In response, Congress passed a bill allowing veterans to cash in part of their IOUs as loans. Angelo walked four days from his home in New Jersey to Washington to demand the bonus be paid immediately. When the Great Depression hit, many veterans realized their green-bordered bonus certificates was their only asset that still held any value. But there was a catch: if the sum was more than $50, it would only be paid to the veteran’s survivors after they died or in 1945, whichever came first. In 1924, Congress had finally passed a bonus bill over President Coolidge’s veto, mandating that most who served during the mobilization would get $1 of back pay for each day of home service and $1.25 for each day abroad. Many had come home from Europe to find their savings drained and jobs gone. The cause that drew them was known as the “bonus.” Veterans’ benefits had been minimal in the last World War. By July, there were some forty-five thousand veteran protesters, wives, and children living in shacks in the shadow of the Capitol dome. Calling themselves the Bonus Expeditionary Force, they set up encampments across Washington. Over the spring of 1932, veterans from every corner of the country began making their way to Washington, D.C. (Still from Fox Movietone News outtake, Moving Image Research Collections, University of South Carolina) Butler addressing the Bonus Marchers in Anacostia Flats, Washington, D.C., July 19, 1932.
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