Reply #19: There is a precedent. Read this! Macarthur teargasses Veteran protestors [View All]

[Tinoire]

What we need is a Veterans march on Washington. The numbers of homeless, wronged Veterans would simply astound America.

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In 1932, during the Great Depression, over 60,000 unemployed World War I veterans came to Washington to protest their condition, and to seek increased borrowing privileges on their bonus certificates. While they did not hold a formal march, the "Bonus Marchers" simply engulfed the Avenue, with many camping out in vacant buildings in the Federal Triangle area. Others camped on the Anacostia Flats. After the Senate rejected the Patman Bonus Bill on July 15, <snip / sentence unclear>. Many veterans attempted to sit down in the street, but were routed by tear gas. MacArthur's troops continued down on to the Anacostia camp which they then burned. In the 1960s a number of large civil rights and anti-Vietnam War marches were held on or near the Avenue.

http://www.nps.gov/paav/protest.htm


1932-96: World War I veterans block the steps of the Capitol during the Bonus March, July 5, 1932. (Underwood and Underwood)

About the Bonus Army

A "shameful but little known 1932 police action," featured future Generals MacArthur, Patton and Eisenhower all playing a part in dealing with the so-called "Bonus Army" comprised of demonstrating World War I veterans, burning them out of their encampment of makeshift huts and tents on the mud flats by the Anacostia River outside of the beltway. Little is generally known about this extraordinary event in American history, one which quite directly let to FDR's huge election win in 1932... and all that followed!

In 1924, a grateful U.S. government passed legislation that authorized the payment of cash bonuses to war veterans of World War I, adjusted for length of service. This was to make up for the wages the men had missed by serving in the army at only thirty dollars a month while others back home worked at high-paying wartime jobs. The bonus was due to be paid in 1945, however, the Crash of 1929 wiped out many veterans' savings and jobs, forcing them out into the streets. Groups of veterans began to organize and petition the government to pay them their cash bonus immediately, although veterans were within two years allowed to borrow money against the bonus.

But because of the country-wide depression, in 1931 Congress expanded the privilege of borrowing with an amendment adopted over the veto of President Hoover, increasing the loan value of the certificates from 22.5% to 50% of face value. As a result of the opposition of President Hoover and numerous Senators and members of the House, due primarily to the fact that the country was trying to work it's way out of the depression and such an action would put a significant strain on the federal budget, a group of 300 veterans in Portland, Oregon organized by an ex-Sergeant named Walter Walters, decided to exercise their First Amendment rights by marching on Washington, D.C. to press their demands. Other veterans groups around the country rallied to the idea.

<snip>

On 28 July 1932, two veterans were shot and killed by panicked policemen in a riot at the bottom of Capitol Hill. This provided the final stimulus. Hoover directed Secretary of War Patrick Hurley to tell then Army Chief of Staff General Douglas MacArthur that he wished the Bonus Army Marchers evicted from Washington. Troops from nearby Forts Myer and Washington were ordered in to remove the Bonus Army Marchers from the streets by force. One battalion from the 12th Infantry Regiment and two squadrons of the 3rd Cavalry Regiment (under the command of Major George S. Patton, who had taken over as second in command of the Regiment less than three weeks earlier) concentrated at the Ellipse just west of the White House. At 1600 hours the infantrymen donned gas masks and fixed bayonets, the cavalry drew sabers, and the whole force (followed by several light tanks) moved down Pennsylvania Avenue to clear it of people.

Against the advice of his aide, Major Dwight D. Eisenhower, MacArthur had taken personal command of the operation. Hoover had ordered MacArthur to clear Pennsylvania Avenue only, but MacArthur immediately began to clear all of downtown Washington, herding the Marchers out and torching their huts and tents. Tear gas was used liberally and many bricks were thrown, but no shots were fired during the entire operation. By 2000 hours the downtown area had been cleared and the bridge across the Anacostia River, leading to the "Hooverville" where most of the Marchers lived, was blocked by several tanks.

<snip>

http://www.thegunzone.com/lore.html

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"We were heroes in 1917," said one veteran bitterly, "but we're bums now."

\By July 1932, almost 25,000 people lived in Anacostia, making it the largest one in the country.

<snip>

As the weather and the rhetoric grew hotter, concern grew that the Bonus Army Marchers could cause widespread civil disorder and violence. There were scuffles with the police and some Senators' cars were stoned by unruly crowds of veterans.

Retired Marine General Smedley Butler*, an immensely popular figure among veterans and who had become a vocal opponent of the Hoover Administration, participated in Bonus Army demonstrations and made inflammatory speeches.

<snip>

Nevertheless, President Hoover considered the Bonus Army Marchers a threat to public order and his personal safety. After the closing ceremonies for that session of Congress on July 16, many members left the Capitol building through underground tunnels to avoid facing the demonstrators outside.



More here: http://beachonline.com/hoover.htm or google: veterans protest macarthur Anacostia