His troops included infantry and cavalry and numbered 800, though an additional 2,700 were kept in reserve nearby, in case they were needed.Īnother World War II name, George O. The troops were led by General Douglas MacArthur, who would later serve in World War II and in the Korean War. Then, on July 28, the Hoover administration sent in the army and police to expel the marchers from Washington.
Things stayed in an unsettled condition for the next few weeks, with some veterans leaving but even more arriving, until their number reached somewhere between 10,000 and 20,000. President Herbert Hoover had promised the veto the bill. Two weeks later the US House of Representatives did in fact vote to provide the bonus, but the US Senate rejected it. He asked Congress for $75,000 to feed the marchers, a request that was turned down.
In the coming weeks, he was to prove more sympathetic to the men than the other authorities, and they appreciated it. It was also on June 1 that DC police superintendent, Brigadier General Pelham D. Bartlett, former Assistant Postmaster General and former Governor of New Hampshire who let the veterans camp there. The Anacostia site was given the name Camp Bartlett, after its owner John H. The major sites included 12th Street and B Street, NW (the latter is now Constitution Avenue), 3rd Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, and the largest, 30 acre site on the Anacostia Flats. They camped out in homemade shanty towns. By June 1, some 1,500 men, some with their families, were in Washington. Smaller splinter groups reached the capital on their own. After exiting the train in Iowa on May 18 they hitched rides and walked the rest of the way to Washington. They began a long trek to Washington aboard a freight train, loaned to them for free by the rail authorities. 400 veterans had gathered there by May 17, 1932, under the leadership of a fellow veteran, Walter M. If the movement had an official beginning, it would have been in Portland, Oregon. Out of sheer desperation, some of the veterans decided to march on Washington to ask for the bonus right away. By 1932, the Depression was still dragging on, with no end in sight. The bonus was also known as the “Tombstone Bonus.” Then, the Great Depression hit, beginning with the stock market collapse of 1929. One of the exceptions was the Bonus army in March of 1932.Īfter victory in World War I, the US government promised in 1924 that servicemen would receive a bonus for their service, in 1945. Most of the time, the gatherings have been peaceful. Throughout its history, Washington, DC has been the destination of demonstrators seeking to promote a wide variety of causes.
0 kommentar(er)
