Evening star., 1918-03-31
MANY ARE EXECUTED
1T PETROGRAD DAILY.
Restoration of Death Penalty
by BoIsheviki Exceeds Rigor
of Cars Regime.
FOOD .PRoFITEERs KILLED
BY LOUIS EDGAR BROWNE.
ts,ecial Correspondenee Of The Sunday
0tar and the Chicago Daily News.)


sa>.ca,l Correspondence of The Sunday
star and the Chicago Daily News.)
PETROGRAD, Russia, March IA
Crowds were parading the Liteinoi to-
day wondering what the anniversary
Of the revolution would develop
drawing a conspicuous contrast with
= year ago today, when the happy peo-
ple danced arm in arm through the
streets singing and otherwise celebrat-.
ing their deliverance from a tyrant's
rule-when a squad Of armed soldiers
emerged from the municipal soviet es-
cortinx a prisoner clad in a sailors uni
form. The guard ostentatiously ira
versed the Liteinoi until they reached
the law courts, which were gutted by
dre during the first revolution The
suuad halted and the traffic stopped as
though turned to stone.
The crowds drew closer ana motor-
man stopped his car and leaned out OF
the window as the squad leader NUT
forced the prisoner to the wall with
the points of their bayonets while the
others in the squad loaded their rifles.
Il then dswned upon the crowd tnat
this was an execution and the specLa-
tors were seized with wild panic. Inc
cabbies whipped up their horses and
the unotorman started his car Win
jolt. There was sca.tetsn fen soMsy torG.rd u
Kicking spasmodically. A few more
ehots were Aired into the body to make
6eath certain and then the guard strag-
Eied casually back to the municipal soviet.
Socialists Reverse Attitude.
Perhaps 1000 persons. including my.
self. Witnessed the execution, ~ a smn.l man
rounded the body. Two soldiers with
4 etretcher left the soviet and some
asked why the sailor had been kiiieo.
One of the stretcher bearers replied that
0uerading as a sailor. that he had been
Gauxft In the act of committing rob-
berry and that he had been sentenced
to be shot.
Russia.s extreme socialists who COM
pose the soviet government have de-
cided that 1t would be impossible to
govern without capital punishment, and
now the anniversary week sees hal1 q
dosen executions daily. The rtgor OF
the bolshevik Redistribution OF the
Death penalty surpasses the rfgor OF the
cars regime. The executions occur In
.the main streets and invariably when
the thoroughfares are crowded. The
oxecutioners are simply soldiers CHOSEN
1aphasard by the local municipal soviet.
The bolsheviki were formerly the bit
tsrest opponents of capital punishment
"a used Kerensky's attempts to re-
establish the death penalty as lever
fur the overthrow Of the provisional
eovernment. The bolsheviki then bris-
lied with anger at the suggestion OF an
execution such as I witnessed today.
ssIs this the re-establishment OF cap
ttai execution" l. asked Of soviet
leader.
xoplied. TT Is simply shooting down
thieves and making the punishment Mt
the crime"
Soviet Explanation Accepted.
The strange Russian psychology &C.
cspts without question the soviet's ex-
planation that the shooting OF thieves
death penalty. but simply the working
mans Justice. The red guard and soviet
invoke the firing squad for many
crimes and misdemeanors. such as
counter revolution and resistance to-
arrest by bagmen. The bagmen are
food spectators, and they are 20 called
because they travel between the Prov
sions in the towns. They have made
this q highly profitable business. The
food Is carried In large gunnysacks.
and hence the name bagmen.
Nearly 100000 bagmen have been en-
gaged In bringing food to Petrograd.
and their continuous transit demoral-
issd the railway passenger traffic. On
several occasions armed bagmen took
possession OF trains. and finally the
soviet decreed that the bagmen should
- shot down on sight. Forty-seven
were shot on trains between Irkutsk
and Petrograd In one day. A sufficient
1nmber were executed to put stop to
their work, and now they do not exist
IN this part Of the country. In Petro-
9r4d the streets are much safer at
night. because sitter the reign Of terror
caused by holdups and murders tho
soviet decreed that the criminals
should be shot On sight.