Evening star., 1933-10-01
FINCERPRINTS URGED AS mi
REAL SELF-PROTECTION
New York's First POlicewOman Relates
Adventures Finds System Benefits
Innocent and Crime Cult Alike.
BY MARY E. HAMILTON.

III
II difncult. 1t required the most
During the Summer of 1918,
while was serving my probation term
as New York's first policewoman, was
summoned to the captains desk and
told rather brusquely: Mrs. Hamilton,
I want you to go to the morgue and
fngerprint an unidentified woman"
My initial impulse was to protest,
though I realized that refusal to obey
would not be tolerated.
Remember" said the captain as
hesitated, "if you want to be regular
copper you must do a coppers work"
"B-b-but," I stammered, I've never
taken a fingerprint in my life. don't
know how"
"It's very simple" he said. go down
to the fngerprint bureau and see how
it's done"
In that basement room I saw the
days quota of prisoners lined up for
identification. Men operators were
rolling a thin layer Of ink on glass
slabs. rolling the fingers Of each pris-
oner in this ink and pressing them on
paper records. 1t appeared simple
enough. So, arming myself with nm
eerprint kit, 1 went with reluctant feet
to Bellevue Morgue.
Now, I had never been in morgue
i, my life. In fact. had never seen
a dead body. I doubt If could have
gone through the ordeal at all were 1t
not for the comedy relief furnished py
the old morgue attendant, Peter Pur-
! field, quite a character IN his Gay
Peter, bent and old, drab and gray as
his surroundings, used to go about ms
gruesome tasks singing IN a cracked
~ he. continental
song, when You a-and Were young
Maggie"
Peter sang cheerfully as he led me
to the body of the middle-aged female
| I must fingerprint. I grew suddenly
faint and grasped a cement pillar fol
support. Then came Peters tender
quavering tones:
when You a-and Were Young
Twas reminded that wasn't the only
| living creature In that awful place
Summoning my courage, took the
] prints, folded my kit and fled out the
door. Behind me Peter was stlI
singing.
Orders Were Obeyed.
| I rushed back to headquarters ane
without a word slammed the prints or
the captains desk. I knew they were
| only snudges. No expert alive coule
| classify them. But what did care?
had obeyed orders.
| Not for a year did learn that the
whole thing was just a joke. l was
being "hazed," as all young rockies are
The police officers had suffered neai
brainstorm to devise good haNne
stunt for me, the only woman.
| But to me it was never joke
became a f1ngerprint expert.
! taught it in schools and colleges. In
Red Cross Societies, opened depart
ments for footprinting babies IN hos.
pitfalls. I taught it in banks that wished
to safeguard the accounts OF wealthy
but illiterate depositors who coulon
sign their names. I taught 1t in many
States, to representatives from many
foreign countries. More recently
used it in the Federal department ln
| Washington. I have lectured ano
written about tin fact for the las,
l6 years I have devoted most Of my
waking hours to perfecting the sys-
TEN.
| With me it is not fad but a creed
It Is my firm belief that 1t should be
adopted as a system Of national regis
tration for personal as we'll as GRIM
| inal identifcation-to protect the nno-
| cent as well as to detect the criminal.
Accepted in Industry.
! This is demonstrated by the recent
acceptance of the fingerprint system in
industry when Edward P. Mulrooney
chairman of the State Beer Control
Board, announced the most drastic rul-
ing ever issued in regulating an indus
try. BY it all brewers and wholesale
beer dealers in New York State must
file with the control board fngerprints
photographs and records Of every male
employe in their establishments. fol
comparison with records OF the Bureau
of Criminal Identification OF the Polic'
Department.
| This order was the result of strong
arm" methods used to force the distri-
! button of certain brands of beer instead
of the regularly licensed and standard
] lied brands. All brewers and dealers
must comply with the order by Octo-
ber 10. The result is expected to be
| the sweeping out Of criminal racketeers
! ex-convicts and muscle men from the
beer industry.
If this plan could be adopted by
other industries which have suffered
| from racketeering it would eventually
lead to the establishment Of an indus
| trial bureau of Identification which
would serve the same purpose as tht
Criminal Bureau Of Identification ant
be long step toward universal regis
tration Of flngerprints.
In April. 1917, the body Of Ruth
Cruger, a 16-year-old girl who had beer
missing since the previous December
was found in Harlem basement. Shit
had been brutally murdered. This cast
| furnished the impetus which set the
necessary machinery In motion. Tht
Missing Persons Bureau became clear
ing house for lost and found human
beings, the first Of its kind In the
country.
Work Among Unfortunates.
MY work always seemed to take MI
among unidentified women and chill
dren-injured and unconscious person.
whose clothing bore no trace Of thei
names; amnesia and aphasia victim!
with their pitiful cry, who am I?'
Children who became foundlings be-
cause their parentage could not b
traced; women buried in potter's fiele
because no one knew who they were.
I remember one case of mistaken
identity in which a woman buried hel
husband twice within few months
They had been married 20 years wher
he was reported missing. He went ou
on Christmas eve to cash check ant
didn't come back. It was as though
the earth had opened and swallowed
him.
Then on March 1 came word that ,