Rep. La Guardia Protests Eviction of Bonus Army
U.S. Rep. Fiorello LaGuardia, future mayor of New York City, on this day sent a telegram to President Herbert Hoover protesting the eviction of the “Bonus Army” of World War veterans from their encampment in Washington, D.C. by the U.S. Army. “Soup is cheaper than tear bombs and bread better than bullets,” he charged.
The eviction of the Bonus Army, on July 28, 1932, was one of the worst violations of freedom of assembly in American history, and it forever tarred the reputation of President Hoover.
Roger Baldwin, director of the ACLU, sent a separate telegram of protest to President Hoover charging that “your actions will encourage similar violence against the unemployed.”
Read: Paul Dickson and Paul B. Allen, The Bonus Army: An American Epic (2004)
Learn more about marching on Washington: Lucy Barber, Marching on Washington: The Forging of an American Political Tradition (2002)
Watch documentary footage of the Bonus March: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xkmo4ygPTjc
Learn more about the Bonus Army at the Zinn Education Project
Read about LaGuardia in Congress: Howard Zinn, LaGuardia in Congress (1969)
Learn about LaGuardia’s Jewish heritage here
Learn about LaGuardia’s Jewish heritage here