If peace officers throughout the country would secure finger prints
of all criminals passing through their hands and forward them to a
central bureau it would facilitate the apprehension and identification
of malefactors.
As a preventive of repeating at elections, the finger print
identification would serve an admirable purpose. When an elector
registered he could leave an imprint of his fingers upon the
registration book, and when he went to vote a glance at the
registration list and comparison of the imprint made at the polls
would readily establish his identity if the prints tallied.
The natives of India decline to recognize the validity of any document
beneath the signature of which is not imprinted a reproduction
of the whorls or loops of the thumb of the signer, alleging that
a person might deny his own signature, but that the finger prints
afford incontrovertible evidence, as no two people can make the same
impression with their thumbs upon paper.
Upon opening an account with a bank in India the depositor leaves the
impress of his right thumb upon the roll of depositors and none of his
paper will be honored unless checks are thus imprinted.
In the same country pensioners are compelled to imprint their thumbs
upon receipts for pension money, and thus obviate the likelihood of
other persons drawing the stipend rightfully belonging to the veteran.
The best test of a system is its practical use and the results
derived, and one of the most important matters is uniformity in
all branches of work, classification, filing, size of cards, etc.,
so that, as the system becomes universal, it will be operated on
identical lines in all countries. From my observation of the practical
workings of the system, I believe that at New Scotland Yard, London,
to be the best.