B. E. F. (Cont'd)

Mr. Eslick. But Mr. Chairman, I want to divert from the sordid. We hear nothing but dollars here. I want to go from the sordid side. . . .

(At this point Mr. Eslick was stricken and fell dead and was carried from the chamber by his colleagues.)

Thus last week did the Congressional Record tersely note the death of Representative Edward Everett Eslick, 60-year-old Democrat of Pulaski, Tenn. Representative Eslick was addressing the House in favor of the Patman bill to pay the Soldier Bonus in full with new currency. Not a hale man, he had worked hard preparing his speech. During its delivery he grew excited when pestered by questions from the members. Suddenly he uttered a short, sharp gasp and slumped to the floor. One hand caught wildly at the flimsy reading stand before him. The official stenographer reporting his speech tried to catch him as he fell. A dozen Representatives leaped forward into the well, picked up his lifeless body, carried it to the lobby. House Physician Dr. George Calver worked vainly over it. Mrs. Eslick hurried down from the gallery where she had been listening to her husband's speech. Members of the Bonus Expeditionary Force gaped from the gallery in awe-stricken silence. The House adjourned after the first death on its floor in 98 years.*

Next day the House passed the Patman Bonus bill (209-10-176). The B. E. F. turned its attention to the less friendly Senate. From their Anacostia camp tattered jobless veterans marched by thousands to the Capitol. They packed into the Senate galleries. They flopped down in corridors to nap. They swarmed over the wide Capitol steps. They sprawled on the grass. They packed the plaza. They sang and joked. By dusk there were close to 10,000 of them in & around the Capitol. Shortly after 8 p. m. their comrades in the Senate Chamber flashed out the news--

Bonus beaten 62-to-18.

The B. E. F. was stunned with disappointment. A bewildered murmur that rose to a roar swept the crowd. Here & there were a few boos. Then suddenly, starting from nowhere, they began to sing "America" until the night sky seemed to tremble with their resolute voices. Later in small groups they drifted back to their crazy shacks and shelters on the mudflats.

"Armies" of determined citizens have besieged the Federal capital before. In 1783 recruits from Lancaster, Pa. marched to Philadelphia to demand more pay, frightened the Congress of the Confederation across the Delaware to Princeton. The siege ended on the report that General Washington was sending Continentals to deal with the "army."

In 1894 "General" Jacob Sechler Coxey landed in Washington with his "army" of 336 jobless and got himself arrested for walking on the Capitol grass.

In 1913 "General" Rosalie Jones, now the wife of Washington's Senator Dill, led her "army" of 200 feminists to the capital to get the vote.

Last January an "army" of 10,000 "hunger marchers," under Father James R. Cox, Pittsburgh priest, turned up in Washington for a day or two of ineffectual demonstration.

None of these compared in size or determination with the B. E. F., last week estimated at 20,000 strong. Under Commander-in-Chief Walter W. Waters they were quiet, orderly, law-abiding. After the Senate rejected their demand, though, Washington grew taut with apprehension. What would these idle, ragged men, ghosts of the A. E. F., do next? Police Chief Glassford of the District of Columbia suggested giving them Federal lands to till for a living. Commander Waters said they would "dig in for the winter" and stay "till hell freezes." Red agitators began to work within the ranks. Reports were heard that wives with children were on the march to join their husbands at Bonus City. Police officials hoped the B. E. F. would soon start to disintegrate. One general fear was that homeward-bound veterans, hungry, penniless, desperate, would form roving bands which would prey upon the countryside.

* Representative Thomas Tyler Bouldin of Virginia fell dead while addressing the House Feb. n, 18.34.

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