[In 1932, with the Great Depression underway, President Herbert
Hoover and General Douglas MacArthur violently suppressed the Bonus
March, a massive encampment of veterans demanding relief, with
far-reaching and unforseen consequences. ]
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REMEMBERING THE VETERANS WHO MARCHED ON DC TO DEMAND BONUSES DURING
THE DEPRESSION, ONLY TO BE VIOLENTLY DRIVEN OUT BY ACTIVE-DUTY
SOLDIERS  
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Shannon Bow O'Brien
November 10, 2022
The Conversation
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_ In 1932, with the Great Depression underway, President Herbert
Hoover and General Douglas MacArthur violently suppressed the Bonus
March, a massive encampment of veterans demanding relief, with
far-reaching and unforseen consequences. _

To evict the Bonus Army marchers, troops donned gas masks, fixed
bayonets, and, with sabers drawn, moved down Pennsylvania Ave.,
Source: National Archives

 

The Bonus Army March
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is a forgotten footnote of American history.

It involved as many as 30,000 mostly unemployed veterans
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who converged on Washington, D.C. in the spring and summer of 1932 to
demand an early cash payment of a bonus they were promised for their
volunteer service in World War I.

The bonus was due in 1945, but the Great Depression created financial
panic across the country, and the WWI veterans wanted their money
[[link removed]] sooner rather
than later.

When the U.S. Senate refused
[[link removed]] to pass a bill to make
the payments, many of the veterans returned home. But the great
majority remained and set up camps and occupied buildings near the
Capitol – much to the dismay of local police, who tried to evict the
demonstrators from their makeshift campgrounds.

A riot ensued, leaving two demonstrators dead
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and dozens injured.

At that point, on July 28, 1932, the police asked for federal help. In
a written statement
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President Herbert Hoover deployed his Army Chief of Staff, Gen.
Douglas MacArthur, to settle the matter.

“In order to put an end to this rioting and defiance of civil
authority,” Hoover wrote, “I have asked the Army to assist the
District authorities to restore order.”

MacArthur’s orders
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were to secure the buildings and contain the protesters by surrounding
their campsite in Anacostia Flats located near the Capitol.

But as MacArthur would do throughout his career
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– most notably in Korea when his disobedience resulted in his firing
– he exceeded his orders.

Late that afternoon, historians have written
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500 mounted cavalry men and 500 infantry soldiers, with bayonets
drawn, were accompanied were accompanied by six tanks and another 800
local police officers to Anacostia Flats. It didn’t take long before
the protesters were chased out of the city and their encampments
burned to the ground.

Aides to MacArthur would later say he never received the orders
[[link removed]] to simply contain the Bonus
Army.

[Two white men dressed military uniforms are standing next to each
other.]After his troops had ousted the Bonus Army, General Douglas
MacArthur, left, stands with his second-in-command, Colonel Dwight D.
Eisenhower. Getty Images
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The Bonus Army March was one of the few times in American history when
the U.S. military was used to shut down a massive demonstration of
peaceful protesters. The debacle also came to symbolize Hoover’s
perceived callousness toward the unemployed
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during the Great Depression and led to his defeat
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by Franklin Roosevelt in the 1932 presidential election.

What the military response did not do was deter the Bonus Army
demonstrators for long.

The fight for bonus checks

At the end of the First World War in 1918
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the U.S. government wanted to provide bonus pay to the soldiers who
volunteered to fight in the American Expeditionary Force.

The volunteers were given certificates promising a bonus in 1945.
Under the agreement [[link removed]],
each veteran would receive US$1 for every day served at home, and
$1.25 for every day served overseas. According to the World War
Adjusted Compensation Act
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compound interest per veteran was set.

[Groups of men are eating lunches as they sit and stand near dozens of
tents.]Members of the Bonus Army are shown eating their lunches beside
their tents in this May 12, 1932, photograph. Bettmann/GettyImages
[[link removed]]

But by the winter of 1931, many veterans, like most Americans, were
desperately in need of cash.

Starting in Portland, Oregon
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about 300 of them decided to travel
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to Washington to make their case to the government. Their journey
gained national attention and prompted other veterans to travel to
Washington as well. As time went on, families began to join the men.

Congressional gridlock

The Bonus Army became a problem for Hoover and congressional leaders
as local authorities grew tired of an estimated 30,000 people camping
out in their streets and squatting in city buildings.

But faced with a shrinking federal budget and precarious national
economy, neither Hoover nor Congress wanted to authorize further
depletion [[link removed]] of the
national treasury. Estimates were as high as $2.3 billion for the
federal government
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to pay the bonuses.

[Thousands of black and white men are seen cheering with their arms
waving in the air.]In this June 16, 1932, photograph, thousands of
Bonus Army demonstrators are cheering for U.S. Rep. Wright Patman, who
demanded immediate payment of their promised bonuses. FPG/Archive
Photos/Getty Images
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Bonus marchers tried to pressure congressional leaders by having
veterans in the waiting rooms of the offices of each member of the
Ways and Means Committee, which oversees the federal budget. But they
were losing the public relations war turning against them.

By that time, rumors spread by opponents of the marchers were flying
among congressional leaders and military officials about the
unsanitary conditions at the camp, as well as possible communist
infiltration.

When the bill to pay the bonus was defeated in July 1932, an estimated
8,000 Bonus Army marchers were at the Capitol. With that many angry
men surrounding the building, local police feared potential violence.

But instead of launching a violent attack, the marchers began singing
“My Country Tis of Thee” and “America the Beautiful” as they
walked back to their camp.

Use of military force

On July 28, 1932, the local and federal governments decided that time
had run out for Bonus Army demonstrators.

Around 11 p.m., MacArthur called a press conference to justify his
actions.

“Had the President not acted today, had he permitted this thing to
go on for 24 hours more, he would have been faced with a grave
situation which would have caused a real battle,” MacArthur told
reporters
[[link removed]].
“Had he let it go on another week, I believe the institutions of our
government would have been severely threatened.”

[With the dome of the U.S. capitol in the background, a group of men
are seated near the ruins of their camps.]In this 1932 photograph, a
group of men huddle near the ruins of their Bonus Army camp.
Photo12/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
[[link removed]]

With MacArthur in command, shacks were set on fire, and even the tents
loaned by the National Guard were destroyed. Tanks and soldiers
blocked several bridges in order to prevent people from re-entering
the city.

Images of children and women driven out by tear gas and flames shocked
and appalled the American public when they were published by
newspapers across the country.

Despite their apparent defeat, Bonus Army veterans continued to push
for early payments.

Four years later, in January 1936, Congress passed the long-stalled
Bonus bill [[link removed]] that
called for payments of nearly $2 billion to the mostly men who
volunteered their services during World War I.

Congress overrode Roosevelt’s veto and paid the veterans an average
of $580 per man, which was slightly less than the $600 they would have
received had they waited until 1945.

Today, the Anacostia field
[[link removed]] is
a largely overgrown meadowland and only has one very small sign
marking that the Bonus Army was ever there.[The Conversation]

Shannon Bow O'Brien
[[link removed]],
Associate Professor of Instruction, _The University of Texas at Austin
College of Liberal Arts
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This article is republished from The Conversation
[[link removed]] under a Creative Commons license. Read
the original article
[[link removed]].

* History
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* Great Depression
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* Bonus Army
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*
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