The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-09-27
THE BIRMINGHAM AGE-HERA1D FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 27 1918

i We and our children are starving whil, | the land owners and the profiteers ar.
 making % times what they got in peace times and can buy all the food the, want. How long are we going to stand ] it, how long?"
 1, There was not single member ir l that group-and they were apparently al
 strangers to each other-who hesitateC l to say exactly what he felt and not s single word was uttered in favor of the government.
 After the Russian revolution had re. suited in the overthrow of the Czar, heard two workmen at the railroad sta tion discussing conditions. If We had any sense and weren't such fools. we'd
 start the same thing over here" I over- heard one declare. Our government is ernment.
 GRAFT AMONG POLICE I have mentioned before that the Ger. man police, although the most arrogan; in the world, were always free from corruption in time of peace. but with the changed living conditions brought about by the war, the police yielded to tempta ton and not only exacted tribute and accepted bribes, but brazenly appropri. ated the loot which they recovered from thieves and robbers.
 One of the police officers of Berlin openly admitted to me that ii was nc longer possible for him to exist on his l5O marks a month in view of the in creased prices of food and clothing and that he was forced to eke out liveii- hood by resorting to corruption The food regulations, which it was the duty of the police to enforce, provided an excellent opportunity for bribery In re- turn for allowing civilians to purchase or otherwise obtain more than the al lotted quantities of food, the police were able to extort liberal bonuses
 On August 1. 1917, three robbers en- tered my house. They stole about S50t worth of gold, platinum and silver, be sides typewriter, some celluloid brushes and other articles of little value An idea of the lawless condition of the city may be gathered from the fact that the band of burglars who had entered my place had no sooner reached the street than they were set upon by an other band of burglars and relieved ci their booty The first group of robbers turned out to be lads of i7 and IS. They were So incensed at being robbed them selves that they made clean breast of the affair to the first policeman they
 came to and the whole lot of them were arrested. The second group of robbers
 proved to he soldiers on furlough
 RECOVERED PART OF IT
 applied to the local police station
 for the return of my property. They ex-
 hibited some of it to me but told me
 that I would have to obtain it through
 police headquarters, in another part of
 the city A few days later l called there accordingly and was given the celluloid
 toilet articles and other things of nomi-
 nal value, but the gold platinum and
 silver were retained by the police and
 Ja cir tr tha of
 feet that I was satisfied with the work
 they had done in apprehendiRg the bur
 glars and with the property that had been returned to me.
 The same night the house of Non Bleichroeder. the banker a few doors from mine. was broken into by silver burglars and large quantity of silver removed The police said they captured the burglars but restored only a trifling part of the booty to the bank CT. The fact that they had captured the criminals ought to be enough, the