The Democratic banner. (Mt. Vernon, Ohio) 1898-192?, 1913-06-17
WORLDWIDE USE
OF FINGER PRINTS
System Should Do Universal
Says Argpatias Expert
NOT ONLY FOR CRIMINALS.

OVs VUO0sscVS WVO VeT'0SsSo "vS~'"
System Of idsnti6eation, Would TX.
tend ZEE Uss to Include Every In
dividusl-WovId Prove Invaluable In
Many casss, tts Asssrts.
Every large city should have q great
central department Of Identification.
not merely for criminals, but for every
one of its Inhabitants. In the opinion
Of DIR. Joan vucetich, chief Of the bu-
rsaiis Of Identification Of the province
Of Busnos Aires and Of the Argentine
war department. who Is now in this
country.
DR.. vucetich is the originator Of the
Hrst complete system Of finger print
Identification, and he asserts that It Is
bis system, with modi0catAOns, which
10 in use throughout the world today.
He says that even Bertillon, who ap-
piled anthropometry to criminal iden-
tiAcation. has adopted his system In
spite of the fact that Bertillon two
years after DIR. vucetich had success
fully inaugurated bis own system In
the city Of La Plata. Argentina, said
that q system Of finger print identif-
cation was impracticable.
DIR. vucetich asserted that the Amer
lean idea In regard to the system Of
Identification was all wrong. We re-
gard It az stamping US as criminals to
have q complete Identification Of our
selves In existence, he said.
He pointed out that the description
Of every citizen Of BuenOs Aires was
recorded on the government records
and that In the Office Of the minister OF
war and the minister Of the interior
there were on file 2,0OO,OO0 identlica-
tiOus, which were used not necessarily
for criminal. but for military and pOlit-
ical purposes.
System Of Identification.
IL invented my system Of identfdca-
don twenty-five years ago." said DR..
vucetich In giving an outline Of his
Of the bureau OF Identification In In
Plata. Argentina. 1t had been recon-
mended to me that study the various
systems Of Identification In use and
adopt the best. l discovered there was
70 syatem In existence but what was
deficient There arose instances to
which none would respond. What In
terested me most was BertillOn's an.
thropOmetric system. found 1t was
not sufficient. At that time 4 maga-
sine, the French Revue ScientiAQue,
fell Into my hands. That was on the
I'd Of May. 1891. It contained an arti-
Gle on 'Papillary Lines in the Hands.
In which the author went on to show
that these varied In different persons
The article referred to some studies
Mr.. Cation of London had made. which
I believe went to prove that the diner.
ences were due to heredity. Galtou
drew his conclusions from the use 0i
only the finger and the thumb. gu
the Idea Of applying the test to all the
angers OF tho hand.
~ had many criminals at my dispO
sitiOn. l started In using printers int
to get my Impressions. Here" addei
DIR. Vucetich. producing a big card, "is
the drst finger print Identification made
In tho world You see 1t Ia dated Sept
II, 1901 The frst man so identified
was "A prisoner In La Plata namet
Francisco CarchulO. kept up my ex
periulenting until In 1897 was able t
announce that had perfected my sys
tenn. Previous to that time, however
my finger prints had thousands Of timei
| nrovph thalr afllciaurv
First TO Adopt II.
"As early AZ 1908 | was In cOmmuni
cation with I.ombroso, the celebrated
italian crininologist. and he made ref
erence to my system In some Of his pa
pers. The Argentine government wa
the arst to adopt my system, and II
example was almost Immediately fol
lowed by tho other South American
countries. Sine then almost ever,
country In the world has adopted 1t |,
some form OF other,
II am surprised and somewhat dia
appointed to find here that identihca
ton seems to be regarded altogethe
from the point Of view Of the crimina
that Ii to say. an ordinary man AL
pears to think II a disgrace to be OF
record on nm Identification card. !
your people could realize what an AZ
sistance this has been to us In Bueno
Aires In other than criminal matters
you would clamor for It. l understan,
that your morgues ara sometimes fille'
with unidentified dead. and that no
infrequcntiy bodies brought there nr
never Identified but are buried In
potter's held. Perhaps more tina
one OF those mysterious disappear
K ances. whics understand are fre
o quently chronicled In your newspapers
might be explained IL you had on han
!. tho mamma of ideuti Ion tion, xye noasas,