The badge used to identify workers at the Quartermaster Corps Depot in Jeffersonville, Indiana
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Title (Dublin Core)
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The badge used to identify workers at the Quartermaster Corps Depot in Jeffersonville, Indiana
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Article Title and/or Image Caption (Dublin Core)
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Proving that You Are Who You Are
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extracted text (Extract Text)
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IT is nine o'clock in the -
morning at the Quarter-
master Corps Depot, Jeffer-
sonville, Indiana. Hundreds of
artisans and mechanics, many of
them foreigners, stream in through
the gates. Each man is carefully
scrutinized by the gatekeeper.
He knows most of the workmen by
sight, even by their first names.
Here comes an unfamiliar figure.
“Who are you?” says the gate-
keeper. ‘‘Let’s see your badge.”
The man throws back the lapel
of his coat and exhibits a badge of identification.
The badge is one especially designed for the use of the
Quartermaster Corps; it has its peace-time use in every
large factory. Look at it and you see a photograph of the
man who wears it. That is not all. Figures and words
surround the photographed face. ‘‘24”—that is the age of
the badge wearer; ‘“5=11 1/2"—that is his height in feet
and inches; “168” that is his weight; “brown” —that is the
color of his hair; “blue’—that is the color of his eyes.
La Beneath the photographs
appears the number “1243,”
by which the badge wearer
is carried on the books.
A photograph is not the safest
means of identification. There
are more men in the world who
look alike than many of us realize.
So, in addition to having himself
photographed the badge wearer
must have himself finger printed.
His finger ‘print, duly signed with
his name and dated, appears on
the reverse of his badge.
When an employee’s term of service has expired he sur-
renders his badge. There is no chance for fraud. He is
held to what the President calls “‘strict accountability.”
Curiously enough, while the government was particu-
larly careful in demanding that the badge system be intro-
duced in factories, it was rather lax in watching its own
officers. To be sure it did issue passes bearing photo-
graphs, but there was nothing like the elaborate system
of identification illustrated by our pictures.
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Language (Dublin Core)
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eng
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Date Issued (Dublin Core)
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1919-12
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pages (Bibliographic Ontology)
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27
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Rights (Dublin Core)
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Public domain (Google digitized)
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Archived by (Dublin Core)
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Davide Donà
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Alberto Bordignon (Supervisor)
Popular Science Monthly, v. 95, n. 5, 1919
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