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The Bonus Army
Cast of Characters

John Wright Patman U.S. Representative Sponsor of the "Bonus Bill"	Walter W. Waters Commander B.E.F. Portland Contingent	General Pelham Glassford Chief of Police Washington D.C.	Bonus Marchers World War I Veterans Washington D.C.
michaeljournal.org	B.E.F.		U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
In 1924, Congress passed the World War Veterans Act, which promised World War I veterans an amount of roughly $1,000 per veteran and was to be paid in 1945. In 1932, Patman sponsored a "Bonus Bill" in the House of Representatives to grant veterans immediate payment. Patman was a World War I veteran.	Waters, an unemployed World War I veteran, became the leader of the "Bonus Expeditionary Forces" or Bonus Army in the Summer of 1932. In May, 1932, he and 300 veterans from Portland, Oregon, struck out for Washington D.C. to lobby Congress in person for the passage of the Bonus Bill. Waters was the point-man with the authorities in Washington D.C.	Glassford, a brigadier general during World War I, went beyond the call of duty to accommodate the influx of unemployed veterans. He helped to provide them with food, shelter, and entertainment - sometimes, out of his own pocket. Glassford was generally regarded as a friend to the marchers. On July 27, 1932, Glassford was instructed by the District of Columbia commissioners to evacuate veterans from their billets in formerly abandoned buildings on Pennsylvania Avenue the next day.	In May and June of 1932, at least 20,000 unemployed World War I veterans came to Washington D.C. to lobby Congress to pass legislation on the "Bonus Bill." On June 15, the House passed the Bonus Bill. However, two days later, the Senate voted against the Bonus. Vowing to stay until 1945, many of the veterans remained in Washington D.C. to continue the struggle and because they could be unemployed there just as well as anywhere else.
Herbert Hoover U.S. President 1929-1933	Patrick Hurley Secretary of War Hoover Administration	General Douglass MacArthur Army Chief of Staff Hoover Administration	Franklin Delano Roosevelt U.S. President 1933-1945
Library of Congress	hooverdigest.org	aspipes.org	yaleglobal.yale.org
Hoover opposed Bonus legislation on the grounds that the country could not afford it in the midst of the Depression. On July 2, he successfully initiated legislation to provide transportation to Bonus Marchers in the form of loans. On July 28, Hoover authorized the army to remove the veterans from their Pennsylvania Avenue billets.	On July 28, Hurley, acting at Hoover's request, issued orders to General MacArthur to take troops to the scene of an earlier confrontation between the Washington D.C. police and the veterans on Pennsylvania Avenue. Later that, Hurley, through General Moseley sent word to MacArthur that he was not to cross the bridge and engage the veterans at Anacostia Field.	On July 28, MacArthur personally took command of cavalry, infantry and tanks and proceeded to evacuate the veterans billeted in buildings along Pennsylvania Avenue. Later in the evening, he directed soldiers to clear Anacostia Field, the main camp of the Bonus Marchers. That night troops, using teargas and bayonets, drove the veterans and their families out of Anacostia Field, razed their shacks, lean-tos, and tents, and forced them outside the city limits. Needless to say, blood was spilled.	Although newspaper coverage was generally friendly to the rout of the Bonus Marchers, public reaction was adverse to the actions of the Hoover Administration. While this issue figured into the 1932 presidential election campaigns between President Hoover and New York Governor Roosevelt, the "Battle of Anacostia" was probably seen by the public as one of many things that Hoover did wrong in managing the Great Depression.