Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1932-09-01

gress did practically nothing to
remedy the unemployment situa-
ton, the paramount problem to-
day, and so consequently the b.
nus Expeditionary Force remained
in Washington for they had no
other place to go. Apparently
they were an irritation to the adj
ministration and their continued
presence in Washington was not
good publicity for the administra-
ton so out they had to go. The
Nation carried an Informative
editorial on this subject in their
last issue under the heading Of
"COwardice and Folly in Wash
ington."' The article ftllows:
We should be, the last to deny that
a government must seek to keep order
and that the challenge of the appear
ance of the Bonus Expeditionary Fore
in Washington was serious one. But
there are good and bad methods of
handling every situation, good and bad
police actions, wise and stupid, kindly
anu VI utdl dyS vi SoSAA
and every menace to public order
According to our Information from eye
witnesses, the blOOdshed and forcible
expulsion of the veterans was due
both to folly and to cowardice. From
the very beginning General Pelham
d. Glassford, a retired regular officer
who is the superintendent of police
has shown courage, intelligence, and
sound common sense in handling the
bonus army, and has been actuated
also by commiseration for the desper-
ate plight of the men who assembled
in Washington in the exercise of their
constitutional right to assemble and
to petition for a redress of their
grievances. If General Glassford had
been given a free hand we should
never have witnessed such incredible
scenes as took place in Washington
seven hundred and fifty regulars, with
tanks, tear-gas, and all the parapher-
MALTA of war, brutally and ruthlessly
running some 10000 veterans out OF
town, burning their pitiful shacks
and incidentally gassing innocent civ
ilians, newspapermen, detectives, with
out the slightest consideration for the
plight of these destitute thousands
after their eviction.
Obviously somebody blundered and
Numbered badly. Given a weak and
timid man in a difficulty of this kind
and he is bound to be the first to
turn to ruthless use of power, the
first to do the wrong thing-and Mr.
Hoover is both weak and timid. What
was it that brought about the blood
shed on the day it happened? There
had been weeks of tolerance; then
great vacillation on the part of the
commissioners of the District of Col
umbia who issued orders to evacuate
the veterans and then revoked them
and rode rough-shod over General
Glassford. On the day before the
trouble, Wednesday, July q, there
was a sudden consultation in the
White House with Secretary Hurley
and Secretary Mills present, and &C.
ton was decided upon. The troops
were all in readiness about the sacred
White House and the eviction began
with the results known. Even before
that the White House had announced
that it was considering the declara.
ton Of martial law and of calling
out the army, but no one believed
that this would be done until General
Glassford had been allowed to try to
move the men out.
Instead, the President, using as his
excuse that the presence of the men
was delaying the demolition of this
property necessary in order to ex-
tend employment in the District" is
sued his orders. At the very moment
when, after consultation with the
police, the commander of the veterans
was trying to induce his men to &C
quietly, the While House turned a
simple evacuation of a few half-de-
molished buildings into what the Bal
timOre Sun editorially describes as a
''pitiful and brutal conflict between