Evening journal., 1922-05-27
BY EDWIN ". HULLINGER

(Cnited Press stan Correspondent
MOSCOW (By Mail TO United
Press "A wave of crime. principally
street robberies. murders and hold
ups, has made the streets Of Moscow
unsafe after nightfall for the first
time in three years.
So serious has the situation be-
come that the government has been
obliged TO return 10 the methods used
in 1919, when it succeeded in stamp
ing out street banditry by means Of
the firing squad. During the first
three months of that year more than
800 robbers were executed.
Twenty highwaymen were shot in
the death corridor" last week Five
more were condemned to death re-
Gently and two other trials are al
ready in progress. Police officials
say they intend to keep on shooting
as in 1919, until the stick-up men
decide to obtain their livelihood in
some other way.
Death is the legal penalty for
stealing in Soviet Russia.
A woman was murdered and rob
bed few blocks from the head
quarters OF the a. r. A. recently
about midnight, on her way home
from a friends. Her husband. who
had fingered behind. found her body.
on a dark. unfrequented street II
$ believed she tried TO run and the
bandit shot.
Two men in a drotshky were stop
ped by two other men in another
drotshky recently almost in front OF
the A. r. A. and relieved OF fifty
million rubles.
Pedestrians and drotshky drivers
avoid empty. winding streets when
possible. Timid people remain in
doors at night
Although highwaymen have been
known to be operating more or less
actively on the countryroads and
near villages around Moscow for four
or five months. it was not until the
middle OF the winter that they in
vaded Moscow itself.
Money the Lure
Drawn out from their three years
Information. either by actual hunger
or by the quantities Of money now
openly in Moscow for the
first time since the Revolution. the
criminal elements have renewed their
open warfare against established
order, and the peasant militia boys,
with their sheepskin caps. long
khaki overcoats. and even longer
rifles. now have something more to
do than saunter sleepily through the
streets at night.
How much this recrudescence of
crime is ascribable to actual hunger
and how much to the fact that
money has once more been endowed
with ready value is doubtful. Ger
tain 1t was that during the last three
years there was not the same temp
.ation to steal money. Food and
clothing were doled out in rations,
and opportunities for using money
were far less numerous. No stores |
were open. Theatres were free.
Also people did not have quantities |
Of cash about their persons. And !
The terrible memories of 1919 and |
Ned Terror were still fresh in the |
minds OF the public and outlaws
alike.
The temptation lay rather in the
direction Of housebrealdng. a far
more hazardous undertaking than
he hold-up or food stealing. This, /
however, the Kremlin succeeded in
pretty effectively by
means of the firing squad and or
iers to Red Guards to shoot pillagers
on the spot.
The new economic policy how
ever. reintroduced free circulation
NJ money. Shops opened bringing
,pportunities to convert cash easily
INTO other objects. The new eco
,omic policy also brought back the
unemployed problem. and this lat
.er has been making itself increas-
ngly felt as the winter advanced.
All factors combined TO induce
he crooks to come out from cover.
shot on Sight.
Formerly robbers were often shot
IN sight without trial. They arc
now given 9pen and public hearing
n court. The same principle is fol
owed against grafters. namely, tina
he greater publicity the greater the
object lesson. The courts of Bol
,haya Lubyanka are working over
ime.
How the robbers are caught is not
always clear. But there seem to be
plenty in the prisoners docket an,