Washington D.C. 1932 (Evalyn Walsh McLean Journal)

(Evalyn Walsh McLean wrote this journal entry in response to the Bonus Army march through Washington. This is one reading not from my kin but very important event so I’ve included it.)

“They had come from every part of the continent. It was not lost on me that those men, passing my big houses, would see in such rich shelter a kind of challenge. I was burning, because I felt that crowd of men, women, and children never should have been permitted to swarm across the continent.

But I could remember when those same men, with others, had been cheered as they marched down Pennsylvania Avenue. While I recalled those wartime parades, I was reading in the newspapers that the bonus army men were going hungry in Washington.

That night I woke up before I had been asleep an hour. I got to thinking about those poor devils marching around the capital. Then I decided to try to comprehend that marching. It was
one o'clock, and the Capitol was beautifully lighted.

I wished then for the power to turn off the lights and use the money thereby saved to feed the hungry.”