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Okla-homey
5/29/2007, 06:33 AM
May 29, 1932: Bonus Marchers arrive in Washington

http://aycu16.webshots.com/image/16775/2003533353245212342_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2003533353245212342)

On this day 75 years ago, at the height of the Great Depression, the so-called "Bonus Expeditionary Force," a group of 1,000 World War I veterans seeking cash payments for their veterans' bonus certificates, arrive in Washington, D.C. These men had been promised a cash award for their WWI service by the Adjusted Service Certificate Law of 1924 for payment in 1945.

Eventually, 31,000 World War I veterans, their families, and other affiliated groups demonstrated in Washington, D.C. during the spring and summer of 1932 seeking immediate payment of the "bonus." Most of these ex-soldiers were unemployed veterans in desperate financial straits who needed the money then, and felt they couldn't wait until 1945 for payment.

http://aycu02.webshots.com/image/16921/2003598827065414599_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2003598827065414599)

Camping in vacant government buildings and in open fields made available by District of Columbia Police Chief Pelham D. Glassford, they demanded passage of the veterans' payment bill introduced by Representative Wright Patman. patman's bill would authorize payment of the bonus immediately rather than in 1945.

While awaiting a vote on the issue, the veterans conducted themselves in an orderly and peaceful fashion, and on June 15 the Patman bill passed in the House of Representatives. However, two days later, its defeat in the Senate infuriated the marchers, who refused to return home.

In an increasingly tense situation, the federal government provided money for the protesters' trip home, but 2,000 refused the offer and continued to protest. On July 28, 1932, President Herbert Hoover ordered the army, under the command of General Douglas MacArthur, to evict them forcibly.

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General MacArthur and Major Eisenhower at the scene.

The marchers were cleared and their camps were destroyed by the 12th Infantry Regiment from Fort Howard, Maryland, and the 3rd Cavalry Regiment under the command of MAJ. George S. Patton from Fort Myer, Virginia, under the overall command of General MacArthur.

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 one of several pieces of federal property under the direct governance of the U.S. Congress (United States Constitution, Article I. Section 8).

Dwight D. Eisenhower, as a member of MacArthur's staff, had strong reservations about the operation. Troops carrying rifles with unsheathed bayonets and tear gas were sent into the Bonus Army's camps.

President Hoover did not want the army to march across the Anacostia River into the protesters' largest encampment, but Douglas MacArthur felt this was a communist attempt to overthrow the government and thus exceeded his authority -- perhaps a foreshadowing of MacArthur's action a quarter century later in Korea which would prompt President Truman to fire him?

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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.

By the end of the rout:

- Two veterans were shot and killed.
- An 11 week old baby was in critical condition resulting from shock from gas exposure.
- Two infants died from gas asphyxiation.
- An 11 year old boy was partially blinded by tear gas.
- One bystander was shot in the shoulder.
- One veteran's ear was 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 the tear gas, including police, reporters, residents of Washington D.C., and ambulance drivers.

The army burned down the Bonus Army's tents and shacks, although some reports claim that to spite the government, which had provided much of the shelter in the camp, some veterans torched their own camp dwellings before the troops could set upon the camp.

Reports of U.S. soldiers marching against their peers did not help Hoover's re-election efforts; neither did his open opposition to the Bonus Bill due to financial concerns. After the inauguration of Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933, some of the Bonus Army regrouped in Washington to restate its claims to the new President.

http://aycu16.webshots.com/image/16775/2003573486738381297_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2003573486738381297)

TUSooner
5/29/2007, 07:21 AM
So... patriots can sometimes be unhappy about their own gub'ment? Hmmm.



And that Prof's question in your sig is hoot. <shakes head>