The Madison daily leader. [volume] (Madison, S.D.) 1890-current, 1919-10-14
IN WILD FRENZY
TO Get SHOES
Italians Need of Footwear Most
Crying Demand of Postwar
Days.
Seized REGARDLESS OF SIZE
Sales Of Communicated Profiteer
Footwear Cause Excitement In
Many c~ities-Stores Ran.
sacked by Mob for Food.

Florence, Italy.-If Dante Alighierf
lived in Florence today he might be
inspired to write another Inferno"
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 demonstrations
backed by the Camera del Lavoro, or
chambers of labor" where stocks Of
goods of all descriptions In the hands
OF ~profiteers in many cities were COM
Wandered and ordered sold at reduced
prices, p~recipitated unusual somer-
saults of trade, but the widest scram-
bles were in the shoe stores. Here
the demand for shoes produced scenes
of the widest disorder.
Frenzy Over Footwear.
In Rome, Milan, Forli, Bologna and
Naples the search for shoes continued
many days. The struggles in each
city were SO great that few law
abiding persons tried to secure shoes.
There appeared to be no attempt at
fitting anyone. Shoes were handed
out in boxes and the buyers took
them, seemingly not caring whether
they fitted or not just so they were
on the basis of a so per cent re-
duction in price. 1t was a common
sight to see a 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 a world series baseball game.
For hours the shoe hunters would
wait in long lines before they were
finally admitted into the storerooms.
Shoe merchants fixed two hours in
the morning and two in the after
noon for the opening of their stores,
but the long line was waiting for
shoes several hours before the sched-
uled time arrived.
lmpatience on the part of the
crowds caused, in most cases, the sum-
mary seizure Of goods and the resort
TO ransacking. Food stores were
treated first in this way. but the law
lessness o o spread to clothing and
shoeshops. Stores ransacked would
be depleted of every commodity-eat.
able, wearable or portable. There
were examples In Spezia Of carrying
out all the commodities, loading them
in a motor truck and taking them
some four or five miles outside the
city for distribution. Whole hogs.
heads of wine were rolled out of the
city in this way and distributed.
1t seemed as If the mob had desig.
mated for them the stores to be loot.
ed. There was apparently the most
systematic pillaging of those accused
of war p~rofiteering. Merchants
known to have violated government.
tai regulations by selling prohibited
articles during the wal were treated
In the same way.
Soldiers sent 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, fruit, nuts
and chocolate.
General Shortage Results.
The new situation created by the
arbitrary commandeerings and fixing
of prices is now beginning to react
Storekeepers are refusing to run their
businesses on the new basis, while
there is evidently a general shortage
throughout the various cities affect.
ed by the new economic changes.
Many well-to-do families who have
always been lawabiding have found
themselves suddenly unable to buy
food.
Some merchants 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 con-
ditiOnS,