The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1921-04-24


finger and toe print system brought
to light at the recent convention of
the fngerprinting experts in this city,
but also it's value to art, banks, the
army and navy and the police.
ITO initiate a finger or toe print is
infinitely more difficult than to forge
a signature" says Sandberg, who
babies should have them either
fnger or toe printed. He says each
city should create a bureau where
these prints would be put on file,
pointing out that such a system
would greatly aid the police in iden-
tifying lost or kidnapped children and
thus end hours of suspense and
anxiety of parents. II also would
avoid confusion as to. the identiica-
ton of babies at maternity hospitals.
He feels certain that universal adop-
ton of the print system would re-
duce Kidnapping to minimum.
HELPS IDENTIFY DEAD.
Fingerprints taken after death have
frequently resulted In relatives of
long-lost kin being identified and
given proper burial. ..,
Scarcely a week passes that some
suspect, who, upon giving an as
sumed name when arrested, is not
identified by the police. This is due
to the departments of every city in
terchanging the fingerprints and Ber-
tillon records of criminals previously
caught in THE police dragnet.
The same tell-tale fingerprints
have frequently helped identify
women shoplifters who ply their
trade in the big cities. 1t is claimed
that once a woman becomes shop
litter it is difficult. to break her of
the habit of stealing silks and other
valuable articles. A professional
woman shoplifter does not confine her
operations to any one city, but travels
the country over.
CAN'T ESCAPE RECORDS.
Once she is arrested, however, she
can easily be identified in any of the
big cities through her fingerprints,
as prints from her thumb and fingers
photographed. upon her first arrest are
in the files of the Identification
bureaus in the police departments of
the big cities. ...
The recovery of the stolen Mona
Lisa painting was credited to finger
prints found on the frame from which
the portrait had been cut. Within eight
hours after the thief, had been iden-
tilted, the picture was on its way
back to it's owners.
WOULD WIDEN USE.
But the fingerprint experts want
to get away from the exclusive use
of the finger print as a method of
apprehending criminals. They feel
that every person in the world should
be finger printed at birth, giving a
score of reasons for this contention.
Fingerprints have been found use
full to the police not only when they
have been registered through the ar
rest of a criminal Dishonest serv-
ants. clerks. bank thieves and others
have been forced to confess to crimes.
through the fingerprints left behind.
During the world war every soldier,
sailor and yeoman (f) was finger
printed by the Government. This was
done for the purpose of making sure
their identification in case of their
sudden death.
MAKE SURPRISING TEST.
Not so long ago, fingerprint ex-
pert visited the bureau of Identified
tion at the Federal prison at Lcaven-
worth, Kan, which has one of the
most modern fingerprint bureaus IN
the world. The expert asked how
long it would take to locate a set of
fingerprints in the files.
A trial test was Immediately made
TO show the visitor what results are
attained in the prison. The visitor
selected a set of finsarprinis which
had just come in The name, date and
address were removed. Absolutely
nothing remained on the card but he
fingerprints. The card was then
handed to the operator who first had
to classify the prints. There are $780,
600 sets of prints on file in the bu-
reau.
In exactly ifty-fve seconds from