18 The Plot to Seize the White House


The general pointed out wryly that no action had been taken at the
convention to endorse the soldiers’ bonus.  MacGuire airily repeated his
contention that there was no point in that until the country had sound
currency.
 Shortly afterward MacGuire came to Newtown Square again and
surprised the general with the news that a dinner had been arranged by
Boston veterans in his honor.  He was promised transportation in a private
car, and, MacGuire beamed, Butler would be paid a thousand dollars to
speak at the dinner-in favor of the gold standard, of course.
 Butler was dumbfounded at MacGuire’s incredible persistence.
Surely the indefatigable bond salesman had realized by this time that he was
barking up the wrong tree!  But perhaps, the general speculated, MacGuire
felt challenged to “make the sale,” in much the same manner that he
undoubtedly sought to overcome the sales resistance of reluctant prospects
for his bonds.  And apparently MacGuire was convinced that only Smedley
Butler had the prestige and popularity among veterans that his coterie
needed to put over the scheme.
 Irked by the new attempt to bribe him, Butler rasped that he had never
been paid a thousand dollars for any speech and had no intention of
accepting such a sum to let words be put in his mouth.  Chagrined but
undiscouraged, MacGuire cheerfully promised to come up with some other
more acceptable plan to utilize the general’s talents as a public speaker.
 In October a former Marine running for office in Brooklyn, New
York, begged Butler to make some campaign speeches in his behalf.  Butler
was hesitant because he was about to leave on a tour of the country for
Veterans of Foreign Wars, speaking for the bonus and for membership in the
V.F.W. as the best way to get it.  But loyalty to the men who had served
under him took him first to Pennsylvania Station.
 To his astonishment he was met by MacGuire.  The bond salesman
somehow knew where he was headed and asked to accompany him.  Butler
consented, more and more intrigued by the ubiquitous MacGuire who kept
turning up everywhere he went like a bad penny.  He found himself even
growing perversely fond of MacGuire for his stubborn refusal to take No for