When Reds Invaded Washington: 1941 ÛªMarcher' Writes Off Reds
TWENTY-FIVE years ago this week, as the United States was wallowing in the Great .Depression, the City of Washington got. ready for trouble. The ÛÏhunger marchersÛ were on the. way. They were coming to demaffil relief .and unemployment insurance. . * v v* ^Danger ^igjnals went u^. Extra(guards . were.Ûª thrown "around "the 'White House anti the Capitol. The police got out riot-guns', and tear-gas bombs.</br></br>'On Dec. 6,1931, a day as gloomy as tlie^ economic picture itself, the marchers ' arrived. They arrived in trucks and jalopies, one column coming in by way of Wisconsin ave., and the other by way of Bladensburg rd. Policemen on motorcycles and iii scout cars met them at the Maryland line and escorted them into the city.</br></br>Washington had never seen anything quite like the 3000 grimy and arrogant' men and women who invaded the city that'day, led by a brass band attired in uniforms like those of the Red army. They called themselves hunger marchers. Yet some of them threw aside the stew and beans served them by the Salvation Army. Also, somebody in the mob had money; otherwise the "marchersÛ would not have been traveling in trucks and cars.</br></br>They shouted such things as ÛÏDown with charity, we* want security,Û ÛÏLong live the solidarity of the Negro and the white workers,Û and ÛÏLong live*vthe Soviet government.Û</br></br>A reporter of The Washington Post noticed that this cry about the Soviet government brought ÛÏas many .jeers as . cheers-.from the marchers.Û.. Û÷ V.*>-ÛªÛ÷^TbiSKwas a tipoff .to: the^imakeup;of the? *	ofr course,*'t56mmumsb<;It ivas tfie -fcomVÛª munists who had organized fhe marchers in such places as.Seattle, Wash., Binghamton; N. Y., Providence, R. I., Toledo, Ohio, .and Gastonia, N. C.