11/12/17
Period 1
The Bonus Army
After the "roaring twenties" when the stock market crashed in 1930 and the "Great Depression" hit males had to find a way to support their families through the troboling times. Therefore veterans that had served in WWI were promised a bonus by the federal government during the war and were now asking for it. However it wasnt only the people that had little to no money, it was the government as well, so they promised that in 1945 the veterans would be paid their bonus. This angered veterans since they hd to support their family now and then, therefore causing riots to break out all through the nation. Howver the most infamous riot took place in front of the white house, where hudreds of thousand vterens meet up to protest against their bonus's not being paid. the local police were overun and the national guard was called, one civilian was shot dead and numerous police and guards were injured. The veterans were eventually promised $100,000 if they returned home. A second bonus army came in 1933 and was responded to by Eleonore Roosevelt who delivered a speech.
I really enjoyed your post and thought it was interesting how the event occurred twice. Both times, no legislation was passed and changes were not made to veteran compensation. However, a Civilian Conservation Corps was created, which gave veterans a place to work and Congress passed a bill to disperse $2 million for veterans' benefit. Additionally, the second Bonus Army is credited for being the foundation for the G.I Bill of Rights. It's fascinating how it took many people and repeated tries for results to occur.
ReplyDeleteSource : https://www.britannica.com/event/Bonus-Army
It's quite sad that these veterans had to protest in order to get compensation for their work, especially after risking their lives for the country. What is interesting is that even before the Great Depression, the government only promised the compensation in 1945. I personally wondered why the government refused to pay beforehand, even before the start of the war. The US government enacted the World War Adjusted Compensation Act, which outlined war compensation for veterans. Unless the amount was under $50, the payments would not even start until 1925, and couldn't be redeemed in full until 1945. While I believe this was likely made to give the government time to recover from the war, I think that after showing such an act of bravery, the veterans were right to be angry that they wouldn't get their full compensation for more than 25 years after the war. This is the source I found about the World War Adjusted Compensation Act:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1399.html