“This new order of September 17 deals mainly with the first class.
“All soldiers of the first class are separated from those of the second class, and are given a chance to make good and to ultimately return to their regiments and fulfil their term of enlistment. The time they have spent in confinement is not taken out of their period of enlistment. Most of these men are sent to the new detention barracks at Fort Leavenworth, Ks., while the remaining few go to the barracks at the Presidio, just outside of San Francisco. No men go to these barracks unless they have a term of three months or more to serve, as men with short sentences are placed in the post guard house.
“Upon a soldier’s arrival at one of these detention barracks he is eligible for one of the companies or battalions, which are organized, equipped and drilled as infantry under the command of officers and non-commissioned officers specially selected and detailed from the active list. A serious attempt is made to do away with all the atmosphere of a prison. The men are not known by numbers, but by their own names; and the heretofore prison garb is replaced by a uniform, differing slightly from that of the Service. There is also school for the more illiterate men, and courses in shorthand and typewriting are open to all wishing to take up these subjects. Thus, these men will learn things which will be to their advantage later in civil life. No menial work whatever will be performed by the prisoners, except their own police duty. Under this system the men will not feel all the while that they are prisoners as they formerly did, but as soldiers doing soldiers’ work and receiving soldiers’ training. And when these men return to the colors they will not return as men who have worn stripes and numbers, but as men who have been subjected to a special and rigid regime of military instruction and training, for the purpose of bestowing upon them new ideals of conduct, and to make them capable of performing efficient service upon rejoining the army.
“And as for the men of Class II.—those convicted of acts of moral turpitude—they are sent to Federal penitentiaries, where they will serve the sentence given them by a military court martial. When their time is up they will be dishonorably discharged, thus forfeiting their right of citizenship.
“Also, this new system will have much to do in the saving of material, money and character. It will save many from becoming social outcasts, who only spread germs of antagonism against the army and all organized government. The shorter terms of confinement, during which the men receive schooling of more than one kind, cannot but help in making soldiers and not in destroying them.”
Alphonse Bertillon Dead.—Alphonse Bertillon, who died recently at Paris, was the creator of the famous Bertillon system for the identification of criminals. He was director of the anthropometric department of the Paris police. The system was introduced into France in 1883, and was eventually adopted by police departments in all parts of the world, including the United States. However, in later years it is being gradually supplanted by the finger-print system.
M. Bertillon’s system was based on his discoveries that certain physical features and dimensions of certain bones or bony structures in the body practically remain the same during adult life. He took the measures of the head length, head breadth, the length of the middle finger, the left foot and the length of the forearm from the elbow to the end of the little finger. These various measurements were subdivided into three classes, “small,” “medium” and “large.” As the system developed, M. Bertillon added the height of a person, the color of the eyes and length of the little finger. All this information was entered on classified cards.
By means of the system police departments have been able to keep records of crooks who have been arrested and convicted. This information has been of great value in the prosecution of criminals, identified as previous offenders by means of the records, notwithstanding their professions of innocence. Identification bureaus in the largest cities exchange Bertillon measurements one with another, and thus increase the efficiency of the system and add to the embarrassment of the criminally inclined.