The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1931-02-03
BY RAYMOND CLAPPER,
United Press STAFF Correspondent
lCnrn-rrlr,i.A 1871 H.. rrr,ttnA ornrrA

Copyright. 1881, BY United Press
WASHINGTON, Feb. 3.-Return-
sHg from China with the first halo
u heroism on his young brow,
Captain Smedley Butler entered
upon decade as quiet as a marine
can hope for. He served in Panama
during construction of the canal,
then went to Nicaragua, which was
Eaving revolutions.
Hand fighting, close escapes and
Guerrilla episodes, enough to fill a
library Of thrillers, we're the daily
diet.
Once Butler, by now a major,
proke a siege by walking up to the
commanding Nicaraguan general,
selling his mustachio with one
land, pushing a revolver out with
The other, and forcing, at the point
Of entirely un-Quakerlike language,
surrender of the whole force.
Tropic service wore down his
health and he came home, took a
long furlough and started out to
manage, Of all things, coal mine
IN West Virginia.
FAILED as Mine Operator
~. The manager Butler went to re-
Place stood ground with gun, and
that was one more fight Butler won.
But as a coal operator he was a
good marine One good month
showed profits of S225.
After a year, Butler took out his
uniform. Huerta was loose in Mex
leo. Major Butler went down with
the fleet, which concentrated OFF Vera
Cruz. Preparatory to landing forces
it was necessary to ascertain Mexi-
can strength.
Butler, disguised as a detective
hunting an American fugitive, went
ashore He found there we're only
1000 Mexican troops instead of 49,
900 as rumored. Then he changed
his disguise to that of a geology
professor hunting specimens and
made a trip to Mexico City to study
the rail line to the capital.
90. Landed at Vera Cruz
American forces landed at Vera
Cruz, April %, 1914, with Major
Butler one of the first ashore. The
city was taken. Butler received a
medal of honor "for distinguished
conduct in battle" being eminent
and conspicuous in command of his
battalion" and exhibiting courage
and skill in leading his men through
the action"
The next year he was sent to
Haiti and won his second congress
sional medal at the storming of Ft.
Riviere, an old French stronghold
with thick masonry walls. 1t was
necessary to enter through a small
strongly defended breach in the
wall.
Butler took twenty-three men with
him to make a direct assault in
side the walls with the knowledge
that no quarter would be given.
Two men leaped ahead to screen
him
VA Theirs was devotion to him
while his action was devotion to
duty" the navy department said in
its citation.
Served in World War
From then ON, the job was one of
pacifcation. Butler organized the
native constabulary and iciden-
tally, disclosed skill as an admins
traitor which had been obscured by
The glamor of his fighting exploits.
- This discovery by his superiors
later was to cause Butler to grieve
inwardly because it kept him out of
the front line in France. He was
sent to Brest as base commander
and for months was begged in the
deep mud there. With the arnlistice
he organized the embarkation base
at Camp Pontanean.
1t was largely job Of keeping
the troops from being nlired in the
heavy mud. Miles, it seemed, Of
blackboard" we're laid down to
walk on Butler got out of his car
and carried the first boards himself
and laid then-getting the name
General blackboard"
. Next--General Butler finds hor-
rors OF peace in Philadelphia worse
zH,av, fboea of x-sr II, tho ,,,ay;,,oc