The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-07-28
NO MONEY IN CRIME.
An Evidence of Shortsightedness as
 We'll as Rascality.

From the Chicago Tribune. B, Franklin was right about honesty, at least partly. Honesty may not be the most paying investment, but 1t Is the safest and most conservative, and dishonesty in the individual does not pay.
 In making this statement I must qualify it to some extent, but not enough to affect the general truth. The qualification Is that not one of the forms of dishonesty which have Investigated pays from a eommer- clal standpoint. In making the investiga- ton l purposely have omitted entirely any consideration of social, ethical, or moral factors but have interviewed and inyes- tigated only with a view of ascertaining whether or not 1t pays financially to be dishonest.
 The police of four cities have assisted and the wardens of two state penitentia- ries graciously have permitted me to make investigations. l have talked with 142 known and confessed dishonest men who are not arrested, and, with three exeep- tlons, not one of them said that he could make much money dshonestly as by working steadily. Many asked for time to remember sums dishonestly secured and later, after figuring 1t out, were as frankly surprised at the showing as any one could be.
 Train robbing Is the most remunerative form of dishonesty, crooked gambling sec ond robbing banks Cby offeials) third, and so on down to picking pockets, which Is the poorest paid branch of the profes- sion. Shop-liftng Is fairly remuneratiye, burglary pays less than the $80 a month a policeman earns, and the holp-up man makes less money than the laborer at $1 a day.
 Every story was the same-long plan ming, weeks of poverty and scheming, and then, even when successful, only a months wages for decent working man.
 The police estimate the average earn ings of thieves from house burglaries Is even lower. There are listed with the Chl- cago police about 900 known burglars, and If they got full value for all the stuff stolen from Chicago houses during the year they would not make $50 year each. True, most of these men work the out side," but even if the Chicago robbers stole everything stolen in Illinois during the year they would not make A decent living.
 In fact to make money robbing houses a man requires such a high order of intel ligence or cunning that he would be tempted to burglary only by absolute knowledge that some large sum of cash was in a certain place. The great major ity of burglars are boys under II years Of age, mlsled by tales of great gains.
 Picking pockets not only Is a dangerous business requiring lot of deftness and special training, and involving thes maxi mum danger of arrest, but the picllpockets l interviewed declare that 1t can only be made to pay decent living wages by the hardest of work.
 One woman piczpoclIet. whose picture Is in every rogue's gallery in the country. informed me that during two-thirds of her time she could not make enough money to support herself at picking pockets, and was forced to resort to vice to earn a live lihood.
 The trouble with picking pockets Is that the thief must go it blind. and after the police gets his record such tricks as loaf ing in stores and around banks to spot people who show rolls of bills are impos- sible.
 The men who follow circuses and street fairs informed me that they can average S10 a day during tine summer if they escape arrest but must loaf most of the winter, not daring to work In their home towns The expenses are heavy, and they seldom have any money.
 The hod-up game Is not a remunerative one. The average earnings of sixteen hold up men were about $1 a day during the time they actually were engaged in high way robbery, and not counting their time in prison.