Bonus Army Marches on Washington, DC

Summer seems to be a prime time for protests, especially in Washington, D.C. Perhaps because of vacations, when people are free to travel, yet Congress is still in session. There have been civil rights marches, March for Life events, and huge prayer rallies.

I learned recently about the Bonus Army march of 1932, one of the first large scale, veteran-led, organized protests in American history, which set the standard for non-violent advocacy.

Bonus Army marching toward the Capitol on July 5, 1932.
Library of Congress photo

Veterans of the Great War (now known as World War I) had been promised bonuses, or “adjusted compensation,” for their service. In 1924, Congress approved giving each qualified veteran an additional $1 for every day served; for overseas service, the amount was $1.25. Certificates were issued which could be redeemed for the bonus amount with compound interest in 1945.

But when the Great Depression hit, many veterans struggled to make ends meet. Unemployment rose to more than 20%. Over a quarter million families lost their homes to mortgage foreclosure.

Veterans needed cash, not paper certificates promising a future payout.

In 1932, Congress considered a bill for early payment of the bonuses, sparking hope among veterans. Originating in Portland, Oregon, several hundred veterans began to travel to the nation’s capital to urge passage of the bill. By early summer, nearly 20,000 jobless veterans from all over the country, along with their families and supporters, joined. Called the Bonus Expeditionary Force, an allusion to the war’s American Expeditionary Force, the press nicknamed it the Bonus Army.

Bonus Expeditionary Force camp on Anacostia Flats had a military-style
organization. Library of Congress Photo

The demonstrators, totaling more than 40,000 at one point, set up camps and shantytowns, mostly across the river from the Capitol, in an area called Anacostia Flats, and on Pennsylvania Avenue. They demonstrated on the Capitol grounds, urging Congress to pass a bill allowing early payment of their bonuses. The House of Representatives approved the bill, but on June 17, it failed in the Senate due to lack of money in the government coffers.

Disappointed, the veterans sang “America” and returned peacefully to their camps, vowing to stay until their situation improved. One veteran said, “If they gave me a job, I wouldn’t care about the bonus.”

The movement’s leader, Walter W. Waters, urged non-violent protest. As the summer progressed, however, skirmishes with police occurred and officials grew concerned about public order. On July 28, skirmishes turned into a brawl and two vets were wounded and later died. President Herbert Hoover then ordered the Army to “put an end to rioting and defiance of authority.”

General Douglas MacArthur directing the
evacuation of Bonus Army marchers from
Washington, D.C. July 28, 1932.
Library of Congress photo

General Douglas MacArthur, with assistance from Major Dwight D. Eisenhower and Major George S. Patton, led infantry, cavalry, and tanks to forcibly evict the demonstrators from government property. Soldiers burned the camps and used tear gas, dispersing the marchers.

Images of veterans and their families under attack by their own government shocked the nation. The resulting public relations disaster for Hoover contributed to his landslide defeat by Franklin D. Roosevelt in the presidential election that fall.

A second, smaller Bonus Army in March 1933 disbanded when most of the group accepted jobs with the newly created Civilian Conservation Corps.

Finally, in 1936, Congress overrode a veto by President Roosevelt and paid veterans their bonuses nine years early. In subsequent years, support for funding veterans’ programs continued to increase and spurred the G.I. Bill after World War II.

According to one analysis, the Bonus Army’s “unwavering spirit and unrelenting determination left an indelible mark on American history, serving as a powerful testament to the power of collective action and the importance of honoring those who serve.”

SOURCES:

Bonus Army of 1932: Life Without a Safety Net - The Washington Post 

WWI Veterans Converge on Capitol Hill - Event Date: June 17th, 1932

The Bonus March (May-July, 1932) | American Experience | Official Site | PBS

Remembering the Bonus Army | The Wolfsonian | Florida International University | FIU

Bonus Expeditionary Forces March on Washington (U.S. National Park Service)

The Forgotten March · National Parks Conservation Association

The “Bonus Army” March – U.S. Capitol Historical Society

Multi-award-winning author Marie Wells Coutu finds beauty in surprising places, like undiscovered treasures, old houses, and gnarly trees. All three books in her Mended Vessels series, contemporary stories based on the lives of biblical women, have won awards in multiple contests. She is currently working on historical romances set in her native western Kentucky in the 1930s and ‘40s. An unpublished novel, Shifting Currents, placed second in the inspirational category of the nationally recognized Maggie Awards. Learn more at www.MarieWellsCoutu.com.

Her historical short story, “All That Glistens,” was included in the 2023 Saturday Evening Post Great American Fiction collection and is now available free when you sign up for Marie's newsletter here. In her newsletter, she shares about her writing, historical tidbits, recommended books, and sometimes recipes.

I Sleep in Ghost Towns and Other True Confessions of a Historical Fiction Novelist

Writers are famous for a certain quirkiness, often while blithely unaware we are doing anything unusual. Doesn't everyone trail off in the middle of a sentence to stare into space then, when prompted to continue, startle and ask 'what?'? Others might talk to themselves but usually not to the characters in their heads. While on the top floor of a historic home, other visitors edge away when we exclaim how easy it would be to throw someone to a horrible death from the window.

Our antics while on a research trip belong in a class by themselves. Not unlike ace reporters ferreting a scoop, we do the unexpected. Seemingly strange behaviors such as crawling into hidden places, hanging out of windows, or taking extreme close-ups of hinges and nails in the wall don't phase us.

When it comes to ghost towns, exploring them in the daylight is not enough. To fully experience the atmosphere, I need to spend the night in a ghost town.There's just something about going to bed in a room where the footsteps of past occupants echo through your imagination, waking in the small hours with the wind whistling outside your door, and the first rays of morning bathing ancient buildings in new light.

Sleeping in a ghost town isn't always convenient or possible. Not to be deterred by such minor concerns, I have managed it twice.

The Shaniko Hotel, originally called the Columbia Southern Hotel (ca. 1900) is listed on the US National Register of Historic Places and is part of the Shaniko Historic District. (Image by Ian Poellet (User:Werewombat) (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 or GFDL], via Wikimedia Commons.)

The Shaniko Hotel in the partially-inhabited ghost town of Shaniko, Oregon made an impression on me when I first saw it during a ghost-town-hunting expedition with my family. We stopped for dinner in the hotel's restaurant, and I determined someday to return for an overnight stay.

Shaniko is located on a plateau in Oregon's high desert, and the heat was sweltering when we returned. We checked in through the restaurant and then went to our room. The pictures I took are now lost, but I recall that it was small but adequate and had a closet of a bathroom. Some attempt had been made to modernize it, which I always consider unfortunate in a historic building. The view of the sun setting across town from our second-floor window was worth sleeping in the heat afterwards. I believe our room was the seventh one from the corner, above the cafe sign.

Shaniko's historic Billiard Hall (blue on left, built before 1910) and its neighboring house (unpainted right of center, built ca. 1920, relocated to present site in 1965), are listed as contributing resources in the Shaniko Historic District, which is listed on the US National Register of Historic Places. Image by Ian Poellet (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0], via Wikimedia Commons

I didn't sleep very well that night, but now I'm thankful we booked a room before the Shaniko Hotel closed its doors to guests.The town is still interesting to visit, and in the summer months offers tourist activities meant to help visitors understand the town's sheep-capital past. By 1903, Shaniko had become the world's largest inland shipping center for wool.

Virginia City, Montana, USA. The view from the road agent cemetery on the hill.Image by SchmuckyTheCat at the English language Wikipedia [GFDL or CC-BY-SA-3.0h], from Wikimedia Commons

The temperature was dipping the other direction when we drove into Virginia City, Montana with autumn winds blowing. (This is the other Virginia City that served as the capital of Montana Territory at its formation, not the ghost town by the same name in Nevada.) In fact, the few bed and breakfasts in this partially-inhabited ghost town were closed for the season. My husband and I were on a research trip to one of the settings of Hills of Nevermore the first installment in the Montana Gold series, which releases next year. Being from California's Big Valley, originally, I had not taken into consideration that a mountain town would close for the winter.

Without a bed for the night, we would be forced to either move on or backtrack. After a long drive and with the sun about to set, neither seemed welcome. We traveled up and down the town's streets looking for a place to stay and finally pulled off the road to discuss our options. While we were talking, I commented on the beauty of the house we were parked in front of and the care that had gone into the yard.The pride in ownership contrasted interestingly with the abandoned structures all around.

I will sleep happily in a dilapidated old building and consider its run-down state a feature, but my husband (poor man) likes his amenities. For his sake, I knocked on the door.

The Gingerbread House in Virginia City, Montana was built in 1898 by one of Virginia City's most prominent citizens, C. W. Rank, pharmacist and owner of Rank's Merchantile.The original brick structure looked very different than it does today. Image courtesy of Karen Fisher.

A lovely woman named Karen Fisher, the owner of the Gingerbread House Bed and Breakfast, answered. Finding me huddled like a refugee from the storm on her doorstep, she didn't blink an eye but explained gently that she was closed for the season. I asked if she knew of another place to stay, but chances didn't look too good for us. I couldn't help but admire her home. My interest was genuine, springing from my love of history, not an attempt to flatter her into having us stay (really), but then she wanted to share her home with me. I received the grand tour, with my husband invited in to see it, too.

Karen had moved back in from the cabin where she stays when hosting guests and understandably didn't want to shift again for our one-night stay. However, if we would give her a little time, she'd let us spend the night in one of the cabins. We backtracked to a restaurant in another town and lingered over dinner to give her time to prepare.

The Bickford Cabin, where my husband and I spent the night, was the home of former slave, Sarah Bickman, who arrived in Virginia City in 1870 and owned the water utility and the building where five road agents were hanged. Image courtesy of Karen Fisher.

Sarah Gammon Bickford

Karen explained that the cabin was named in honor of a former slave who rose to local prominence above many hardships. Both Sarah's parents were sold during the Civil War, and she never saw them again. She suffered at the hands of her abusive husband, John Brown, whom she divorced following the deaths of their three children,William, Leonard, and Eva. She went on to marry Stephen Bickford, a farmer and miner, and the two had four children together, Elmer, Harriet, Helena, and Mabel.

Staying in that renovated cabin remains a cherished memory from the trip. Despite frosty temperatures, we spent a snug night and awoke ready to visit boot hill, sample the last of the season's ice cream in a vintage shop and, of course, photograph all the door knobs in town...

About Janalyn Voigt

Janalyn Voigt's unique blend of adventure, romance, suspense, and whimsy creates breathtaking fictional worlds for readers. Look for her upcoming western historical fiction. The Montana Gold series begins in 2017 with Hills of Nevermore. Janalyn also writes epic fantasy. Beginning with DawnSinger, the epic fantasy series, Tales of Faeraven, carries readers into a land only imagined in dreams.

Janalyn is represented by Wordserve Literary Agency. Her memberships include ACFW and NCWA. When she's not writing, she loves to discover worlds of adventure in the great outdoors with her family.

Visit Janalyn Voigt's website.

The Man Who Shot J.P. Morgan

 

The Man Who Shot J.P. Morgan ...

and Committed Other Nefarious Acts

by Susan Page Davis



Surprise Giveaway below

On July 2, 1915, Erich Muenter carried a package into the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. A former professor of German at Harvard University and several other colleges, Muenter was angry with Congress and American financiers who were aiding Great Britain in its fight against Germany.

The U.S. Capitol circa 1915

The chamber doors were locked, but Muenter was able to get into the Senate Reception Room. He placed the package, containing three sticks of dynamite, under the Senate’s telephone switchboard. He set the timer for a few minutes to midnight, then hurried to Union Station, where he bought a train ticket to New York.
No one was injured in the blast, as it was late on the Friday night of a holiday weekend. A guard feared the whole dome would collapse, but the damage was largely confined to the Reception Room.

John Pierpont Morgan

After watching from the station as an explosion rocked the Capitol, Muenter boarded his train. Arriving in New York the next morning, he went to J.P. Morgan’s estate on Long Island and gained entry using a false name. Muenter pulled a pistol and shot J. P. Morgan twice during a scuffle.
Some accounts say Morgan himself, though wounded, overpowered Muenter. Others reported that his servants tackled the intruder and the butler hit him over the head. Later it was claimed that Muenter planned to take Mrs. Morgan and other family members hostage until Morgan agreed to stop financing munitions for Britain. He denied being a German sympathizer and said he opposed war in general.

It's said Morgan hated photographers
 and is shown here taking out his wrath on one.

 

Soon it was revealed that Muenter had lived under the false name Frank Holt for the previous decade. Why was he in hiding? Because he murdered his first wife, Leone Krembs, in 1906. His second wife had no idea that the Frank Holt she married was actually Erich Muenter, a fugitive and murderer. He taught German at the University of Oklahoma, Vanderbilt University in Nashville, a small college in Virginia, and Cornell University under the name Frank Holt.

 

Muenter’s plans in opposing American intervention in the Great War hadn’t ended. Police discovered that he had purchased about 200 sticks of dynamite. He told them he had placed a bomb on a ship and that it would sink on Wednesday. In a letter to his second wife, delivered after his arrest, he had named two steamships that would sink that week. They were radioed and thoroughly searched. No explosives were found on the ships he named, but another, the Minehaha, did suffer an explosion on the day he had named. While the sailors fought the fire, the ship steamed to the nearest port.

Photo of Erich Muenter after
his arrest

Muenter attempted suicide in the Mineola Jail. His guard was told to be ready to rush into the cell if he tried it again. For this reason, the guard later claimed, he had left the cell door ajar so that he could reach the prisoner quickly if need be. When the guard was called elsewhere, Muenter left his cell and jumped to his death.


The mysteries surrounding Erich Muenter were never fully solved. For instance, only 134 of the 200 sticks of dynamite he purchased were accounted for, and it was never shown whether he had accomplices in getting the dynamite onto any ships. For some time, “experts” were unsure whether Muenter and Holt were the same man, though acquaintances of Holt identified Muenter as Holt, and both were known to have similar scars. Handwriting experts did not agree on whether or not their writing was similar.
There is much more to this story, and I found it intriguing. I first ran across it while researching my book The Crimson Cipher, set in 1915, prior to the United States’s entry into World War I. Many acts of terrorism were carried out in this country, but we rarely hear about them anymore.

If you would like to enter the drawing for a copy (print or e-book) of The Crimson Cipher, leave a comment below. This story of a young woman employed as a civilian cryptographer for the navy mentions several other attempts to stop America from entering the war or helping the Allies.

Susan Page Davis is the author of more than forty published novels. A history major, she’s always interested in the unusual happenings of the past. She’s a two-time winner
of the Inspirational Readers’ Choice Award, and also a winner of the Carol Award and the Will Rogers Medallion, and a finalist in the WILLA Awards and the More Than Magic Contest. Visit her website at: www.susanpagedavis.com .