Bonuseers into Camp

Herbert Hoover's severe handling of the Bonus Expeditionary Force last year helped to lose him the election. For weeks while veterans gathered by thousands in Washington he shut himself up in the White House. Only when they began to get out of hand did he recognize their existence by turning U. S. troops loose upon them with tear gas and fire, by denouncing them as mostly Communists and criminals.

Last week President Roosevelt was confronted with a second Bonus March on the capital. His method of handling it was in marked contrast to that of his predecessor. Opposing prepayment of the Bonus no less firmly than Mr. Hoover, he used the regular Army to befriend the bonuseers upon arrival instead of to bedevil them upon departure.

Twelve miles down the Potomac from Washington between Alexandria and Mount Vernon is an old military reservation called Fort Hunt. There at the President's order the War Department set up some 600 tents in neat company streets. In each tent were placed eight cots, eight pairs of blankets, eight mess kits. Electric lights were strung up. Latrines were dug. Army kitchens and mess halls were built. Shower shacks were constructed and water hydrants provided, with laundry boards. From Washington to this clean, dry camp were escorted nearly a thousand members of the Veterans Expeditionary Force and told to make themselves at home. As host, the Army supplied three thumping big meals a day. In a large convention tent the bonuseers were to hold their meetings, make their demands for immediate cash payments. Their leaders promised that within a week all would start peacefully for home.

This year's Bonus demonstration did not compare in size or spirit with last year's. Bonus sentiment in Congress was at low ebb. The Senate had lately rejected prepayment by a vote of 60-to-28. In the House only 26 members out of the necessary 145 could be found to sign a petition to call up such a measure. President Roosevelt's broad relief program detracted from popular support of a special class demand.

A prime demand of last year's B. E. F. was "Bonus or Jobs." Last week President Roosevelt deflated still further the bonuseers' purposes by offering them jobs.

By executive order he provided for the enlistment of 25,000 veterans in the Civilian Conservation Corps to work in the woods at $1 per day and keep. But work seemed the last thing the bonuseers lolling about Fort Hunt wanted.

Another grievance among veterans was the Economy Act under which President Roosevelt lopped $460,000,000 from the pension rolls. For weeks the White House has been deluged with complaints that such reductions will work a real hardship upon men with battle injuries. Case after case has been cited of veterans who lost an arm, a leg or an eye and who now must take a 50% cut in their compensation. Last week President Roosevelt stole more critical thunder from the bonuseers by announcing:

"It now seems that the cut in compensation for service-connected [disabilities] has been deeper than was originally intended. The regulation and schedules will therefore be reviewed so as to effect more equitable levels of payments. ... It is not contemplated that government hospitals will be closed pending a careful, studious survey."

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