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| Gold Diggers of 1933 |
Today is Veterans’ Day.
November 11 was originally Armistice Day, celebrating the end of World
War I. So how did those veterans make
out? Civil War veterans – at least those
on the Union side – got a disability pension from the federal government. That benefit was gradually transformed over
the years to become more and more generous until it became a kind of
proto-Social Security benefit for veterans, disabled or not, and their spouses. A large Pension Building in Washington DC
(now an architectural museum) was built to house the administrators of the
Civil War pension.
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| The Pension Building |
To avoid that expense after World War I, the federal
government did not provide a pension but instead promised a bonus to be paid in
the 1940s. In short, during the actual
War, there were promises to soldiers of great things to come when they
returned. Listen to:
But after World War I, there was a more stingy attitude. Along came the Great Depression and veterans
marched on the capital to demand early payment of the bonus. They were met with troops to clear their
encampment (and no bonus):
The injustice to veterans who had fought in the war to end
all wars and were rewarded by Depression unemployment and repression in
Washington, DC was a popular theme in music and movies of that era:
The GI Bill after World War II was partly an attempt to
avoid a repeat of the post-World War I experience.
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