SOME AMERICAN NOTES OF INTEREST.

Dunstan Times, Issue 3129, 7 August 1922, Page 2

SOME AMERICAN NOTES OF INTEREST.

The arrival at Washington some weeks ago of his Britannic Majesty’s ship Raleigh, with Admiral Sir William Pakenham, commander of the North Atlantic and West Indian Station, was an event that made history. It also broke a long estrangement in that the Raleigh is the first British warship to visit Washington for over a hundred years, and, says a Now York correspondent, “as the previous visit was not very friendly,” the Washingtonians determined to make tlie current visit a striking contrast. To begin with Admiral Packenbain has a host of friends in the United States capital whom he had entertained at Bermuda, and these were desirous of returning his hospitality. But these private functions were only as a fringe of the festivities arranged in holier of the British admiral and the nation he serves and the navy he represents There was arranged a round of state and private functions reminiscent of the early days of the Armament Conference. Fvory hour of the visitors’ stay at Washington was crowded with entertainments of some description. There were dinners, luncheons, dances, receptions, and picnics to an extent threatening to overtax the strength of even British “Tars." Henry Ford’s Ambition. Mr Henry Ford, the parent of “Tin Lizzie,” known to all the civilised world, is both eccentric and ambitions. Hiss eccentricity found its first pronounced exposition early in the Great War. when be chartered a ship, fitted her out. and thereafter filled her with peace envoys bent upon ending the European strife and welding the world into a harmonious family. But the envoys’ fell into dieeord and became an (inharmonious crowd, with the result that they never reached their goal nor attempted their peace purpose. The whole thing was a ludicrous farce, that entailed ridicule upon all concerned and set the universe ailaugbing despite the great tragedy being enacted in Belgium and France and elsewhere. But Mr Ford survived the ridicule, and came smilingly through it to engage in other enterprises designed to keep the name of Ford in the limelight. His latest d’splay of eccentricity and ambition is to run for the Presidency of the United Sta-os. Hitherto a Republican in principle be is out to fight both Republicans and Democrats. Of course, the whole thing is generally viewed as a huge joke, but in his home town of Dearborn, in Michigan, Mr Ford is being taken seriously. At a recent meeting there it was resolved to form an independent party to boat Republicans and Democrats alike and thereafter “whip all creation.” to revive a onetime Yankee phrase very much in vogue. After a flood of oratory, in " b, eh the virtues of Ford'were extolled and the fact that he was in a “receptive frame of mind',” which means a mind with vacancies for lodgers, had been duly emphasised, all present accepted member,ship of a committee of 200. The climax of enthusiasm was rea-hed when it wars resolved to establish “Ford for President Chibs” throughout the country, each man pledging himself to wear a cardboard band round Ids hat bearing in bold Mack letters the inscription “We Wafit Henry.” Astounding Growth of Feminine Crime. dbere has of late been an amazing growth of feminine crime in the United States. This li ns been noted in quite a large number of centres and even outside of the populous centres. One paper observes that the violations of la"’ by women are no longer confined to minor offences, such as picking the pockets of drunken men, shop-lifting, receiving stolen goods, and other things of the kind that constituted the field of women criminals a decade or so ago. Now women are standing their trials for high-grade crimes—highway robbery. mail robberies, burglary, forgery hotel swindling, bank frauds, automobile larcenies, and thefts on a grand scale. 'Within five months in New York alone a score of women answered these charges in the courts, and what was true of New York was true of other populous States —Illinois, Pennsylvania. Massachusetts and New Jersey in particular. The New York Herald, dealing very fully with this new development, asks: —“What are the causes for the increased activities of women in the exploitation of crime ! J What lias turned woman from a petty criminal into a desperate and hold breaker of the law ? Wind, has sent women of quick wit and force' oi will into the ranks of professional criminals!'' Only women horn with unusual shrewdness, with more than the conceded share of intuition and cunning, are qualified to dare crime in magnitude To become a forger, a hotel swindler or a manipulator of gilt -edged fraud in any line a woman must have a fair amount of education plus her native wit and nerve. And these are the manner of women who now are going in for crime.” One authority, a doctor of the psychopathic department of a hospital, associates the hold criminal activities of the present-day woman uith her unrestricted movements in every other avenue. “This is,” he says, “the era of woman. Outlets for the feminine energies are being provided, additionally every day. Having pointed to women’s success in big business, in the arts and science, and other avenues of activity, he says that woman has contested equality with man and won. and the victory must go to the whole sex. Since all women have not a bent for politics nor the taste or capacity for other callings, why should not women of coarser fibre get into the game and challenge men in the hazardous fields of crime. Many women, he says, have the crime complex, which is a common inheritance, and it is just a question of how long they can ke ,; it suppressed. Finally this authority after going into many other phases of the subject, says; “Much of the crime committed by women at present without doubt could lie traced to the influence of some man or hand in men. Apparently the organised hands of outlaws nowadays are havin ' no difficulty in engaging the assistance of competent feminine partners.” Thieves Within the Service. The discoverv has been made in the United States'that the Post Oliice is honeycombed with ex-convict.-, whose presence there has been a Unbilled to I he labor shortage during the war. I his discovery exulains the frequency with which robberies ol mails have occurred. Recent thefts involving many millions of dollars caused a close investigation, which led to the discovery ol the pn - seme ol ex-convicts, who have been working in collusion with thieves outside. The necessity for drastic actum has been clearly perceived and promptly resolved upon. ft has been planned to weed out all the employees in the registered mail departments and permit onlv men with a ten years’ service record to remain. In addition il is probable that alt registered mad wagons will he permanently guarded by two armed U.S. marines, and driverwill lie liable to arrest if found off the specified route. .Steel eges in all nos! offices where the registered mail is handled are to fie re/nfom'd and double guards placed at- the doors. Crime is so rampant in the country that one was disposed to marvel at llie inability ol

the authorities to give it check, but this discovery of criminals -within the gates sets one pondering instead. The audacity of many robberies and the expedition with which they are successfully carried out naturally gives rise to a suspicion that the post offices are not the only places where thieves are cooperating with the actual perpetrators.