The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1936-07-28
FIRE ON BONUS
ARMY FADES
|NT0PAST
BY EDWARD b. LOCKETT
International News Service

Today, happy World War vet
Grams are buying automobiles, pay
ing off old debts, and acquiring
all manner of gadgetS with their
bonus money, but on this day four
years ago, they were an angry, tat
tered army that fled the Capital
in gas fumes and fire.
They came here, 10000 strong,
in pilgrimage demanding i'm
mediate payment of the soldiers
bonus; they lived on the mud-flats
Of Anacostia across the Potomac,
in deserted garages and houses.
Finally, they moved to old build
ingS on lower Pennsylvania Ave
nue., just north of the Capitol.
Police and health authorities
were frantic. All efforts to evacu.
ate the bonus marcherS were futile.
sympathetic citizens from all over
the country sent trainloadS of
food into the city to feed them.
Bonus Defeated
Senate and House Office Build.
1ngS Swarmed with the army's sol
diers. They picketed the Capital
IN q So-called death march" in
which hundreds trekked monoton.
ouSly around in a circle on the
Capitol plaza for days,
The 1882 bonus payment bill
was defeated and things got
worse.
Brig. Gen. Pelham D. Glassford,
the then chief of police, was by
this time approaching a state of
nervous collapse. He began plead
ing with the veterans to break
up their ranks and go home.
That didn't work.
Tension Breaks
On the morning of July %,
1882, police demanded the vet
Grams evacuate. Veterans replied
with angry mutterings and de.
termination to stay here until
they got their bonus.
Suddenly the tension snapped
when several hundred of the tat
tered veterans let loose a barrage
of brickbats, old pieces of iron
and other heavy object in a direct
attack on the heavy police guard
stationed around their encamp-
ment on Pennsylvania avenue.
When the first outbreak sub
sided the veterans retired to their
old building loft quarters, their
tin shacks and rude tents. Trou-
BILE was in the air.
Veteran Shot
Half an hour later a policeman
trying to get through a crowd of
the veterans gathered before him
slipped and fell. Panic gripped
him and he came up with his
As revolver splitting fire-directly
at William j. Hushka, Chicago
veteran. He died an hour later.
Then the Federal Government
took a hand and regular soldiery
marched down Pennsylvania ave-
nue. at the direction of President
Herbert Hoover.
Methodically the regulars don
ned gas masks. Without a word,
they pulled from their belts, clus-
tiers of tin tear-gas bombs, and
moved in on the veterans.
Fire Camps
Fom then on, the city was
mass of Shrieking, cursing conflict.
Doggedly, the veterans gave way,
tearing at their streaming eyes,
throwing brick here and there
but moving.
That night, red flame from the
first of the bonus camps bathed
the National Capital.
This day of conflict broke the
back of the strange army that
marched here from North, South,
East and West to demand their
bonus. Since then, there have been
scattered contingents, little groups
which have marched here seeking
the same argosy, but never has
there been anything just like the
conflagration that burst over the
city on that day of July %.
That battle on July % may have
been inevitable. It may have been
the real cause of eventual enact
ment of legislation for payment of
the bonus. There is none who can
tell.
At any rate, it is history now,
maybe not very important, but