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The Bonus March

© Earl Rickard

The commanding general believed the situation was well in hand; he would continue his advance towards the river and save his nation from disaster. But the President of the United States perceived the situation as highly volatile, so he ordered the general to halt. The general ignored the president's order. Is this article about General Douglas MacArthur, President Truman, and Korea in the autumn of 1950? No! The general in this article is MacArthur, but the president is Herbert Hoover and the setting is Washington D.C. in the summer of 1932.

In 1924, Congress passed the Adjusted Service Compensation Act, known as the Soldiers' Bonus. The act promised a cash bonus, payable in 1945, to America's World War I veterans. But the Great Depression intervened causing many vets to ask for early payment. Congress, overriding President Hoover's veto, allowed the ex-doughboys half of the bonus in 1931. When the depression worsened, Representative Wright Patman introduced a bill to pay the remainder of the bonus in 1932.

By late spring 1932, thousands of unemployed vets converged on the nation's capital to demonstrate for the bonus. All the men were poor and many brought their wives and children. With nowhere to stay some vets built makeshift shacks on an empty strip of government land called Anacostia Flats; other vets took up residence across the Anacostia River in some abandoned Treasury Department buildings scheduled for demolition.

Being former soldiers the bonus marchers organized themselves into groups and elected leaders. Walter Waters an ex-sergeant emerged as the national commander of what he dubbed the BEF -- the Bonus Expeditionary Force. On May 29, Waters met with Pelham D. Glassford, Washington D.C.'s chief of police. Glassford, the youngest brigadier general in the World War I American Expeditionary Force, "agreeably surprised the BEF's commander. Waters described the the blue-eyed, six-foot three-inch West Pointer as "no hard-boiled disciple of the old police school. In him the human element was above the law. He was friendly, courteous and above all humanly considerate." Glassford asked Waters how many men he thought would show up in Washington; Waters accurately guessed 20,000.

Because none of the capital's political leaders would give Glassford direct orders to evict the marchers -- Secretary of War Patrick Hurley said that the United States government refused to "recognize the invasion."-- Glassford decided to aid his fellow vets rather than confront them, hoping they would leave town after the bonus vote. From the National Guard Glassford secured tentage and rolling kitchens, from wealthy friends he squeezed out out cash donations, from his own pocket the police chief donated hundreds of dollars. Glassford even served for a short time as the BEF's treasurer.

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