B. E. F. (Cont'd}

B. E. F. (Cont'd)

Last week the House of Representatives surrendered to the siege of the Bonus Expeditionary Force encamped near the Capitol. It voted (226-to-175) to take up the bill by Texas' Patman for immediate cashing of Adjusted Service Compensation certificates at a cost of $2,400,000,000 in printing-press money. This first test of the Bonus boosters' strength indicated that the House would probably pass the Patman bill and send it to the Senate. In that body 56 Senators--a majority--were said to be lined up against the Bonus. But even should the measure somehow get by Congress an insurmountable veto awaited it at the White House.

Largely ignorant of legislative processes, the B. E. F., bivouacked some 15,000 strong on the Anacostia mudflats, was delirious with delight at its House victory. Its tattered personnel, destitute veterans who had "bummed" their way to the Capital from all over the country, whooped and pranced about among their crude shelters. Most of them had left hungry wives and children behind. They had gone to Washington because, long jobless, they had nothing better to do. In camp with their A. E. F. fellows again, they seemed to have revived the old ganging spirit of Army days as an escape from reality. They convinced themselves that they were there to right some vague wrong--a wrong somehow bound up in the fact that the Government had opened its Treasury to banks, railroads and the like but closed it to needy individuals. When the House voted to take up their bill, they slapped one another on the back and were quite sure they would be getting their money in a few days to take home.

During the week the B. E. F.'s ranks were more than quadrupled by new recruits. Leaders predicted 50,000 more were on the march to Washington. Seven thousand of them paraded one evening in quiet order up Pennsylvania Avenue. The discipline at "Bonus City" continued good, despite the fears of alarmed Washingtonians who helped to spread unfounded Red scares. Crude shelters were built from old lumber, packing boxes and scrap tin, and thatched with old straw. Several hundred secondhand Army tents were provided. Company streets were laid out. Latrines were dug. Regular formations were held daily. Campers were organized for field sports to keep them out of mischief. Newcomers were required to register after proving that they were bona fide veterans with honorable discharge papers. A military morale permeated the whole raw, rough encampment, with no larking out of bounds.

Credit for the B. E. F.'s good behavior went principally to 34-year-old Walter W. Waters, originator of the Washington march, who was selected last week as the B. E. F.'s commander-in-chief. Tall, lean, sunburned, Waters first saw service on the Mexican border. Then he went overseas as a sergeant for nearly two years with the 146th Field Artillery. Mustered out, he married a blonde slip of a girl from Valparaiso, Ind., took her to Oregon where he worked as superintendent of a canning factory, had a house of his own, a car, two little daughters. Eighteen months ago he lost his job. His small savings melted. He led the B. E. F.'s first contingent of 300 from Portland across the continent last month. Now in command of 15,000 men, he became the sober, strict executive with headquarters and a staff in a deserted building on Pennsylvania Avenue. He directed the B. E. F.'s lobbyists, organized newcomers, arranged for food and shelter, maintained camp order and, above all, kept the Bonus uppermost in his followers' minds. Said he: "We're here for the duration and we're not going to starve. We're going to keep ourselves a simon-pure veterans' organization. If the Bonus is paid it will relieve to a large extent the deplorable economic condition."

Best Washington friend of the B. E. F. last week was Pelham Glassford, Superintendent of Police, onetime Army brigadier. He supplied the camp with food during its first hard days, later managed the money and supplies donated for its subsistence. He bought or borrowed tents, arranged for quarters in condemned Government buildings. He supplied trucks to take all who wanted to leave 50 miles from the Capitol. When no appreciable number accepted his free transportation offer, he dug in to make the B. E. F. as comfortable as possible. His kindness brought rumors that President Hoover, displeased, might summarily dismiss him on the ground that his activities encouraged more veterans to head for Washington.

Over Bonus City hung the constant threat of pestilence. Flies swarmed. Garbage lay half buried. The men bathed in the Eastern Branch (Potomac), virtually an open sewer. Twenty-three cases of communicable disease were spotted but were lost in the crowd. The air reeked with filthy smells. Eight men were reported to have died. Food was poor. Scabies broke out. Public health officers declared conditions were "frightful." warned of a "terrible epidemic" which might suddenly fan out from the camp across the city and country. A 24-hour quarantine was set up for new arrivals and a special camp with hospital facilities opened for the sick and diseased.

To feed the B. E. F. costs about 7-c- per day per man. Father Charles Coughlin, radio priest of Detroit, forwarded $5,000. About $2,500 was raised by exhibition boxing matches. Home-town friends loaded trucks with free supplies and started them to Washington. The B. E. F. seemed in no immediate danger of starving.

Bonus lobbyists swarmed about the Capitol. One group encountered Senator Lewis of Illinois in a corridor, pestered him for support. Angry when his way was blocked, Senator Lewis declared: "I'm going to the Senate and you can go to hell!"

The B. E. F. was frowned upon by the American Legion which has hushed its demand for Bonus cashing. At the National Republican Club in Manhattan last week Major General James Guthrie Harbord, retired, voiced one popular view when he declared: "Nothing so ominous or so nasty as the Bonus march has been seen since 1916 when organized labor forced through the eight-hour-day railroad law under threat of strike. Not since 1783 has an army of citizens marched on the Capitol with evil in their hearts. . . . Something must be done to curb this movement. Otherwise it will spread and I don't know what may happen."

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