Dawesology

In Chicago, the Vice President told a story. In Boston, he created a noonday commotion and dominated a solemn evening jubilee.

The Story. Jack, Charlie, Bill, whose surnames were respectively Pershing, Dawes, Bryan, were accustomed to eat together at Don Cameron's lunch counter in Lincoln, Neb. Said Mr. Dawes:

"Of the three, John was known in the community as a representative of the proletariat, I as one of the bourgeoisie and Bryan as a scion of the organized, predatory plutocracy. For Bryan lived in a two-story house on D Street, I in a one-story cottage and John paid $10 a month for a room in the third story of a downtown business block."

The Commotion. Boston business men assembled at lunch--1,000 of them--to honor the new President of their Chamber of Commerce. Owen D. Young and Jeremiah Smith Jr., "King of Hungary" (TIME, Feb. 23, HUNGARY), were star guests. So was Charles G. Dawes, of whom a speech was demanded: It was the way I said 'it ["Senate Rules"] not what I said, that gave rise to irritation in Washington. My grief over that irritation is somewhat tempered by a remark of George Bernard Shaw, that no offensive truth is properly presented unless it causes irritation.

And now I am going to say a few things. And I am. going to say them because Senator William M. Butler is here to listen.

I am going to appeal to you as part of Senator Butler's constituency to express your opinion on this subject of Senate rules. . . .

Did our forefathers have in mind when they framed the Constitution the lodging with any one of 96 Senators a power greater than the veto power of the President of the United States? Would they have said, when our laws must have the concurrent action of two houses of Congress, when they must be subject to the veto power of the President, and yet again subject to review by the Supreme Court of the United States, that a further check was needed in the shape of power, placed in the hands of one Senator, to block all legislation--power that he might sometimes use for his own personal gain?

I want Senator Butler to know how you feel about it. All of you who think the Senate rules ought to be changed, stand up. Come on. Get up and say so right now. With more than human unanimity, all rose up, all roared, all sat. Said the Vice President: "I knew Senator Butler would stand up. Senator Gillett would stand up, too, if he were here. He told me so."

Pulling undemonstrative Senator Butler from his seat, Mr. Dawes concluded : "I want to hear what Senator Butler has to say about this."

Mr. Butler briefly recited the credo of reform, merely adding that his short experience at the Capitol had taught him that a new Senator must walk humbly in the sight of his seniors.

Solemn Jubilee. Mr. Dawes sat on the platform of the Old North Church near two lighted lanterns. Introduced by Mrs. Pauline Revere Thayer, he rose to pronounce an oration on two beacon-lights: The Constitution, The New England Character:

. . . And so today in the United States, above all matters of business and material advancement, the one thought which should be uppermost in the minds of us all is: "What of our character?" It is this alone which counts in the long run.

What man, no matter how great has been his power and success, does not realize it in those last days of life when, before his failing sight, appears the darkness of the shadow of the valley? The ebbing away of blood in the human body has no more marked a relation to its welfare than the disintegration of character has upon a people. In the coming century, American civilization must meet its highest test--the test of whether or not it has followed those beacon lights of personal character which our New England forbears lifted on high for the guidance of our people.

Then Paul Revere, great-great-grandson of the rider, carried the lanterns down the aisle, up narrow stairs into the belfry. Mr. Dawes went out across narrow Salem Street, glanced up at the flaming jets, thought of his ancestor, William, who also rode to Lexington and Concord.