation for rewards for postal crimes.
"The most recent and important ar.
rest of an emlpoye 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 u postal THE; for
years, and had stolen enough to buy
and stock a small farm In the en-
virons of the Monumental city. but he
had been base enough TO make his
mail distractions from the section OF
feilow-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, as his would-be
innocent victim was not even under
suspicion by our men, even though
the letters came from his section and
were handled at certain stages by
him.
ut 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 complaint, but 1t is
ultimately certain. and practically IN
all cases of actual guilt their convic-
tion is moral certainty. We do
not take our cases into court until
we have sure evidence for conviction.
Perhaps 1t is because they are not
Immediately detected that postal
thieves have a sense OF false security.
They usually begin with a few petty
thefts, secure small sums of money,
and wait to see II these are discovered.
Finding that no apparent notice il
taken OF their stealings, they fiatter
themselves with the belief that they
are very shrewd and cunning, be-
come bolder. and finally every piece
Of mail matter 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 ihcriminating evi-
dence. and very often the men work
ing on either and sometimes 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 pa
tience a fine study In our business OF