Subscribers enjoy higher page view limit, downloads, and exclusive features.
The Man With the AbeCooled Pise By HARRY GANNES It was in a fashionable Paris Hotel during the hectic days following the close of the war. Grand Duke Alex- ander of Russia stalked into the room of Hell an’ Maria Dawes, seeking counsel. From far-off Russia, the grand duke had received disquieting news. The Bolsheviks were exhibit- ing unexpected vigor, and clung to political power, The European pow- ers were struggling with their own working class, and, Alexander, grown frantic, sought advice of the strong man from America who had the repu- tation of doing a job in a thorough‘ going and ruthless manner. The duke had been informed by his reactionary coterie that Brigadier-general Charles Gates Dawes woitild be the right man to appeal to for help in the fight against the chain-free Russian work- ing class ba For hours the grand duke opened his heart to Hell an’ Maria. Dawes tells about this himself. Nor did the blustering former ward politician, shady banker and tinsel-braided sol- dier listen with unresponsive ear to the czarist tale of woe, What Dawes promised the duke no record exists to testify. We have but Dawes’ own im- pression of the white-guard: “Alex- ander is in a position to know what he is talking about, and tonight being in distress of mind about the Crimea where the Bolsevists are advancing, and where a number of his children are living still, he opened his heart fully tome. . . Heis. ... extreme- ly likeable. . I would trust him as a man.” Thruout his life Dawes had attract- ed to himself the pettiest of reactiona- ries as surely as a putrid, dead body attracts maggots. It was through no accident that the shyster lawyer, small bank and gas-corporation organ- izer of Lincoln, Nebraska, rose to the position of republican vice-presiden- tial nominee. His entire life was a training for the qualifications of that position. The McKinley presidential cam- paign of 1896 promised to be a stiff fight. All the political generalship that Mark Hanna could muster was necessary; and Illinois looked like a weak state for McKinley. William Lorimer, who was then at the head of the republican pdlitical niachine in Illinois, was not entrusted with the job, even though he had the qualifica- tion, so dear to the heart of Mark Hanna, of being the crookedest poli- tician in the state. Even thé Chicago Tribune, which today is one of the firmest supporters of Dawes, could not swallow the open, wholesale graft of the Lorimer machine; and Dawes was put at the head of the McKinley campaign in Illinois to work hand and glove with Lorimer. Thanks to Marx Hanna’s genius and the unceasing flow of gold from Wall Street, McKinley got the presidency, and for his pains in the affair, Dawes became comptroller of the currency, which job he held from 1897 to 1902. Previously, Dawes’ only claim to destinction were that his father had fought with the Wisconsin volunteers, in the Civil War; that a distant an- cestor had accompanied Paul Revere in his famous midnight ride; that he was born in Marietta, Ohio in 1865; studied law and engineering, and in- cessantly smoked a pipe — while in France he changed to cigars. When Dawes quit his government job in 1902,#he founded the Central Trust Company of Illinois, whose board chairman he is today. In those days it was fashionable for politicians to organize banks or become interest- ed in the directing of banking insti- tutions. William Lorimer, Dawes old-time political bed-mate, became heavily interested in the LaSalle State Bank, organized by C. B. Mun- day. The LaSalle State Bank became involved in a huge swindling scheme, which later wrecked the bank losing millions of dollars, Lorimer and Mun- day were indicted for defrauding the state bank examiners; Munday was convicted and later scandalously par- doned, | mislead him, the Central Trust Com- pany permitted Lorimer’s bank to issue a $1,250,000 check on it, though the money never left the vaults of the Central Trust Company, and it was never intended that any money should be transferred to the crumb- ling LaSalle State Bank. When the crash came, Dawes’ bank refused to be responsible for the $1,250,000, and the matter lodged in the state courts for nine years, being, finally decided against Dawes’ Central Trust Com- pany, by the Illinois Supreme Court, (Vol. 312, p. 396.) In the lower court, the Central Trust Company was order- ed to pay $978,029,11 as its share in the bankruptcy, but the higher court set the amount at $165,000 and levied the costs against Hell ah’ Maria’s in- stitution “on the ground that the liti- gation was made necessary by the wrongful acts of the Central Trust Company.” Hell an’ Maria even while an ob- scure bdhker began to think about the labor question. In his book “The Banking System of the United States,” he declares that labor is a commodi- ty and must be treated as _ such. Charlie has not only studied the theoretical enslavement of labor- in his position as banker, but has had considerable experience in the actual exploitation of workers on a large scale. During the war he was in charge of 40,000 militarized French miners, and he tells with great pride in his “Journal of the Great War” how well and skillfully he was able to handle his labor supply and get results. Besides, Dawes had direct control over hundreds of thousands of British and American muhition workers, So it is a‘mistake to think that Hell an’ Maria was revealing a new twist in his character when in St. Augustine Florida, April ist, 1923 at a meeting of bankers, railroad directors, and steel magnates, he declared that he had urged President Harding to make the open shop one of the major planks in his re-election campaign. Shortly after the Augustine decla- ration, Dawes, at a luncheon in Chi- cago attending by Chicago’s leading bankers, manufacturers ,and business men, organized his “Minute Men of the Constitution,” an organization whose rabid anti-labor policy has evoked even the wrath of some of the yellowest leaders of the American Fe- deration of Labor. The “Minute Men” comes closer to a clear-cut Fascist formation than any other existing anti-labor group in the United States, for unlike the Ku Klux Klan, the “Mi- nute Men” make purely national and capitalist principle their prime object, without proking religious antagonism. Twenty-five years before the world war, Dawes and Black Jack Pershing were intimate friends. §. M. Felton, who was also a close friend and fellow bank director, became director-gen- eral of, railways during the war. And again Dawes’ connections bring him into the prominence which this time had back of it enough momentum to thrust him into the vice-presidential nomineeship. Dawes became general purchasing agent of the American and Allied forces. In his “Journal of the Great War” Dawes tells how he got the job. The very first picture in the book is that of 8S, M. Felton and Dawes devo- tes a paragraph in red ink to the fact that Felton placed $600,000,000 worth of war contracts the first year he held his job as director-general of railways. However, Hell an’ Maria does not inform us whether it was the graft possible in the expenditure of the huge sums he would handle and the contracts he had authority to make that gave him the incentive to leave his prosperous bank, While.in France, Hell an’ Maria became intimately acquainted with most of the allied bankers and indu- strialists. He formed an _ intimate friendship with Louis Loucheur, then French minister of armaments, and France’s foremost industrial capitalist and imperialist manipulator. At the close of the war, one of the problems that faced purchasing-agent Dawes was that of disposing of the vast aggregation of military supplies in the war zones. Dawes accomplish- ed his job in his usual brusque man- ner, and, as far as we know, did not make many personal notations on what he did. When the smoke and din of war cleared a_hit and there terials, about the coll disposing of American france, congress beg tions, and Dawes wa: as a witness. The square-faced Lincoln, Nebraska, barrister, lately brigadier- general was pressed hard for informa- tien, This was new to him. In France he controlled the very lives of his 40,000 militarized miners. He had answered to no one but himself 4nd his boyhood friend, Black Jack Per- shing. Under oath now and question- ed closely Dawes spurted out—shriek- ing in a high-pitched voice—“Hell an’ Maria, I was sent over to do a job and I did it! Hell an’ Maria.” And ever since “Hell an’ Maria,” is the name by which all the capitalist vir- tues, blunt business demeanor, wanton and reckless disregard for pussyfoot- ing economy, fearless anti-labor policy and tenacity of purpose of Charles G. Dawes is epitomized. Dawes is also interested in oil. His brother, Benman Gates Dawes is pres- ident of the Pure Oil Company and the Ohio Citiés Gas Company. The Pure Oil Company is a $150,000,000 concern. Very recently Dawes’ bank floated a $15,000,000 bond issue for the Pure Oil Company. As a man, the capitalist newspaper and magazine scribblers find Dawes a favorite subject. Some go into ecsta- cies about his pipe and his eccentric collar; others write reams about his love for profanity, dear to the secret heart of all “go-getters” and babbits. One writer in Collier’s Weekly spent about 2,000 words telling why a French writer was justified in calling Dawes “The man you cannot do.” Dawes has been called alternately a banker, a statesman, a soldier, a lawyer, an engineer, but never has, he been designated a politician by the kept press. Macauley tells of Frederick the Great, busy in affairs of war and state with a quire of bad verse in one pocket and vial of poison in the other: Dawes carries Alice-in-Wonderland stories and mediocre music compo- sions in one portfolio, and a trick pipe in his vest pocket. Like Frederick the Great, who acted in every capa- city and department then known to ‘government, Dawes wants to be con- sidered as a self-sufficient, all-around man—soldier, when-necessary; banker when profitable, engineer when a large gas company needs to be organ- ized, and musician to round out so many sided. a character. Frederick the Great hired Voltaire to appreciate his “pingly” poetry; Dawes negotia- tes with Fritz Kreisler to play his pieces. ‘Ture is a story told of how Dawes used his Alice-in-Wonderland stories during an unusually bitter and in- tensely acrimonious debate between allied war purchasing agents. Dawes stopped the proceedings and drew from his pocket some of his own fairy stories, read them, thereby relieving the tense-situation, By training, by nature, and because of class position, Hell an’ Maria is the most likely Mussolimi America has yet pushed into the limelight. Strike- breaker Coolidge could find no better aid than the experienced militarized- labor expert; than the organizer of the anti-labor Minute Men; than the formulater of the plan, which, if put into effect is destined to degrade, not alone the German and American pro- letariat, but the working class of the world as well. WANTED! Experienced printer who can acquire small interest and position in printing company. Must understand principles of co-operation and know activities in so- cialist and communist movements. Must pon Bag ot pa as to character. Telephone UNIVERSITY PRESS, Incorporated 1006 Burnham Bldg., Chicago. ee en Te HOT FROM 2HE Paes 81 The New and Vital Pamphlet Everyone is Talking About -RUSSIA IN 1924 By WM. Z. FOSTER Chairman of the Workers 7 Secretary of the T. U. E. L., Communist Candidate Fo or President The Capitalist Press and All the Enemies of the Workers Have Been Spreading the Lie That the Russian Revolution “Has Failed” FOSTER SPENT FOUR MONTHS IN RUSSIA IN 1921 SIX WEEKS IN RUSSIA THIS YEAR In This Pamphlet He Tells the Story of How the Russian Workers Have Fought Their Way Through All Obstacles to Victory! ment and Industry! How 32 pages, paper cover, 10 cents—Bundles of ten or more, 7 cents. They Are Free! How They Have Succeeded in mane se The Baltimore Sun tells of a con- versation between Lorimer § and Dawes before the wrecking of the La- Salle State Bank. The state auditor was becoming apprehensive, and to TRADE UNION EDUCATIONAL LEAGUE 1113 W. Washington Blvd. . Chicago, IIlinois ee ee eee Se oo ne ee ee en ne ee ee ee ee ee EE NE EN NNN LH A ER SNR AARNE) STENT Smtr eR Ah AE A NR TREES ENGST tno ene RAE RE an een a tn atin mst LL tee |