Evening star., 1925-05-10
BY DAN RING.
- UTILIZATION has marched
ahead during the last 40

tation and other general aids
to society's progress have cropped up
on every hand. Education has ad-
vanced for the Nation as whole. The
telegraph first, then the telephone
brought a decided change in systems
of communication More recently the
radio has come into widespread popu-
larity. Similarly with transportation.
The railroads of the country have en-
larged their network of tendrils until
virtually every nook and Granny OF
the Nation today is accessible. And to
them the automobile plays supple
mental role. Transportation Is an en-
tirely changed element from the day
of Dobbin and the surrey. AS for edu-
cation, the child who fails to receive
schooling is the exception rather than
the rule.
Partly as a result of all these things,
it is held by criminoloEists who base
their opinions on scientific study of
affairs that crime has advanced by
le,.ps and bounds.
Just as the society in which the
criminal lives today is a vastly
changed place from that of 40 years
ago. so the criminal is different man
from the criminal of four decades
back.
The answer is simple. He has the use
Of all the improvements which civil
alton has made. He has easy access
I" distant points along transporta-
tional and communicational lines. And
education has been perverted by many
"f those who received its benefits and
then turned enemies of the govern
ment and society which donated the
education.
The composite portrait Of a criminal
of 1880. say. is as follows: An individ
lal-this first of all-working alone;
generally under cover of darkness
with force playing mighty part in
his unlawful achievements: a porch
climber or highwayman; robber or
burglar; sometimes swindler in
rural community. Only the murderer
of yesterday resembles the murderer
of today-for murder is a crime of
violence. arising generally from the
heart of the individual and the mo-
tlveS for murder remain unchanged.
\: X
THE criminal of today is both an
individual and cog in a machine.
He does not rely solely upon his re-
sources. He bands together with
others to accomplish his purposes. He
has friends on the outside, ready to
help him; able to aid him and willing
to take any necessary risks to keep
their Orga nization intact.
Crime of yesterday. accordingly. was
an entirely local matter-a Main
street affair. The criminal did not
have the facilities for escape: he did
not have the crime combine ready 20
help him: he did not have the com
munica tional facilities that he has
today.
Consequently the crime preventive
and detective agencies of yesterday
were local affairs-competen to cope
with the crime.
But today: Crime has been in the
ascendancy. Up the path of evolution
II has gone until organizations of
criminals spread from State to State,
from city to city and from one coun-
try to another. Lest this may sound
a bit stretched, listen to what !. E.
Hoover, chief investigator of Dncle
Sans DEPARTING of Justice op.
eratives. has to say:
Crime today is the work of COM
binations in its most important
phases. We have bands of automo-
bile thieves who steal machines in
one State and pass them over to
another band in another to sell
them. We have gangs of violators
of the dry law who are known to
be linked in an organization stretch
ing from one coastal city to another,
who operate IN such manner as to
leave no doubt as to concerted action.
There are other organizations which
attention might be called TO-"
And. lest this appear too imagina-
tive. let the mind wander back to the
celebrated Arnstein case. in which an
entire orga nization was found to
stretch from New York to Washing
ton. Bonds are stolen in Wall street
by one group in the combine and
marketed in Washington by another
group. Incidents surrounding the
escape from Atlanta of Gerald Chap
man, recently convicted of Staying a
Hartford policeman, leave little, if
any. doubt to the most skeptical that
crime is now being made the subject
of operations of persons who have
interests which are interlocked.
Police watched crime growing year
by year. They watched it spread from
one community to another. They felt
the hand of migrating .mobs s'-as
bands of criminals are called-and saw
the results achieved by such men
through organization.
Their problem came to this:
IF crime has advanced to the point
where it is co-ordinated and collective,
engineered by combinations, We'll have
to get together in the same way to
fight it,
The result was that as crime ad-
vanced. so did police strategy. In
stead of working locally, exclusively,
police in various hamlets, towns and
cities began to cooperate.
Main Street joined the Capital and
the Capital joined Main Street in the
tight. identification methods became
improved. Large cities pledged their
identification bureaus to cooperative
action and decided to fight the crime
combine with a police combine.
This worked finely. I
A criminal would be picked up in
Washington. The case against him
here would be weak. Files would be
combed. His finger prints would be
taken and sent to score of large
cities. Replies might come back
showing that he was wanted. Cooper
alton began to stem the tide of crime.
VET crime continued to grow. AS
far back as 1898. some 81 police
chiefs saw the light. They decided
to fight cooperative crime with CO.
operative police work. and formed the
National Police Chiefs Union. Under
the guidance of W. S. Seavey, then
chief of police at Omaha. Nebr.. this
organization started the combined
fight against crime.
The year following, in Washington,
the organization met again. 1t then
became the National Association Of
Chiefs of Police of the United States
and Canada. From that time on the
organization has continued to grow In
power, as the crime syndicates also
grew The greater the criminal ac-
tivities. the greater the drawing pow
ers of the organization proved. until
today the International Association
of Chiefs of Police has become recog-
nized as the greatest organization OF
officials charged with prevention, de-