Major R. W. McClaughry, warden of the federal prison at Leavenworth,
sees in the finger print system a possibility which might be taken
cognizance of by the government at Ellis Island. With the millions of
immigrants who have come and who still are to come to these shores,
the finger print requirement would simplify many of the tangles of
many kinds which result from this inrush of foreign population.
Aside from the fact that many of this country's criminals are foreign
born, it remains that civil identifications of such people are matters
of great moment. Titles and estates have hung in the balance of
incomplete identifications of persons who are claimants in the United
States. Fifty years after a finger print is registered that same
finger, or group of fingers, will prove the personality of the one
registering. In case of accidents of many kinds one hand or the other
is most likely to escape mutilation, and a post-mortem imprint of the
fingers still is proof of identity.
The finger print system is being taken up more rapidly than was
the Bertillon, largely owing to the fact that police departments,
recognizing that a scientific system gives far greater results and can
in no way be compared with the old method of describing criminals, by
color, age, height, weight, eyes, hair, etc., are more willing than
formerly to intelligently investigate and test new methods.
Under the Bertillon system it is contended that the bones of the
human anatomy stop growing after the age of twenty-one years. In
consequence measurements taken of juvenile offenders under that age
are practically of little use, as they show too wide a variance with
measurements taken in after years, and are not a certain source of
identification.
The identification from imprint taken from the finger tips of both
hands can be recorded as soon as the child is born, and no matter at
what time of life a record is again taken of the subject, absolute
identification can be had, as the papillary ridges of the palmer
surface of the finger tips present the same formation until death,
and even though some of the fingers become mutilated, amputated or
lost, sufficient prints would remain on the other fingers to produce
identification.
While it is claimed that the finger print system is sufficient unto
itself for all identification, after working each system side by side
for a number of years, I believe that both systems should be installed
in all cities, penitentiaries, etc., especially as they both will be
given an impartial and thorough test here, with the result that it
will be the survival of both, or of the fittest.