The cases which are given display heads in the papers with pathetic pictures accompanying them, are but few in hundreds of the stories of missing and kidnapped children in which the tragedies are just as deep, just as abiding and just as horrible.
These cases are usually found by some energetic and enthusiastic reporter who “happens” upon them by chance. The circumstances appeal to him and he “gets busy.”
Day after day he prods the police into annoying activity. He finally arouses public sympathy and interest and the police are of necessity obliged to make a pretense at hard labor. They work on the case and frequently obtain successful results that gladden the heart of some frantic mother.
Did they accomplish the work?
To be fair and honest—No. The thanks are due the unknown members of the press and not the police department.
THE EXPOSURE OF BIG CRIMES.
As the newspapers are greatly responsible for the finding of children, so they are the mind and pushing power behind the police department in the exposure of big crimes, particularly murders, and the punishment of criminals.
Criminals are brought to justice every day, men are sent to the penitentiary, not through the police department working as a thinking body but through the efforts of newspapers, expressed in the tireless energies of newspaper reporters.
The police department as a body has been clearly shown up as a body of inefficient, unthinking and unscrupulous men.
One of the shining examples of inefficiency is to be found in a famous murder case which stirred Chicago to its depths several years ago.