Evening star., 1925-04-12
u. S. DETECTIVES CATCH SCORES
WITHOUT LEAVING OFFICE HERE
Finger-Print Records of
8,5OO,OOO Men on
File in City.
TsUO Men Confident Their
System Is NeUer
Failure.

Two of the most successful detec-
tives in the world. who rarely see
the object OF their search, but never
theless have thousands of catches"
to their credit. are on the pay roll of
Uncle Sam. They are Walter S. Kaye,
chief Of the identity section of the
War Department, and ]. H Taylor, in
charge OF the Identification section
of the Navy Department
Kaye operates in a modest office in
one Of those low-built structures
which sprung up overnight in Wash
ington during the war days, and has
charge OF the finger prints of 100000
men now serving in the American
Army, or who formerly were in the
nations military establishment
Taylor has an equally modest Office
in the Navy Department Building,
where he has supervision of 100000
finger prints of present Navy and
Marine personnel and those who
formerly were in the service.
auick Service Assured.
Developed to a science which admits
~ few, If any, errors, these bureaus
of finger print Identification have
reached a point of efficiency where
Its application at times vies with the
thrills of the most modern detective
fiction. Any active or former Amer
lean service man can be identified in
from 10 to 10 minutes by the
print of his digits and his full record
laid bare. He may be one of the
$4,000 Smiths, the $4,000 Johnsons. the
$4,000 Browns or one OF the 2S,500
Williamses, but absolute Identification
is certain, Kaye and Taylor assert.
Since their adoption by the Army
in 1906 and by the Navy in 1907, as
means OF Identification, these telltale
prints OF fingers have exposed fraud,
protected innocent men from injustice,
kept undesirables of the criminal
type out of the service, saved the
Government from unscrupulous claim
ants and uncovered the guilty. The
files of the two bureau are filled with
interesting and even romantic ac-
counts of identifications.
Finger prints never lie, Kaye and
Taylor declare. Out of the millions
of Impressions on file in the two
There Is as much chance of finding
two Identical prints, Kaye said, as
t.ere would be in going into the
fields and finding two flowers exactly
alike.
Value known Since 400 B.C.
The value of finger prints has been
Chinese were first to use this method
of Identification. India copied it
from China. Sir E. r. Henry of Eng
land spent many years in India
studying the science as used there
and through his untiring efforts in
working out a system OF fling and
classification the present-day "infal-
lible" system has been devised.
Finger prints, 1t is believed, were
conceived when a Chinaman in paint
ing screens accidentally allowed one
of his fingers to make a heavy I'M
preston on the screen, showing the
various ridge characteristics Of the
digit From that time on the China
men experimental with finger prints
and found their true value. When
a will was made in China the heirs
to the estate were required to place
the impression of their right thumbs
on the will. When the will was
probated only those whose thumb
prints were shown were allowed to
share in the division of the estate.
Since the Finger Print Bureau of
the war Department has been In
operation 100000 identifications have
been made. Through the prints in
the Navy's bureau 1s,481 identifica-
tions have been accomplished. the
most outstanding identifications made
through the War Department bureau
were those in the case of the sink
ing of the Tuscania off the Irish
coast February 5, 1913. Hundreds
of gruesome forms were washed
ashore and piled in heaps on the
beach. Identification OF 80 was
impossible until finger-print impress
sions were taken of each form and
forwarded to the War Department.
All Were Identified.
A careful and exhaustive compari-
son of these prints was made with the
records on file in the department and
"a were positively identified. Iden-
tity of the other soldiers was made
through the checking up of the entire
roster of the ship, which disclosed
the name of the one left unknown.
The greatest number of identifcations
made from the Navy files was in the
case of the distinctions of the de-
stroyers on the California Coast last
year, when 40 officers and men were
disf1gured beyond Identification. Their
finger prints were taken and even
tually identified by Director Taylor
Of the Navy identification section.
Shortly after the system was in
stalled by the Navy, a man was found
on Pennsylvania avenue here in full
dress suit and silk top hat, and bare
footed. He was walking leisurely
along Washington's historic thorough
fare, which was covered with a three
inch layer of snow. After removal to
- T.