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Bonus_Army[[1]]

The Bonus Expeditionary Force (Bonus Army) was the name for an assemblage of some 20,000 U.S. World War I veterans, their families, and affiliated groups who gathered in Washington, D.C. in May of 1932 to demand cash-payment redemption of their service certificates.

Congress voted in 1924 to give World War I veterans a bonus of $1.25 a day if served overseas and $1.00 a each day if served in the States with the payment deferred until 1945. The intent was to compensate the veterans for the loss wages as a result of serving in the war, but the actual payment of the bonus was deferred until 1945. In 1931, President Herbert Hoover vetoed a bill which would have allowed a loan for half the bonus amounts to be paid to veterans, but Congress overrode the veto and allowed for the half-loans. As the economy and unemployment became increasingly worse, the veterans wanted to be paid in cash for the remaining bonus balance. However, Congress opposed this due to a $2 billion balance deficit and the fear of inflationary pressure on the U.S. economy.

Many of the WWI veterans were out of work since the beginning of the Great Depression and demanded immediate cash payment of their certificates. Each service certificate which were issued to qualified veteran soldier, bore a face value equal to the soldier's promised payment plus compound interest.

Organizers called the demonstrators the "Bonus Expeditionary Force", to echo the name of World War I's American Expeditionary Forces, while the media referred to them as the "Bonus Army" or "Bonus Marchers". The contingent was led by Walter W. Waters, a former sergeant.