The Washington herald., 1917-03-26
FINGER PRINTS BETTER
Than PICTURE OF FACE
Universal Use Of Modern Identification
Methods Predicted.

1t will soon be as popular to have q
picture" Of your fingers taken as 1t now
lis to have your face photographed. and
washington will be the originator Of this
latest craze. y
| You will not have your fingers photo
Igraphed" as a matter Of vanity and for
the admiration Of your friends, as may
be the case with your face, but YOU will
| record your finger prints as certain
means of protection.
| II you ever get lost in the uncertain tide
Of humanity your face may be Of some
4 little assistance to you In finding your
way. but your fingers will invariably
IIocate you Your face changes in ap-
pearance, but fingers endure unchange-
able, with the exception Of an accident
/ from the cradle to the grave and even
| for some time after death.
1 II you say that you win never lose
yourself you are not acquainted with the
| fact that $1,000 unidentified dead are
annually buried In the United States, and
countless others disappear and are never
heard from.
! Al one time or other every one Of this
army of lost and missing no doubt hao
his or her picture taken.
Solves Identity Problem.
Police and other officials generally be
iieve that this amazing problem OF los
identity could be successfully solved by
! the establishment Of a central bureau II
| this city to which the finger prints Of
every citizen of this country should d
forwarded for classification.
To this Federal bureau all others
State, county and municipal-would d
| tributary. There would be two sets ol
prints of each person, one at the loca
| bureau and the other in Washington.
Mai. Raymond w. Pullman, supertn'
tendent of Metropolitan police, whose de
partment has one Of the most complett
and up-to-date finger print systems ant
Identification bureaus in this country
tbelieves that II would be an excellen
| idea to have citizens record impression
of their fingers.
| While the finger print system is thu
stirest method of Identifying criminals
and such evidence has been deemed In
eontropertibIe in judicial procedure, Maj
Pullman Is of the opinion that citizeni
should not object to records Of their fin
| gers since such a procedure would pro
| tect them.
Maj. Pullman points out the presen
| tendency to recognize the value OF flngel
prints and the uses OF the system ir
! walks of life in no wise related to Grim
| inology.
Railways are using It a. q means Of
Identifying employees. Some Of the gov
| eminent employees, especially IN the
| Canal Zone. and untutored Indians are
paid by means of finger prints. In the
| regular army service of this country
every man is finger printed; even the
officers have voluntarily recorded their
prints in the War Department.
II the United States should be drawn
| into war this plan would be an improve
ment on tagging for Identifying bodies
found on the battlefield.
There are many prominent business
men in Washington and elsewhere in the
United States who have Instructed their
banks to honor no check which does not
bear his finger print as we'll as their
signature. The finger print acts as a
signature which 1t is impossible to forge.
Gaylord NJ. Saltzgaber. commissioner
of pensions, strongly favors the use of
finger prints as a means OF Identification
in his bureau. which has Just been equip
ped with an outfit to make prints. The
system has not yet been put in force,
but will be shortly.
There have been numerous cases where
dead pensioners have been impersonated.
Fraud could easily be run down by
finger prints
The Bureau Of immigration extensively
uses the finger print method.
A person may have his or her double
in facial and physical likeness, but ex-
perts have computed that the chances
of the lines OF finger prints of two in
dividuals being Identical are one in 64, ,Ooo, =
1900, chance so infinitesimal as to be
negligible.