In the summer of 1932, at the height of
the Great Depression, an impoverished
army of 45,000 World War One veterans
marched on Washington, DC.
They believed that if they came to
Congress, that Congress would finally
authorize immediate payment of bonds
that they had been promised for the
losses that they suffered during World
War One. But Congress refused to pay the
bonus, and the army brutally drove the
veterans away. "It's war.
The greatest concentration of fighting
troops in Washington since 1865." This is
the saga of the Bonus Army in a March
that changed the nation.
(Singing "Remembery my forgotten man. You
put a rock right in his hand....")
Major funding for this program was
provided by the Disabled American
Veterans' National Service Foundation.
Since World War One, DAV has helped
veterans recover from the wounds and
scars of war. DAV - building better lives
for America's disabled veterans and
their families. Additional production
support provided by
Tawani Foundation - promoting the ideal of
the citizen soldier at the Pritzker
Military Library, Chicago Illinois; and by
the Humanities Council of Washington, DC.
[Music]
America was not prepared when it entered
World War One in 1917. Fighting the
Germans required young American men by
the millions, and the only way to get
them was through conscription. The
American Army, for the first time in its
history, will be composed of a majority
of conscripted troops. And when the draft
is explained to the American people, it's
called Selective Service. Some men were
selected to fight, others to work in
needed defense industries, or as farmers.
So the different conception of military
service as work, as opposed to just
simply civic duty. The first American
troops arrived in France in June of 1917.
In just 18 months, nearly 100,000 lost
their lives. 200,000 more were wounded or
gassed. Also over there were hundreds of
thousands of African-American soldiers.
Barred from combat with American units,
many fought courageously under the
French flag. For the first time, many of
these people experienced what it was
like to be treated
as fully human beings by white people.
When the armistice was signed on
November 11, 1918, most of the Americans
that had served would never be the same.
As the first waves of troops returned
from Europe, the nation turned out to
honor them with parades. The veterans
quickly realized the high price they had
paid. Let's say a guy didn't go to war -
stayed home working at an arms factory.
He would probably get maybe 10 times as
much as a soldier would. A soldier in
combat was getting about a buck, buck and
a quarter a day. Soon after the war,
veterans began to argue that soldiers
should be compensated for the wages they
lost while serving their country. They
very carefully used the terms "adjusted
compensation" to be clear that what they
are asking for is not a bonus; they are
asking for back wages that are due to
them. It was the detractors who called
it a bonus.
Finally, in 1924, Congress granted World
War One veterans adjusted universal
compensation. A law had granted them the
bones equivalent to a dollar to a dollar
and a quarter a day for every day they
served, which in many cases would be six,
eight hundred, or a thousand dollars. But
there was a catch. They don't get a nickel
of the money until 1945. Unless they die.
That's why they called it the "tombstone
bonus." In 1928, Herbert Clark Hoover, a
self-made millionaire, was elected
president. In his inaugural address,
Hoover proclaimed that the future of the
country was bright with hope.
Just seven months later, the stock market
collapsed, and the country descended into
the Great Depression.
[Music]
In America in 1932, hunger and
desperation stalked the land. 25% of
workers were unemployed, and many were
veterans. One of them was Walter W. Waters,
down on his luck in Portland, Oregon. He
had been a sergeant in the war, and
that's an indication that you were a
pretty good soldier. And there were a lot
of veterans sitting around trying to
find what to do next. Then came a ray of
hope.
A bill calling for an immediate cash
payment of the veterans' bonus was
introduced in Congress. Waters became
obsessed with it. "During this time, I was
anxiously watching reports in the
newspapers of the progress of bonus
legislation. And I noticed that the highly
organized lobbies in Washington were
producing results, regardless of the
justice or injustice of the demand." At a
meeting of jobless veterans, Waters stood
up and urged them to march on Washington.
And when that happened, it kind of
clicked for these guys. Eventually, there
were about 300 of them. And they go down
to the railroad yard to hop freight, and
they go all the way across the country to
Washington. (Song "Once I built a
railroad...) They called themselves the
Bonus Expeditionary Force, or BEF - a
play on the American Expeditionary Force,
the collective name for the troops sent
to France. But soon they were simply
known as the Bonus Army. They carried
knapsacks or duffle bags or bed rolls
with tin cups dangling. They had $30 among
them. Meanwhile, word of the BEF was
spreading. Even as Waters and his men
were heading towards the Capitol, 25 vets
from Tennessee were circling the White
House in a truck bearing the sign, "We
want our bonus." And they start from
everywhere. They start from Los Angeles,
they start from Las Vegas, they start
from Mississippi and Texas. They come from
everywhere. Antonio Oliver, a veteran
gassed in the Argonne forest in France,
drove from Pennsylvania with his twin sons,
Nick and Joe. "My dad got word to march on
Washington and thumped a tub for the
bonus that they promised the veterans in
1924. I think it was approaching dawn
when he got there, and my father woke us
up and says, 'There's the Capitol building.'
I never forgot that." While streams of bonus
marchers headed for the Capitol, Pelham
Glassford, the new DC police chief,
prepared for their invasion. "I had been
aware from the first that the BEF was
symbolic of the vast army of unemployed.
Anything unfortunate that happened might
easily precipitate widespread social
disorder."
Kellen Glassford was a decorated
brigadier general during World War One
who commanded the loyalty of his men in
a very personal way. Glassford was really
pleased in many ways that the veterans
were coming to Washington. But he knew
that the politicians were not
sympathetic. Officials were also
concerned that a large number of African-
American veterans were mixed in with the
marchers. And the irony is that, going
back to the Great War, the African-
American troops were segregated from the
white troops. Also preparing for the
Bonus Army was a prominent World War One
veteran: General Douglas A. MacArthur. The
United States Army, through its Military
Intelligence Division, remained greatly
concerned about the possibility of
revolution.
The Army developed a plan to defend the
United States Capitol in the case of
civil insurrection, and they were talking
about using tanks, machine guns, gas. By
the time the Bonus Marchers arrived in
Washington, the Army was more than ready
to deal with them. At the end of May, 1932,
nearly 10,000 Bonus Marchers occupied
the nation's capital, and tens of
thousands more were on their way. Police
chief Glassford realized he was on his
own. "They followed their leaders in the
childlike faith that their government
would help them, just as they had
responded during the war. Hence, I felt
these veterans could not be treated like
bums." On June 4,
thousands of Washingtonians lined the
streets to see what the Washington Post
called the "strangest military parade the
Capitol had ever witnessed." The BEF was
marching in full force. Within days,
Walter Waters had a full-fledged
lobbying operation underway. "The
veterans, frankly, made a nuisance of
themselves. (A) couple of veterans were
always sitting in each representative's
waiting rooms. The representatives were
solicited outside the building as well."
The strategy quickly paid off. After just
two weeks, the House of Representatives
passed the bonus bill. The BEF had won a
battle, but a greater one awaited them in
the Senate.
In a remote neighborhood of Washington
known as Anacostia, an enormous tent and
shack city rose from the mudflats.
Here, the threadbare heroes of World War
One formed their last great encampment.
"We just drove in, and we were ankle deep
in mud. I never saw so much mud in my
life." American flags could be seen flying
from every possible vantage point. A city
was laid out in Anacostia. The streets
were named by states. There was a library
in the center of it run by the Salvation
Army. There was music day and night. There
was gospel music, and there was blues
music, and there was country music and
popular music. There were people who
built beautiful little replicas of
suburban homes. There were guys who were
buried alive for money. "I will remember
the veteran laying in a casket, saying,
'Hey, they treat us like we were dead
people.'" A popular form of entertainment
in the camp was boxing. "I was the best boxer."
(other) "I was." "We'd box and pass a hat.
My dad would get a little irate if we
didn't really punch each other out. Then he'd
throw up both of our arms. It was always
draw, always a draw, always a draw."
People across the country sympathized
with the Bonus Marchers' plight, but to
official Washington, they were just a
sign of trouble on the horizon.
One of the stories that went largely
unreported was that the color line
seemed to have vanished in the Bonus
Army camps. Visitors were astonished to
see black veterans and white veterans
sharing billets, chores, and rations. The
military experience has the potential
for transcending things like race. And
for black veterans to be in company with
white veterans was a revolutionary thing.
Roy Wilkins, an enterprising young
reporter working for the NAACP,
decided to visit and see for himself. "At
Anacostia, there was no residential
segregation. Recruits of any color were
made welcome." "It was a big event in
the part of the city that I lived in. They
had groups of whites and Negroes that
formed a unit because they were from the
same state. That was not so usual for the
city of Washington." And there were lots
of people, especially people in the
military, who saw this is a very, very
dangerous thing. "And right there with the
tragedy of it all, men can live, eat, play,
and work together, be they black or white.
Just as the BEF demonstrated."
On June 17,
1932, thousands of bonus marchers
assembled on Capitol Hill to maintain a
vigil on the Senate, scheduled to vote on
the bonus bill passed by the house. The
shouts and songs of the veterans, "The
Yanks are starving! The Yanks are
starving!" could be heard in the Senate
Chamber as the heated debate went on.
Late in the day, Waters delivered the
result to his troops. The Senate
overwhelmingly defeated the bonus bill,
and the men were extraordinarily
disappointed. But fortunately, a newspaper
reporter suggested to Waters that he
ought to order the men to sing "America."
And they did. They all sang "America," and
they dispersed peacefully. But Waters
urged the marchers to remain in
Washington. "I am not advising anybody to
go home.
We intend to maintain our army in
Washington regardless of who goes home."
President Hoover and other people kept
saying, "Why can't we drive them home?"
A lot of these people didn't have a home.
It was pretty clear to everybody that they
could not remain. But no one knew how to
get rid of them, and no one wanted
violence. On July 16, the last day
Congress was in session,
Washington was on edge. Thousands of
angry veterans surrounded the Capitol.
Near midnight, the 72nd Congress
adjourned.
Congressmen left through back doors and
underground tunnels to avoid
confrontations. The situation had come to
a head. The president ordered the
evacuation of the veterans from downtown
Washington. By police count, there were
still 11,698 marchers and their
families in Washington. Midway between
the White House and the Capitol stood a
row of half demolished buildings where
hundreds of marchers were living. On the
morning of July 28, the wheels were in
motion to evict them.
Waters urged his men to cooperate. Then
someone began to throw bricks at the
police. Glassford and several police
officers run to the area. Two cops
are are grabbed. One cop pulls out a gun,
and he fires. Another cop turns, and he
fires a shot. One veteran was dead, and
another lay dying.
Now there's been bloodshed, and now you
bring in the troops. When MacArthur moved
his troops to the affected area, he knew
exactly what he was going to do. And he
adorned himself in his dress uniform,
along with his major aide, Dwight D.
Eisenhower. The force stepped off at 4:30
p.m.
More than 200 cavalry men spread out
across Constitution and Pennsylvania
Avenues.
Behind them came 400 infantrymen,
followed up by tanks and armored
vehicles. "I was about seven years old
at the time,
and the troops were out in Pennsylvania
Avenue. I was scared. And my dad kept
saying, "Nothing's going to happen."
The cavalrymen, one of whom is Major
Patton, have got their sabers out.
The soldiers don gas masks, and without
warning, began hurling gas grenades at
the veterans. The troops advanced, some
jabbing with bayonets. "Tear gas was
just burning my face. I was trailing
behind my dad, and he kept hollering,
'Come on, boy! Come on boy!'"
Marchers were choking from the gas, just
like the battlefields in France. "And so
they're being forced out of their shacks
by smoke bombs and tear gas hurled by
the troops who have been called out by
the President of the United States."
Chief Glassford stood by helplessly.
"The veterans did not believe the
country for which they had fought
would ignore the plight into which
the depression had placed them. Many
did not believe that United States troops
would take the field against them." By early
evening, most of the marchers had been
driven across a drawbridge that led to
their main camp. The President does not want
MacArthur to cross the bridge, and
MacArthur disregards the order. Eisenhower
later says that he saw this happen.
MacArthur says, "I cannot bother with
pieces of paper during a military operation."
And so he crosses the bridge. All through the
camp were scenes of panic.
"My dad says, 'Let's get the hell out of
here. The soldiers are gonna kill us.'"
Then troops began to set fire to their
wooden shacks.
One reporter wrote, "The blaze was so big,
it lit the whole sky - a nightmare come to
life." The President looked out a window
of the White House in the direction of
the fire, then retired for the night.
"And the roaring flames sound the death
knell to the fantastic Bonus Army, that
ends so disastrously in the shadow of the
Capitol of the United States of America."
The morning after the Bonus Route, public
sentiment took a dramatic turn against
Herbert Hoover. He argued that this was a
communist revolution, and there wasn't
one bit of evidence to prove it.
If the expulsion needed a human face, it
came in the person of Joe Angelo, whose
story was published across the nation.
Joe Angelo gets the Distinguished
Service Cross for saving Patton's life
on the battlefield. The next morning,
Angelo comes to the burned-out field to
see Patton. Patton says, "Take this man
away. I don't want to see this man."
[Music]
Walter waters quickly faded into
obscurity. "The BEF was broken up. The men
returned to some city or other, there to
roam the streets hopelessly, seeking work
or to shuffle in breadlines.
There they remain, crying examples not of
the need for the bonus, but of the need
for a new American system." So just a few
months after the Bonus Marchers are
driven out of Washington, you have a song
which is called "Brother Can You Spare a
Dime." This song was directly inspired by
the bonus marchers. (song: They used to
tell me I was building a dream with peace
and glory ahead. Why should I be standing
in line...") And it just captured the
desperation that was the story of the
Bonus March. (song: Say, buddy, can you
spare a dime?) On November 8, 1932,
Americans, desperate for change, elected
Franklin Delano Roosevelt president.
The first thing that Roosevelt does, he
produces something called the Economy
Act. The big victims are veterans.
Disabled veterans. Still, the veterans
kept returning to Washington each year.
FDR knows that he cannot use force
against the veterans. He also knows he
doesn't want them in Washington, DC. Many
of the men were sent to work in
rehabilitation camps in the Florida Keys.
On September 2, 1935, the most powerful
hurricane ever to hit the Western
Hemisphere hits in the Upper Keys where
these guys are located. Several hundred
of them are killed. The government
attempted to suppress the news. But one
of the first rescue boats to get in carried
the renowned writer Ernest Hemingway.
In an angry piece, he wrote, "The veterans
in those camps were practically murdered."
When the public finally learned the
truth, opposition to paying the bonus
began to vanish.
In 1936, war clouds were gathering again
in Europe. Once again, the bonus bill is
brought up. It is vetoed again by
President Roosevelt, but this time
there's enough power in the House and
Senate to override the veto. "The bonus
bill becomes law, and veterans' tab on
World War One is paid in full." Some four
million veterans were overjoyed. So the
story comes to an end. These guys get
their money. Their lives change. "My dad
came in the house with seven $100 bills,
and I thought, 'Oh, is that what the
bonus is?' you know. We didn't know what a
bonus was. You know it's money. After all
that time." On December 7, 1941, Pearl
Harbor was attacked, and a new generation
was called to serve. During the Second
World War,
Roosevelt admits World War one veterans'
arguments. He will say that soldiers now
serving in our army will have to be
compensated for the opportunities
they've missed. What emerged was the
landmark piece of legislation known as
the GI Bill of Rights, signed into law in
June of 1944. It put millions of people
into housing, put millions of people in
college, put millions of people into
small businesses, and it changed America.
The legacy of the Bonus Army can be seen
in all the marches on Washington that
have followed. And American soldiers
returning from war today expect the
government to keep its promises. The
Bonus March was a very visible lesson to
political leaders that they did need to
do something to respond to the
individual needs of Americans.
It tells us about the determination of
people, to make sure that veterans are
recognized for the service that they
render to the nation. "In my later years,
I understood what it meant. It meant
freedom to demonstrate, and it showed
America was a free, working democracy."
[Music]
The March of the Bonus Army is available
on video cassette or DVD. The companion
book to the program is also available. To
order, call PBS Home Video at 1-800 play
PBS. (song: Once I built a railroad, made
it run. I made it race against time. Once I built
a tower, now it's done. Brother, can you
spare a dime?) Major funding for this
program was provided by the Disabled
American Veterans National Service
Foundation. Since World War One, DAV
has helped veterans recover from the
wounds and scars of war. DAV - building
better lives for America's disabled
veterans and their families. Additional
production support provided by Tawani
Foundation - promoting the ideal of the
citizen soldier at the Pritzker Military
Library, Chicago, Illinois, and by the
Humanities Council of Washington, DC.
We are PBS.