Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1963-09-01
MEMORIES OF AN OLDER DAY
The Two Marches on Wushinoton
By BENJAMIN M. McKELWAY
Editorial Chairman

singled out for blame and threatened with
dismissal. His concern for the veterans,
it was charged, had encouraged more Of
them to come.
The Commissioners finally told the
bonus marchers they could hold a parade
on the next Tuesday. After the parade, they
said, the veterans would be taken in trucks
for so miles. Then the Governors Of the
States would help them home The veterans
refused. They were here to stay until Con-
gresS voted the bonus.
BY contrast, the civil rights invasion
was announced formally as a project by
recognized leadership from the top. As the
plans progressed, they were embelliShed by
the sort of inSpirational genius most COM
monty associated with Madison avenue.
Leadership was defined, chains of command
forged, dissident elements joined together
in a noble exhibition of craftsmanship.
Washington officialdom, secretly
Squirming in anxiety, gritted its teeth and
opened its arms in welcome. The advance
publicity was overwhelming. The precise
purpose of the march became rather
obscure, clouded as it was by a barrage of
admonltionS calling attention to such
admirable qualities as patience, dignity
forbearance, discipline and good order.
All this paid off handsomely. A march
OF grimly determined protest against in
justice assumed the unexpected temper of
carnival There was more laughter than
tears. There was courtesy and good nature
ana spirited singing. The police, so often
pictured as the instruments of brutal tyr
amy, became the apostles of brotherly
love. With the prompt and orderly de-
parture OF the invading hosts, everybody
was so busy showering felicitous congratu-
lations on everybody else that the eloquent
rhetoric of the Rev. Martin Luther King.
Jr. expressing the not entirely original
thought that this is not the end, but
merely the beginning, somehow seemed
out OF place. 1t was like messing up a
happy ending.
Nobody seems to have found, in the
predominantly cheerful and pleasantly
conforming groups of civil rights demon
strators, what Star Reporter Thomas r.
Henry found in the Bonus Expeditionary
Force in 1882.
Their announced objective was a cash
bonus. But Tom Henry thought, and in
sentences that still breathe with life. wrote
about the Army Of the Bewildered-men
VINO could not understand what had hap
peneo TO them, or why. They had no Jobs.
Mortgages on their homes were being fore
closed. Their children were hungry. They
had no one to turn to- no place to 60.
So they came to Washington and to
Uncle sam. The bonus meant money they
old not have. The bonus was a .symbol
OF freedom from painful bondage. And
the marchers were the vanguard of a gen.
Grafton Of people equally bewildered and
hopeless. AS ex-SoldierS, the bonus march,
ers huddled with their buddies availing
themselves OF protective devices learned
on the field of battle. They looked, as
they had learned to look when in uniform,
TO Uncle Sam, unfailing, dependable source
OF FOOD, clothing, ammunition, reinforce
ments He was the only one to help
them now. He could do anything-if he
wanted to-
He did much-but later. Not only the
bonus, despite the Presidents veto but
social security unemployment insurance,
Gl loans. insured bank deposits, aid to
dependent children, aid to the blind, aid
loI Tie uneInployaDle, pubic rellef Tor those
stricken with poverty - all the thousand
and one things that have brought to the
children Of the bonus marchers depend
ence on government Of which the marchers
themselves only dreamed.
Looking back on what has happened in
the 81 years since the bonus marchers
petitioned for relief, 1t is hard TO believe
that 81 years after the civil rights demon
stration last Wednesday there will not have
been as many more miracles, in changing
public concepts and old traditions about
what is right and what is wrong, what is
wise and what is foolish.
Unlike the civil rights demonstrators, the
bonus marchers wore out their welcome. A
month after their first demonstration, they
paraded again. And nearly a month later.
July %, General Macarthur, carrying out
his orders, drove them out Of town with
troops.
He and former President Herbert Hoover
never lived 1t down. But TO those who know
the circumstances, they had no alternative.
Nor would President Kennedy, had the
cards fallen otherwise.
The difference last Wednesday, was that
the people in authority, including the people
in government, had taken q stitch In time.