The Great Depression, Part Nine

So the government tried to balance the Federal budget to help bolster confidence. Whether the attempt bolstered confidence, I have no idea, but if it did, confidence didn’t put food on any tables, or shoes on any feet. With unemployment far worse and the country far more restless than in the first couple of years of the Depression, an event took place that pretty much sealed Hoover’s fate in the upcoming election of 1932.

A few years after the Great War (later called "World War One") ended, Congress passed a law giving a “bonus” to veterans of the European War. The amount, $100, was a considerable sum for those days, considering that the average income was somewhat under $1000 a year. The “bonus” was to be paid in two installments of $50. The first installment was paid, but the law did not make the second installment due until 1945. By 1932, some veterans decided to lobby Congress to move the payment of the second installment up to help unemployed veterans and to give the economy a shot in the arm. Some Veterans organized a march to Washington to make an effort to persuade Congress to pass the desired legislation. Thousands joined the “march,” and when they got to DC, they made an “encampment” of tents and shacks in one part of town known as Anacostia Flats. Most folks heard speeches and marched, and when the House passed, but the Senate defeated the bill, they went home, but a part of the "marchers" remained.

President Hoover and his wife sent sandwiches and coffee out to those gathered to lobby for the bill, but to my knowledge, the whole matter was kept secret, as Hoover was so prone to do. (It bears repeating from an earlier part of this series; Hoover’s religious beliefs were that he wasn’t supposed to help folks, or do good deeds to get credit, but to help his fellow man. Of course, in politics, what the public sees, or doesn’t see, for that matter, is important.) After the Senate defeated the bill, a group of veterans, and some say communists and communist inspired radicals, stayed behind. The ensuing incident really pitted almost opposite political points of view against one another, with each side accusing the other of all sorts of misconduct. To be quite honest, I don’t know that anyone really knows all of the facts and details of the composition of the people in the encampment. I’m not naïve, and I’d certainly be MORE surprised to hear someone claim that no communists were involved, as during that time in history, the battle lines between extreme Right and extreme Left were beginning to sharpen in many countries, including the USA. So anyway, I’m going to try to give just basics, as the “truth” about this incident is in the “political” eyes of the beholder, so to speak.

According to some reports, some men of the “Bonus Army,” as it was called, tried to enter some government buildings, and the police opened fire, killing one man. This inflamed the entire situation and the president called in General Douglas MacArthur to get the “Bonus Army” back across the river to the Anacostia Flats and away from the government section of the city. Hoover ordered that the Army was only to move the men across the river in an orderly manner and was not to go into their encampment. There’s no question that MacArthur disobeyed Hoover’s orders, most historians do agree on that, as he decided to pursue the Bonus Army across the river and into their encampment. He claimed communist conspiracies and such, and I have no idea what the truth was. He ordered the veterans out of the city and tear gas was used, bayonets flashed and tanks rolled forward as the Army moved the Bonus Army along. Then fire was set to much of the Bonus Army encampment, some say accidentally. This incident would require a book in itself, so we’ll leave it right here, except to say that the whole ordeal, besides the personal tragedies involved, was a public relations disaster for Hoover. Film taken by newsmen showing Army troopers with fixed bayonets pushing against veterans of service overseas and their families, and the fires of the burning encampment in the background were powerful images for the American public (remember, in those times, before television, people saw newsreels in movie theaters). Hoover, at first unaware of MacArthur’s disobedience, made a public commendation to the general, which seemed to say to the public that Hoover approved of the whole operation, and this gave Democratic candidate Franklin Roosevelt cause to say, “Well… I guess this elects me!” Hoover then learned the truth about MacArthur’s actions, but, unlike so many politicians since those times, he took full responsibility for the matter. Roosevelt’s comment was certainly true, as Americans had pretty much had it with Hoover’s time in office.

WORD HISTORY:
Grand-The ultimate origins of this word, meaning "large, impressive, luxurious, dignified," are unknown. It traces back to Latin "grandis," which meant "large, fully developed, full-grown." This gave Old French, a Latin-based language, "grant," which became "graunt" in the Anglo-Norman dialect which developed among the nobility in England after the Norman invasion. The basic meanings remained the same. It initially came into English around 1200 as a borrowing only in compounds to copy from the French and Anglo-Norman usage for family relationships; as in, "grandmother" ("graund dame" in French). This usage denoted "removal by two generations;" that is, your grandmother is two generations removed (in this case older) from you, or from your grandmother's point of view, you are two generations (in this case younger) removed from her. The late 1300s brought the borrowing of the single word "grand," but it wasn't until the 1500s that the word came into widespread usage. The term "grand" to denote "$1000" is an American English meaning from the early 20th Century, apparently from criminal world usage.