El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1910-03-10
UNITED STATES PAYS TERRIBLE TOLL
IN A YEAR To ITS CRIMINALS
CONTINUED from Page Six)

, our criminal population outside the
walls of our prisons is 250, 000-which
! is certainly well within the limits OF
accuracy-we are confronted with the
staggering sum Of S4OO.O0O.OOO earned
each year by our thieves and thugsi
Can you grasp the immensely of 1t
all? Gentlemen of the police, what
have you to say?
But we are not done. We have esti-
! mated only The taxation. and the profits
of crime. We must consider not only
the criminal but his victim.
AS an item of business between the
criminal and the receiver of stolen
goods, the plumber OF a thief brings
from onefOurth TO onethird of its orig
inal value. This plumber ranges all
the way from spoons to diamonds, from
Panama hats TO cloisonne vases, from
horses to automobiles. Adam Worth.
possibly the greatest sneak thief that
the world has ever known, 1t is esti-
mated by the Pinks secured a
plumber of $4,000 goo during his life
time, the loot circling from posta
stamps TO a GainsbOrough picture, val
ued at $4,000. In the early SOS, a
band of three sneak thieves, "Hod' En-
mis-. Charlie Rose and Piano Charlie"
BuIIard. entered the office of Lord, the
Broad street broker, of New York city,
and stole a bag of government bonds
worth S1,2O0,o00. They got away with
it, too,
Some Calculations.
Suppose a burglar enters your house
and makes a comprehensive sweep OF
your valuables. Let us say that he
gets YOUR watch and most of your
wife's jewelry, and then dumps your
silve-ware into his bag.K When you
discover the robbery the next morning,
you estimate that the missing articles
cost you perhaps $500 or $1,000 in cash
The burglar IS never captured and your
goods, of course, are gone forever. The
thief may have disposed OF them al
pawnshop three blocks from you-yes,
this has happened-or he may have
taken them to another city He realizes,
perhaps, 5000 profit from the nights
work This, then. is the sum which en-
tiers into the estimate of the yearly In
come of the gentlemen who i've by
their wits, who make a profession OF
crime. In order, however, to obtain
a. complete survey of the cost of our
criminals, we must now reckon the
losses Of the victims, under which head
your $500 or $1,000 is included.
Our calcula tions carry us into realm
of high arithmetic which can well stag
ger us. Suppose that Of the 100000
600 earnings" of our criminals only
onequarter of this is represented by
cash or bonds. The remainder is the
profits from stolen articles which have
been sold at onefourth or onethird or
onehaif of their value, as the case may
be. Find the total losses of the victims
for yourself Perhaps the calculation
will reconcile you somewhat to your
own losses. When you consider the
$4,000 or 100000 or 100000 plumber
in many cases as in the s173.000 loot
ing of the United States subtreasury,
of Chicago. Feb. 25. 1907, or the $780,
900 bond theft from Henry COmstockI
of Denver, on the Fall River steamer,
Puritan. June II, 1905. or any of the
jewel robberies in and around New
York city which brought a plumber of
over $4,000 In the three years, 1905,
1906 and 1907, or-but why prolong
these statistics? The police do not at
tempt to deny the national drain OF
our criminals. 1 have not placed ii sc
high as many of the expert criminolo-
gists whom I have consulted 1t is all
a fact of record. and a simple question
of addition and multiplication
In the two cities of Chicago and New
York, S1.000,0OO worth of stolen prop
erty was recovered last year. How
many times this amount was not recov-
cred? The year books of our police
most of them-wiIl tell you nothing.
They are designed 30 tell you nothing
In Il wide list which I have gathered,
1 find the 100 page reports filled with
such carefully compiled tables as the
number of abandoned vehicles foun
on the streets" licenses for masque-
rades and fancy dress balls" public
lamps not lighted. number of letters
received and answered" funeral per
mits," lost children found" "obstruc-
ton of sidewalks" and so on. When
we look for the amount of stolen prop
erty reported during the year. the num-
Der Of holdups and burglaries. the list
of homicides, we search in vain.
A number of years ago, the jewellers
upf America were forced to form a ma
tionaI detective organization to guard
their property. The bankers of Amer
lea have done likewise. So have the
hotel keepers. So have the railroads.
They could not depend on the public
police 1t was cheaper to maintain &.
police system of their own. Will the
people CT America also be forced to en-
ploy private watchmen2
Gentlemen of the police, you are on
trial.
The protection of public property and
public life is in your hands. You have
not protected it-you are not protect
ing IL.
WHY