Vol 116 May 1928 No 1 GENERAL DAWES The Vice-President as He Looks to One of His Friends HE quality in General Dawes finest is the quality of human sympathy. It has always seemed to me that he owes the possession of this to the fact that he has lived in a small town, a fairly large town, a great city and two national capitals. He has learned to know the people of these different communities. He can understand what the "home-folks" in the small towns of the Middle West are talking about, for he has been one of them. His early days in Nebraska gave him a first-hand understanding of the problems and hopes of the West. He knows the heart of the great city, for he has spent most of his business life in Chicago. I do not mean the financial heart alone, but the heart of the lowly as well. dispensed hot coffee and sandwiches to the long line of shivering men that shuffled before them. There were easier ways, involving no discomfort to himself, of relieving this suffering, but he chose the way that brought him into direct contact with these men and thus learned something which most men know only from reading. This early experiment in practical philanthropy led to another in later years, but on years, but on a larger and more regulated scale. After the tragic death by drowning in September, 1912, of his only son, he established the Rufus Fearing Dawes Memorial Hotel in Chicago. It was erected at a cost of $100,000, and during its first two years, furnished 294,222 lodgings with bath, at a cost of five cents each; 62,377 baths with lodgings in separate rooms at ten cents each; 118,515 wholesome meals at an average of six cents; and work for 3400 was found by the free employment agency of the hotel. One of my earliest personal recollections of General Dawes was in the hard times twenty or more years ago when there was much unemployment and distress. He had established a coffee-wagon over on the West Side, and night after night, in the bitter The success of this hotel led to the cold, he and Malcolm MacDowell organization of the Rufus F. Dawes Copyright, 1928, by THE CENTURY Co. All rights reserved. I Hotel Association "to own and operate hotels, restaurants and lodging-houses whereat the needy, the unemployed and men of impaired means may procure food and lodging at prices within their ability to pay; and if as a result of its operation any profits shall ever accrue to said corporation, the same shall never be distributed among the members of the corporation, but shall be forever dedicated and shall be devoted to aiding the poor and needy in such manner as the trustees shall from time to time determine." Another Rufus F. Dawes Hotel for men was built in Boston at a cost of $130,000 to accommodate 600 guests; and the Mary Dawes Memorial Hotel for women, in memory of the general's mother, was established in Chicago. In the Rufus Dawes's hotels safetyrazors are provided free. The menus and prices, as originally established, are of interest. Meat hash and beans. ... Macaroni and bread.. Mutton stew and bread... 3 cents 2 cents I cent 3 cents 3 cents 2 cents I cent 3 cents 3 cents By now, the men and women who have been provided cheap and scrupulously clean accommodations in these hotels has approached the two million mark. The beauty of the system is that no one is made to feel himself an object of charity. He pays the bill, small though it is, and departs with self-respect unimpaired. I have eaten in both the Chicago hotels and can testify to the appetizing wholesomeness and cleanliness of the food. This is intelligent welfare work of the highest order. 22 In General Dawes I find much that is reminiscent of the late Colonel Roosevelt. Not since the colonel dominated our national stage has there been an American in public life who combines so many of the colonel's picturesque qualities as does General Dawes, and this despite their many divergences of character and outlook. They were too much alike to be close friends. The general, like the colonel, loves out of door diversions. He is a good shot, if breaking seventeen out of twenty-five clay pigeons is good shooting. This he did at Waite Phillip's ranch near Cimarron, New Mexico, last July. As a fisherman, he would rate higher. In golf, he drives a long ball but lacks "form." His golfing idea is simple and direct. "Keep your eye on the ball and hit it hard." There are no fancy preliminary wiggles, but it is amazing to see how far and straight he drives a ball. "Give me my slapstick," he says as he hands his pipe to the caddy and the caddy grinningly gives him the mid-iron. A "high stick," in the general's golfing terminology, is a lofter or mashie. This indifference to form prevents him from becoming a good golfer-but such, as nearly as I can gather, is not his ambition. He generally plays in the hundreds, but has been known to get into the nineties. As a horseman he lacks much of Colonel Roosevelt's skill; but then the colonel didn't have to keep a pipe |