Evening star., 1934-09-21
GAS DEATH CHARGE
RESULTS IN CLASH
Chemical Company Head
Challenges Statement
by Senator Clark.
Nv the Associated Press.

By the Associated Press.
During a caustic attack on makers
of tear-gas bombs at yesterdays Sen
ate Munitions Committee hearing
heated controversy arose over the
statement of Senator Clark, Democrat,
of Missouri that two babies we're
sgassed to death in the 1882 bonus
army riots here.
II challenge that statement" re-
piled B. c. GosS, head OF the Lake
Erie Chemical Co. and United States
lOrdnance Engineers of Cleveland,
makers, among other Things, of gas.
Only a little while before Paul
Young. American missionary to Ecua-
dor and a brother of John w. Young,
president of Federal Laboratories, Inc,
OF Pittsburgh, was portrayed IN self
written letter as having conducted
ales efforts for his brother.
"Tambourine In one hand and gas
bomb in the other" was the descrip-
ton offered by Senator Bone, Demo-
crat, of Washington.
John Young, on the stand when the
reference was made, objected TO this
description of his kinsman IN voice
that shook with emotlon.
Would Call Army Officer.
Senator Clark also contended that
Mai. Gen. George E. Leach. chief OF
the Militia Bureau, should be put
before a board for acting as sales
man for a poison gas company" Clark
earlier had read a letter written by
Leach, on War Department stationery,
which was published IN a catalogue
of the Lake Erie Chemical Co.
During his heated exchange with
Senator Clark, Goss, a lieutenant col
onel in the Reserve Corps, suggested
that the Missouri Senator go to Army
oficers familiar with the Bonus Army
episode to check on the accuracy Of
his statement concerning the babies
deaths.
I'm not certain they would be in
terested in confirming that two babies
were gassed during an Army oden-
sive," Clark said.
But the people in general believe
that two babies died shortly after
ward from the effects Of the gas, and
] also believe it,"
Both Clark and Goss showed their
feeling plainly during their clash, and
spoke so rapidly that the official
stenographer had difficulty in follow
ing the testimony.
'I don't believe you can prove your
statement about the babies" Goss,
former chief of the Chemical Warfare
Service of the I'd Field Army in
France, told Clark.
Gas May Have Contributed.
The deaths of two babies following
the eviction of the B. E. F. two years
ago were not primarily due to inhaling
tear gas, but the conditions Of the
infants may have been aggravated by
gassing, in the opinion expressed by
physicians who attended them.
The first casualty was that of Ber-
nard Myers, II weeks old, son of a
New York bonus marcher, who died
at Gallinger Hospital five days after
the eviction. The baby was known
to have inhaled tear gas. DR.. j. A.
Kelk, the attending physician at GAL
linger, said at that time that "the gas
didn't do it any good" DR.. Kelk,
however, would not assign the death
primarily to the gas.
The second death was that of Ger
trude Mann, 2 months old, daughter
of Cecil Mann, a bonus marcher
from Monessen, Pa. Mann has lived
at Camp Marks on the Anacostia Flats
with his family. The child's death
was due primarily to pneumonia and
it never was established that the Mann
family actually had been subjected
to gassing.
Driven Out by Tear Gas.
Women and children, together with
all others in the bonus camp at
Fourth street and Pennsylvania ave-
nue., were driven out by ldiers with
tear gas bombs. Many adults, both
among the combatants and others,
suffered temporarily from tear gas
upon that occasion.
Whether there were any women and
children actually left in Camp Marks
at the time of the actual evacuation
is highly debatable. Most of them
had been evacuated by the bonus
marchers themselves at least an hour
before and watched the burning of
the camp from a hilltop nearby
They we're left without shelter, but
on a warm, dry Summer night.