The Washington times., 1932-06-10
Continued From Page -

on which even a pig would starve
No Answer Until
Eight thousand pairs of eyes
saw it all-counting the cost.
WHAT PRICE GLORY? THIS
WAS THE PRICE.
This. and with each day, in
creasing handicap, heckling, anc
humiliation. Yet
Not man spoke.
Not a mile smiled.
Not a man moved.
But the answer leaped to theil
eyes!-
For a long, tense moment
Anacostia field lay perfectly still
IN that graphing, civil war OF
silence
Then, sudden as thunder, the
silence split!
From beyond the river came q
sound
Marching Feet
Faint at first-then growing
louder-drawing nearer.
THE SOUND OF MARCHING
FEET!
And across the bridge-and up
the hin-and down to the field
streamed 800 silent men.
Wrecks of men-dayS on the
road-36 hours without food
riding In open gondolas. Tattered
skeletons, caked with coal dust
Their eyes blind scabs in scared
sockets . :. . Their wizened flesh
drawn back from set teeth. .
On they came, moving auto.
matically like sleep walkers. t.
Following mechanically the torn
flag waving in the lead.
Quiet and terrible as dead men,
on they came.
Quietly, terribly, the living men
watched them come.
Stiffness on AnacoStia field
such stiffness that, as those
dragging, dead feet struck the
flats, one heard the dust rise in
a rushing cloud.
- Files of Honor
When it settled, those 5000
. men had formed and stood apart
in two great files.
THERE, IN AN HONOR LANE
THE EIGHT THOUS AND
STOOD.
SILENT, UNSEEING, THE
EIGHT HUNDRED MARCHED
BETWEEN!
Then, the silence broke with
such a roar that, mile away,
breakfasting washing oni a n S
bounced like bunnieS and scut'
tied for their hideouts. Now, at
last, the dreadful end had come !!
But it was only the B. E. F.
saluting, with cheer upon cheer,
the men who had been called
''the fighting terribles" back in
1917"
Once a nation had wept to
read ~of the agony they endured
had thrilled to think OF the
heroisrn of those men who went
through every hellish engagement
of the war, experiencing all Its
horror. all its filth and brutality
Cheers From Forgotten
Once that same nation. cheer
ing itself hoarSe in gratitude. had
welcomed those men home,
pinned medals over their hearts,
strewn their way with flowers,
promised them all the riches, all
the honors of the country they
had saved.
And now-thiS!
ONLY FORGOTTEN MEN TO
CHEER THE MEN THE WORLD
FORGOT.
so it goes day after day.
Steadily the army digs itself in.
Steadily the army grows. Ten
thousand here-one hundred thou
sand on the way, so they say.
Thousands of men who have al
ready known hell-hundreds of
whom gave from three to six
years of their life to this country,
on battle field and hospital bed
now, suffering a crueler agony
than they ever knew in France
For then they fought with love
behind them and glory before
them. And now they fight, de-
spised and outcast, treated like
pariahs.
It's Gone Too Far!
That's the truth! I don't blame
you for not wanting to face it
for trying to evade it with polite
excuses-for trying to rationalize
it, I haven't wanted to face
it myself, too, have tried to
excuse it. But it has gone too
THE SHAMEFUL FACT IS
THAT WE ARE TREATING
THESE MEN ABOMINABLY. =.
THOUGH WE PAY THEM A
HUNDRED BONUSES, WE CAN
! NEVER ERASE FROM OUR
RECORD THE SHAME OF
THESE LAST TWO WEEKS. E.
We ARE ACTING LIKE COW
ARDS AND CHEATS TO THE
MEN TO WHOM WE OWE ALL
WE HAVE.
Tam not sentimentalizing over
these men. I know exactly what
q serious problem they present,
I realize that many fine people
may believe sincerely that the