The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-04-03
FUEL CRISIS RUNNING VENNESE FORESTS
Thousands of WoOdcutters Laying Waste Beautiful Woods Around Aus
 trian Metropolis

1 Vienna, March 15.-(Special)- l)-Vienna is surrounded by beautiful woods, and it is most natural that the terrible lack of fuel has driven the Viennese to go into these and steal as much wod as they can carry away with them. If this con tinues long the woods will be entirely wiped out which will be most detrimental to the future health of the Austrian cap ital. If the cutting down of trees and the transport of the wood into the city could be organized and done intelligently, the results would not be so deplorable, but there are not enough trained wood cut ters in Vienna today to make such pro- cedure feasible, and it is out of the question to obtain the large number of carts and horses which would be needed to bring wood for 2000, 900 people into the capital. In normal times Vienna used several hundred railway carloads of coal per day for it's fireplaces alone. Of course, much greater quantities of wood would be needed to replace the coal and it is quite impossible to, cut these in the woods and transport them from the sur rounding mountains into the city. Even if the myriads of wood-cutters, carts and horses could be procured, all the streets which lead into the city would be entire ly blockaded by the masses of carts,
 
 children walk into the woods, armed with axes, and cut trees down. But as this is an art which must be learned, there are many accidents, in some cases fatal. Sometimes the trees fall on these who want to cut them down and kill them: in other cases those who wanted to cut down tree did not succeed quite and left their work only half accom- rlshed whereupon the tree was later blown over by the wind and somebody nearby was killed. These accidents oc- cured so often that it was actually dan gerous to go through the Vienna woods. One of the most tragic of these accidents befell an old judge of high rank who was seriously hurt while trying to cut down a tree. Nothing could more clearly show the terrible state of affairs iA Vienna than the case of this old judge, driven by want of fuel to go into &e woods and try to cut down trees, an act forbidden by the laws which it was bis duty to administer. The -'' ole population was full of sympathy for this old man and there is absolutely no likelihood of his being prosecuted.
 As the forests were in danger of be- ing entirely ruined, soldiers are posted now in many places. and the plundering of the woods has decreased little But as they are large and the number of soi- diers small much wood is stil being car ried away
 In pre-war days the output of whofe coal mines was devoured by the Vienna municipal gas and electricity works. As in other great capitals. all the streets and shops were brilliantly illuminated every evening, and thousands of electric and gas lamps fully replaced the sun. Nut now the streets are hardly lighted at all. This is very comfortable for the burglars, whose business flourishes now to an alarming degree.
 Street thieves also flourish. They often rob people in the street, not only in the night, but in daylight, not only in the suburbs but in the very center or the city few weeks ago man was &t- tackled at o'clock in the evening n one of the most fashionable of Vienna s streets. The criminals made him uncon- csious by holding narcotic under ms nose: they then stole his gold watch and money.
 Once q woman was actually robbed or her shoes in the street. She protes\ed that she lived some distance away aih had no money with her to drive home, SO the thieves gave her sum su1ncient for hiring cab.
 The darkness in Vienna streets also causes many accidents; recently a unlver- slty professor fell into an open cellar ana was killed
 yienna's underground railway has not been running for months, and the ohiy vehicles for the great mass Of the pors lation are the electric street cars. A though the fare is ten times as high a it was some years ago, the ears are ter ribly overcrowded because their numoer is quite insufficient. Frequently several people ride on the fender.
 Sometimes lack of coal paralyzes the CT. tire street car system Then the situa- tior in the Austrian metropolis becomes i,,tolerable. Thousands of people are
 ,,, o;.nar to walk fwice a day