The Alamance gleaner
VOL. LX. ""
GRAHAM, N, C., THURSDAY DECEMBER 27 1934 !
NO. 47.
United States Mobilizes for War on Crime
<$
By WILLIAM C. UTLEY
THE United State9 has declared
war on crime. Federal agents
got John DllUnger. They got
"Pretty Boy" Floyd. And at
the cost of two of the most promising
young men In the Department of Jus
tice secret service, Samuel "A. Cowley
and Herman E. Hollls, they got "BabyN
Face" Nelson. Now with Federal bul
lets having stilled forever the heart
beats and having destroyed for all time
the brains of these arch-criminal "big
shots," and with federal bars securely
crippling the one time power of the
biggest shot of them all, Mr. "Scarface
Al" Capone, America feels that the
time Is ripe for an organized and con
certed mobilization of all of the forces
of society In an Irresistible drive not
only to trnck down nil of the murder
ers and criminals In the land, but to
strike at their very breeding places
and cauterize the open sores of society
where the criminal pestilence Is born.
This was the reason for the recent
national crime conference called by the
President and Attorney General Homer
S. Cummlngs. President Roosevelt
himself, addressing the conference at
Its opening, declared that two things
were immediately necessary In girding
the land for the opening battles of the
war.
"First, I ask yon to plan and to con
struct with scientific care a constantly
Improving administrative structure?a
structure which will tie together every
crime-preventing, law-enforcing agency
of every branch of the government?
the federal government," the 48 state
governments, and all the local govern
ments, Including counties, cities and
towns," said the President.
"Your second task Is of equat Impor
tance. An administrative structure
that Is perfect will still be ineffective
in results unless the people of the Unit
ed States understand theblarger pur
poses, and co-operate with these pur
poses."
Inadequate organization of police
forces was blamed by the President
for conditions that have existed.
Cut Out tha Glamor.
Col. Henry L. Stlmson, secretary of
state under the Hoover administration,
who by his very presence gave the con
ference an air of political nonpartlsan
shlp, made the other keynote address.
He pleaded that crime be robbed of
the sensationalism that has been given
it In many stories, newspaper accounts
and moving pictures, advising that a
sincere campaign to expose crime and
rob it of Its glamor in the public prints
and the theaters could be of all-Impor
tant value in waging this kind of a
war.
Colonel Stlmson also scored the
tardy and uncertain justice that pre
vails in this country, citing by com
parison the speed and dispatch of Brit
ish trials, which are more undramatic
than ours but more efficient, and re
minding the conference that the United
States has a homicide rate twenty
times as high as that of England. He
quoted statistics to show that in one
of America's largest cities you can com
mit a burglary and your chances for
escaping any sort of penalty may be
as high as 200 to 1.
The first definite step in the cam
paign, as suggested by Attorney Gen
eral Cummlngs, would be the estab
lishment of "a great national and scien
tific training center" for training law
enforcement officials.
Herman E. Hollis.
Such a school would undoubtedly fur
ulsh highly trained and skilled police
men for cities, towns and states who
needed them.
Need Specialized Training.
With more universities and colleges
and more opportunities for a young
man to acquire an education than any
other nation on earth, we still have no
?dkool which specializes in the train
ing of police, yet thousands of young
men Join the ranks of some sort of
police organization every day. Only in
a few schools have courses in crimi
nology or police administration been
J. E. Hoover.
developed to any great extent The
most notable of these Is the scientific
crime detection laboratory of North
western university at Chicago. Almost
half of the others are confined to one
area In the country, the Pacific coast
Both the University of Southern Cali
fornia and the University of California
at Berkeley have highly developed
schools of police administration, the
latter under Prof. August Vollmer, who
also started a police administration de
Leonarde Keeler (Left) of Northwestern University Using His Polygraph (Lie*
Detector) on a Suspect
partment at the University of Chicago,
later abandoned. Other medicolegal
courses are available at San Jose, In
California, Columbia in New York city,
the University of Wichita (Kan.), the
University of Cincinnati and the Medi
colegal Institute of Paterson, N. J.
Northwestern"s laboratory has ac
complished much In the field of scien
tific crime detection. Its services are
frequently sought by the Chicago po
lice department, whom It serves with
out charge, and other police depart
ments to whom it makes a charge com
mensurate with the work carried on.
Bright star of the school Is Its Leon
arde Keeier, director of psychology,
who has developed much of Its labora
tory. A pleasant young man who
looks hardly thirty but must be more
than thirty-five, Mr. Keeier Is thorough
ly in sympathy with the suggestion of
a West Point for police, and more than
obliging if you ask him to show you
through the Northwestern laboratory.
N. U. Well Equipped.
This itself is a combination of school
room, business office and exhibit The
first thing you encounter is the finger
print exhibition, worked up to a per
fection attained by few organizations.
Here, Mr. Keeier explains, the men are
shown all of the little tricks of enlarg
ing finger prints by photography to a
poist where every little detail may be
carefully studied. The laboratory has
solved several important cases in this
manner.
Next, Mr. Keeler's pointer leads you
to the cabinet devoted to secret and
code messages, showing the various
means in which ultra-violet light and
chemicals are used to detect hidden
messages written into seemingly harm
less notes with milk or other substance.
Photomicrography?the art of pho
tographing and studying objects as
tiny as a cross-section of hair?Is the
next exhibit By means of this sci
ence, hair left on the person of an
attacked victim, for Instance, waf be
examined to discover Its nature and
source, as may fingernail scrapings or
dust deposits.
"Now here are a few bombs and high
explosives that have been confiscated
In bombings and fires," says Mr. Kee
ier, laying his pipe on a shelf next to
a few bottles and tubes marked "High
Explosive" or "Dangerous," while you
squirm and hope to heaven he knows
bis business. "By studying these bombs
and their construction, in many cases
after they have been exploded, we can
determine the identity, of the maker,
if he is a known bomber."
Experts in Ballistics.
The Northwesterners are especially
adept in their study of ballistics?bul
lets and firearms. They can make Iden
tification of any caliber or type of bul
let, tell what kind of powder fired It
and what kind of a weapon it was fired
fx-om. In the case of a suspected weap
on they can determine whether or not
It fired the bullets submitted In evi
dence.
But it is in the art of discovering de
ception in a suspected witness that the
laboratory excels any similar bureau In
the world. This Is done through Mr.
Keeler's own development of the poly
graph or, as it is popularly and some
what erroneously termed, the "lie-de
tector."
The polygraph registers the subject's
blood-pressure and respiration over a
period of time when he Is being ques
tioned. He is asked a great many
questions, a large part of them entire
ly irrelevant to the crime of which he
is suspected. Whenever a relevant
question Is slipped in, It is noticed
from the blooo pressure and respira
tion charts that these will fluctuate
distinctly when he attempts to prac
tice an Intentional deception.
What may be accomplished If a com
prehensive school and larger labors
tory are set up for the Department of
Justice bureau of identification, was
hinted at by J. Edgar Hoover, young
head of the bureau and one of the lead
ing spirits of the crime conference,
when he revealed tiie fact that the
bureau has on hand 4,700,000 finger
prints of known criminals, or more
than ten times as many as the famed
Scotland Yard. The department has
a record of 04 convictions out of every
100 arrests. The main difficulty In ad
ministration seems to be that It Is not
making enough arrests and, because of
lack of co-operation and co-ordination
with local bodies, not nearly enough
social work and education la being con
IMA' ^
Samuel A. Cowley.
ducted to stop the early development
of criminals and criminal organiza
tions.
Perhaps the national school Is one"of
the most Important immediate steps.
Certainly It Is one of the most Imagi
native. Can you picture the sport
writer's glee at being assigned to "cov
er" a football game between the team
of the "West Point for police" and the
excellent eleven from Sing Sing prison?
C- Western Nvwsp&per Union.
"
Modern Cave Dwellers En Route to Meeting
>
THESE members of the Cavemen and
Carewomen, the only organization of
Its kind in the world, are on the way
to the Oregon caves where they hold
their meetings. They are always ready
to greet eastern tourists and Initiate
them with weird ritual.
Bedtime Story for Children
By THORNTON W. BURGESS
YANK YANK EXPLAINS SOME
THINGS
WHEN Yank Yank the Nuthatch
asked Peter Rabbit If there was
anything else he wanted to know,
Peter was quite ready for him. "Yes,"
he retorted promptly, "I want to know
how It lg that you can walk head first
down the trunk of a tree without los
ing your balance and tumbling ofT."
Yank Yank chuckled happily. "I
discovered a long time ago," he re
plied, "that the people who get on
best In this world are those who make
the most of what they have and waste
no time wishing they had what other
people have. I suppose you have no
*1 Should Say Not," Exclaimed Yank
Yank.
? tlced that all the Woodpecker family
have stiff tail feathers and use them
to brace themselves when they are
climbing a tree. They have become
so dependent upon them that they
don't dare move abont on the trunk
of a tree without using them. If they
want to'come down a tree they have
to back down.
"Now, Old Mother Nature didn't
; give me a stiff tail but she gave me a
very good pair of feet with three toes
In front and one behind and when I
was a very little fellow I learned to
make the most of those feet Each
foot hooks into the bark. When I come
down a tree I simply twist one foot
around so that the three front claws
of this foot keep me from falling. It
toe has a sharp claw. When I go up a
tree the three front claws on each
is Just as easy for me to go down a
tree as to go up and I can go right
I I
around the trunk quite as easily and
comfortably." Suiting action tr the
word, Yank Yank ran around the
trunk of the apple tree Just above
Peter's head. When he reappeared
Peter had another question ready.
"Do you live altogether on Insects
arid worms and grubs and their eggs?"
he asked.
"I should say not," exclaimed Yank
Yank. "I like acorns and beech nuts
and certain kinds of seeds."
"I don't see how such a little fellow
as you can eat such hard things as
acorns and beech nuts," protested
Peter a little doubtfully.
Y'ank Yank laughed right out. "Some
time when I see you over In the Green
Forest I'll show you," said he. "When
I find a fat beech nut i take it to a lit
tle crack In a tree which will Just hold
1L Then with this stout bill of mine
I crack the shell. It really Is quite
easy when you kno\. how. Cracking
a nut open that way Is sometimes
called hatching and that is how I
come by the name of Nuthatch."
?. T. W. Burgem.?WNU Servlcd.
I' ? ,
WITTY KITTY
Br NINA WILCOX PUTNAM
IlLSHKM^J
The girl chum says eome one asked
, her mentally .ketchy friend if she was
not in stitches over a recent film com
edy and got the answer that she never
took her sewing to the movies.
W.VU 8?rvic*
THROUGH A
Woman's Eyes
By JEAN NEWTON
THE CHILD'S MIND AND OURS
THE child's mind Is as complex as
the adult's.
That pronouncement came out at the
recent meeting of the National Com
mittee for Mental Hygiene. Dr. James
S. Plant, director of the Newark (N. J.)
Juvenile Clinic told the assembled doc
tors psychiatry has Just learned that
the child mind Is no simpler to under
stand than the adult mind, and that
their failure to realize this may be re
sponsible for the appalling number of
delinquent and maladjusted children.
Well?we shouldn't be surprised.
Only, what a pity that the experts in
this field didn't long ago consult a few
ordinary mothers, or some teachers
who knew their jobs. Had they even
paged enough imagination to recall
their own childhood, they need not
have been so late in discovering what
to all who understand children is an
obvious fact.
The child mind as complex as the
adult's?? It would be safer to call
it more complex. In many lanes of
knowledge and thought that are fa
miliar and well charted to the grown
up, the child moves in a constant fog.
lie has hardly cata'ogued a thing in
his mind when something happens to
upset his theory and leave him in the
dark about what It is all about. Scarce
ly have doubts on an important prin
ciple of life resolved tnemselves into
definite knowledge, than an adult con
tradiction in action or speech, an adult
hint or patronizing smile, sends him
floundering again.
A child has so many ideals, so many
topes, so many wonders and ques
tions on which he forms conclusions
which bring disappointments and
doubt and disillusion, that he is in a
constant labyrinth of thought, up one
alley and down the next?usually, it
roust be said, after some adult who
doesn't know where he is going, but
doesn't care so much as the child!
For the child's very world depends
on the answer to these thoughts. The
adult's world Is formed?and however
well or badly he may be adjusted to
it, he at least knows what he is up
against.
Far be It from me to paint adults
as sure of life or ourselves. But there
are many things we know, about which
the child can only wonder and guess.
And about the things that leave us as
floundering and helpless as the child,
we at least know that we cannot know!
And we have two* weapons which he
still lacks, to keep us on our feet in
the maze. They are philosophy and
a sense of humor.
?. B?I1 Syndicate.?WVU Btrricm.
IN MEMORY OF
GEORGIA
By ANNE CAMPBELL
ALWAYS I will remember her strong
hands
Poised like white birds on the piano
keys.
Bringing our spirit: to enchanted
lands.
Winding us 'round with heaven's har
monies.
Not only with her music did she touch
Our hearts with beauty, but her life
was such
That art and character were Joined,
and she
Was music?an eternal melody.
It is as If an uncompleted chord
Of music stopped when she sc forth
to And
Celestial harmonies as a reward
For all the loveliness she left behind.
This world held charms for her ...
but how much more
Will she discover on that golden shore.
When she begins that last triumphant
strain
Commemorating her release from pain!
CoDvrtaht.?WNU servlc*.
Question box
b, ED WYNN, The Perfect Fool j
Dear Mr. Wynn:
Can you tell me the origin of the
custom of hanging paintings on walls?
Yours truly,
ART STUDENT.
Answer: In 612 B. C., there ruled
In Egypt a very vain king. He heard
of an artist who could paint his pic
ture on canvas. The king wishing to
leave behind him, his likeness, ordered
the artist to paint his picture. When
It was completed the king did not like
the painting. He sent his soldiers out
to catch the artist but they couldn't
find him so the king hung the paint
ing.
Dear Mr. Wynn:
I have my laundry work done at a
Chinese laundry. I went there yester
day and was talking to one of the
laundry men about his native country.
! He told me of the earthquakes and
floods they have there. lie said that
after the last earthquake in China the
city of Hong-Kong looked Just like
"h?L" Do you believe that?
Yours truly,
N. QUISITIVE.
Answer: Well, some Chinamen have
been In a lot of places.
Dear Mr. Wynn:
I have a very dear friend who has
been acting strangely ever since his
wife ran away with an engineer of a
I railroad train. Now, every time he
heaas a train whistle he gets nervous
I and \jins away and hides himself.
What do you think is wrong with him?
Sincerely,
c. whiz.
Answer: It Is only natural that he
should run away. An engineer tetole
his wife and ran away on a train with
her and now when he hears a whistle
? he hides. Very simple. He's afraid the
engineer Is bringing his wife back.
Dear Mr. Wynn:
Can you tell me what Is meant when
people say a certain married couple
are "unspeakably happy"?
Yours,
o. mono.
Answer: When a married couple are
referred to as being "unspeakably
happy" It meuns that they are deaf
and dumb.
Dear Mr. Wynn:
I have been 111 for several months
and my physician wants to send me to
the milk cure In Afghanistan. Please
tell me, "Is the milk good there7"
Sincerely,
HOPE SOH.
Answer: Is the milk good In Afghan
istan? Why, CREAM isn't In it
C. Associated Newspapers.
WNU Service.
The Three Physicians
Nature, time and patience are the
three physicians.
I PAPA KNCWS-I
I'-" 23
"Pop, what is a monopoly?"
"All arms, no legs."
C. Bell Syndicate.?WNU Serrlce,
Really, They Don't Want You to Smoke
Tills si^'ri In 22 languages stands at ttie entrance of the Long Bell Lumber
company plant at Longvtew, Wash. All 22 lines say the same warning to
workers, executives and visitors. Spanish. Filipino, Kusslan. Greek, Hebrew,
French, German, Portuguese, Polish. Norwegian, Swedish, Italian, Dutch, Arabic,
Japanese, and six . other foreign tongues and at the bottom "NO SMOKING".
In English.