The Washington herald., 1912-05-26
The Economic Value of the Burglar.

The Economic Value OF the Burglar.
From the May Lippincutt'S
! Give the burglar a term IN the penI-
tentiary or shoot him. II you will, but.
! for conscience's sake, don't reform him,
We need him in our business He is
worth to US every day OF the year ten
\ fold more than he ever costs US. Look
/ ing at the matter wholly from an in
| dustrial and economic point Of view, we
can better do without the preacher than
( the burglar
Exterminate the burglar, and seventy
thousand persons would be out Of work,
and more than S45OOOOOO year with
| drawn from trade.
There are alone no less than twenty
| hve thousand good American citizens
earning their livelihood as private watch
men, at combined salary Of something
IKE 3lI:Oooooo year. And all because
OF the burglar.
More than 100000 capital Is invested
I in the manufacture OF burglar-alarms Of
different devices. and, either directly or
| indirectly, fully two thousand law-abid-
ing family men are dependent for their
daily bread upoE this branch OF indus
try, And there are forty manufacturers
OF safes-burglar-proof safes-with a
combined capital OF S6.OOOOOO paying out
each year for wages and material nearly
I
than 1000 workers-mechanics. laborers,
clerks, bookkeepers, salesmen. and 50 on.
what would become Of these men and
women and all the millions Of invested
capital. should the burglar hearken to
the voice of Moses and quit his steal
ing?
Then there are the makers and the
sellers Of firearms. Five hundred thou
sand guns year are sold for family use
as protection against burglars, repre-
senting gross revenue Of something
like three and a half millions. Without
the burglar, what would this business
look like? Like the center OF a dough-
nut. And those families that are afraid
Of pistols keep dogs, watchdogs, and the
trade in watchdogs amounts each year to
over a million dollars All the watchdogs
OF the United States 1.-TWO and a half
million Of them) have 10 be fed at least
twice a day. At only two cents per
diem for bones and scraps for each dog,
the income to the butcher from this
source alone. thanks be to the burglar.
amounts to seventeen millions a year.
Even our rscreations and amusements
are dependent upon the burglar. What
would our comedies and melodramas be
without the burglar? And the detective
stories-what would become OF them and
their authors and their publishers were
the burglar no longer available as a
ChaEdCleIs Inc pays ana the DOCKS IN
which he figures have an annual COM
merciaI value Of nothing less than a mil
lion dollars; and this without attempting
to estimate the value Of the pleasure
afforded the public.
In short. We must have the burglar
We can't do without him. We have had
him so long that there Is nobody to take
his place. And suppose his hsIpings do
amount to a trlfie over a million a years
What Is that cOmDar red with fha Forty
five millions he Is the means OF putting
into our pockets? surely. none but a
skinfiint will begrudge him this little
21z psr cent dividend on a business that
owes its existence solely to his energy
end perseverance. Therefore, let the
burglar alone. He is all right; and may
his shawod never grow lea.