What the bonus army want?

Answer 1

Just after WWI ended Congress voted to give each veteran of the war a life insurance policy in the amount of $500. This was the "Bonus". This was to be something like a "whole life" policy, which had a cash value, and could thus be sold, assigned, or surrendered for the $500 by the insured vet while he was still alive. But the insurance was not scheduled to be "matured", or "paid up", until 1944 or 1945, and so even though the living vets had the right to this insurance, they would not be able to cash in their own individual policies until 1944 or 1945. What the Bonus Army wanted was to be able to get this money in 1932, when they marched on Washington. But the government was just as strapped for cash as everyone else, with few people working and paying taxes, and the president was a Republican, and Republicans did not believe it was the job of government to do anything to help individual citizens. $500 doesn't sound like much today - and its not, because the value of the dollar today is only about 1-2% of what it was in 1932. A day's pay for a laborer was $1. A new Model T Ford had sold for $400 in the late 20s. A house cost only a few thousand. So that $500 then was more like $25,000 to $50,000 today.