The Bonus Army, or Bonus Marchers, were a group of World War I veterans and their families who came to DC in the summer of 1932. There were about 17,000 World War I veterans, many of whom brought their families with them, raising their numbers to about 43,000 people. In 1924 Congress granted all World War I veterans service certificates, which would mature and be redeemable for cash upon maturation of the certificates. Like most bonds, the maturation date was 20 years from the issuance date, so the certificates would not be redeemable until 1945. This was no problem when the certificates were granted, but the Great Depression struck the country in 1929, and millions of people were thrown out of work and their homes. As the Depression worsened, the veterans decided that early payment of their bonus certificates would be the best way to ease their financial plight, so they assembled and marched on Washington, arriving in the city on 17 June, 1932 and setting up camp in Anacostia Flats.
The veterans organized the camp very well, setting up sanitation facilities, marking off streets in the dirt, and ensuring that only those veterans who had been honorably discharged from the Army could reside in the camp. The camp and the cause of the vets made an impact, as the House passed a bill allowing for early payment of the bonuses, but the Senate balked. President Hoover was also not in favor of early payment, as he and fellow Republicans feared adding to the country’s deficit while the Depression was weighing so heavily on the economy.
On 28 July, 1932, Attorney General Mitchell ordered the DC police to clear the camp. The police entered the camp’s perimeter, met with resistance from the vets, and the police met the resistance by firing and killing two of the veterans. When Hoover heard of this incident, he ordered the Army to move in and clear the camp. The Army, led by Major General Douglas MacArthur, assembled and marched down Pennsylvania Avenue towards Anacostia. MacArthur’s forces were augmented by 6 battle tanks from Fort Meyer, along with a cavalry unit, led by Major George Patton. When the vets saw the units moving down Pennsylvania Avenue towards them, they at first thought that the Army had assembled the parade to pay them homage, until Patton ordered “fix bayonets” and then ordered the calvary unit to charge. Tear gas was also used as the Army moved into the camp. Many of the vets and their families began to flee, and when word of this reached President Hoover, he ordered the assault to stop. MacArthur, believing that the vets represented a Communist plot to overthrow the government, disobeyed the President, and continued the assault, moving into the camp with the full force of the Army. Hundreds of veterans were wounded and several were killed during this action. The camp’s structures were then burned by the Army to prohibit the vets from re-assembling.
When President Roosevelt took office in 1933, he was not in favor of early bonus payment, but when the vets marched again on the Washington, he sent his wife, Eleanor, to visit with them and to listen to their pleas. Eleanor also convinced a large number of the vets to join the Civilian Conservation Corps, putting many of the men to work in building the Overseas Highway, linking the Florida Keys to the mainland. A great hurricane swept over the Keys on Labor Day in 1935, killing over 200 of the veterans working on the highway. Newsreels of the vets once again suffering, made the public groundswell for early bonus payment so great, that Congress granted the vets’ wish in 1936, overriding President Roosevelt’s veto of the measure.
The Bonus Army participants didn’t realize at the time that they were setting the template for better treatment of the nation’s veterans. In 1944 Congress passed the G.I. Bill of Rights, providing for low-interest loans to veterans for buying homes and starting businesses, one year of unemployment payments after leaving the service, and most significantly, generous assistance with college tuition. The G.I. Bill of Rights is perhaps the greatest result of the Bonus Army, who finally made the U.S. government live up to the words of President Abraham Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address:
“With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan”
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