Washington, D.C. July 28, 1932 — World
War One veterans who did not stay in the U. S. Military or had mustered out after
service were given parades to honor their sacrifices on the Western Front and
the trenches of Europe. In 1924 the leaders of the United States also agreed to
provide to for survivors purely cash payment for services.
The World War Adjusted
Compensation Act of 1924 was a piece of negotiated legislation as financial reward
for those who had served at both the home front and those who served in Europe.
These bonuses were set at a maximum of $500, $1.00 per day served in the states
and $1.25 for those who served in Europe. The American Legion was a strong
promoter of the bill and advocating for immediate distribution of these funds, which
did not happen. Congress agreed that veterans who were owed less than $50 would
be paid but that the nation couldn’t afford mass pay outs, it was finally
agreed to extend the payments to 1945.
This was fine politically at that moment but as 1932 came on the nation was in the most severe part of the Depression, and men who had served in the military found themselves struggling to find consistent employment to take care of their families. A demand began growing for the government to disperse the funds owed to tA man named Walter W. Waters became an unexpected leader of the “Bonus Army.” Waters was a former Sargent who served in France and had seen combat at Saint Mihiel and Chateau-Thierry in the great war. He was a native of Oregon who had returned to Oregon from Europe. The depression had hit the lumber industry of the Northwest extremely hard. Waters was struggling to find ongoing, regular employment and was using a food cart to sell fruit. He was doing these odd jobs when he started recruiting men to march on Washington to demand their money.
Word spread around the country,
mostly through the American Legion, of the march and the charismatic Waters.
Soon 20,000 to 40,000 men of the Bonus Army were living in Washington D.C. with
the substantial number of men they took over two of the “Hoovervilles”. The
“Bonus Army” was becoming the symbol for the forgotten man. Or laborer with
Water glorifying in this image.
With close to 80,000 additional people in the city, Waters tried to take advantage and take over complete control. He outed the Communists, anarchists, and radicals and arranged for several hundred men to march in military order and in khakis when they did their daily or every other day peaceful march on the Capitol Building or the Whitehouse. He and the Bonus Army had a strong and staunch ally in DC police superintendent, Brigadier General Pelham D. Glassford. Glassford was commander of the 51st Field Artillery Brigade during the war.
The army awarded Glassford the Distinguished Service Medal and Silver
Star for conduct in Europe. He identified with the veterans and lobbied
Congress on his own for both the Bonus Payout and for additional food. This action
was voted down by the Senate under the threat of veto from Hoover who was
opposed to paying anything out to the veterans.
After the bills to release funds to the “Bonus Army” failed to
pass in June incursions and fights began to breakout with greater frequency.
The men making up the protest was not sure how to move forward but most of them
didn’t want to leave without their money.
Things came to head, today, July 28 when Hoover, who found the
term “Hoovervilles” insulting and demeaning ordered General Douglas MacArthur
to remove the camps on the Anacostia River that he could see. MacArthur
was pleased to launch an effort to remove them.
When action to evict the veterans began, they themselves fought
back using guns with batons. This is when MacArthur ordered tear gas to be used.
He had also ordered 5 tanks into firing positions on Pennsylvania Avenue. This
was what Glassford had feared, and the situation became a bloody riot. One
of the veterans was killed, 14 others badly injured and a toddler belonging to
a veteran family was killed by the tear gas. As he would in the future, MacArthur
felt he knew better than anyone else from Glassford who had been out daily to
speak with protesters to Hoover who realized that the violence would come back
to haunt him.
MacArthur denied he had received
orders not to advance to the opposite side of the Anacostia River. MacArthur not only
ignored the President’s but insisted that his job was to rid D.C. of the Bonus
Army; and had ordered the tanks to crush the camps beneath their treads.
Against any evidence MacArthur stated that he knew that only 10% of these
protesters were even veterans. He argued, “The shantytown was animated by the
essence of revolution.”
Hoover released a statement saying that investigation had proven
that a large minority of the “So called Bonus Marchers,” were Communists or
persons with criminal records. Hoover insisted that the good men had gone home
and probably did not know the type of person with whom they were involved.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt was running for president for the first
time in 1932. Allegedly while reading the reports on the eviction, he told an
aide there was no longer any need for him to campaign against Herbert Hoover.
Which did prove to be true as the Depression hung on through the election with
no signs of economic recovery.
However, FDR was no friend to the Bonus Army, vetoing a bill to
pay them in 1936. His Veto was overridden through and stated that an. “able
bodied soldier should be accorded privileges just because of he is wearing a
uniform.” FDR also reappointed MacArthur as Army Chief of Staff which created a
loss of respect for the President from veterans,
Sources
https://www.nytimes.com/1935/05/23/archives/highlights-of-bonus-veto.html
https://www.opb.org/article/2023/11/11/bonus-army-veterans-washington-dc-walter-waters/
https://www.nps.gov/articles/the-1932-bonus-army.htm
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/macarthur-bonus-march-may-july-1932/
 |
| Walter W. Water |
No comments:
Post a Comment