Bonus Army

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Members of the Bonus Army camp out on the lawn in front of the Capitol

Bonus Army was the popular name in the United States in 1932 for a 43,000-strong group of demonstrators in the federal capital Washington, DC , consisting of around 17,000 veterans from the First World War with their wives and children, and some groups who had joined them. The official name, Bonus Expeditionary Force , was based on the past of the US military, but especially on the American Expeditionary Forces of the First World War. One of their most important speakers was Sergeant a. D. Walter W. Waters.

Many former soldiers have been unemployed since the beginning of the Great Depression . The World War Adjusted Compensation Act of 1924 granted bonuses to former soldiers in the form of certificates, which however could not be redeemed (or paid out) until 1945.

prehistory

In 1776, with the emergence of the declaration of independence , bonuses were also introduced as payment for soldiers. They are calculated from the soldier's wages and his possible earnings as a civilian during his military service.

In the Spanish-American War of 1898, no bonuses were paid out for the first time, and in the First World War at the latest , this turned into an ultimately uncontrollable political crisis.

At the beginning of the Great Depression , the priest James Renshaw Cox (1886–1951) became famous when he began helping impoverished farmers and farm laborers. In January 1932, Cox led a protest march of about 25,000 workers to Washington, DC With this demonstration - popularly called Cox's Army - he wanted to draw attention to the impoverishment of these people and force the government to act.

Chronology of events

On June 15, 1932, the House of Representatives passed the Wright Patman Bonus Act to bring the payout date forward a little.

On June 17, 1932, the Senate rejected this law by 62 votes to 18. During this time, the protesters besieged the Capitol , hoping for an explanation from President Herbert Hoover . Almost the entire Bonus Army lived in mostly quickly built huts in slums (also called Hoovervilles ) along the Anacostia River . One of the most famous officers, major general a. D. Smedley D. Butler , demonstratively visited the veterans and assured them of the loyalty of the military.

On July 28, 1932, the United States Attorney General William D. Mitchell ordered the dissolution of the Bonus Army and its expulsion from the capital; at the same time he pronounced a ban on demonstrations on government property. The situation escalated when 800 Washington City police officers tried to carry out the order; two demonstrators were shot dead.

  • William Hushka (1895-1932), a Lithuanian immigrant
  • Eric Carlson (1894-1932), a US veteran.

When President Hoover learned of the escalation, he ordered Mitchell to use the army in support. Douglas MacArthur , Chief of Staff of the Army , immediately relocated the 12th Infantry Regiment (Fort Howard, Maryland) and the 3rd Cavalry Regiment to the capital. In support of these troops, six more tanks were brought up under the command of Major George S. Patton .

After the show of loyalty by Smedley D. Butler, the attack by the cavalry came as a surprise to the demonstrators. Immediately thereafter, the infantry advanced. The veterans were almost unarmed and the soldiers used gas across the board . In addition to four dead and over a thousand z. Some seriously injured on the part of the demonstrators, the police had about 70 injured; the soldiers are not aware of this.

When President Hoover was informed of the extent of the situation, he immediately stopped the operation. MacArthur, however, feared the Bonus Army wanted to overthrow the US government , and attacked again. The veterans fled across the river and were all chased out of town over the next few hours. Their belongings as well as their huts were burned. Throughout this crisis, Dwight D. Eisenhower served as one of McArthur's aides .

Aftermath

In the 1932 election campaign , Franklin D. Roosevelt had already made the New Deal his topic. At the beginning of May 1933, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) had created many jobs through job creation measures.

When a second - albeit much smaller - march on the capital took place in mid-May 1933, the situation was calmed down very quickly. Those who had joined the CCC by May 22nd were assigned work almost immediately. Those who refused and did not want to accept such a job could go home at the expense of the government (and without prosecution).

Adaptation

William Randolph Hearst commissioned the director Gregory La Cava through his company Cosmopolitan Productions to film this drama. The result was less a representation of the actual events than a film adaptation of a novel by Thomas Frederic Tweed (1890–1940). Under the title Gabriel over the White House (German: Between Today and Tomorrow ) the film was released in December 1933.

literature

Essays
Monographs
  • John H. Bartlett: The Bonus March and the New Deal . Donohue Books, Chicago, Ill. 1937.
  • Michael J. Bennett: When Dreams Come True. The GI Bill and the making of modern America . Brassey Books, Washington, DC 1999, ISBN 1-57488-041-1 .
  • Roger Daniels: The Bonus March. An episode of the Great Depression (Contributions in American History; Vol. 14). Greenwood Publ., Westport, Ct. 1971, ISBN 0-8371-5174-0 .
  • Paul Dickson, Thomas B. Allen: The Bonus Army. An American Epic . Walker, New York 2006, ISBN 978-0-8027-7738-6 .
  • Louis W. Liebovich: Bylines in Despair. Herbert Hoover, the Great Depression, and the US News Media . Praeger, Westport, Conn. 1994, ISBN 0-275-94843-9 .
  • Donald J. Lisio: The President and the Protest. Hoover, Conspiracy, and the Bonus Riot . University Press, Columbia, Mo., 1974, ISBN 0-8262-0158-X .
  • Henry O. Meisel: Bonus Expeditionary Forces. The true facts, 1932 . Self-published, Clintonville, Wis. 1932.
  • Felx Morrow: The bonus March (International Pamphlets; Vol. 31). International Publ., New York 1932.
  • Stephen R. Ortiz: Beyond the Bonus March and GI Bill. How veteran politics shaped the New Deal era . University Press, New York 2010, ISBN 978-0-8147-6213-4 .
  • Walter W. Waters: BEF The whole story of the Bonus Army . Day Press, New York 1933.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ This term is still in use today.
  2. ↑ u. a. Deputies of the American Legion .
  3. ↑ a b He was buried in Arlington National Cemetery.
  4. ↑ 500 soldiers
  5. ↑ 500 riders