What happened to the bonus army?

Answer 1

In 1924, a grateful Congress voted to give a bonus to World War I veterans - $1.25 for each day served overseas, $1.00 for each day served in the States. The catch was that payment would not be made until 1945. Members of the Bonus Army

encamp within sight of the

Capitol, 1932 However, by 1932 the nation had slipped into the dark days of the Depression and the unemployed veterans wanted their money immediately. In May of that year, some 15,000 veterans, many unemployed and destitute, descended on Washington, D.C. to demand immediate payment of their bonus. They proclaimed themselves the Bonus Expeditionary Force but the public dubbed them the "Bonus Army." Raising ramshackle camps at various places around the city, they waited. The veterans made their largest camp at Anacostia Flats across the river from the Capitol. Approximately 10,000 veterans, women and children lived in the shelters built from materials dragged out of a junk pile nearby - old lumber, packing boxes and scrap tin covered with roofs of thatched straw. Discipline in the camp was good, despite the fears of many city residents who spread unfounded "Red Scare" rumors. Streets were laid out, latrines dug, and formations held daily. Newcomers were required to register and prove they were bonafide veterans who had been honorably discharged. Their leader, Walter Waters, stated, "We're here for the duration and we're not going to starve. We're going to keep ourselves a simon-pure veteran's organization. If the Bonus is paid it will relieve to a large extent the deplorable economic condition." June 17 was described by a local newspaper as "the tensest day in the capital since the war." The Senate was voting on the bill already passed by the House to immediately give the vets their bonus money. By dusk, 10,000 marchers crowded the Capitol grounds expectantly awaiting the outcome. Walter Waters, leader of the Bonus Expeditionary Force, appeared with bad news. The Senate had defeated the bill by a vote of 62 to 18. The crowd reacted with stunned silence. "Sing America and go back to your billets" he commanded, and they did. A silent "Death March" began in front of the Capitol and lasted until July 17, when Congress adjourned. A month later, on July 28, Attorney General Mitchell ordered the evacuation of the veterans from all government property, Entrusted with the job, the Washington police met with resistance, shots were fired and two marchers killed. Learning of the shooting at lunch, President Hoover ordered the army to clear out the veterans. Infantry Troops prepare to evacuate the

Bonus Army

July 28, 1932 and cavalry supported by six tanks were dispatched with Chief of Staff General Douglas MacArthur in command. Major Dwight D. Eisenhower served as his liaison with Washington police and Major George Patton led the cavalry. By 4:45 P.M. the troops were massed on Pennsylvania Ave. below the Capitol. Thousands of Civil Service employees spilled out of work and lined the streets to watch. The veterans, assuming the military display was in their honor, cheered. Suddenly Patton's troopers turned and charged. "Shame, Shame" the spectators cried. Soldiers with fixed bayonets followed, hurling tear gas into the crowd. By nightfall the BEF had retreated across the Anacostia River where Hoover ordered MacArthur to stop. Ignoring the command, the general led his infantry to the main camp. By early morning the 10,000 inhabitants were routed and the camp in flames. Two babies died and nearby hospitals overwhelmed with casualties. Eisenhower later wrote, "the whole scene was pitiful. The veterans were ragged, ill-fed, and felt themselves badly abused. To suddenly see the whole encampment going up in flames just added to the pity." References:

Bartlett, John Henry, The Bonus March and the New Deal (1937); Daniels, Roger, The Bonus March; an Episode of the Great Depression (1971).

Answer 2

what happened to the bonus army was the government refused to give them their bonus Early. so the army will be sent to force any veterans that had not left to leave when it was over about 50 veterans were injured.

Answer 3

They were treated shamefully by the government that they had honorably served and needed what help that they could get since it was during the Great Depression . General Douglas MacArthur commanded the infantry , cavalry who was supported by six tanks . The Bonus Army marchers with their wives and children were driven out and their shelters and belongings burned .

Answer 4

The Bonus Army was not actually and army. It was a group of picketers (protestors). The picketers consisted mostly of World War I veterans and their families. Congress had voted them a bonus for their war service in 1924 (thus the name Bonus Army). Since this was during the Great Depression, the WWI veterans needed their bonuses quickly. However, thousands of these people (said to have been 20,000) were going to get their bonus years from then. It was like being promised something but not being given what they were promised. The Bonus Army set up a Hooverville (shantytown) in the U.S. Capitol lawn in 1932. They were protesting for their bonuses, when President Hoover sent the U.S. Army to clear them out. At first, the Bonus Army believed that the army was there for them. They cheered and waved their American Flags. Despite their expectations, the army came with tear gas, guns, and bayonets. They were not there to help the Bonus Army. As a result, many people were injured and hurt, and an infant died. The Bonus Army was no more, their Hooverville was torn down, and billy clubs were used on the resistant people. President Hoover claimed he had rescued the country from mob action; while Americans were disappointed and hung their heads in shame.

Answer 5

The Bonus Army was American military veterans of World War One. Often they called themselves "the BEF", for "Bonus Expeditionary Force", which was a play on words from what they had been called during the war, when in France the Americans were called "the AEF", for "American Expeditionary Force". That title was derived from an earlier "BEF", the "British Expeditionary Force", which was the British Army in France in WWI. The 1930s American BEF - the Bonus Army - were patriotic, flag flying American war veterans, who had been financially wiped out when the Great Depression hit. Many of them had families, and they had lost their homes, their jobs, everything. They were desperate. In those days, what welfare or public assistance there was, was done by the county where you lived, if they had bothered to establish anything to help the needy, or sometimes by churches. But unemployment was very high, few people were working and paying taxes, so the government was broke too, and few had money to give to their church for poor relief. It was considered a shameful thing then to apply for financial assistance - people thought a man should make it on his own. So these guys had to swallow their pride and go down to the county office and apply for welfare, and in doing that they had to prove that they had nothing left, everything had been sold, spent, or taken back by the bank - and once they had humiliated themselves that way, they were told that they qualified - but there was no money to give them. This was a bitter thing for men who had risked their lives for the country when the country needed them, and now were having to watch their children starve right before their eyes. Right after the war the Federal government had discharged practically every man from the huge army we built up for WWI, and congress also voted to give those vets a "bonus". The "bonus" was a $500 life insurance policy. As part of the law that set up this program, when 1944 rolled around those vets entitled to the "bonus" could cash in their policy and get $500 cash right then, in 1944, if they wanted to, instead of having the $500 go to their family after they died. What the Bonus Army wanted was for the Federal government to pay them this "Bonus" early, in 1932. $500 does not sound like much today, and in fact it is not much. But in 1932 it was a lot of money. A working man might get paid $1 per day, and a new Model T Ford car cost $400 in 1928. Since they were jobless, homeless, and frantically desperate to do something to provide for their families, many of these Bonus Marchers headed for Washington DC, to push their case in person. The Federal government had little in the Treasury, and was in the hands of the Republican Party, who then, as now, did not believe the government ought to help individuals. The Republican president, Hoover, had little idea what to do to try to ease the Great Depression. The best he could come up with was to publicize the seven course meals he was eating in the White House, thinking this would somehow pick up the morale of the people were were desperately hungry, with starving children. Some thousands of Bonus Marchers made it to Washington, many with their entire families. They squatted in empty buildings, and a great many of them made a "Hooverville", a makeshift camp on the National Mall - a grassy parklike area, making shelters out of tents, scraps of lumber, cardboard, and so on, and flying the flag at their encampment. They were there for a few months in the summer of 1932, with the government unwilling and unable to do anything for them, and increasingly embarrassed by all these needy patriots, veterans whom they were not trying to help. Eventually they hit on the idea of claiming communists were among these stout patriots, which gave them an excuse to drive them out. The Washington Police and the US Army did the driving, burning their Hoovervilles, using liberal doses of tear gas, which killed a few of the children of the Bonus Marchers. General Douglas MacArthur led the effort, as he was then Chief of Staff of the US Army, and he had his aide, Lieutenant Colonel Dwight D. Eisenhower by his side, with Ike muttering "this is political, political". Colonel George C. Patton was tearing up and down the street in a little whippet tank. Eventually the Bonus Marchers were herded over the Anacostia Bridge into Maryland - where they were met by the Maryland police, who drive them across Maryland to the Pennsylvania line, where they were met by the Pennsylvania police. In the darkness over a few days most of the Bonus Army melted away into the night, to go starve quietly somewhere out of the way and stop embarrassing the government with their scrawny children. A few months later Hoover, who actually had the nerve to run for reelection, lost in a landslide to Franklin Roosevelt.

Answer 6

The Bonus Army was not actually and army. It was a group of picketers (protestors). The picketers consisted mostly of World War I veterans and their families. Congress had voted them a bonus for their war service in 1924 (thus the name Bonus Army). Since this was during the Great Depression, the WWI veterans needed their bonuses quickly. However, thousands of these people (said to have been 20,000) were going to get their bonus years from then. It was like being promised something but not being given what they were promised. The Bonus Army set up a Hooverville (shantytown) in the U.S. Capitol lawn in 1932. They were protesting for their bonuses, when President Hoover sent the U.S. Army to clear them out. At first, the Bonus Army believed that the army was there for them. They cheered and waved their American Flags. Despite their expectations, the army came with tear gas, guns, and bayonets. They were not there to help the Bonus Army. As a result, many people were injured and hurt, and an infant died. The Bonus Army was no more, their Hooverville was torn down, and billy clubs were used on the resistant people. President Hoover claimed he had rescued the country from mob action; while Americans were disappointed and hung their heads in shame.

Answer 7

The Bonus Army was not actually and army. It was a group of picketers (protestors). The picketers consisted mostly of World War I veterans and their families. Congress had voted them a bonus for their war service in 1924 (thus the name Bonus Army). Since this was during the Great Depression, the WWI veterans needed their bonuses quickly. However, thousands of these people (said to have been 20,000) were going to get their bonus years from then. It was like being promised something but not being given what they were promised. The Bonus Army set up a Hooverville (shantytown) in the U.S. Capitol lawn in 1932. They were protesting for their bonuses, when President Hoover sent the U.S. Army to clear them out. At first, the Bonus Army believed that the army was there for them. They cheered and waved their American Flags. Despite their expectations, the army came with tear gas, guns, and bayonets. They were not there to help the Bonus Army. As a result, many people were injured and hurt, and an infant died. The Bonus Army was no more, their Hooverville was torn down, and billy clubs were used on the resistant people. President Hoover claimed he had rescued the country from mob action; while Americans were disappointed and hung their heads in shame.

Answer 8

Years later, Congress finally decided to give them their bonus.

Answer 9

what was the bonus amy wat did it do