GENERAL DAWES

New Zealand Times, Volume LI, Issue 12022, 27 December 1924, Page 11

GENERAL DAWES

A WONDERFUL MAN WAR, BANKINV. AND STUDY OF MUSIC. HIGHLY SUCCESSFUL YEAR. Few men in America, won distinction in i/he variety of endeavours which oocupi'sd General Dawes. Founder and long directing head of one of Chicago’s large banking institutions, he also was prominent for hi* services in the world! war, and as a lawyer, author and an active figure in the councils of the Republican party since the “gold”' campaign of 1890. In ! addition,'ne won a place.as a music composer by virtue. of the publication of hhi ‘ ‘Melody in A Major,' ’ which was a ‘best 9elle:” in phonograph record, for a time following the war. General Dawes was born in Marietta. Ohio, August 27tK, 1865. Hto father was General Rufus R. Dawes, commander of the famous Iron Brigade of Wisconsin in the war between the States, who was cited for distinguished service in the battle of .Gettysburg. Following his graduation from Atariett. College, General Dawes entered the Cincinnati Law School, where, at 21, he took his LL.B. in 1886. He work during his college years as chief engineer on a small railroad ip Ohio (now a part of the Toledo ana Ohio Central), and moved in 1687 to Lincoln. Nebraska, where ‘he entered the law partnership of Dawes, Coffroth and Cunningham. NAMED COMPTROLLER. Moving lo Wisccnsin in 1894, he became president of the La Orosee Gas Light Company, and later a move to the south brought him to the presidency of the Northwestern' Gas. Light and Coke Company of Evanston, Hi., which eventually was merged into the People’s Gas. Light and Coke Company, supplying Chicago. Following his activity in behalf of President McKinley in Illinois during the campaign of ’96, he was named! Comptroller of the Currency of the United States, which post he held from 1898 to 1901, after which (1902) he organised the Oaijtral Trust Company ot Illinois. . In 1917-1919 he served in France, most of the time as chairman of the general purchasing board, which handled the supplies for the American forces. AUTHORITY ON BANKING. The publication, in 1894 of General Dawes’ first work, “The Banking System of the United States,” brought him recognition as an authority on economics and finance and was a principal factor in his selection for the controllership four yeans later. General Dawes went to France in August, 1917, as a colonel in the Seventeenth Engineers. He was tor a, time associated with General AtterbuTy. in transportation work, and then stationed at General Headquarters as a member of General- Pershing’s adl- - staff. His next advance Was to the place 'f general purchasing agent for the American forces with the rank of brigadier general and membership on the Military Board of Allied Supply. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal of the United States, named a Commander of the Legion, of Honour of France, and decorated by Marshal Foch in Paris with the French War Cross. General Dawes waa wirdely remembered for his appearance in February, 1921, -before a committee of the House of Representatives investigating the oonduct of the war. Punctuating his remarks in spots with the emphasis of a teamster, and with little effort to temper the vehemence of his feelings, he ecored the inquiry with blunt verbal broadsides which virtually terminated the activities of tho investigators.

times repeated during hi* testimony, long was associated with the general’s name, and for many years he was referred to by his friends as “Hell Mana Dawes.”

General Dawes first became nationally known in politics in 1896, when he succeeded in a campaign to have the Illinois delegation to the Republican National Convention instructed for McKinley,

In 1905-06-07, he vigorously opposed the enactment of the Sherman antitrust law, becoming a leader in the fight against the measure. LAUNCHES BUDGET PLAN.

In 1919, following his return from France,.. he urged ratification _of the Treaty of Versailles and American acceptance f the League of Nations. The following year he launched a campaign in Illinois for a national (budget bureau. . , In June, 1921, following the enactment of the McCormick Budget bill, General Dawes was named first Director of the Budget. An account of the period from the general’s book, “The First Year of the Budget in tho United States,” shows a reduction in expense of approximately 1,600,000,000 dollars in 1v22, as compared with the previous year. The conduct of the routine busdneeta of the government was shown to have cost 907,500,000 dollars less, and a saving of between 250,000,000 dollars and 5C0,000,000 dollars was credited to the operation ot the Budget Bureau. General Dawes waa one of six children. Three brothers, Rufus C., Henry M., of Chicago, and Bedman C., of Columbus, Ohio, and two daughtert, Mrs Arthur Beach of Marietta.. Ohio, and Mrs Mary Hoyt of Jacksonville, Fla., are other members of the family. Tho mother, Mrs R. R. (Maiy Gates) Dawes, died at Marietta, October 28th, 1921. Beeman Dawes, of Columbus, was a member of the fifty-ninth and sixtieth Congresses from tho Fifteenth Ohio District; -He was associated with General Dawes in the gas business in Ohio.