(Brian) wrote in message . com...
Steve, everyone makes mistakes, but the Armistice goof got me thinking
about the veterans of WWI, and what happened to them during the Great
Depression. Like any other citizen, they lost their jobs, lost their
homes, their businesses. But they had earned a bonus for their
sacrifices in Europe, payable in 1945.

They marched on Washington to pressure congress to pay them now, not
later.

Here's some links and snips:

http://college.hmco.com/history/read..._bonusarmy.htm

[Bonus Army
a group of unemployed World War I veterans who demonstrated during the
Great Depression. The Bonus Law of 1924 had given every veteran a
certificate payable in 1945, but the veterans wanted the bonus
immediately. In June 1932, about 15,000 of them and their families
marched on Washington, D.C., in a futile effort to pressure the Senate
into passing a bill to grant immediate payments. President Herbert
Hoover called upon Gen. Douglas MacArthur and federal troops to
disperse the Bonus Army and drive them out of the capital. The use of
armed troops against unarmed men, women, and children shocked the
nation.]

http://www.islandnet.com/~citizenx/bonus.html

[Within a year of the Bonus Army Incident, President Roosevelt imposed
the Economy Act of 1933 which cut veterans disability allowances by
25%. In the effort to cut federal expenses, veterans were viewed as
having inordinate special status over civilians. During the 1932
election campaign, he had publicly proclaimed: "No one [merely]
because he wore a uniform must therefore be placed in a special class
of beneficiaries over and above all other citizens. The fact of
wearing a uniform does not mean that he can demand and receive from
his government a benefit which no other citizen receives."]

http://www.msys.net/cress/ballots2/bonus.htm

[In the summer of 1932 the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces
ordered the U.S. Army into action--to attack the veterans of the U.S.
Army. General Douglas MacArthur, Colonel Dwight D. Eisenhower, and
Major George S. Patton led the mounted soldiers, who wielded billy
clubs and tear gas canisters. When it was all over the veterans'
shanties and tents lay in smoldering piles. Proud veterans of World
War I were driven from the nation's capital. "We were heroes in 1917,"
said one veteran bitterly, "but we're bums now."]

http://www.lewrockwell.com/elkins/elkins9.html

[The Bonus Army
by Jeff Elkins

June 18, 1878

CHAP. 263 ? An act making appropriations for the support of the Army
for the fiscal year ending June thirtieth, eighteen hundred and
seventy-nine, and for other purposes.

SEC. 15. From and after the passage of this act it shall not be lawful
to employ any part of the Army of the United States, as a posse
comitatus, or otherwise, for the purpose of executing the laws?

Mostly forgotten today, the Bonus March incident of 1932 provided one
of the more instructive lessons in the naked power of the State and
just how meaningless the State views its laws and contracts with
citizens.]

http://members.aol.com/vetsofamer/bonus2.htm

http://www.soundprint.org/radio/disp...nus+Army+March

[In 1932, in the depths of the Depression, thousands of hungry and
disgruntled veterans of WW I marched on Washington, D.C. demanding
that Congress pay them the bonus for their military service that had
been promised years before. Banding together, unemployed Oregon
cannery workers marched with Pennsylvania coal miners and Alabama
cotton pickers, as more than 20 thousand "bonus marchers" participated
in the biggest rally to date in the nation's capital. And they stayed
for weeks, setting up tent cities, living in cardboard shanties, and
shaking the nerves of President Hoover. Find out how they played a
role in defeating Hoover in the fall election, and improving the
government's treatment of veterans after WW II.]


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In article ,
K0HB wrote:

In article ,
Steven J Robeson, K4YZ wrote:

On the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month,
the warring parties in what was then known as "The War To End All
Wars" was brought to an Amnesty.

Sunuvagun! So that's why it used to be called "Amnesty Day".
grinnin' duckin', & runnin'

Damn...he got me...!!!

Said "amnesty", meant "armistice"....sorry folks....I goofed.

Steve


It still is Armistice Day where I come from (the UK), but they now
celebrate Armistice Sunday on the nearest Sunday instead.