BONUS ARMY

BONUS ARMY. In May 1932 thousands of World War I veterans began gathering in Washington, D.C., in order to pressure Congress to pass the Patman Bonus Bill. The legislation called for the immediate payment of war bonuses for World War I veterans. Under legislation passed with the approval of veterans groups in 1924, payments had been deferred, with interest, until 1945. But with the economic hardship of the depression, veterans clamored for immediate assistance.

The official response to the encampments (some including the mens' families) was initially benign. Washington, D.C., Police Superintendent Pelham Glassford, a veteran himself who was sympathetic toward the movement, set aside building space and campgrounds. At the height of the Bonus Army, between seventeen and twenty thousand veterans were encamped near the Washington Mall and at a site on the Anacostia River, forming the largest of the nation's Hoovervilles.

Although the House passed the Patman Veterans Bill, the Senate rejected its version on 17 June. When veterans protested by marching on Pennsylvania Avenue, police responded violently, resulting in the deaths of two veterans and two policemen. On 28 July President Hoover ordered the Secretary of War to disperse the protesters. In the late afternoon, cavalry, infantry, tanks, and a mounted machine gun pushed the Bonusers out of Washington. Although under orders from Hoover to show restraint, the troops injured more than one hundred veterans. General Douglas MacArthur sent troops into the Anacostia camp, directly disobeying Hoover's orders. A fire of unknown origin, although suspected of being started by the troops, burnt down most of the veterans' tents and other structures.

Hoover's public image suffered greatly as a result of the troops' actions, which helped Franklin Roosevelt win the presidential election a few months later. Although Roosevelt scored political points because of Hoover's missteps, he showed little sympathy for the veterans once in office. Congress passed, over his veto, a bill that paid out the bonuses in 1936, at a cost of $2.5 billion.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Lisio, Donald J. The President and Protest: Hoover, MacArthur, and the Bonus Riot. New York: Fordham University Press, 1994.

Waters, Walter. W. B. E. F.: The Whole Story of the Bonus Army. New York: The John Day Company, 1933.

Richard M.Flanagan

See alsoGreat Depression .

Bonus Army. In 1932, with the nation mired in depression, thousands of unemployed World War I veterans traveled to Washington, D.C., to petition Congress for the immediate payment of thousand‐dollar bonuses that 1924 legislation had promised to pay them in 1945. Styling themselves the “Bonus Expeditionary Force” (a takeoff on the American Expeditionary Forces of 1918), these protestors, many with their families, set up camp in vacant federal buildings and in shacks on the Anacostia Flats a few miles from the Capitol.

The House approved the Bonus Bill, but in June the Senate decisively rejected it. Yet many members of the “Bonus Army” stayed in Washington. In July, the Herbert Hoover administration ordered the veterans' eviction from the federal buildings. During this operations, police gunfire killed one veteran. Hoover sent in troops under the command of General Douglas MacArthur to restore calm. Exceeding his orders, MacArthur employed his forces, complete with a machine‐gun squadron and several tanks, to drive the veterans out of the District of Columbia entirely. Using tear gas and bayonets, the troops cleared the petitioners and their families from their makeshift homes, which were then burned.

The spectacle of U.S. troops forcibly driving from the nation's capital peaceful, unarmed citizens who were themselves veterans illustrated the gap that had opened between the government and Great Depression victims by the end of Hoover's presidency. MacArthur insisted that the “mob” was “animated by the essence of revolution” and bent on taking over the government. In fact, the rout of the nonresisting Bonus Army demonstrated that government officials were more fearful of a revolution in 1932 than the unemployed were interested in fomenting one.
See also Depressions, Economic; New Deal Era, The.

Bibliography

Roger Daniels , The Bonus March, 1971.
Donald J. Lisio , The President and the Protest, 1974.

Robert S. McElvaine

Bonus Army a group of over 20,000 World War I veterans who marched on Washington, D.C., to receive their World War I bonus during the summer of 1932. Most of the veterans, unemployed and in desperate circumstances, demanded the passage of a bill providing immediate payment of their bonus. They called themselves the Bonus Expeditionary Force and peacefully camped and rallied in parks and military bases. When the Senate defeated the bill on June 17, 1932, the veterans refused to leave. Troops ordered by President Herbert Hoover and led by Gen. Douglas MacArthur entered several buildings and the main camp, setting tents on fire and forcing an evacuation on July 29, 1932. A smaller group of veterans remained in Washington and marched in May 1933, but were not successful in pressuring Congress. Nevertheless, the bonus was finally paid in 1936.

Bonus Army (1932) Group of unemployed veterans who marched on Washington, D.C., and demanded cash payment of bonus certificates. The 17,000 veterans camped out during June and July until President Herbert Hoover sent regular troops, led by Douglas MacArthur, to disperse them. In 1936, the veterans were given cashable bonds.