In 1918, World War I ended (it was also the year Paul Harvey was born!) The war cost the lives of 117,000 Americans--while not even half that many died watching “Benjamin Button”. In response to the very real sacrifice WWI veterans risked and endured, Congress passed the World War Adjusted Compensation Act of 1924—awarding the soldiers bonuses (pay plus interest) they could redeem in 1945. The plan was that soldiers would forget about the payment after 21 years or just die from natural causes. Worst case scenario, the children of the Congressmen would have to pay the billions of dollars out of their own federal budget. Go figure, the planned ‘worst case scenario’ wasn’t bad enough and on July 28, 1932, America lost its mind.
The Stock Market crashed in 1929, and while dramatic, only really affected the some 16% of households that had any money in stocks at all. More people were affected by the recently passed tariff laws, which shot the price of imported goods sky-high—meaning that Hungarian vodka was no longer the ‘go to’ for floor cleaner but now the monetary equal of Cristal. The idea was that American workers wouldn’t have to compete with the “cheap labor” over-seas—because those Europeans/Asians/Africans are so damned expendable (or something). In reality, this meant American manufactures had no international competition and could raise their prices. Big time. People couldn’t buy things. Other companies couldn’t buy things. Stores went bankrupt. Factories closed. And just like that, thousands of WWI veterans were jobless, still knowing the U.S. government owed them (rightfully, even) payment for fighting in that catastrophe 14 years ago.
In June of 1932, 17,000 to 20,000 jobless veterans gathered in Washington, D.C. to pressure Congress into granting the bonuses immediately. Many of the veterans brought their families with them because hey, kids gotta learn about the government and this was a few years before the advent of “Schoolhouse Rock.” This raised the population of the makeshift city to some 40,000—4 times the population that marched on Helm’s Deep. And when I say “makeshift” I mean they were making a city out of nothing. The “houses” were made out of metal and wood scraps, yet separated by “streets,” surrounded “sanitation facilities,” and were “guarded” by the men who took shifts protesting. Basically there is a lot of this that is simply unimaginable nowadays. That Tea Party Rally back in the fall doesn't cut it in terms of rugged, earnest, sacrifice and suffering.
As expected, the House passed the Bonus Bill (to pay the soldiers to get off the front lawn). Unexpectedly, in the Senate, the bill was CRUSHED. The protesters, baffled, realized they had no other plan. President Herbert Hoover became paranoid that these commoners were going to rise up against him with their newspaper shields and apple-core catapults. Maybe some of them actually had bindles. I don’t know. Anyway, 6 weeks after the bill failed to pass, Hoover told the D.C. police to move the veterans. The police did this, temporarily, by shooting (and killing) two of the veterans. At this, Hoover gasped and his monocle fell into his glass of brandy, breaking in two. Hoover then ordered the U.S. military to move out the veterans. The two regiments that moved in on the homeless were commanded by, and this is where it gets fun, Douglas MacArthur and George S. Patton.
Patton led the Calvary, including six armored tanks, through the D.C. streets to the unofficial campsite. Seeing the soldiers, trucks and tanks, the veterans cheered—for they, and this is true, thought the U.S. military was holding an impromptu parade of its own, in honor of the disrespected veterans. Within moments, the veterans (and their families) realized this was an unusually somber, nay terrifying, parade as the civilians were shot at with a rudimentary form of tear gas and threatened with bayonets. The protesters fled across the river and Hoover put his thumb and index finger on the bridge of his nose, knowing that, somehow, he was going to get blamed for this debacle. The president ordered the troops to pull back, apologized and everything went back to normal. NO WAIT! General MacArthur ignored the order and issued a new attack!
For the sake of contrast, this fight scene was really cool.
MacArthur was adamant from the earliest stages of the Bonus Protest that the leaders were communists and seeking to deplete the federal treasury for all it was worth. He knew that all of those poor people in the D.C. “Hoover-ville” were political radicals despite their three articulated, and actually written, rules of the shantytown: “No panhandling, no drinking, no radicalism.” Fervently against radicals, MacArthur had his troops torch the garbage shacks as fast as they could, killing two more men. Having bulldozed the shacks into rubble and burning the rubble into ashes and pissing on the ashes, MacArthur called it a day and let everybody go home…or at least get the hell out of town. All said, 1 woman suffered a miscarriage, 4 WWI veterans were killed, 135 people were arrested and over a thousand were injured.
In May of 1933, with the country now under President Franklin Roosevelt, the Bonus marchers came back. While Roosevelt opposed the Bonus marchers’ demands, he granted them legal use of land and provided food supplies. Solving some of his own problems, he also had Eleanor Roosevelt visit the campsite. Eleanor praised the veterans for being accommodating and civil—inspiring the adage, “Hoover sent the army, Roosevelt sent his wife.” In 1936 Congress passed a compensation act to coincide with Roosevelt’s Civilian Conservation Corp (employing veterans for manual labor jobs, including, but not limited to, stealing grandkids’ noses).
In the immediate aftermath, the press wanted MacArthur’s head on a plate. MacArthur, though, would not so much as talk to them and so had a more diplomatic subordinate act as liaison between the press, investigation commissions, the White House and city police. The Army Major acting as liaison defended MacArthur’s insubordination saying the general was “too busy,” and “did not want to be bothered by people coming down and pretending to bring orders.” The idea that the U.S. President wouldn’t come to the frontlines, with at least two forms of valid I.D., to issue an order was too ridiculous for Old Mac. In the end, MacArthur was promoted—though not as high or fast as his diplomatic aide, Dwight Eisenhower.
To this day, the Bonus March stands as a unique public relations disaster, to the point of calling it a “public relations disaster” might be doing a disservice to the event and parties. Still, these moments, while a black eye on memories of heroes and the country, show the growth we’ve made as a society. Reciprocally, these moments, through modern similarities involving heroes and the country, show the growth yet to be made.
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