B. E. F.'s End

With troops, tanks and tear gas President Hoover succeeded in driving the Bonus Expeditionary Force out of Washington fortnight ago. But that did not break up the tatterdemalion army and scatter it home. With diplomacy replacing armed force, the rest of the job was accomplished last week by the combined efforts of Daniel Willard, president of Baltimore & Ohio R. R., David Barry, brother-in-law of Steelman Charles Michael Schwab, and "Eddie" McCloskey. scrappy little Mayor of Johnstown, Pa.

Impetuous Mayor McCloskey, onetime prizefighter, had invited B. E. F. leaders to Johnstown to reorganize their forces retreating from Washington. His invitation was also accepted by the B. E. F. rank & file. Almost overnight an encampment of some 8.000 men, women & children sprang up in an amusement park on the outskirts of town. It teemed with filth and flies. There was little or no food. One good storm would have devastated its pup tents, lean-tos and bough huts. As a camp, it made the Anacostia bivouac look like a regular Army post. Mayor McCloskey realized he and his city were in a serious predicament.

In Washington, B. E. F. Commander Walter W. Waters urged his followers at Johnstown to go home, after Governor Ritchie had forbidden him to establish a colony in nearby Maryland. They rebelliously talked of "sitting tight" indefinitely.

To Johnstown's alarmed citizens went the Baltimore & Ohio chief of police, direct from Mr. Willard on a mysterious mission. Mr. Willard, it was gathered, had seen President Hoover. The B. & 0. would provide trains to move the B. E. F. westward. Somehow the Federal Government would foot the bill. But no B. & O. train would be run east; in that direction on its line lay Washington. One noon a citizens committee called on Mayor McCloskey, told him of the B. & O.'s offer, induced him to use his hard-boiled political oratory to get the B. E. F. to entrain. He could, he was assured, take all public credit for arranging the evacuation. Johnstownians feared that the Bonus marchers would never accept the B. & O.'s offer if they knew it had been inspired by Washington.

Next day Mayor McCloskey hustled out to Camp McCloskey, popped a heckler in the jaw, exclaimed:

"God sent you here and I'm sending you away. ... I want to tell you mugs something. I can lick anybody in this damned outfit. If you don't think so. just start something. You'll ride the cushions home and there'll be food for you. That's more than Hoover did for you. I'm giving you guys a break. What do you say? [A minor murmur of dissent.] Then you bums can walk and I'll see you get a damned good start. I won't call in any troopers to massacre you. I'll put you to hell out myself. . . . I'll knock the teeth out of anybody who hangs around here."

The B. E. F. understood and liked such talk. That night the first B. & 0. train rolled west carrying 800 veterans, their wives and children. Next day two more chuffed off from the siding near the camp. With a brass band the Mayor was there to shake hands, kiss babies, distribute small change. The evacuation was well under way after ramshackle cars were given a free tank of gasoline and $1 to start them over the mountains.

Last to occupy the camp were some 800 Easterners, insistent upon first-class rail transportation which the B. & O. refused to supply. David Barry, president of the First National Bank, Harry Tredennick of Haws Refractories Co. and Louis Richard Custer, manager of Mr. Schwab's Bethlehem Steel plant joined secretly with Chamber of Commerce officials to speed their departure. The Pennsylvania would move them to Jersey City for $3,500. The county commissioners and city council put up $2,000. Mr. Barry spent a,whole morning begging subscriptions over the telephone from other business men until the fund was raised. Mayor McCloskey went out to the camp to announce the eastbound train was ready. "Don't let none of your leaders tell you they got any of these trains," bawled the stocky, red-faced pants presser. "What the hell? God did it. Don't let none of us take the credit."

After burning Herbert Hoover and An drew Mellon in effigy, the stragglers were shoved into the waiting coaches. They cheered as the train pulled out. Johnstown citizens cheered even louder for the B. E. F., as a national unit of restless, jobless men, was no more.

P: In a Washington hospital last week died Eric Carlson of Oakland, Calif., one of the two veterans wounded when William Hushka was shot to death by police. In 18 months overseas service, he had been gassed and shellshocked. He was buried with full military honors in Arlington Cemetery.

P: President Hoover wrote an American Legion Post in Boston that it was his "impression" that "less than half of them [B. E. F. members] ever served under the American flag."

P: Veterans' Administrator Hines revealed that 94% of the B. E. F. had Army or Navy records, that two-thirds of them had served overseas, that about 20% of them were drawing Federal disability compensation or allowance. C To stem "apparently deliberate propaganda and misrepresentations" about the Army's expulsion of the B. E. F.. Secretary of War Hurley issued a broadside in which he: i) declared 33% of the B. E. F. were not veterans; 2) charged "Red agitators" with "a definite organized attack of several thousand men upon the police"; 3) denied that B. E. F. billets had been fired by his troops; 4) insisted the military operations had been executed with "unparalleled humanity and kindness."

P: Every Red suspect held in connection with the police riot which led to calling out the Army was released by Washington officials for lack of evidence of participation in what Secretary Hurley called a "definite organized attack."

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