14 INVESTIGATION OF NAZI AND OTHER PROPAGANDA "Yes," I said, "but it looks as if it were a big-business speech. There is something funny about that speech, Mr. Clark." The conversations were almost the same with both of them. Clark said, "You understand just how we are fixed. I have got $30,000,000. I do not want to lose it. I am willing to spend half of the $30,000,000 to save the other half. If you go out and make this speech in Chicago, I am certain that they will adopt the resolu tion and that will be one step toward the return to gold, to have the soldiers stand up for it. We can get the soldiers to go out in great bodies to stand up for it." This was the first beginning of the idea, you see, of having soldiers' organization, getting them to go out in favor of the gold standard. Clark's thought was, "I do not want to lose my money." Well, I said, "I am not going to Chicago." He said, "Why not?" I said, "I do not want to be mixed up in this thing at all. I tell you very frankly, Mr. Clark, I have got one interest and that is the maintenance of a democracy. That is the only thing. I took an oath to sustain the democracy, and that is what I am going to do and nothing else. I am not going to get these soldiers marching around and stirred up over the gold standard. What the hell does a soldier know about the gold standard? You are just working them, using them, just as they have been used right along, and I am going to be me of those to see that they do not use them any more except to maintain a democracy. And then I will go out with them any time to do that." IIe said, Why do you want to be so stubborn? Why do you want to be different from other people? We can take care of you. You have got a mortgage on this house", waving his hand, pointing to the house. "That can all be taken care of. It is perfectly legal, perfectly proper." "Yes", I said, "but I just do not want to do it, that's all." Finally I said, "Do you know what you are trying to do? You are trying to bribe me in my own house. You are very polite about it and I can hardly call it that, but it looks kind of funny to me making that kind of a proposition. You come out into the hall, want to show you something." We went out there. I have all the flags and banners and medals of honor, and things of that kind. It is my own place. They have been given me by the Chinese and the Nicaraguans and the Hatians- by the poor people. I said to him, "You come out here. Look at that and see what you are trying to do. You are trying to buy me away from my own kind. When you have made up your mind that I will not go with you, then you come on and tell me. In a few minutes he came back to the back office and said, "Can I use your telephone?" "Yes." He called up Chicago and got hold of MacGuire at the Palmer House and he said to MacGuire, "Gen- eral Butler is not coming to the convention. He has given me his reasons and they are excellent ones, and I apologize to him for my connection with it. I am not coming either. You have got $45,000. You can send those telegrams. You You can put this thing will have to do it in that way. The general is not coming. I can see why. I am going to Canada to rest. If you want me, you know where you can find me. You have got enough money to go through with it." across. INVESTIGATION OF NAZI AND OTHER PROPAGANDA 15 That was the end of that and we talked pleasantly on personal matters after that. I took him to the train about 6 o'clock and he went home. The convention came off and the gold standard was endorsed by the convention. I read about it with a great deal of interest. There was some talk about a flood of telegrams that came in and influenced them and I was so much amused, because it all happened right in my room. Then MacGuire stopped to see me on his way back from the con- vention. This time he came in a hired limousine. It was not a private one this time. He came out to the house and told me that they had been successful in putting over their move. I said, "Yes, but you did not endorse the soldiers' bonus." He said, "Well, we have got to get sound currency before it is worth while to endorse the bonus." He then went away and the campaign here in New York started. They were electing municipal officers, a political campaign. A marine was running for public office over here in Brooklyn and I came over to make a speech for him. I was met at the train by MacGuire. He seemed to know just where I was going and he said he wanted to go with me, and he did. I think there was one other visit to the house, because he proposed that I go to Boston to a soldiers' dinner to be given in my honor. go up to Boston to this dinner for the soldiers. He suggested that I He said, "We will have a private car for you on the end of the train. You will make a speech at this dinner and it will be worth thousand dollars to you." I said, "I never got a thousand dollars for making a speech." He said, "You will get it this time." "Who is going to pay for this dinner and this ride up in the private car? "Oh, we will pay for it out of our funds." I am not going to Boston. If the soldiers of Massachusetts want to give a dinner and want me to come, I will come. But there is no thousand dollars in it." So he said, "Well, then, we will think of something else." Then when he met me over in New York, he had another idea. He said, "You are going on a trip for the Veterans of Foreign Wars. You are going around recruiting them, aren't you?" I said, "Yes; I am going to start as soon as this campaign is over." The CHAIRMAN. When was this campaign? General BUTLER. This was in November 1933. All of this hap- pened between July and November, everything I told you. The campaign was on over here. The CHAIRMAN. That was a city campaign? General BUTLER. The municipal campaign; yes. I do not remem- ber very much about it, but some soldiers asked me to come over and speak for a marine that was running for office, and I did. Anyhow, he met me at the train and he had another idea. He said, "You are going out to speak for the veterans." I said, "Yes." I told him this about a dozen times. "You know, I believe that sooner or later there is going to be a test of our democracy, a test of this democratic form of government. The soldiers are the only people in this country who have ever taken an oath to sustain it.
