of the Interallied Board of Military Supplies] General Dawes brought not only his unrivaled business capacity but that splendid magnetic personality which enabled him to direct such far-flung activities without friction. It is doubtful if any other nation could have presented a man whose mind and character could have so successfully dominated transactions of such magnitude." Again illustrative of the relation of early to later events in the shaping of a career, is the fact that through his father-General Rufus R. Dawes, one of the commanders of the famous "Iron Brigade" of the Civil Warwho was serving in Congress, the youthful Dawes met Congressman McKinley. As a result of this friendship, Dawes, then only twenty-nine, was chosen by Mark Hanna to organize the State of Illinois. This he did with such success that the Illinois delegation was pledged to William McKinley, which doubtless contributed greatly to his nomination and election. In 1898 President McKinley appointed Dawes, then thirty-one, Comptroller of the Currency, where he instituted reforms of great public value. Observe how these various events dovetail, each dropping into its destined place and preparing the way for later events. At thirty-one he was mastering the involved problems of national finance, a knowledge that marked him, many years later, as the logical man to organize the National Budget bureau which has systematized our national spending and has saved the country hundreds of millions of dollars. And his striking success in the accomplishment of this service moved him forward to where he was the logical selection as Chairman of the Allied Reparations Commission, which restored order out of chaos in European affairs. The committee's report, known as the "Dawes Plan," was subsequently ratified and accepted by all the powers concerned. Of the report, Owen D. Young, associated with General Dawes as United States member of the Committee of Experts and himself a great factor in its success, wrote in a biography of General Dawes which appears in the thirteenth edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica: "The Plan provided a non-political and automatic means for determining Germany's ability to pay and so withdrew this vexed question from international controversy and paved the way for the later agreements entered into at Locarno." The success of this Plan with its tremendously far-reaching results, was due to the work of many experts from the different nations. The name "Dawes" was attached to it, although he is the last to claim a dominating part in the formation of it. That part he has often assigned to Mr. Young. But there were vital elements necessary to the success and adoption of the Plan and these were supplied by Dawes. He had the ability to dramatize it, to make the nations sit up and take notice, to harmonize conflicting views, to break down, when necessary, the barriers of obstructive opinion, and to him, more than to any other, is due the credit for "selling" the Plan to the nations involved. The identification of his name with this Plan made him a world figure, known by name wherever newspapers are printed. His name became synonymous with success. In three grinding tests of character and ability he has come through with flying colors. Interallied supplies, budget bureau, reparations—each a task of immense importance. Had not Coolidge been the logical one to succeed himself in 1924, General Dawes would probably have been the nominee. As it was, he was given the second place on the ticket, being nominated on the third ballot by a vote of 6821⁄2 against 3341⁄2 for Hoover and 75 for Kenyon; and the ticket became Coolidge and Dawes. It is a curious coincidence that in the town of Worcester, Massachusetts, one hundred and forty-seven years ago, the firm of Dawes and Coolidge owned a store. They were brothers-in-law, the sister of William Dawes of the firm, being the wife of John Coolidge, the other member. This William Dawes was the greatgreat-grandfather of General Charles G. Dawes, and was the man who rode with Paul Revere on that memorable night in April, 1775. 22 As his first act as Vice-President, he flung down the gauntlet to a startled Senate, and in a sensational inaugural address delivered before an august assemblage which included the President, the Supreme Court, and exalted personages in the Diplomatic Service, he assailed the rules of pro cedure in the Senate and demanded a revision whereby a majority vote could apply the clôture to debate. He denounced a system where a one man filibuster can hold up and kill important necessary legislation. By this dramatic challenge, he proclaimed to the world that he did not propose to be the colorless automaton which precedent has led us to expect in the Vice-Presidential chair. The Senate, thus assailed exploded in wrath, yet to-day, it is doubtful if any previous Vice-President ever wielded so much influence in the Senate or had so many devoted friends among its members. His fairness of decision and his striking ability has won, first a grudging respect, and later a genuine admiration from the Senate as a whole, irrespective of party. Where does he stand to-day? When the name "Dawes" is mentioned, what picture leaps up in the mind of the general newspaper reader? A striking personality as Vice-President with a background of very great and successful public achievements in peace and war-a world figure, a courageous fighter, a dramatic, many-sided character somewhat identified with those appealing nonessentials, so dear to the American heart, as an underslung pipe, a pungent vocabulary and a joyous lack of deference for the sacrosanct fogyisms of the United States Senate. And lastly, a "pinch-hitter" who can be depended upon in a critical moment to save a bad situation. T TIRZAH POTTER EDGAR LEE MASTERS IRZAH POTTER was an old widow who had a clock The clock had come from Hartford with a stock Of silver and watches to the jeweler Perry. Her widowhood, till she began to totter; In 1895 Tirzah Potter died, And all her things were sold at public sale. The nephew took the clock, as more befitting There amid shadows and sunlight flitting It ticked away in a mood unwitting, And half remembering the cattle and cows, Then after a time the nephew failed, and what He owned was sold. And Tirzah Potter went with the lot As a trifle with no tradition, although old. So to New York came Tirzah Potter and ticked Drowned out the chatter of book critiques, Drowned sneers and hisses, drowned the ticks The babblers heard the clock begin its "Tirzah Potter! Tirzah Potter!" They listened in a kind of dread; They ceased to munch Italian bread; But not into a single head Entered what Tirzah Potter said. H A PROUDFUL FELLOW The Black People Called Him Ut Wine Is name was Earth Wine— he might have long life, and Wine for the family to which he belonged. His black mother and all the other black people on the plantation called him Ut Wine. He called himself that. Ut could not bear to live like the rest of his people. The climate was warm; most of the days were brilliant and fine; the tottering old Quarter houses which had sheltered Ut's black kin ever since the first of them were brought up the river, long ago, to work as slaves alongside the mules in the cotton and corn fields, gave shelter enough, all the shelter Ut ever needed from rain or sun or cold. Ut really loved the old houses and the great old moss-draped oaks that shaded them, but he wanted to own a piece of land and have a home of his own. This may have been because he was not altogether black. His mother was, but his father was white. White blood has a strange way of poisoning men so that they cannot rest unless they own things. Sometimes they crave land, sometimes houses, sometimes people. Ut craved all three, for he felt that Harpa, his young wife, was his the same as his faithful dog Sounder, or his cow, or his mule. His mother argued with him and tried to show him that he was foolish and proudful; that while men may think they own land because they pay taxes on it and plow it and salt it with sweat to make it give them grain or cotton, the truth is that the land owns them all the time; and when it has worn them out with struggling and striving, it takes them and turns them back into dust to feed its trees and grass and weeds. Ut was a fool to turn his back on things that were good enough. He had good clothes and a roof over his head; he could rest or pleasure himself from dusk until dawn every night God sent. He ought to thank God and be satisfied. In spite of her warning that he was tempting fate when he stepped out alone, for himself, Ut bought a piece of thick-wooded land some miles away where a lonely hill bulged out, making the sullen yellow river crook sharply into a bend that was called the Devil's Elbow. It had always been a bad-luck place, for the river swamp below it was filled with hootowls and barking snakes and spirit dogs and ugly things bred in slime and black moon-shadows. Ut's land was rich enough, but its richness fed weeds and grass as freely as it fed his crops, and it took |