The self named Bonus Expeditionary Force was an assemblage of about 43,000 marchers consisting of some 17,000 World War I veterans, accompanied by their families and other affiliated groups, who demonstrated in Washington, DC, during the spring and summer of 1932. Referred to as the Bonus March by the media, the marchers became more popularly known as the Bonus Army. The veterans were seeking immediate cash payment of Service Certificates granted eight years previously by the Adjusted Service Certificate Law of 1924. Each Service Certificate issued to a qualified soldier bore a face value equal to the soldier's promised payment plus compound interest. The sticking point was that the certificates, similar to bonds, were set to mature a full 20 years from the date of their original issue. Thus, under existing law, the certificates could not be redeemed until 1945.
The Bonus Army veterans were led by Walter W. Waters, a former Army sergeant, and were encouraged in their demand for immediate monetary payment by an appearance from retired Marine Corps Major General Smedley Butler, one of the most popular military figures of the time.
The Bonus
The practice of war time military bonuses adjusted for rank began in 1776 as compensation for the difference between what a soldier earned and what he could have earned had he not enlisted. Prior to WW1 the bonus was a combination of land and money (A private in the Continental Army received 100 acres and $80 at the end of the war). In 1855, Congress raised the minimum land grant to 160 acres and lowered eligibility requirements to fourteen days service or one battle, as well as formal wars the bonus also applied for any veteran of an Indian war. Breaking with tradition, the veterans of the Spanish-American War did not receive a bonus and following WW1 it became an issue when veterans only received a $60 bonus. In 1919 the American Legion was created and led a movement for an additional bonus.
In 1924, over the veto of President Calvin Coolidge, Congress enacted a law providing compensation for veterans to recognise their suffering during the war. Veterans were to receive a dollar for each day of domestic service to a maximum of $500 and $1.25 for each day of overseas service up to a maximum of $625. Amounts owed of $50 or less were paid immediately while larger amounts were issued as certificates maturing in 20 years.
Some 3,662,374 certificates were issued with a face value of $3.638 billion. Congress set up a trust fund that would receive 20 annual payments of $112 million that, along with interest, would cover the amount due in 1945. Veterans could borrow up to 22½% of face value from the fund against the certificates but in 1931, due to the depression, Congress increased the loan value to 50% of face value. By April 1932, loans amounting to $1.248 billion had been paid out leaving a fund shortfall of $2.36 billion. While there was support for the immediate redemption of the certificates, President Hoover and other members of Congress opposed this because of the affect it would have on the Federal budget and the governments programs to relieve the depression. Veterans groups began to organize to press the government to allow the redemption.
Arrival in Washington
The Bonus Army massed at the United States Capitol on June 17 as the U.S. Senate voted on the Patman Bonus Bill, which would have moved forward the date when World War I veterans received a cash bonus. Most of the Bonus Army camped in a Hooverville on the Anacostia Flats, then a swampy, muddy area across the Anacostia River from the federal core of Washington. The camps, built from materials scavenged from a nearby rubbish dump, were tightly controlled by the veterans with streets laid out, sanitation facilities built and parades held daily. To live in the camps, veterans were required to register and prove they had been honorably discharged. The protesters had hoped that they could convince Congress to make payments that would be granted to veterans immediately, which would have provided relief for the marchers who were unemployed due to the Depression. The bill had passed the House of Representatives on June 15 but was blocked in the Senate.
Intervention of the military
On 28th of July 1932, Attorney General Mitchell ordered the evacuation of the veterans by the Washington police. The veterans resisted and the police opened fire killing two marchers. When told of the shooting President Hoover ordered the army to take over the evacuation.
At 4:45pm the 12th Infantry Regiment from Fort Howard, Maryland, and the 3rd Cavalry Regiment supported by six tanks under the command of Major George S. Patton from Fort Myer, Virginia, under the overall command of General Douglas MacArthur assembled on Pennsylvania Ave while thousands of Civil Service employees left work and lined the street to watch. The marchers, believing the display was to honour them, were cheering the troops until Patton ordered the calvary to charge at which the spectators began calling out "shame shame".
Following the calvary charge troops carrying rifles with fixed bayonets and equipped with adamsite gas "candles" were sent into the Bonus Army's camps forcing the marchers out and destroying their camp. The protestors fled across the Anacostia River into their largest encampment and President Hoover ordered the troops to stop, Douglas MacArthur however felt this was a communist attempt to overthrow the government and chose to ignore the order. Hundreds of veterans were injured, several were killed, including William Hushka and Eric Carlson; a wife of a veteran miscarried, and other casualties were inflicted. The visual image of U.S. armed soldiers confronting poor veterans of the recent Great War set the stage for veteran relief and eventually the Veterans Administration. Dwight D. Eisenhower, as a member of MacArthur's staff, had strong reservations about the operation.
The Posse Comitatus Act, prohibiting the U.S. military from being used for general law enforcement purposes in most instances, did not apply to Washington, D.C. because it is a jurisdiction under the direct governance of the U.S. Congress (United States Constitution, Article I. Section 8. Clause 17). The exemption was created as a result of an earlier "Bonus March". In 1781 a large part of the Continental Army was demobilised without being paid. In 1783 hundreds of Pennsylvania veterans marched on Philadelphia and surrounded the State House, while Congress was sitting, demanding their pay. Congress fled to Princeton, New Jersey and the veterans were finally expelled by the military several weeks later.
By the end of the rout:
- Two veterans were shot and killed.
- Two infants died from adamsite gas asphyxiation.
- An 11 week old baby was in critical condition resulting from shock due to gas exposure.
- An 11 year old boy, David Barscheski was partially blinded by gas.
- One bystander was shot in the shoulder.
- One veteran, Christopher Bilger, had his ear severed by a Cavalry saber.
- One veteran was stabbed in the hip with a bayonet.
- At least twelve police were injured by the veterans.
- Over 1,000 men, women, and children were exposed to adamsite gas, including police, reporters, residents of Washington D.C., and ambulance drivers.
Aftermath
A movie Gabriel Over the White House, was released by MGM in March 1933 that depicted the Bonus March but with a more positive outcome. Produced by William Randolph Hearst’s Cosmopolitan Pictures it concerned the actions of "President Hammond" who ends the depression and solves the marchers problems through authoritarian means which results in a stable economy, elimination of crime, and creation of world peace.[1]
Following his election, President Franklin D. Roosevelt did not want to pay the bonus early either, but handled the veterans with more skill. In March 1933 Roosevelt issued an executive order allowing the enrollment of 25,000 veterans in the Civilian Conservation Corps for work in forests. When they marched on Washington again in May 1933, he sent his wife Eleanor to chat with the vets and pour coffee with them, and she persuaded many of them to sign up for jobs making a roadway to the Florida Keys, which was to become the Overseas Highway, the southernmost portion of U.S. Route 1. On September 2, the disastrous Labor Day Hurricane of 1935 killed 258 veterans working on the Highway. After seeing more newsreels of veterans giving their lives for a government that had taken them for granted, public sentiment built up so much that Congress could no longer afford to ignore it in an election year (1936). Roosevelt's veto was overridden, making the bonus a reality.
Perhaps the Bonus Army's greatest accomplishment was the piece of legislation known as the G. I. Bill of Rightscitation needed. Passed in July, 1944, it immensely helped veterans from the Second World War to secure needed assistance from the federal government to help them fit back into civilian life, something the World War I veterans of the Bonus Army had not received. The Bonus Army's activities can also be seen as a template for the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963, and popular political demonstrations and activism that took place in the U.S. later in the 20th century.
See also
References
- Archer, Jules (1963). Front-Line General: Douglas MacArthur. Julian Messner, Inc.. Library of Congress Catalog Card No. 63-16791.
- Archer, Jules (1973). The Plot to Seize the White House. Hawthorn Books, Inc.. Library of Congress Catalog Card No. 76-39261.
- Burner, David (1979). Herbert Hoover: A Public Life. Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN 0-394-46134-7.
- James, D. Clayton (1970). The Years of MacArthur, Volume I, 1880-1941. Houghton Mifflin Company. Library of Congress Catalog Card No. 76-108685.
- Ross, John (1996). Unintended Consequences. Accurate Press. ISBN 1-888118-04-0.
- Smith, Richard Norton (1984). An Uncommon Man: The Triumph of Herbert Hoover. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 0-671-46034-X.
Further reading
- Collins, Dennis (2006). Nora's Army, Washington Writers' Publishing House. ISBN 0-931846-83-8.
- Dickson, Paul and Thomas B. Allen (2004). The Bonus Army: An American Epic, Walker and Company. ISBN 0-8027-1440-4.
- Dickson, Paul and Thomas B. Allen. "Marching On History". Smithsonian, February 2003.
External links
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