The Plot to Seize the White House by Jules Archer

Author:Jules Archer
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
ISBN: 9781634500241
Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing
Published: 2014-12-31T16:00:00+00:00

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Butler now found himself in greater demand than ever as a public speaker. The Alber Lecture Bureau of Cleveland pleaded with him to take a leave of absence and satisfy the groups all over the country clamoring to hear him. He was offered half of all admission fees charged, with a minimum guarantee of $250, plus $25 a day expenses and railroad fare.

At the same time Philadelphia’s Mayor Mackey asked him if he would assist in raising funds for the city’s Committee for Unemployment Relief. Applying for a two months’ leave of absence to make a speaking tour, he turned over half his fees of about six thousand dollars to the unemployed and also to the Salvation Army, which he respected as being genuinely responsive to the needs of both the poor and the doughboys in trenches.

He explained the impulse for his decision by a letter he had received while he was under arrest during the Mussolini affair. “General,” a veteran had written him, “the stamp on this letter cost me the two of my last four cents, but I wanted you to know that I am for you.”

“I almost cried,” Butler admitted. “I feel that if that poor fellow could give me half of what he had, I can give him half of what I’ve got.” He was also strongly influenced in his sympathy for the luckless by his aunt, Isabel Darlington, who headed the Chester County Poor Board and fought county authorities vigorously to increase welfare funds.

Publishers begged him for a book. “I am making far more money out of making speeches than I ever could out of writing a book,” he replied practically, “so unless Bobbs-Merrill are going to outbid the public . . . I would be cutting off my nose to spite my face by writing instead of talking.” But he finally consented to dictate his war memoirs to adventure writer Lowell Thomas, who published them as a book, under the title Old Gimlet Eye.

Aware that his imminent retirement meant a sharp drop in income and an increase in expenses, with little or nothing saved, he sought to organize his time as profitably as possible. He accepted radio offers to relate his experiences in the Marines.

If Butler did not consciously seek publicity, there was little doubt that the headlines sought him out. His rapport with the press was explained by one newsman’s observation that he was “colorful copy and a helluva guy.” He often said himself, “There are three types of people who understand me—Marines, policemen, and newspapermen.” His chief interest in stories about him in the press was less vanity than a determination to disseminate views he held strongly.

With the first ominous rumblings of war beginning to be heard in both Europe and Asia, he was determined to steel the American people against letting themselves be dragged into any more foreign wars. He would tell them the whole truth about the use that had been made of the Marines by the government in the name of protecting democracy and “American interests” abroad.

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