Evening Republican, Volume 23, Number 303, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 December 1920 — STORE CLERKS ARMED [ARTICLE]

STORE CLERKS ARMED

N. Y. Merchants Meet to Consider r , Crime Wave Action. Fifty Detectives Sent Out in Fast Autos In Drive on Criminals in Gotham. New York, Dec. 20.— A flying squadron of 50 detectives was sent out by Police Commissioner Enright to aid in combating the crime wave which has called forth expressions of alarm from judges, city officials and numeroqg civic and business organizations. The detectives, furnished with high speed automobiles, were ordered to tour the city In day and pight relays, on lookout for gangsters. They also were Instructed to aid in tracing the slender clews in the department’s possession In efforts to solve recent mysterious crimes. Numerous organizations were discussing emergency measures to Insure protection. Hundreds of stores displayed firearms within easy reach of salesmen and in plain view of customers. The Merchants’ association and the Brooklyn chamber of commerce called special meetings to consider the situation. , Added to the growing list of crimes the police were confronted with the solution fOf two more haldups, committed last night. Carl Ttedermann. a veteran of the World war, was reported dying in a hospital from a wound received when he resisted robbers who met him near a subway station. . Two men stopped a taxicab in Central park, in which Mrs. Thomfis W. Edgar, wife of a'physician, was riding, removed her gloves, searched her stockings, took from her fingers two diamond rings, ordered her out of the cab and directed the driver to take them away.