Bonus Army - March

March

On June 15, the House of Representatives passed the Wright Patman Bonus Bill which would have moved forward the date for World War I veterans to receive their cash bonus.

Most of the Bonus Army camped in a Hooverville on the Anacostia Flats, a swampy, muddy area across the Anacostia River from the federal core of Washington, just south of the 11th Street Bridges (now Section C of Anacostia Park). The camps, built from materials scavenged from a nearby rubbish dump, were tightly controlled by the veterans who laid out streets, built sanitation facilities, and held daily parades. To live in the camps, veterans were required to register and prove they had been honorably discharged.

The Bonus Army massed at the United States Capitol on June 17 as the U.S. Senate defeated the Bonus Bill by a vote of 62-18.

Read more about this topic:  Bonus Army

Famous quotes containing the word march:

    ‘Oh beat the drum slowly and play the fife lowly,
    Play the Dead March as you carry me along;
    Take me to the green valley, there lay the sod o’er me,
    For I’m a young cowboy and I know I’ve done wrong.
    —Unknown. As I Walked Out in the Streets of Laredo (l. 5–8)

    Knowledge, Virtue, Power are the victories of man over his necessities, his march to the dominion of the world.
    Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)

    One of the most interesting and affecting things [on a difficult return march from a raid into Virginia] is the train of contrabands, old and young, male and female—one hundred to two hundred—toiling uncomplainingly along after and with the army.
    Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)