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About The Oregon daily journal. (Portland, Or.) 1902-1972 | View Entire Issue (April 5, 1908)
"V"y, -.'' .; .;:-'- ;". ,:. . Vy -'-V HIE r' ! '' . , '. rp .-a. ..i , , ,. r.s. ' - - I A , w M i -res "BBw -i eggmen as ' Allies ; of i Justice ui Capturing Their Kind CCfN INF0RM4 TJON received, we 0 arrested tnts man for ourgiary oj New Jersey postoflicesi I would ask you to hold him until our witnesses ar- rive; "Hold you in $Z500 bail for further hearing Wednesday next, 10 a clock. Pris oner committed. That's all" If new to the pen the prisoner rages. and invokes all the natural ana consnmnonai :Utt nt ! if im nM hand he turns sill. rtghtS Of man, tt an Old MHa, tie turns SUl' lenly td the bench from which he has risen to receive the decision. The detective, tries to taA dozf Dursuinv reporters, lhe com mining magistrate argues twith the clerk the i trains t tilla of proof, beyond some detective's bare word alleging .an unauincnticatca rcyvrt vf a whole week ; "On information received hypnotic power of lies behind the necromantic, those mysterious words? . , . . i is the secret of the alliance of justice .. with crime, the secret which has at last made vulnerable the Achilles heel of the redoubtable r yeggmari, the secret of setting a thief to catch'; a thief, bhich France learned so Jong ago in the days of the great Vidocq, which the Unit ed States is unwillingly tearntng now in the times of postal inspectors and '"ptyirt clothe?' -tr THE United States were mora law abiding It would I have a far more Interesting jutd far mora popular X literature; of -crime. The statement la a true a it anneara paradoxical ' In England, even with a newspaper press that Is ex-... pert In the, suppression of tha aenaatlonal, a bold robbery or a flagrant murder will act tha whole empire by tha ears; to England'a literature r the creator of Sherlock . Holmes can become a popular Idol as Scotland Yard can . become a popular bogey, - , In Franco, with no newspaper press whatever-for journalism, there la practically limited to essay, wit and . romance a few "strong arm" boys and men can set Paris : 'quailing before tha atrocities of.ltg. tribe of "Apachaa, while a Du Boisgobey'a memory , remalna forever en-v shrined to the pantheon of the popular affections. , -. ; , ' In the United States, m every large city, la every . newspaper, every day,- a regular department is served tip - where the burglaries, highway robberies and murderous -assaults are disposed of writh less and Jess attention to their thrilling details, purely because the public doesn't TToaawmj uf ne f Inadequate: Tha law's ohamplona find themselves, pW- IVard. 1 ' .- . ' . . . - - - force, compelled to seek alUea In tha numberleas campa ' Thats aU. "On ihfortna W ortraT tn.r a. . tyVot rfo.fi the simple ominous, legally illegal trick;' $ESfc2& S. lli'SfeffM and a man atratnst whom there ts itot a sew-: to be found the guide to hia extinction, ' .LifiS'i 9 Em mM M mm mmm r my mw mr I irn F MTmrmm in juet me imagination iie.iauow ana n win jump like a frightened horse at the faintest flick of the whip; lash it . with "sensations" day In and day out, and it will plod ' under the blacksnake. '" - - So murders that would set England aflame, robberies ' that would have France in a ferment, leave the United States jogging along, indifferent. . That is why the whole new "school" of ymejhaa ill xvx beea abl to crow up to tha past decado untU it com priies on of the moat powerful, moat kmajlng orft-aataa tlons of crtmlnala aver rrbuped together by common In tereita and imiUr methode in tha hlatory of a modern filiation. And that, too. la why only at tbla lta day ao auth0riUear cheat to cheat In their conflict with crime, raiie the enormoua way to its aubiug-.tion. 1 difficulties that bar their heel of tha law. ardently and aren- erally applied, could hava stamped out summarily the nascent profession of tha yeg. Today all tha machinery of the law, applied with all the energy and shrewdness Inherent In a. really high state of efllclency, proves to be & . . - ' . i IS" T ARIOUS United States diBtrict attorneys, K actinjf undet recent ' instructions . from Attorney Qeneraj Bonaparte,-aTe engag-: ed in the preliminaries or the actualities' of suits r'iJm" ., "vtv ' against railroad comjfanies for violations "of the country's iafety appliance laws The number of prosecutions instigated tfas 10J. , , - Meanwhile the 'Interstate Commerce Oommis- ' sion,' under , act of Congress, is spending $50,000 which Congress gave it for the study of block sig nal systems and appliances for the automatic con trol of trains. " - : . . t ' " - ,C , , v ' Oh. the Empire State must larate wait. ' " ,VjAd the Cennonbelt go banal .: ii'r.:. ;,vwhen the wentbound's ditched and the teolear'e hitched, K' Wtt'' for h Breakdown iiaag tlawrai), t ; ayitf ,taa,.nf tt h il ngn , gnsj T" TT ' v' orxcon . Sunday ... jourjiAU roniLAOTt In . tha opinion Of exnart crlmlnolofftats tha 1ca agalnat burgUry. a burglary baa been evolved recently, are too lenient to meet the Incentives and temptatlone that now incite to tha.crlme. Industrial conditions have made great numbers ' men; wboee intelligence, like their morals, la of low grade, famllUr, with the working of , Iron and ateel and tha use of explosives. A vast amount of knowledge has been put at tha command of vast numbers of workmen, tha large majority of them honest enough, but .the exceptions, very numer ous in tha aggregate, unfitted by training or environment to refrain from criminal use of their knowledge when opportunity offers and need presses. Result, tha yeggs hundreds of them, soma ao expert that they can blow a safe and not disturb a single stamp msny belonging to the thick-heeded type of workmen who areas likely to blow tha whole building and them selvea to smithereens as tbsy were to bungle tha job from which they had to be discharged. AN ANOMALOUS MEDLEY A queer, anomalous medley amid the seething crime of the underworld real mechanics, really out of employ ment; real tramps, really fitted by acquired skill and equally unfitted by native rascality And Uslnesa to hold the easiest job aver offered; real burglars, shining lights amid the dark obloquy of their calling, who. are nattily dressed gamblers today, hoboes camped, on soma creek bank tomorrow, ahadowy, expert, coolly murderous safe blowers In the neighboring postofflces to-morrow night Tha penalty for tha crime In the government courts la five years' imprisonment and $1000 fine; that Is, five years and one month extra, since tha criminal has tha advan tage of the Insolvent debtor's law. t But already several western states have established a pepalty of not more than forty and not less than twenty years for burglaries committed In buildings where ex plosives are used and the building Is occupied by people. The new criminal code of the national government, so long In its revision and now before Congress, carries a hlTrTZ -i TtfOMPSotr BLoacsrsrzM mi -,. I ed Industriously enough during? the scant two 1 years which have elapsed since It got ltsr 150,000. Every few months, anxious to catch up with the slaughters that have been coming at lightning express epeed. It has issued bulletins from -Washington telling how many. ' , - . . A few weeks after the first of the year the com mission found 'itself only 20,000 or so behind. It had. to let the casualties for the concluding months of 1907 await collection, as bearers do with those who felt In yesterday's battle, because hey can collectonly the remnants and remains of those who went down the day before. - 1 hv That Is why the bulletin of the commission covered ' only, the months of July, 'August and .September In ; 1907. But, during those three months, the casualties -Auaabarad 2t,0S of whom 1329 were killed and 21.714 i -3 " ' X S . -'.a- - r-rrr- VMx v'W' .f--y Ky : KOSftlTi'G. APRIL I l'V A penalty of fifteen years for any robbery of a government postofAoe. , Bare lies the hope of the future that Is held by the government's guardians of tha law. With penalties so severe, any gang of yeggmen apprehended for a robbery la likely to Include at least one weaker brother who quails before the long term that stares him In tha face. If, hopeful of leniency nd leniency, somehow, usual ly Is extended to the man who turns state's evidence or gives such aid to the prosecution as Insures conviction his reticence breaks down, the way la cleared for remov ing the whole gang permanently from tha scenes of their pernicious activity. That will be tha law's Iron heel, reinforced tea years later than it should have been. For the present the law, instead of compelling the thief to Immure tha thieves, can do no more than, brim him. ' That la tha explanation of tha request for $5000 em bodied In an Item of tha Postofflce Appropriation bill which -Chief Postal Inspector McMilUn was forced to make to a House committee recently. Postal authorities have denied emphatically sine, then that they hire professional yeggs to join In burglaries for the purpose of securing evidence; but. even with tha de nial accepted t its face value, the fact remalna tha ap propriation is urgently needed for the main general pur pose of bribing the bribable yegg. There is a reward fund, distributed at the discretion of the postmaster general, of f 10,000 a year for Informa tion and aid that bring about the arrest and conviction of postofflce burglars; and the payments are commonly made upon an appraisement of SZS0 & criminal. But that Is available only long after the arrest, and a yeggman. when he is willing to betray, turns Judas nly under the pressure of Immediate necessity. So the bribe he gets comes directly from the pocket of the local postal Inspector who is working on the case and the Inspector's sole source of replenishment for the pocket Is his government salary. in one eastern city last year a chief Inspector, whose pride In the record of his district would not let him lose -0 ' ' were Injured, an Increase of 1ST In the number of killed and of JOSS In the number of Injured beyond the totals of the corresponding quarter for 1806. ' -' - : The number of collisions and derailments Increased by 607, thus affording the interesting three months' total of m, with m collisions and 208 derailments te prove that the companlea favored, no special form Of accident, being perfectly fair and just. ,c .,, There would appear to be some Slight dlscrlmlna- tion against smashing and upsetting passenger trains. r than war. nnlv S20 onllialona unrt 9.'?. 2 il.rillniAnli In that class of traffic: it may have been that the rela ho Kaon ih. k. ..i.. Uvea of killed paasengera are unpleasantly addicted to' damage suits, or it may have been merely an over sight. i'-ri j-- '-- .''-A- .J,.- ,J ; '.,; .. . Direct damage to cars; engines and roadway, due to ' the collisions "and ' derailments of those three months, amountea to s.ua,6S,' -j.;i road accident funds leaves it eertal "ettle Sflgr : rnmDaniea are still tryin to settle or to ne-ht claims for further millions to damages which juries. a tittle of helpful Information; spent $700 Cut at his own salary to defray the various incidental yegg "grafts" that had to be complied with. ,s .' ' A whole underground system prevails. Borne "plain clothes" raaa on the city police force has a yegg "stool pigeon," reformed thief r treacherous tramp, who known the identity and hiding place of the members of tha, gang that robbed a. country postofflce. ? , ' . . ! l: He tells the postal Inspector, with the intimation that about $lf will satisfy the yegg. Tha inspector must pass along the $13, wherever it comes from, . He may capiuro and convict the burglars, but ha never gets back his tU for government officers are expressly debarred from par ticipation in the reward fund. :- ,' Or, say, a gang of yeggs, having worked successfully through tha South, conclude the time bus arrived fur flitting. They are suddenly transuogriAed from hoboes to traveling salesmen, and. m good clothes and guod stj le, they journoy to New York. , . They hasten Ao any one of half a doi-n "dumps located on the ' Bowery, conducted by 1 some old-uma burglar, and known to the police as well-to-do crimlntiin. There they receive the late Information of the tind.-r-world and of the police domain, for the criminal claoten spy on the authorities quite as Industriously ss the U spies on the criminal; It Is "pull devil, pull baker," all along the line. ' , , Hatlened they are "in" right, the prosperous yeirg betake themselves to some apartment house recommenuvil by the keeper of the dump, with whom Uiry may leave a change of clothing and their tools of trade. He never betrays them the consequences of a loss of revenue frin the drinks they so lavishly buy and of a knife in th.j back it they should discover his treachery are too immi nent to make him less than an absolutely faithful ally. LWAYS READY TO "PEACH" But some needy hsnger-on, his memory filled with the goselp of the place, knows them for the gsng who cleaned up JkjuO in cash and 2uo In stamps near Richmond, Va.; and he knows, too. that they are going to twist thn tiger's tall at MoCandtosa' that night. He may earn , he may earn $, by the betrayal, according to the value of his information. . Sometimes they And htm out, and then the city au thorities have a mysterious murder to unravel, for every great eity has Its yeggs who live in dally apprehension of the hour when some betrayed burglar shell be released from Jail, with his term lowered, by "good behavior" tha 1 professional criminal is the bear behaved la all prisons and shall hunt him down as relentlessly as a hound hunts ! a fox. j The secret history of the postal Inspectors offices throughout the country Is filled with stories of the yeitg amateur detective, whose aid alonw has made tha, law. ' operative. " . - Two yeare ago the police of Paterson, N. J., arrested on suspicion, because he was carrying a kit of burglar tools, a man who gave his name as Kdward Kearney and protested that he was an honest mechanic. . There was practically nothing against him, for the crime bo waa out for had not been even begun. But la Philadelphia a yegg "tipped off" a postal inspector to the idea thai he might be Ed Carney, a famous burglar, using another spelling for his name, i The Inspector sent to Paterson a Rogues Gallery like ness of the original Ed Carney and Edward Kearney, virtuous mechanic. Is now doing a five-year term in Jer sey for the trivia offense of carrying a kit of tools which might have served the turn of burglary Justice these days has a saying about the yeggman which varies what injustice in the old days used to say Ofthe Indian; "The only good yeggman is a jugged man." About the time of Ed Carney's Incarceration, Tom Dowd, known as ''Denver Harry," waa picked up in Bridgeport, Conn., on suspicion of having robbed the post offlce at Fairfield, but not a glint of evidence could be procured for his conviction. . Before his release, however, a treacherous yegg toM tha postal inspectors that he had some time previouiv murdered a mtln while robbing a Texaa postofflce. lio will neither rob nor murder in the future. The etatn of Texaa has him. hard and fast, in its penitentiary foe Ufa. . i--.--- - In April last Frank "Wagner, George Daly land ITarr-? Williams, arrested and convicted of postofflce robberies at Falls Creek and Soldier. In Pennsylvania, had the scrupu lous coneeajment of their identity, as the most skilful desperate yegg burglars In tha country, penetrated by "Information received" from a yegg In Philadelphia who needed money. . ' The whole history of their other unpunished crimes Is now In the possession of the authorities; if, with the many prosecutions that are awaiting them upon the expiration of their current terms, they live to be old enough to re sume robbery, they will be miraculous '-Witnesses to tha hygiento value of American Jails.' ' - Plot and counterplot it is the whole story of the now handicapped campaign, that ' justice 1 is -waging again' crime, with every faintest scrap of information seizes upon and treasured by the- shrewd, watchful foe. This article, in the cool, calm opinion of the most con scientious thief-taker employed by tha United States gov ernment, within one week from today will be in the bund j Of every yegg from Maine to California. ' But, Gentlemen Yeggs, do not mistake It for enm postal Inspector's slip of tha tongue. It la rather a If. Iated declaration of war. more or less Intelligent, will render for revision b -Supreme Courts more or less addicted to technicality , Trusting to luck, after years and years of losin cards dealt by insulted fate, or trusting to the forget fulness of United Htates district attorneys, would er- pear to be the only possible explanations of such uni versal, otrich-llke inhumation of the eye of precau tion in the blind sand of negligence. .,.-... Nothing else could account for it. with such safelv appllances as are In actual ; use demonstrated to h futile 4279 times within the brief period of ninety two days, with 13,805,696 wasted for the most damnin -?d-$r.tl8ement raUroada ever Invested in and wiu 23,036- casualties. ;.v.v .-. i v - h.. ' x The commission has been accdrding attention 1 1 new inventions that profess to be automatically, euros ' safe, and among those It has investigated Is one b Frederlchi -V. Thompson, an assistant electrical en- s neer f the Philadelphia and Beading Bailway. H-- commission, apparently, is the only body Interested in railroading In the United States that cares a hf whether Frederick V. Thompson, assistant electi i engineer, has Invented an automatlo safety ajj Snce or an automatically explosive crowbar. Mr. Thompson's device la an automatic engin operating on the engine in connection, if that be . elrable, with the Hall electric aignal system. By automatlo opening of an auxiliary throttle and vai electrically equipped. It keeps every train continuHi In Its separate "block" or section of track, am guarding against front and rear collisions, again nearly all classes of. obstructions and agalnat o; awitchea open draws, open sidings and open crt.- overs. - .- - . sr - The mechanism operates by electrle conned with the raila An electro magnet opens the va; which; eenda compressed air from a reservoir In t engine to a cylinder, which closes the steam throu Valve and opens the valve on the air brakes. The roadway Is divided. Into blocks, and, nl with the two vails ordinarily in service, a third r la installed,-whloh a very well be tmide of the rails that roads are constantly throwing out for t placementvwith ! the standard 100-poun4 rail. . . third raUearriea the battery current, but a current . low la power as to offer no, danger, even U tnu 1 Inery jblock ; of tc ner r, whl--h r- . i . . . Ifi T i riatr of maenets and a.l an with contact points'.t either end of the am.. . with contact peinu TL"' Kach a"t V.f . two contact points in tne ' "lafv , i , points protects a block, one at eitner ena ot tr.o c block. Thl - The two magneta" of 'the' relay are connect- l t Vr?Jn raila with the battery in Series. '1 ( , Vtaa main rails ii.aria.tiv bridsed. completing the tucuif v-Minir whether by a train, 1 y. nn fr'iiH w, Arw. atops an approacning train even though lhe t li :-r 1. autanitn."."ji. with the thlrt rail, and go save ib.u, of installation.
