The New York herald., 1921-11-27

the representatives, real OF dIeSeu, OF ellnef
labor or capital have been guilty of crime
he has not hesitated to fight them, and a
number of crooks now serving prison sen
tences would probably be willing to testify
that he Is "some fighter"
~ do not say" Mr. Burns observed that
there are hundreds or thousands who would
say me, but 1 do know of those who tried
their best to eliminate So far as l
concerned they have failed, but these same
people have taken the lives of more than "A
hundred other human beings have brought
a number of them to justice, and am still
alive and watchful for my own safety. My
name is William j. Burns and my address
is Washington, New York, London, Paris,
Montreal, Chicago, San Francisco. Los
Angeles, Seattle, New Orleans, Boston, Phila-
$ delphia, Cleveland, and wherever else law
abiding citizen may find need of men who
know how to go quietly about throwing out
of ambush hidden assassin or drawing
from cover criminals who prey upon those
who walk straight
One of the most important phases of the
reorganization work which Mr.. Burns is un-
dertaking in the Department of Justice has
to do with the establishment of a central
finger print record bureau. This bureau Is
to be located in Washington, and in its
establishment the Department of Justice will
cooperate with the police departments of
practically every city in America, as well as
the various private protective associations
throughout the country.
For years a small finger print bureau has
been maintained by the Federal Government
at Leavenworth, Kan, and while it has been
useful, it has never attempted to operate on
anything like the scale contemplated for the
new central establishment. The records of
the Leavenworth bureau, however, will be
brought to Washington and incorporated into
the new establishment.
Central Finger Printing
Bureau to Be Formed
The records of this central bureau will
constitute ''rogues' gallery" more exact and
more valuable than any which might be filled
with photographs of the most desperate
criminals in the country.
The discovery that there is peculiar sig
nificance in finger prints is an ancient one.
Mr.. Francis Galton. the famous sociologist,
long ago observed that significance partl5
of a ceremonial and partly of a super
stitious nature, was attached to finger prints
by the ancients, and by series of patient
experiments and observations, established
that the finger prints of an individual
main practically unchanged from birth to
death in old age.
His conclusions were based on examination
of many sets of prints taken at different
times, and covering the interval from child
hood to boyhood, from boyhood to early man
hood, from early manhood to middle age and
from middle to extreme old age.
las there is no sign except in one case"
he said, "of change during any of these four
intervals, which together almost wholly
cover the ordinary life OF man, we are justi-
fled in inferring that between birth and
death there is absolutely no change In say
699 out of 700 of the numerous character
istics of the markings of the fingers of the
same person such as can be impressed by
him wherever it is desirable to do so. Neither
can there be any change after death up to
the time when the skin perishes through de-
composition; for example, the marks on the
fingers of many Egyptian mummies and on
the paws of stuffed monkeys still remain
legible."
The value of the collection which Mr.
Burns is establishing in Washington Is
almost incalculable AS time. goes on and
it is added to, 1t will become a perfect ad-
dress book for the identification of criminals
If crime is committed in Los Angeles for
example. the police department of that city
Will as matter of routine. forward TO the
central bureau in Washington photographs
OF any finger prints which may be left at the
scene of the crime These finger prints will
he compared with those on file in the central
bureau and possibly they will be found to
correspond with those of some criminal
whose name is known. If they cannot be
identified. they will be filed away with care
ful notations as to the circumstances of
their being made. and when at some future
date crook, apprehended for minor crime
perhaps. is found to have the same finger
prints, it will at once be known that he
also committed the more serious previous
crime.
The Washington central bureau will also
cooperate with the finger print bureau of
the identity section of the War Depart
ment also located in Washington which has
a collection of approximately 100000 finger
print records of young men who came i'm
contact with the draft system during the
world war. This great collection has
already proved its value not only in iden-
tifying criminals but also in identifying un-
known dead, and in few cases of identify
ing persons who have become afflicted with
mental aphasa
Mr.. Burns counts upon this central finger
print bureau to play very important part
in his plan for making the Department OF
Justice instrument for the prevention of
crime. He argues that n man who knows
his finger prints and name are on record In
the central bureau will hesitate to engage in
an undertaking where he is almost sure to
leave the telltale inprints somewhere about.
1t has been suggested that the Washing
ton central bureau of finger prints might
eventually be given truly national char
acter, and that finge- print impressions
would eventually be taken of every child at
birth and forwarded to the central bureau as
matter of routine. thus serving as a per
feet means of Identification throughout the
life of that particular child. This identified
ton would prove useful in many other
vays than IN tho datoctfon nf criminals for