HEROES: B. E. F.'s End

With troops, tanks and tear gas President Hoover succeeded in driving the Bonus Expeditionary Force out of Washington fortnight ago. But that did not break up the tatterdemalion army and scatter it home. With diplomacy replacing armed force, the rest of the job was accomplished last week by the combined efforts of Daniel Willard, president of Baltimore & Ohio R. R., David Barry, brother-in-law of Steelman Charles Michael Schwab, and "Eddie" McCloskey. scrappy little Mayor of Johnstown, Pa.

Impetuous Mayor McCloskey, onetime prizefighter, had invited B. E. F. leaders to Johnstown to reorganize their forces retreating from Washington. His invitation was also accepted by the B. E. F. rank & file. Almost overnight an encampment of some 8.000 men, women & children sprang up in an amusement park on the outskirts of town. It teemed with filth and flies. There was little or no food. One good storm would have devastated its pup tents, lean-tos and bough huts. As a camp, it made the Anacostia bivouac look like a regular Army post. Mayor McCloskey realized he and his city were in a serious predicament.

In Washington, B. E. F. Commander Walter W. Waters urged his followers at Johnstown to go home, after Governor Ritchie had forbidden him to establish a colony in nearby Maryland. They rebelliously talked of "sitting tight" indefinitely.

To Johnstown's alarmed citizens went the Baltimore & Ohio chief of police, direct from Mr. Willard on a mysterious mission. Mr. Willard, it was gathered, had seen President Hoover. The B. & 0. would provide trains to move the B. E. F. westward. Somehow the Federal Government would foot the bill. But no B. & O. train would be run east; in that direction on its line lay Washington. One noon a citizens committee called on Mayor McCloskey, told him of the B. & O.'s offer, induced him to use his hard-boiled political oratory to get the B. E. F. to entrain. He could, he was assured, take all public credit for arranging the evacuation. Johnstownians feared that the Bonus marchers would never accept the B. & O.'s offer if they knew it had been inspired by Washington.

Next day Mayor McCloskey hustled out to Camp McCloskey, popped a heckler in the jaw, exclaimed:

"God sent you here and I'm sending you away. ... I want to tell you mugs something. I can lick anybody in this damned outfit. If you don't think so. just start something. You'll ride the cushions home and there'll be food for you. That's more than Hoover did for you. I'm giving you guys a break. What do you say? [A minor murmur of dissent.] Then you bums can walk and I'll see you get a damned good start. I won't call in any troopers to massacre you. I'll put you to hell out myself. . . . I'll knock the teeth out of anybody who hangs around here."

The B. E. F. understood and liked such talk. That night the first B. & 0. train rolled west carrying 800 veterans, their wives and children. Next day two more chuffed off from the siding near the camp. With a brass band the Mayor was there to shake hands, kiss babies, distribute small change. The evacuation was well under way after ramshackle cars were given a free tank of gasoline and $1 to start them over the mountains.