After World War I, Congress voted a financial payment to veterans of the war as a bonus for their service. Every veteran of the Great War was promised a pension that included $1 for every day served on the home front with a maximum of $500 and $1.25 for every day served overseas with a maximum of $650. But, according to the terms of the legislation, the payment was to be made in 1945. (Roscigno and Danaher, pp. 115-138.)
Due to the dramatic economic status most of the veterans found themselves in during the Depression, a movement arose to petition Congress to pay the bonus earlier. When Congress did nothing to address the issue of an early bonus payment, veterans decided to march on Washington in the hope of exerting pressure to achieve their objective. In May 1932, more than 20,000 veterans came to Washington from all over the country: hitchhiking, riding the rails, using whatever way they had to get there. They called themselves “The Bonus Expeditionary Force,” a play on the American Expeditionary Force of WWI. They were also called “The Bonus Army.” (Id.)
When Congress would not advance the payment, the veterans established “Hoovervilles” along the Anacostia River and vowed to stay until they were paid. (http://uncensoredhistoryoftheblues.purplebeech.com/2006/03/show-14-bonus-blues.html) Using the tune from the WW I song “Over There,” they sang “All you here, Here and there, Pay the bonus, Pay the bonus everywhere, The Yanks are starving, The Yanks are starving, The Yanks are starving over here.” (Keene, The United States and the First World War, p. 79; Trout, On the Battlefield of Memory: The First World War and American Remembrance 1919-1941, p.88.) They also created an anthem playing on the WW I song, “Mademoiselle from Armentieres”:
We’re all the way from Oregon
To get some cash from Washington,
Hinky, dinky, parlez-vous.We’re going to ride the B &O.
The good lord Jesus told us so.
Hinky, dinky, parlez-vous.When Mr. Hoover says “O.K.”
You’re going to see a better day
Hinky, dinky, parlez-vous.
President Hoover callously ordered the Army to forcibly remove the veterans from their encampments. On July 28, 1932 a force of tanks and cavalry under the command of General Douglas MacArthur, carrying machine guns and other military weapons, stormed the camps and used tear gas to drive out the veterans. Their makeshift houses were then set ablaze. Two babies died from the gas. Reports vary about the number of vets killed during the removal, but there were at least two or three. (Roscigno and Danaher, Id.; Hakim, pp. 274-76; TFC, Vol. 4, pp. 25-26; http://timelines.ws/days/07_28.HTML.)
Over the next few days, newspapers and newsreels (shown in movie theatres) showed graphic images of the violence inflicted on once uniformed soldiers (and their families), those who had won the First World War, by then current uniformed servicemen. Most Americans were outraged, and they blamed President Hoover for the debacle. In movie theatres across America that played news clips, audiences booed the Army and jeered MacArthur was jeered.
For each of the next four years, veterans returned to Washington, D.C., to push for a bonus. Many of the men were sent to rehabilitation camps in the Florida Keys. On September 2, 1935, several hundred of them were killed in a hurricane. The government attempted to suppress the news, but writer Ernest Hemingway was aboard one of the first rescue boats, and he wrote an angry piece about it. Resistance to the bonus withered. Finally, in 1936, Congress voted the veterans their bonus. (Id.)
As can be imagined, there was a multitude of songs about the Bonus Army situation. A podcast, “Uncensored History of the Blues,” Show 14 – Bonus Blues (3/19/06), (http://uncensoredhistoryoftheblues.purplebeech.com/2006/03/show-14-bonus-blues.html) contains several such songs, including: “Bonus Blues” sung by Joe Pullum beginning at 9:40; “When The Soldiers Get Their Bonus” sung by Cripple Clarence Lofton and Red Nelson beginning at 16:10 (see also https://youtu.be/wnkpHRwh_r8); and “When I Get My Money” sung by Bumble Bee Slim (Amos Easton) beginning at 19:05 (also at https://youtu.be/4tRNmDswyy0).
When the Soldiers Get Their Bonus
Good morning mama, look mighty swell
Now you say you got something to sell
We’ll have a nice time, when the soldiers get their bonus,
We’ll have a nice time when the soldiers get their bonus,
Even if it don’t last too longI got some liquor, I got some wine,
We’ll get drunk have a one good time
We’ll have a nice time, when the soldiers get their bonus,
We’ll have a nice time, when the soldiers get their bonus,
Even if it don’t last longI had two dollars, I do not know where it went
Show me what you got, that’s fifty cents
We’ll have a nice time, when the soldiers get their bonus,
We’ll have a nice time, when the soldiers get their bonus,
Even if it don’t last longMy gal got a heart big as a well,
She’ll shake her body, just won’t move her tail
We’ll have a nice time, when the soldiers get their bonus,
We’ll have a nice time, when the soldiers get their bonus,
Even if it don’t last longI play with this cool cat using his dice
Sometime … (unintelligible)…blues, old man wise
We’ll have a nice time, when the soldiers get their bonus,
We’ll have a nice time, when the soldiers get their bonus,
even if it don’t last longGrandpa told Grandma last year,
we got too old, better shift your gear
We’ll have a nice time, when the soldiers get their bonus,
We’ll have a nice time, when the soldiers get their bonus,
even if it don’t last longMy black girls’ head wont be too hard,
Even a good man won’t have me barred
We’ll have a nice time, when the soldiers get their bonus,
We’ll have a nice time, when the soldiers get their bonus,
Even if it don’t last long
“When I Get My Money (I mean that Bonus)”
Early one morning I was lying in the bed
I just read the paper this is what they said
The bonus was vetoed, but they passed it any how
I said thank God almighty, I wish I had it now
When I get my bonus I ain’t gonna throw it all away
I want to save some to live on
Working hard won’t payMaybe I go to the tavern and drink a little beer
I’m going to buy Myrtle a souvenir
Ain’t going to pitch no parties and pay the phone bill
Thought I’d buy a new V-8 Ford, don’t believe I will
When I get my bonus I ain’t gonna throw it all away
I’m going to save some to live on
Working hard won’t payNow, boys you just all take it from me
This is the last round up about this bonus business
Ain’t get no more bonus, unless you fight some more wars
Better hold on to every dollar you can
That’s what I’m going to doEverybody’s planning on having a nice time
I ain’t thinking about nothing but saving mine
When I get broke ain’t nobody say
Slim got his money and throwed it all away
When I get my bonus I ain’t gonna throw it all away
I’m going to save some to live on
Working hard won’t payGoing to New York City, place I never been
And make Harlem ring from end to end,
Harlem is heaven so they say
If I get lucky that’s where I’m going to stay
When I get my money I ain’t gonna throw it all away
I’m going to save some to live on
Working hard won’t pay
“That Bonus Done Gone Through,” written and sung by Lil Johnson (1936) celebrates the day Congress passed the bonus bill. (http://www.authentichistory.com/1930-1939/1-hoover/2-bonusarmy/19360212_That_Bonus_Done_Gone_Thru-Lil_Johnson.html)
Have you heard the latest news?
These veterans ain’t got no more blues!
They are planning what to do
Since that bonus done gone through!Now, where’s that man you used to rave about?
It’s time now to see what he’s made out
You’d better not let him slip through your hands
‘Cause some other woman will surely take your man!Come on, girls! Yes! Ain’t you going downtown? Yes!
What you gonna buy? A new evening gown!
Oooooh, a new pair of shoes!
Oooooh, gonna truck away those blues!
‘Cause that bonus done gone through!(spoken:
Beat it out, boy!
Say, Bob!
Yes?
Ain’t you gettin’ your bonus?
Sure, baby!
You’ll go up when the wagon comes
Come up and see me sometime
Sure, baby, when I get my bonus!)Now when you steps out on the street
All lookin’ so nice and neat
Everybody will stare at you so
Now look here, folks, she’s out the bear once moreNow when I get all togged down
Men’s will come from miles around
Go on, boys, I ain’t got no time to lose
I got a good veteran who has cured my bluesCome on, girls!
Yes!
Ain’t you going downtown?
Yes!
What you gonna buy?
A new evening gown!
Oooooh, listen to my call!
Oooooh, just watch this Mae West walk!
‘Cause that bonus done gone through!
‘Cause that bonus done gone through!