Brattleboro Union High School - Colonel Yearbook (Brattleboro, VT)

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PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS Alumni, members of the faculty, parents, and friends: HE class of 1936 welcomes you to its Class Day Exer- -I-cises-the first of our commencement program. We approach this epoch of our lives with varied feelings and emotions. There is a feeling of sadness and regret that we are about to leave this building with its ivy-covered walls which have sheltered us for the past four years and with which are bound up so many pleasant associations. They are associations which we will recall again and again in the years to come, and which have left their work on our lives for all time. Then there is a feeling of appreciation and gratitude. We appreciate the privilege that has been ours of spend- ing the past four years in this school. We are grateful to those who have made this privilege possible-to our parents and to our teachers to whom we take this op- portunity of expressing our sincere thanks. But most of all, perhaps, there is a feeling of anticipa- tionianticipation of what the future has in store for us. The words of Whittier, I know not what the future hath of marvel or surprise, may well be ours as we leave this building. Some of us are to continue our scholastic educa- tion, and some of us are to take our places in the world of business, now a world of strife, of unrest, of changing standards--a world in which the unexpected is always happening-a world in which it is hard to keep pace with the astonishing progress which is being made in the fields of science and research-a world in which one may well wonder if any person or any nation asks the question, Am I my brother's keeper ? Ours is to be the privilege and the responsibility of going out into this amazing world to take our places be- side those who have gone before us, and, with them, to glory in the attempt to solve the problems which are con- fronting our modern civilization. It is then, my pleasure, in behalf of the class of 1936, to welcome you to the Class Day Exercises of Brattleboro High School. -Paul Burnham CLASS ORATION 6-Men THE sensational captures of john Dillinger, Machine- Gun Kelly, Baby-Face Nelson, Alvin Karpis, Ma Barker, Tommy Robinson and Bill Mahan as blared forth from the scare headlines of every news daily in the United States have made us all G-man conscious. These ace operators of the Federal Bureau of Investiga- tion of the Department of Justice, to give them their full name, have made the reign of every Public Enemy No. 1 brief indeed, and no longer does a gangster revel in being the holder of this title. But with all that has been printed about the G-men, surprisingly little has been said about the methods which they employ-the science behind it all. Many important facts and figures have been left out of the newspaper accounts altogether. The present personnel and efficiency of the Division of Investigation began in 1924, when john Edgar Hoover was appointed director. Hoover started immediately to clean house, and gradually eliminated the political job holders. He began the extensive collection of fingerprints which is now the largest in the world. He established a training school, in which each Special Agent learns the latest technique in crime detection, the proper presenta- tion of evidence in court, and how to shoot fast and straight. Each prospective G-man must attend this school for eight weeks. This shooting fast and straight is espe- cially emphasized, for, as Mr. Hoover said, The only thing gangsters fear is death. They don't mind jails, be- cause they can get out of them or be released on parole- the biggest racket in the country. But they fear a man who meets them with his gun and can shoot quicker and straighter than they do. Today, the division is a quick functioning machine with many ramifications. The organized brains, courage, and skill of many men can always overcome that of a few. Five hundred and fifteen trained investigators, backed up by the identification and scientific laboratories, and com- bined with local and state police, constitute a vast law and order machine which no single criminal can long defeat. He can't fight an army. The Division of Investiga- tion has offices in thirty cities. Men are shifted as the need arises. Of the division's investigative personnel, 373 have college degrees, while over 83 per cent have legal training or were expert accountants before entering the service. This group does not investigate violations of the narcotic laws, postal laws, smuggling, counterfeiting and immigration. It does investigate such matters as bank-

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PRINCIPAL JOSEPH A. WIGGIN

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6 THE DIAL ruptcy and antitrust violations, crimes on the high seas, frauds against the Government, bribery of Government officials, robbery of national banks, Mann Act violations, kidnapping, extortion and certain kinds of racketeering. During the fiscal year 1934 the Division secured 93.81 per cent convictions in all cases investigated and brought to trial. Convictions averaged about ten a day for the year-3,531 all told, and the sentences added up to cover 5,000 years-which is time enough in which to read a lot of newspapers. Fines totalled .?5773,000, and property recovered amounted to 31,117,000 Eighteen million dol- lars was saved the Government in war risk insurance. In addition to its own investigations, the Division acts as a clearinghouse for much valuable information. The identification unit receives 2,500 fingerprints daily from 7,000 sources in the United States and abroad. Identifica- tion service is furnished at no cost to police departments and other agencies. Figures are usually pale, lifeless things, but how suc- cessfully the fingerprint bureau idea has been impressed upon law enforcement ofiicials in the decade since it was started! The 800,000 cards used as a basis have grown to 4,500,000. Scotland Yard has only 500,000. The num- ber of separate law enforcement agencies sending in prints has increased from 987 to 6,277. Not only the 48 states, but 49 foreign countries are contributing. In 1924, 87,000 fingerprint cards were received, in 1933, more than 500,000. But the figures that really tell the tale of the deadly threat to crookdom are these: in 1924, a posi- tive report as to a previous record could be sent back from Washington on only 17 per cent of the cards received, in 1934, the percentage had risen to almost 47. That means that on approximately every other fingerprint card sent in today, some information can be returned re- garding the past life of the prisoner. In addition to the regular fingerprint file, there is a file of single fingerprints of 3,500 of the more notorious kidnappers, bank robbers and extortionists. The value of this new system is immediately evident when the fact is known that under the regular classification it is impossi- ble to ascertain whether the prints of two or three fingers found at the scene of the crime-latent prints, they are called-belong to an individual whose card is found in the Bureau file. And rarely does a crook leave prints of more than two or three fingers, if of that many. From the main file of master prints, the cards of these 3,500 foremost public enemies were taken, and from these, separate prints of each finger and thumb, a grand total of 35,000 cards, were made. Now, if a major crime is com- mitted by anyone of these 3,500, and he is so careless as to leave the print of just one finger tip behind him, his identity can soon be learned from Washington, and that's half the battle. This special file is now well organized and will grow greatly beyond the 3,500 present total. But that's only part of the story. At the same time that this select list was being especially honored by a tenfold classification, certain information was being gathered about the criminals-height, weight, build, complexion, eyes, teeth, race, dress, and so on, a total of 21 separate features, with their various subdivisions. A numerical value was arbitrarily given to each physical characteris- tic, thus enabling them to be compactly tabulated, like census records, by punch marks on small cards that carry corresponding numbers. All this sounds a little compli- cated, it must be confessed, and a card bristling with numerals, with a score of the numbers punched out, looks even more bewildering. But that compact, perforated little piece of cardboard gives a very detailed description of a man, and in a form that can be handled quickly and accurately by machine. There is no questioning of the value of this file. A partial description has been obtained of a certain suspect in connection with a crime. The police have reason to be- lieve that a member of an important gang, whose record the bureau has, committed the deed. Perhaps they have half a dozen identifying marks-he was tall, heavy, blond-haired, lame, he had ruddy complexion and pro- truding upper teeth. Operatives check these off on a blank provided by Washington. Six holes are punched on a card at the bureau, an electric button is pressed, and this six-holed card is tallied against the 3,500 cards on file. The result is a small handful of cards that have the six characteristics in common with this new card. Of course, none of these cards may refer to the man wanted, but then again, one of them may do so. A full description and photograph of this handful of possible culprits is then sent back to the police. Can they identify one of them? That is their part of the program. The Division prides itself on the speed with which identifications can be made. In order to hold suspected persons in jail, to keep shyster lawyers from springing them, all inquiries are answered within thirty-six hours, or less, by mail, air mail, or telegraph. In the past, one of the major difiiculties encountered by the police was the lack of a scientific laboratory of the highest rank. In 1932, the Division established its techni- cal laboratory, whose services should be available at no cost to all law enforcement agencies desiring them. It has the latest equipment, such as the comparison micro- scope in which the images of two separate bullets are brought within a single eyepiece, the binocular micro- scope for the examination of handwriting, typewriting, and other specimens, the ultraviolet lamp for the de- tection of invisible inks, colorless stains, and the like, special cameras for photographing fingerprints on ob- jects, and chemical apparatus for the examination of blood stains, or for qualitative or quantitative analysis. A complete collection of different kinds of paper, water- marks, tire tread patterns, bullets, and gunpowders is be- ing gradually built up. The analysis of hairs and fibres is an important part of the work, and such minute substances have helped to send more than one person to prison or to the electric chair. The evidence against Bruno Hauptmann fConzinued on page 211