Chapter 684 Veteran's Tears

Before this economic crisis, Tom didn't think he would participate in any parade. After all, her life was still rich, she could eat and wear warm clothes, which already met Tom's minimum requirements.

But now that the economic crisis has occurred, Tom has understood the gap between him as a lower-class citizen and the upper class of the United States.

Although he can still barely survive, for the sake of his family, Tom has to find a way to improve his and his family's lives.

At least in Tom's opinion, asking the government to issue the retirement allowance in advance is a good choice.

After all, this is also part of the reward he got for fighting for the United States, and he has to endure the bumpy journey to fight in Europe.

If he just asks the government to issue the retirement allowance in advance, the government should agree, right?

Tom was still a little uneasy in his heart, but after hearing John say that tens of thousands of veterans had been invited, Tom gradually put his mind at ease.

A parade of tens of thousands of people is no longer a small scale, enough to affect the states and the federal government.

I believe that as long as the US government is not a fool, it will not ignore their request for a parade of tens of thousands of people.

News about such a parade could spread across the United States at any time, and even spread to distant Europe and Australia.

Although it seemed that people like Tom were threatening the government, it was true that they could not survive and needed better food.

In the end, Tom accepted John's invitation.

Before leaving, John also told Tom the location of the parade, which was near the Capitol in Washington, the capital.

This is not only the administrative center of the entire United States, but also a large number of foreign ambassadors and newspaper media.

Placing the parade here is not only to make it more formal, but also to force the US government to pay attention to the parade of these veterans through the hands of foreign ambassadors. [6][9][s][h][u][x][.][c][o][m]

John and the forces behind him paid a great price to gather these veterans.

It was a big expense to transport all these American veterans from all over the world to Washington, not to mention that a considerable number of them were still traveling with their families.

This was also John's strategy. John promised to provide food for the veterans and their families on the way, and the Democratic Party would provide food for the veterans until the march successfully achieved its goal.

This also made a large number of veterans choose to go with their families. Even if the purpose of the march could not be achieved, he and his family could get a better source of food during this period.

But Tom did not do so. In Tom's view, uniting all veterans to pressure the government to issue the retirement benefits in advance was a last resort, and there was no need to escalate the situation and turn it into a huge march of tens of thousands of people.

It is a good thing that the US government can agree to issue the benefits in advance, but if it does not agree, Tom will return immediately and will not conflict with the government.

After all, there is no good result for civilians to conflict with the government, and secondly, Tom still trusts the government and believes that President Hoover's relief plan will soon be implemented in Los Angeles. There is no need to damage the government's prestige because of a short crisis.

On January 14, 1928, a large number of American veterans gathered in Washington, and Tom naturally boarded the train from Los Angeles to Washington.

On this obviously contracted train, Tom saw many of his acquaintances, who were American veterans who had fought together on the battlefield.

As more and more acquaintances came, Tom gradually felt relieved about this trip to Washington.

After all, the law does not punish the masses. There were thousands of American veterans gathered on this train. I believe that the US government will properly consider their opinions.

The veterans gathered for more than half a month, and finally successfully gathered tens of thousands of veterans before mid-February.

If the families of some American veterans are included, the expected scale of the parade has exceeded 20,000 people.

The strange thing is that even though the number of people has exceeded 20,000, John, who claims to be a Democrat, is still responsible for the meals of these 20,000 people without any mistakes.

You know, the daily food consumption of 20,000 people is not a small number at all, and mobilizing a huge amount of food in the economic crisis will test John's energy.

The fact that John can mobilize a large amount of food alone makes a lot of American veterans feel relieved.

In their view, in addition to the ruling Republican Party, the only party that can do this in the entire United States may be the Democratic Party.

As for those big financial groups, will they gather the veterans together and provide free food for the benefit of these veterans? Just think about it.

After careful preparation and communication among the veterans, the first parade among the veterans started smoothly on February 11, 1928.

In order to expand the influence of this parade, John said that the Democratic Party had conducted a detailed study on the route of the parade and finally decided on a petition route around the Capitol to Capitol Hill.

Yes, John called this parade a petition and said that it was just an action that the veterans had to take for their own survival, rather than standing up to resist the government openly.

The first day of the parade quickly attracted the attention of ambassadors and newspapers from various countries. Of course, the US government also received the news and began to determine whether to pay the veterans' retirement benefits in advance.

After all, they are veterans, and because of the careful planning, the parade of these veterans and their families seems very orderly, which also increases the influence of the parade.

In a short period of time, the news about this large-scale parade has spread to most parts of the eastern United States, and even reported to their own countries by ambassadors of various countries.

This also made the parade near the Capitol in Washington the focus of world attention. Everyone is curious about how the US government will deal with it, but most people think that the US government will soon agree to the veterans' request.

After all, the number of veterans is only tens of thousands, and the retirement allowance of several hundred dollars per person is only a few million dollars.

Even if some of them have a higher retirement allowance, the total scale of this expenditure will not exceed 10 million US dollars.

10 million US dollars can quell a large-scale parade, which is still very cost-effective for most countries, not to mention the United States, which is originally rich.

Even some national representatives did not take this parade seriously. Who doesn't have a few parades in their country, not to mention this relatively peaceful and undemanding parade.

The development of things did not surprise the representatives of various countries. The parade lasted only a little over a week, and the U.S. Congress could no longer bear the pressure.

Because the current ruling party is the Republican Party, the opposition party is naturally the Democratic Party. This parade became the best way for the Democratic Party to attack the Republican Party. Regardless of whether it was planned by the Democratic Party, the Democratic Party has begun to attack the Republican Party's policies.

Under this pressure, on February 19, 1928, the U.S. Congress formally voted to pass the Patman Act on early payment of retirement benefits, and submitted the bill to President Hoover in the presence of a group of media and many veterans.

Everyone thought that the parade was about to end, and the veterans had even packed their bags, ready to receive their relief and return home, but an accident suddenly came.

After receiving the Patman Act from Congress, President Hoover, who had not expressed his position, directly expressed his strong rejection of the bill.

Before the representatives of various countries, the newspaper media and the veterans were surprised, something even more shocking happened.

On February 21, U.S. Army Chief of Staff MacArthur led the main force equipped with tanks and machine guns and a large number of police officers to launch a brutal crackdown on the veterans surrounding the Capitol.

General MacArthur claimed that he was under the order of President Hoover and only expressed President Hoover's opinion on dispersing these veterans. He did not even give the veterans time to evacuate and directly began to forcibly disperse them.

In the process of dispersal, the U.S. military and police not only scratched the veterans many times with the bayonets on their rifles, but also opened fire directly after the veterans resisted, and launched a brutal crackdown on the veterans with weapons such as tear gas.

These veterans who had no weapons, no preparations, and even brought their families with them, what could they do in the face of such brutal repression?

For a while, the sky over Washington was filled with gunshots, the neighing of military horses, the footsteps of the army and police, the cries of veterans and their families, the sirens of police cars, and the burning of fire.

The unprepared veterans soon faced hundreds of casualties, including a large number of veterans' families, and not a few children.

The death of friends and family members soon made the veterans' eyes red. A small number of veterans who had lost their minds rushed directly to the army and the police, trying to grab weapons to resist.

The resistance of the veterans directly aroused the army's more intense firepower suppression, and also caused more and more casualties in the veterans' group.

Although a large number of veterans had already fled the vicinity of the Capitol, many were still injured before they could escape, and helplessly watched their families fall in the gunfire.

The chaos lasted for more than an hour and was eventually replaced by the wailing of veterans and their families.

After the gunfire stopped, Army Chief of Staff MacArthur looked at the veterans group with reluctance, and used all his strength to issue the last order to the army: "Retreat!"

After the army evacuated, the order was taken over by the police. Veterans and their families who were not seriously injured were directly detained, and the final result was that they were transported to the police station and then imprisoned in the prison on various charges.

Tom was quite quick to react, and because he did not bring his family with him, he did not need to worry about anything when he escaped.

Although Tom escaped safely from the Capitol, his trust in the country had collapsed after hearing the deafening gunshots and cries in the Capitol.

First update of 3,000 words, please vote for me, please support me!