12/23/2023 0 Comments Size groupings for military tanks![]() ![]() ![]() The bill had come to a vote and failed, but many in the Bonus Expeditionary Force refused to pack up and go home. Even if the bill had passed the Senate, it most likely would have been vetoed by President Hoover, just as the bonus itself had been vetoed by Coolidge and Harding in the preceding years. No immediate relief would be coming to the veterans. The Senate voted down the bill on June 17. Although the bill had passed in the House, the bill did not have the votes to pass in the Senate. The government was no exception to the hard times that had befallen the nation. Republicans opposed the Patman bill mainly because it required the government to spend money it did not have in the treasury. The House carried on with its business, though, and with hundreds of veterans cheering from the gallery, the House passed the bill that same day. During the debate over the bill on June 15, 1932, Congressman Edward Eslick (D-TN) was making an address on the floor of the House of Representatives when he suffered a heart attack and died. Taking up the veterans’ cause, Congressman Wright Patman (D-TX) - himself a WWI veteran - sponsored a bill that would immediately provide a $2.4 billion bonus payment to WWI veterans. President Hoover later claimed “the march was largely organized and promoted by the Communists, and included a large number of hoodlums and ex-convicts bent on raising a public disturbance.” Using scrap wood and other salvaged materials, the protesters constructed a vast field of shacks in view of the Capitol dome, prepared for a siege of Congress.ġ966 portrait of Congressman Wright Patman by artist Victor Lallier.Ĭollection of the U.S. But the camps attracted an undesirable element as well. The largest camp was a shantytown on the Anacostia Flats, across the river from Washington’s Navy Yard.īy summer, at least 20,000 people had joined the camps, with some estimates putting the total number above 40,000. Walters, the veterans set up camps and occupied buildings in various locations in Washington, DC. Suffering and desperate, the BEF’s goal was to get the bonus payment now, when they really needed the money. In May 1932, jobless WWI veterans organized a group called the “Bonus Expeditionary Forces” (BEF) to march on Washington, DC. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |