Evening star., 1923-11-16
Enright Is Bamed


NEW YORK, November 16.-Nirtual
admission by the police that they are
unable to cope with the new type of
bandit infesting the streets OF New
Yor city has caused banks, brokerage
houses and insurance companies to
study the best means of protecting
their messengers intrusted with large
sums of money and securities.
Police Commissioner Enright puts
the blame for so many fatal hold-ups
and highway robberieS squarely up to
the negligence of the banks and trust
companies. The police, ne says, are
not omnipotent. They cannot divine
when a bank messenger is to be given
$4,000 in bills wrapped up in a piece
of newspaper and sent through sub
urban territory on an elevated train
an easy mark for any highwayman
who has been tipped off to the trans
fer ..-
The police are asking for help, not
in their attempt to run down the rob-
bers after a crime has been commit
ted, but to make the work of the
highwaymen more difficult and haz-
ardous.
Commissioner Enright has sug
gested two means of help. The first
is that banks and other business
houses shall notify the police when
the transfer of large sums of money
is about to be made, so that special
guards may accompany the messen-
gers and thus ward off attack. The
second is that as few transfers of
money as possible be made.
Pay Roll Robberies Common.
Pay roll holdups, the police say, are
not peculiar to New York alone. They
are common the country over. There
fore Commissioner Enright is urging
that the practice of paying off EN-
ployes in cash be abandoned in favor
of the check system. The inconven-
fences of the check system, it is con-
tended. are virtually nil. whereas the
dangers of carrying black bag filled
with currency through the crowded
streets of the modern city are legion
There is a certain prejudice against
the check system, which has been
handed down from the days of the
corner saloon. In those days it was
the custom of most male employees to
cash their checks at the saloon.
In return for this favor a goodly
part of the check was taken out in
trade" Now the saloon has been
wiped out in most sections of the
country. and, in theory at least, has
been wiped out in New York city.
Tradesmen everywhere are glad to
cash checks for their known Gus
toners.
Some banks have argued against
heavy increase in bookkeeping work
such a system would entail upon
their clerical force. The pay roll
check is but a single transaction.
Payment by check would involve
thousands of individual transactions
during the course of the month. The
recent robberies have about con-
vinced the banks that inevitably the
check system must be adopted by all
large corporations. The police point
out that all government and city en-
ployes are paid by check and no
inconvenience results.
Police Not Magicians.
The police of New York are
neither magicians. soothsayers nor
prestidigitators," said Commissioner
Enright today. I'VE cannot protect
the carriers of large sums of money
unless we are notified in advance.
The only person notified nowadays
seems to be the highwayman, who
shoots first and asks his questions
afterward. He generally knows. vir-
tually all of the highway robberies
ton or from the foolish custom of
certain banks sending their messen-
gers out at fixed times and by fixed
routes.
"There also is foo muob ;ntrrs+,ng
of large sums to boys under sixteen
and men over sixty. The old meth
ods must be changed. 1t is not fair
to expose messengers openly to at
tack and it Is not necessary. The
modern bandit shoots quick and
shoots straight. Part of this pro-
ftciency in the. use of firearms un-
doubtedly is the outgrowth of the
nrI1 Ihr tyn thn
trained in the use of revolverS. They
are now using that training in an
unlawful way and will continue to
do So"
A new crime wave unquestionably
is sweeping the metropolis. The cold
blooded murder of two bank mes
sengers at an elevated station was
but a particularly atrocious incident
of the wave. There have been many
other hold-ups and many others with
men today give their victims a
chance They have found it safer to
their own skins to kill first and rob
afterward. Always there is the wait
ing automobile with the engine rum
ming. And always the automobile is
stolen machine, so that tracing 1t
to it's owner means nothing at all in
the solution of the major crime.
The police are baffied by the new
type of criminal They never yet have
been able to solve in any way the
famous taxicab tragedy when two po-
licemen were shot from the running
board of yellow machine. The taxi
and its driver were never traced
No one knows who was in the cab, or
why the policemen were murdered
Commissioner Enright is calling for
help and needs it If the streets OF
New York are to be made safe for the
people. So.
Calling It Square.
, From the New York Sun.