Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1910-08-18
SCOTLAND Yard NOT JOKE EUI EFFICIENT !
Lack Of Pub,icity as aid
Shown ln Dew Surprise at
Newspaper Squad Awaiting
Him Recently. :: =:

the police see to it that the plot is
frustrated.
Meetings are held in Hyde park. and
Socialists make violent speeches. There
are always n few agents of Scotland
Yard in the audience. They are not
those TALL square shouldered. square
toed fellows. such as Il sophisticated
New Yorker can pick out of almost
any street crowd as plain clothes
men," They look like all the others.
Perhaps one of them Is that very hot
head who is going to get up presently
and make speech suggesting that the
king be hanged and that the paria-
ment building be burned to the ground.
He is the fellow who, If plot ever
Is formed to put his advice into effect,
will inform Superintendent Froest Sc
cretly in time to have the ringleaders
clapped in irons.
There are hundreds-indeed. probably
thousands--of these !nformants in the
pay of the crown, although their names
never appear on any payroll. The ex-
istence of this great staff of stool pi
geons is one important difference be-
tween the London and the New York
police systems.
If Scotland Yard were operating in
New York city it would have half
dozen bartenders on the Bowery, 1t
would have Il dozen foreign born in
formants in every foreign quarter. it
would pay somebody in every circle of
criminals or putative criminals to con-
tinue his associations with those Grim
inals, take part in their crimes If nee
essary. but keep their confidence-and
betray it.
The Italian squad in the New York
department was an attempt to mingle
with people of a certain class and
learn their intimate ways. Joe Petro-
sino before, the Black Hand got him
in Italy used to put on SLOUGH hat.
take chair at some corner table In
some Italian dive and spend whole
evening apparently doing over his
liquor. but actually listening unsus-
pected to the conversation around him.
But as whole the New York de-
partment is i'll equipped with men who
are fitted for this sort Of thing, and it
never will have the wonderful corps of
underworld assistants that London has
until sufficient money is provided.
Promoters Bother Scotland Yard.
There are fewer defalcations and
''inside jobs" in English banks, be-
cause the system of inspection is more
rigid On the other hand, England is
afflicted with glittering promoters of
the Whitaker Wright class, and one
of the most difficult problems which
Scotland Yard has to face is the gen
tee swindler. Europe produces this
variety Of gentleman" par excellence.
and the figure he makes as Il polished
| descendant of some time hOnored fam
| lily is frequently so good that America
must hope in vain to produce his like.
The Scotland Yard man often goes
about in a top hat and excellent
clothes, in order to look like the aver
age Londoners with whom he must
mingle. He is probably, on the whole
better dressed and of better appear
ance than the New York detective. He
takes his work very seriously. almost
solemnly. When he calls on fishwife
to elicit some information he canddly
hands her card on which is engraved
perhaps, "Inspector Smythe Creighton,
c. l. D."
The practice of the police in regard
to mysteries has been radically differ
ent on the two sides of the ocean. Scot
land Yard has always maintained the
most stoid silence on cases in which
it was concerned. giving out details
only when the case had been solved
with finality to the glory of "the
Yard
In New York the police have been
extremely generous with their infor-
nation, withholding only as much as
seemed absolutely necessary to insure
the successful outcome of the hunt.
No doubt some criminals have been
lost through premature publication of
police plans, but this is a small matter
compared with the number Of crimi-
nails who have been caught because
the publicity they got in the news
papers made it impossible for them to
hide.
Publicity Gaining Favor.
If England had had newspapers and
newspaper men Of the aggressive
American type no doubt more informa-
ton would have been extracted from
the redoubtable c. l. d. OF late years
the Yard itself has shown signs of
realizing that publicity might not be n
bad thing at times and has used less
reserve in its relations with the news
papers.
After DR.. Crippen and Miss lie Nevo
had given Inspector Dew the slip the
latter was only too glad to have the