Bonus Army (1932): First World War Veterans March on Washington

The Bonus Army was a protest by thousands of unemployed First World War veterans who camped in Washington, D.C., in the summer of 1932, demanding early payment of a promised bonus. On 28 July 1932, after a deadly clash with police, President Herbert Hoover ordered the army to clear them out, and troops under General Douglas MacArthur burned their camps. The episode became one of the defining images of the Great Depression in the United States.

Background: the bonus

After the armistice of 11 November 1918, many veterans felt they had been poorly paid compared with civilian war workers. In 1924 Congress passed the World War Adjusted Compensation Act over President Calvin Coolidge’s veto. It awarded veterans a credit of 1 dollar for each day of home service and 1.25 dollars for each day overseas, paid in the form of certificates that would mature, with interest, only in 1945.

When the Depression struck, many veterans were out of work and wanted their money immediately. In Congress, Representative Wright Patman of Texas introduced bills for early payment.

The march to Washington

In May 1932 a group of unemployed veterans in Portland, Oregon, led by a former army sergeant, Walter W. Waters, set off for Washington, riding freight trains east. Newspapers followed their progress, and other groups joined from across the country. They called themselves the Bonus Expeditionary Force, echoing the American Expeditionary Forces of 1917-1918.

By June around 17,000 veterans had arrived, and with wives, children and supporters the total reached perhaps 40,000 at its peak. The largest camp grew up on the Anacostia Flats, across the Anacostia River from the Capitol, with shacks built from scrap lumber, tar paper and old packing crates. Others occupied half-demolished government buildings on Pennsylvania Avenue. The camps were generally orderly, with military-style discipline, and the marchers expelled known Communist agitators.

Washington’s police chief, Pelham D. Glassford, himself a former brigadier general, was sympathetic. He helped find food and supplies and tried to keep relations peaceful.

The vote and the eviction

On 15 June 1932 the House of Representatives passed Patman’s bill, but on 17 June the Senate rejected it by 62 votes to 18. Thousands of veterans waited quietly outside the Capitol as the vote was taken. Congress then provided money to pay the fares home, and many left, but several thousand stayed.

On 28 July police moved to clear veterans from the buildings on Pennsylvania Avenue. A scuffle broke out, and police opened fire; two veterans, William Hushka and Eric Carlson, were fatally wounded. The District commissioners asked for federal help, and Hoover ordered the army to clear the area.

That afternoon MacArthur, the army’s chief of staff, led infantry, cavalry and a small number of tanks along Pennsylvania Avenue. His aides included Major Dwight D. Eisenhower, and Major George S. Patton commanded part of the cavalry. Troops used tear gas and bayonets to drive the marchers and onlookers out of the downtown camps. That evening, apparently going beyond the spirit of Hoover’s instructions, MacArthur sent troops across the bridge to Anacostia, and the main camp was set on fire. Many people were injured, and the death of an infant who had been exposed to tear gas was blamed by the marchers on the army, though the cause was disputed.

Reactions

Hoover and MacArthur claimed that the marchers were largely criminals and Communists, a charge later investigations did not support. Newsreels and photographs of soldiers gassing veterans and the burning shacks shocked much of the public. The eviction became a political liability for Hoover, who lost the November 1932 election to Franklin D. Roosevelt in a landslide.

Later history

When a smaller group of veterans returned in May 1933, Roosevelt’s administration housed them at a camp at Fort Hunt, Virginia, and Eleanor Roosevelt visited them. Many were offered places in the Civilian Conservation Corps, part of the New Deal. Roosevelt himself opposed early payment, but in January 1936 Congress passed the Adjusted Compensation Payment Act over his veto. From June 1936 veterans received about 2 billion dollars in bonds that could be cashed immediately.

Veterans also suffered in another tragedy: more than 250 veterans working in federal relief camps in the Florida Keys were killed by the Labor Day hurricane of September 1935. The memory of the Bonus Army helped persuade Congress to pass the much more generous Servicemen’s Readjustment Act, the GI Bill, in 1944.

Timeline

• 1924, May: The World War Adjusted Compensation Act becomes law over Coolidge’s veto.
• 1932, May: Veterans leave Portland, Oregon, for Washington.
• 1932, 15 June: The House passes the Patman bonus bill.
• 1932, 17 June: The Senate rejects the bill by 62 votes to 18.
• 1932, 28 July: Police shootings and the army’s eviction of the camps.
• 1932, 8 November: Hoover loses the presidential election.
• 1936, 27 January: Congress overrides Roosevelt’s veto of the bonus payment bill.
• 1944, 22 June: The GI Bill is signed into law.

Why it matters

The Bonus Army showed the depth of desperation during the Depression and the dangers of using soldiers against peaceful protesters. It shaped public views of Hoover and MacArthur, and it left a lasting mark on how the United States treats the men and women who serve in its armed forces.