PRESIDENT HOOVER'S HARSH RETRIBUTION

August1932

At the start of WWI, our brave soldiers were promised payment for their services, to be payed in full in the year of 1945. However, since times are tough, as we are in a depression, many believed they deserved and needed their payment now, to continue to provide for themselves and their families. They are completely justified in this belief; these veterans went to war (many were forced) to make this country great and keep the rest of us safe, only for the country to turn on them a few short years later. An abundance of Americans, many of them veterans, have lost their homes and cannot afford to feed their families. This is why they believed they deserve their payments early, so they can survive. However, President Hoover doesn't believe that citizens are in as much economic trouble as they actually are, so he would not allow the early payments. In response to this, many veterans groups took to the streets of Washington DC, even the White House itself, to set up camps and protest peacefully. As of this summer, nearly 20,000 veterans had set up camps in the capital, protesting for their beliefs, but still Hoover would not give in. Instead, last week, he chose a despicable choice of action. Hoover wanted all of the protestors gone, convinced they were set on taking over the government, although all they ever wanted was their payment. So, he ordered General MacArthur and his troops to evict them. Although President Hoover never said to use force, he never said it was prohibited either, so McArthur used that as his loophole. He and his army used tear gas and bayonets and force the protestors out of the capital, many of them ending up injured. These peaceful protestors wanted only payments for their service, but instead they were attacked and probably deserve more than they would have been payed in the first place.