Music: Marine Band v. A. F. of M.

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When the Continental Congress established the U. S. Marine Corps in 1775, sharp-eyed Benjamin Franklin marked on the drums of the recruiting officers a rattlesnake with the inscription "Don't Tread On Me." The Marine Corps drums still bear that motto. In the act of 1798 which confirmed the Marines' organization, there was provision for a Drum Major, Fife Major, and 32 drums & fifes. In 1799 a band was formed at the Marine encampment in Philadelphia, then the U. S. capital. When the Marines moved to Washington, Drum Major William Farr began to give open air concerts near Georgetown, play for balls and routs, and in 1801 at a White House reception given by President Thomas Jefferson.* In 1809, at President John Madison's inaugural ball, the Marine Band played a special "Madison's March." Since then it has played a new march at every inaugural. The Marine Band was General La Fayette's bodyguard when he visited Yorktown and Mount Vernon in 1824. Andrew Jackson had the band in to play for the first Easter Egg Rolling and White House Children's Party. Abraham Lincoln asked the band to Gettysburg when he made his famed address; in his time it was by Act of Congress expanded to "one Drum Major, one Principal Musician, 30 musicians for the band, 60 drummers and 60 fifers."

The Marine Band played dirges at the funerals of Harrison, Taylor and Lincoln; accompanied Garfield's body to Cleveland; played "Lead Kindly Light" and "Nearer My God To Thee" at McKinley's funeral, and "Lead Kindly Light" again at Harding's.

Three weeks ago, when President Hoover accepted the Republican nomination for the Presidency, few people were surprised or shocked to see the Marine Band on hand as usual. But the American Federation of Musicians waxed wroth. Citing Section 35 of the National Defense Act which forbids devoting any part of the Army or Navy to private uses, the A. F. of M.'s president Joseph Nicholas Weber wrote to Secretary of the Navy Charles Francis Adams protesting against the band's accompanying Herbert Hoover to a purely political meeting. Previous Presidents had drawn "sharp distinctions between the official and unofficial appearances. . . . You seem to be in danger of introducing in our Government the doctrine that attaches prerogative to the royal person. . . . Under you the practice has been maintained of letting the bands play not only for the President and every kind of official but for the balls, dinners, amusements, horse shows and every conceivable kind of private entertainment . . . furnishing free music to the very wealthy . . . thus taking from poverty-stricken civilian musicians a means of livelihood."

Replied Secretary Adams: "It has always been held that it was the duty of this band to play whenever the President was present, whether or not the occasion was official. I know of no word of law or of opinion of Congress which limits the Marine Band to play only when the President is officially present, as you contend. . . ."