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Why aren't more Americans Occupying Wall Street? An op ed piece by me

 

Thousands of angry protestors from all over the country assembled to “occupy” public spaces; all with a common goal to demand government payments that had been promised to them. Although the occupiers had assembled peacefully, there was a fear of violence, as government officials believed unscrupulous radicals with sinister agendas were manipulating the naive protestors into promoting their will.

Pamphlets distributed with titles such as “Don’t Let the Bankers Fool You” expressed anger and discontent at the disproportional influence of Wall Street and the wealthy upon the government.  The previous Republican administration dismissed the budding movement as a group of moochers who weren’t willing to sacrifice.  The extremely wealthy Republican Secretary of Treasury flat out refused any idea of government aid while stating tax cuts for the wealthiest job creators would provide a greater boost for the protestors, as they would create jobs and a booming economy.

 

Does this sound like anything you’ve seen or heard recently?  It’s actually history from 1932.  The occupiers in this instance were veterans of World War One.  They were impoverished and starving.  They had been promised a bonus for their service in the Great War to supplement their dollar-a-day salary for going overseas, but few in Washington wanted to pay it. Congress in the 1920’s finally promised to pay the bonuses, but not until 1945. The country couldn’t afford to pay both bonuses for poor veterans and have tax cuts for the wealthiest according to the President. 

So in 1932, around twenty-thousand protestors occupied Washington, until President Herbert Hoover ordered General McArthur to disperse the crowd.  He did with extreme enthusiasm and even more extreme force and cruelty. He ordered his men to burn their shacks and to march upon the masses with tanks, machine guns and tear gas.  One spectator gasped in horror at such brutal treatment for people merely shouting for food.

The critics tried to justify their refusal to address the “Bonus Army”-as it came to be known- by asserting that Communists and radicals were behind it; even though the fringe element was never really a factor, and it really wasn’t a major part of the mob.

Compare this with today’s Occupy Wall Street movement.  They for the most part are peaceful, but angry and disturbed at the state of the country.  Student loan debt is saddling poor and middle class kids with lifelong servitude, while the wealthiest kids get the best jobs as they went to the best schools on dad’s dime.  Healthcare becomes more and more scarce as they face the real world, as nine buck per hour fast food jobs do not offer it.  The disparity of wealth is never more evident than on Wall Street, where billionaires scoff at the poor in a manner that would embarrass Marie Antoinette.

One can understand why Wall Street hates the protestors, as they are being called out for their excesses by the rabble.  But why does mainstream America mock them? Because of their dress, their looks, and non-conformity?  Not all protestors fit this radical “hippie” model.  One protestor, Scott Olsen, was a former Marine who served two tours in Iraq.  Videos clearly show him standing in place silently protesting when some modern day Douglas McArthur in the Oakland Police Department shot him at point blank range in the face with a bean-bag gun.  Olsen suffered a fractured skull and required brain surgery.  All for the crime of peacefully expressing his First Amendment rights.

Most Americans ought to be sympathetic to the complaints of the protestors.  The Occupy (fill in the blank here with any city, including Nashville) movement is just the first wave of what is sure to follow.   It is pure denial to suggest that only communists have anger at the system, much as it was in 1932.  Wages have dropped consistently for the working class in America for the past thirty years, more so in the last ten.  Meanwhile the rich get richer and complain about the lowest tax rates in generations. Even the thought of 1999 tax rates induces fainting among the highest earners.

The radicals and revolutionaries may not be the drivers behind this but they certainly have the most to gain if it is continually ignored.  If the authorities resort to more brutal suppression and abuse of the protesters, the radicals can rally their troops even faster.  See Egypt, Tunisia, and Libya for recent examples.

After World War Two, we didn’t have riots, and it wasn’t merely because we had a booming economy.  We learned the lesson of the Bonus Army and preempted the social unrest with one of the largest government redistributions of wealth in U.S. history.  We called it the G.I. Bill.  With it, we killed discontent amongst the lower class by giving them hope, and we allowed the economy to grow because of a well thought out government spending program.  Too bad we aren’t that smart today.

 

All sources for facts about the Bonus Army are from the book The Bonus Army: An American Epic by Paul Dickson and Thomas B. Allen, Walker & Company, New York, 2010.