Arizona republican., 1921-02-06
ANTI-TH I LAW
 GATHERS MANY

CHICAGO, H., Feb. 5-There were zf2 arrests and 159 convictions under the Dyer law the first years of it's operation, according to a report sub mltted to the directors of the National Automobile Dealers association last week. The directors held a session prior to opening of the general mem oershlp meeting at LaSalle hotel Mon day, Jan- 31. Several thousand dealers attended the convention under the aus pice of the N. A. D. A. for which a spe- cial rate had been obtained from tho railroads and the national automobile snow under the direction of the Ma tional Automobile Chamber of Com merce-
 The Dyer law is the national motor vehicle anti-theft act It was passed by congress and became a low Oct 2S lsls- The act makes it a federal of fense to transport in. interstate com merce stolen automobile. It was in- troduced by Rep. l.. C. Dyer of St. Louis and supported by the automo- bile trade led by the N. A D. A
 sentences aggregating 212 years and months were imposed under the law and fines totalling $9,050 were assessed. or the nearly three hundred arrests two were women. In Nevada, Helen Bailey was arrested with C.. J. Hauke. Hauke was sentenced at Carson City to one year, the woman to 30 days. In New Mexico, Grace Henderson, alias Grace Niil-al, was sentenced to two years
 The courts with the best records in Dyer law prosecutions are those at New York city, where 24 arrests were made, with 13 convictions; Cincinnati with 40 arrests and 29 convictions; Cleveland, IS arrests, 10 convictions; Portland, Ore, with Is arrests, and 16 convictions; Los Angeles, IS arrests and convictions; and Detroit with 30 arrests and 29 convictions.
 Of the effective working of the law the United States district attorney at Detroit, the Hon. John E. Kinnane says:
 Tn these prosecutions we have ] broken up some we'll organized gangs of automobile thieves, where they had complete system of grinding of num- bers on stolen cars and replacing them with other numbers, and completely disguising the car so that identification
 was impossible.
 ''The most noted case" continues
 Kinnane. lis one which is still partly
 undisposed of. involving a conspiracy
 to violate the Dyer act by stealing au- l tomobiles at Detroit-the cars stolen
 being Cadillacs acs-transporting them tc an eastern seaport and shipping them 1 thence to Norway. A large business
 had been done in this line before the matter was uncovered. This entire gang has been arrested and some have
 already pleaded guilty and others are 1 to stand trix5.s'
 Kinnana throws an interesting side light upon how some of the automobile 1 thieves operate:
 The system which is m operation,
 he says. fin the well organized gangs of automobile thieves. is to completely 4disguise the car Immediately after thu ' theft has beer committed. This is done
 by using an electric motor, easily uset by hand. connected with an ordinars electric socket. and which will run ar Eemefy wheel to grind off the numbers i from the car. Then by use of dies and
 ainmer will put new numbers on
 which will completely break the iden- i tification. They also have number plates where necessary and also get 2 I line on the keys needed to lock and un- lock the cars. This is the reason why a gang operating as automobile thieve. will only steal and handle one particu. ! lar line of cars. that is Cadiliacs, ol 1 IStudebakers or Bucks,
 The L. s. district attorney at Seattle 1 Wash. in explaining that only one Dye prosecution had been made there, sait Ithat the defendant had entered a pie;
 cf insanity. That is the only rationa 1 explanation of an automobile thief tn, attorney ~emarks aside.