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UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN, LAWRENCE, KANSAS
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 1950
1,000 Fugitives Each Month Are Identified By Fingerprints On File With The FBI
Washington—U.P.Fingerprints sent to the Federal Bureau of Investigation by police agencies are resulting in the identification of fugitives at the rate of 1,000 a month.
Yet it was not so many years ago that the world's police had to depend on such things as "camera eyes" (officers with extremely good vision) or on or on tattooing, branding, and masking to keep track of criminals.
It was not unusual in early ages to chop off a thief's hands. Those who did the chopping didn't know it then, but they were destroying the one infallible means of identification.
The F.3.B4 has been building its fingerprint files for a little more than a quarter century. It now has 113,400,000 sets of prints, representing an estimated 75 million persons. Of the prints, 19,611,000 are in the criminal files.
Establishment of the F.B.I.'s identification division was the first thing done by J. Edgar Hoover after he became director in 1924. Prior to that, the caisson's police were decommissioned and the association of Chiefs of Police and the Leavenworth penitentiary fingerprint files.
Those collections provided the nucleus of the F.B.I. files and establishment of the new central clearing house fulfilled an insistent and growing demand by the nation's police chiefs for one central co-operative system.
Mr. Howe says criminal identification is the "most potent factor in obtaining the apprehension of the fugitive who might otherwise escape arrest and continue his criminal activities."
The ridges and depressions of the fingerprints form about three months before birth and remain unchanged throughout life. And to date, no two individuals, even identical twins, have been found to have the same prints.
The Chinese centuries ago may have known the identification value of fingerprints, since they employed finger and hand impressions documents. However, such impressions may have had a symbolic value.
Another indication of early awareness of the prints is found on the face of a Nova Scotian cliff, where an Indian crudely carved in his "picture writing" the outline of a hand with ridges and patterns clearly marked.
There is a diversity of opinion as to the first practical application of fingerprints to identification. But here are some of the developments of the science:
Dr. Henry Faulds, an English scientist, wrote the first article on their practical use in identifying animals. His article appeared in 1880.
A few months later the same magazine carried an article by Sir William Herschel, chief administrative officer in the Hooghly district of Bengal. Mr. Herschel told how he had used fingerprints for 20 years to identify government pensioners and prevent impersonations, and to identify persons committed to jail.
A few years later, Sir Francis Calton, an English scientist, established that no two prints were alike and set up the first major collection of prints. Almost simultaneous at an exhibition Juan Vucetich told of how he had made his first criminal identification through fingerprints.
The first authenticated use of fingerprints in the United States, was in 1882. Gilbert Thompson, head of a U.S. geological survey in New Mexico, used his thumb impression to prevent forgery of commissary orders.
Mr. Galton's work prompted the British government to assign Sir E.R. Henry, later to be head of Scotland yard, to devise a means of classifying and filing prints. His system was introduced in England WWI in July 1908 and became the basis for systems now used throughout the world.
To permit easier handling of the tremendous number in its files, the F.B.I. devised its own modifications and sub-classifications and it now takes only a matter of minutes to check a print received from a police department.
New York prisons began compiling prints in 1903 and Leavenworth's warden of 1904. R.W. McClaughry, obtained authority to start a collection there. The Leavenworth collection was started Nov. 2, 1904, five days after the Henry system had been explained to St.
Louis, Mo., police by a Scotland Yard officer guarding the queen's jubilee presents, then being exhibited at the St. Louis exposition.
Today, the F.B.I. files cover acres of space on six floors of a Washington building.
Incoming prints arrive by mail and are sorted quickly on the sixth floor. From there, the cards go through a series of sections and answers are prepared on the ground floor for transmission by telephone, telegraph, or mail to the inquiring police department.
Since it takes only four to five minutes to check a print, police on the west coast can, if it is a "hot" case, have an answer in 20 minutes from the time the prints are received in the mail opening room on the sixth floor.
A chamber music concert will be given by Alexander Schneider, violinist, and the American harpistschordist, Ralph Kirkpatrick, 8 p.m. Thursday in Strong auditorium.
914 $ \frac{1}{2} $ Mass.
Chamber Concert To Be Thursday
This concert, one of the chamber Music Series of the University, marks the third appearance of these artists at K.U. and a capacity attendance is expected for the event.
New World Is Just Around Corner
Pittsburgh, Pa.—(U.P.)—A glimpse of what the United States might be like in the year 2000 is suggested by Dr. Gerald Wendt, former science director of the New York World's fair.
It was as a member of the Budapest String quartet that Mr. Schneider became known to concert goers all over the world. Although born in Russia, Mr. Schneider studied in Germany where he became concert-master of the Frankfurt Symphony orchestra and later took the baton of the symphony orchestras at Saarbrücken and Hamburg, Germany. In 1944 he organized the Albenieri trio which has appeared at the University. He has been awarded the Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge medal for eminent services to chamber music, an award given by the Library of Congress, but now discontinued.
Mr. Kirkpatrick was born in Leominster, Miss, and attended Harvard university. After his graduation he was awarded a traveling fellowship for two years of study in Europe. While in Paris, he worked with Boulanger and Landowska.
Mall subscription: $3 a semester, $4.50 a year, (in Lawrence add $1.00 a semester postage). Published in Lawrence, Kans., every afternoon during the University year except Saturdays and Sundays, Universities and other period periods. Entered as second class matters in 1910, at the Post Office at Lawrence, Kans., under act of March 3, 1879.
University Dally Kansan
Americans in 51 years will be riding around in spacious cars powered by rear engines as small vehicles, he predicted. Other forecasts:
Plane travel will be as cheap as bus travel today. Interplanetary rocket travel will be available—for those who want it. Electronic thinking machines will work for people in a world of high incomes and free time filled with culture, recreation, and sports. Dr. Wendt said.
"Another industrial revolution is in the making." Dr. Wendt said. "Unless sidetracked by an atomic or bacteriological war, our new world should be here by the year
2000. "
He predicted a 24-hour work week, a life span of 85 to 90 years and average incomes of $12,000 yearly.
Dr. Wendt supported his theory by calling attention to a factory in England which "turns out complete radio sets in a plant devoid of human workers."
The new world, Dr. Wendt added will give us more time for sports recreation, religion and culture.
The human heart contracts 100,000 times a day.
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