THE B.E.F. NEWS
BONUS EXPEDITIONARY FORCES
Endorsed As the Only Official Publication of the Bonus Expeditionary Force, Rank and File, of America-W.W.Waters, National Commander
Vol. 1, No. & SATURDAY, AUGUST 6, 1932 Copyright 1932 Price Five Cents
The B.E.F. News
Bayonets Propel B.E.F. Campers From Washington
Soldiers of Hoover with Tanks, Bombs and Torches in Night Force Children to Streets
COMMUNISTS AIDED IN RIOT
Blazing Homes Left Behind, Desolate Veterans Under Police Hazing Flee to Johnstown Haven
On July 28 the Hoover administration with the intelligent aid of a tiny group of communists incited a small riot in downtown Washington, killed one member of the B.E.F., and used the incident as the long-wanted excuse for calling out the regular army, which brutally and inexcusably forced a temporary retirement of our people from Washington Horse, foot, and tanks, the troops poured down upon an almost unresisting crowd gathered around a single one of the 28 B.E.F. cantonment areas, and bombed and bayoneted their way with ordered roughness for a half mile in all directions from its center.
"God, that I should see such things in the United States," cried an excited young Associated Press reporter on the scene. "These soldiers are cutting down and bombing women and children in those tents. Cossacks never did more in Russia."
Almost, that was the fact-but not quite, for the shame-faced regulars took no joy in their task. They gave some of the ground for the welldressed complaint as time and again, with mischievous resentment, they tossed tear-gas bombs into the street crowds drawn to the scene. However, there was worse in store. Under cover of night and in the middle of the night the troops moved out three miles from downtown Washington into Camp Marks, where 6,000 of the main body of the B.E.F., its women and children included, had remained in perfect order through a day of turmoil, standing fast against Communist agitation and army threat alike. There, under leadership of high officers bent on frightfulness, they again bombed the surrounding area, and fired the little city of homes erected by official permission of unused and unusable ground of the United States government. President Hoover, perhaps, slept happily that night in a White House lit by the flames of those pitiful habitations.
Trusted Government
The forlorn inhabitants who had trusted their government too far spent a driven night on the streets, while Commander W.W.Waters and his staff gave the last self-sacrificing exertion in guiding the retirement to the hastily prepared refuge of Johnstown. Against police harrassment, the constant hazing of communists fired with the blood madness for martyrdom, and the blazing resentment of the men who had to be kept in hand, the performance was striking-for the B.E.F. wrote the finest chapter in American history that night since Washington crossed the Delaware.
Practically perfect in order, devoid of all resources, but under guidance of its budding military machine, the B.E.F. drew off-drew off, at least, with its human host, through the pitifully small collection of its personal baggage fed the flames that at last satiated the eagerness of high officers to show "how to handle crowds." The future now stretches before its survivors. But it is somewhat important that the American people-if they wish to keep even a semblance of trial with democracy should quit reading newspapers and try to learn reality.
Commander Waters was unable
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Vets Placed On Spot As Hoover Calls Out Army
FIRE AND FLAMES FOR BABES
Cavalry, Infantry and Tanks Behind Gas Clouds Swoop In Night On Hungry Homes of Vets
By MARION I. ANDERSON
(Wife of a Veteran)
Our Government has put us on the SPOT!
A sky...red with hungry leaping flames and funneling smoke, Blazes...crackling and roaring...Throwing weird grotesque shadows across the great dome of the United States Capitol.
Cavalrymen with sweeping sabers...slashing right and left...Poison gas bombs...releasing deadly gray fumes...being hurled into our midst...overcoming, men, women and children. NO QUARTER! Veterans falling beneath the onslaught. Helmeted soldiers...thrusting bayonets into human flesh...driving them into bodies...through arms...Army tanks...Machine guns! Every terror of modern warfare turned ruthlessly upon UNARMED Helpess men, women and children. Driving them mercilessly...Burning their meager shelters...De
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Infant Nearing Death From Military Gas Raid
As the B.E.F. News went to press, Bernard Myers, 11-months-old son of a veteran was fighting for his life in a Washington hospital, haveing been gassed during the troop assault on B.E.F. camps in Washington last week. His distracted parents, Mr. and Mrs. John H. Myers of Allentown, Pa., were watching the baby's struggle. In the hurried evacuation of Camp Marks before the soldiers moved in, the Myers family found refuge with a kindly family several blocks from the cantonment, but later in the night soldiers driving street crowds flung bombs down beside an open window near which the child slept, and before it could be snatched from danger, the possibly fatal damage had been done.
Eric Carlson, 38, of Oakland, Cal., died Tuesday from bullet wounds received during the rioting. As he died, William Hushka, of Chicago, first of the B.E.F. members to fall in the encounters, was being buried with full military honors. Commander W.W.Waters and his staff, American Legion Veterans of Foreign War posts in the District of Columbia, and others participated in the ceremonies. On the way to Arlington National Cemetery where Huska's body was interred, the funeral procession circled the White House.
All is now quiet on the Potomac.
Real Truth of Riot Start Told By News Reporter
OUSTER IS JOKE AT OUTSET
Communist Gang of John Pace Rush Police Lines When B. E. F. Mildly Resist Early Eviction
By E. B. M.
Treasury Department orders Commander Waters to evacuate buildings on Pennsylvania Avenue at 10 a. m. Wednesday - Treasury agents to evict Texas unit of about 200 men from buildings there. Police to protect Treasury agents from veterans only.
Commander Waters addressed men in open air theater which lies on the B Street side of area. Advises men to leave building peaceably. However, men went back in building. Most of them walked out quietly when the police started pulling them out again but three resisted and were arrested. Commander Waters had notified men that a rich woman in Washington had donated funds to build shelters at Camp Bartlett. Would not divulge her name. Government and Red Cross absolutely refused to furnish any aid in providing shelter for women and children.
He said government agents had
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B. E. F., Rested in Johnstown, Now Cheers Leaders
First General Assembly Learns of Plan of Commander Waters for Maryland Colony
KHAKI SHIRTS FORMING
Chief of Staff Carter Predicts 30,000,000 of Jobless Will Solve Unemployment Problems
In every state in the Union, Commander W. W. Waters announced late Tuesday night, property will be placed at disposal of the B. E. F. to shelter the homeless members of the organization driven from Washington last week by the Hoover administration. His statement was made once with Governor Ritchie of Maryland, who indicated that state authorities woud [sic] object to the program for having the group as a whole colonize on Catonsville, Md., property now deeded it by Maude Edgell.
"I am prevented by legal technicalities from settling members of the Bonus army on this property," the Commander declared. "Meantime, I am advising the men at Johnstown to sit tight until definite arangements for them can be completed."
JOHNSTOWN, Pa., Aug. 1. - Reorganized, rested, and at least partially fed, the main host of the B. E. F. is settling into temporary headquarters at Camp McCloskey. Between the fine spirit of rank-and-file which stood up to the inexcusable night of terrorism at Washington, and the leadership evolving under test of caring for resourceless people, the inevitable losses of the temporary retreat were kept to a minimum.
Sunday, at the first general assembly, with enthusiasm and undaunted spirit, the growing numbers of the B. E. F. cheered Commander W. W. Waters, and Doak E. Carter, his chief of staff, as they announced the program for the national Khaki Shirt auxiliary now forming; and declared the war on unemployment for whose duration they have enlisted. They cheered, as well, the announcement of the land donation by Mrs. Maud Edgell, at Catonsville, Md., 20 miles from Washington, where the advance forces are now organizing a permanent camp.
"I have an announcement to make to you," Commander Waters said:
"Yesterday morning at 9 o'clock I received a letter in the mail from a woman who is interested in our cause. She offfered me a piece of ground near Washington for our use. It was donated, but just to make the thing legal I bought it for the nominal sum of $1 and it is now my personal property.
"It is a large tract, heavily timbered, about twenty miles from Washington on the Baltimore Turnpike. There are springs, ponds and woods upon the place. It is an ideal location for a camp and it will be a safe refuge.
"It is private property owned by me. It will be a refuge for those who build shelters for themselves in Washington and I can assure them that the homes they build in this new colony will not be burned by
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