Evening star., 1932-09-13
LEGION COMMITTEE
|. OPPOSES cENSURE
Resolution Condemning Hoo.
YER on Eviction Will Be
Reported Adversely.
CONTINUED Prom First Pase.)

Gibbons. writer and radio speaker, ovez
the bonus army evictions, heightened
interest tn controversial questions.
Hurley elaShed with Gibbons during
. dinner given by Henry L. Stevens
jr.. national commander Of the Legion
last night.
Gibbons criticized the methods used
III ejeeting the B. Z. p. from Washing
ton, D. C. He accused the Army OF
having started the fires which destroyed
bonus camps and said the men had beer
orderly when the troops were called IN
Hurley Answers Challenge.
Hurley responded TO the challenge
with characteristic fire.
II have never failed to take 1t on
the chin when had anything coming,
he said. IT you have anything to say
to me. say 1t! never thought the
Government was in danger. I have
always believed the people of the Nation
have peaceable way for settlement
Of their disputes and that they will
use those peaceful methods.
But when there are riots, peace must
be restored
When men are rioting, when two
lives have been taken, WHEN the police
and civil authorities Of city and dis
trict are overpowered by those rioters,
! want to say to you that when any
man tells you that is law and order,
he is not stating the facts.
MY friend. Mr. Gibbons. told you
that the soldiers set fire to the humble
homes Of these men. That is not the
fact. The fires were set by the men
themselves. No members of the Army
would do that. All the fatalities that
occurred on the day Of which you have
heard so much took place before the
arrival Of the United States Army"
Reads Order for Troops.
Hurley spoke earnestly as he read the
order he had written at President
Hoover's direction.
Now, can you find any fault with
those orders?" he asked. Are they un-
Justly harsh? ! ordered out the armed
forces of the Government to protect
the marchers as well as others.
There were men among that group
in Washington who came in an orderly
wav to state their case for whom l
would lay down my life to protect.
There were wonderfully fine men amone
them. But there were other men there,
too All were not angels. And I want
TO tell YOU that this is Government OF
a majority and not Government Oh a
Delegates cheered a speech by Mayor
James M. Curley of Boston. VINO salo
wartime heroes had been shot down
like dogs in the Capital OF our Nation.
The same audience greeted secretary
Of War Hurley with mingled booes ana
applause. but cheered him after a Drlei
address in which he carefully avoideo
controversial subjects and urged the
convention to put patriotism above
politics"
Hurley was said by members OF the
Oklahoma delegation to have accepted
the badge Of a delegate from that State
and in doing so to have promised 10
vote for immediate bonus payment as
an instructed delegate. However. he re-
marked later he probably would leave
for Huron, s. OAK, before the matter
comes to q vote.
The War Secretary was expected TO
march in the ranks Of today's parade
as a buck private among the Legion.
naires from his home State. He had
been asked to watch from the reviewing
An aaPssedy sGn sopeiesa 20 battle
a demand for Immediate payment Of the
bonus was waged vigorously by q group
Of delegates.
Pennsylvania delegates promised to
carry their fight to the convention
floor, II necessary, for a resolution CEN
suring the President for the manner In
which the bonus expeditionary force
was elected from the Capital.
Text Of Resolution.
The resolution, which is identical
with one adopted by the department
convention in Pittsburgh reads, in part,
as follows:
In the glorious month of July. 1918,
American soldiers turned back the
enemy from the gates OF Paris, driving
for peace; turned a dark prospect OF
defeat into a brilliant noon day of VIC
tory; as q convincing proof. laid at the
feet Of the immortal Lincoln, that
government of the people. by the people
and for the people shall not perish from
the earth
Fourteen years later. on the 28th
day Of July, in our own City of Wash
ington, we witnessed q spectacle, alien
to the pages Of our history-when Fed
eral troops. moving under orders Of the
President of the United States, attacked
and drove from the Capital City these
self-same war veterans who such a short
time before had saved this Nation IN
its hour Of need.
"The American Legion is perfectly
aware of the official explanations offered
in Justification for this act. For we had
been watching with keen interest this
most novel method used by war veterans
under the constitutional right Of peace
able assembly and petition.
Methods Dispr0ved.
We are equally aware that such
methods are not to be encouraged.
"Thesn Ver veterans marched into