The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1919-09-07
SHOES WOULD Be
FINE SUBJECT IF
| DANTE LIVED NOW
Demand for Footwear Dur
ing Anti-PrOfiteering
Demonstrations Pro-
duces Scenes of Wild =
est Disorder


Florence. Italy, August 1S.--If Dante
Ahghieri lived in Florence today ne
might be inspired to write another In
ferno' with shoes as the prime cause
of evil. Nothing has been so evident
during these postwar days as the need
of Italians for footwear
The recent public demonstration
backed by the Camera del Lavoro. or
chambers of labor" where stocks of
goods of all descriptions n .ne nand,
OF profiteers in many cities were com
Wandered and ordered solo at re-
duced prices, percipitated unusual SOM
ersaults of trade but the widest scram-
bles were in the shoe stores Here the
demand for shoes produced scenes of
the widest disorder.
In Rome, Milan, Forli, Bologna and
Naples the search for shoes continued
many days. The struggles in each city
were SO great that few aw-abiding
persons tried to procure shoes. There
appeared to be no pretex for fitting
anyone. Shoes Were handed out in box
es and the buyers took them seemingly
not caring whether they fitted or not
| just so they were on the basis of a
| fifty per cent reduction in price 1t was
a common sight to see man loaded
up with shoes for his entire family.
| To obtain admission to a shoe store
was fully as difficult as buying a
| ticket for world series baseball game,
For hours, the shoe hunters would
wait in long lines guarded by soldiers
and police before they, were finally
| admitted into the storerooms. Shoe
merchants fixed two hours in the morn
ing and two hours in the afternoon for
the opening of their stores but the long
| line was waiting for shoes several
| hours before the scheduled times ar
rived.
lmpatience on the part of the crowds
caused, in most cases. the summary
| selling of goods and the resort to ran
! sacking. Food stores were treated
first in this way but the lawlessness
soon spread to clothing and shoe shops,
stores ransacked would be depleted of
every commodity eatable. wearabie or
portable. There were examples in Spe :
zia of carrying out all the commodities,
! loading them in motortruck and
taking them some four or five miles
outside the city for distrjhltion. Whole
the city in this way al To dlstributed
1t seemed as IL hefenobs had desig-
mated for them the stores to be looted.
! There were apparently the most syste-
matte pillaang of those accused of
/, war profiteering. Merchants known to
have violated governmental regulations
by selling prohibited articles during
| the war, were treated In the same way.
Soldiers went to restore order in
| some cases were charged with accept
| ing gifts from the rioters and at other
times filling their pockets with eat
ables including biscuits, fruits nuts and
| chocolate.
The new situation created by the ar
bttrary conmandeerings and fixing OF
prices is now beginning to react
Storekeepers are refusing tosrun their
business on the new basis while there
is evidently a general shortage through
out the various cities affected by the
new economic changes Many well-to-
do families who have always been law
| abiding have found themselves sud-
| denly unable to buy food Some mer-
| chants have closed their shops and
| gone to summer resorts in the hope
: that when summer ends, the eruption
will have subsidized and there will be
a return to normal conditions.