New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1921-08-20
Books Percy Hammond aS

AS soldier General Dawes per-
sonally did not care much for shining
armor and the banner, spear and shield
emblematic of the martial man. When
he left his Chicago counting house
to become a lieutenant colonel of en-
gineers about the only surface qualifi-
cations he possessed as a war chief
were gift Of prayerful profanity and
certain beguiiing powers as a breezy
diplomatist. His subsequent intimate
association with the stern disciplina-
rians Of the Allies purple hosts had
small influence on his civilian habits,
and to the end he maintained a smil-
ing disregard for the etiquette of the
army.
Many a time in France and Eng
land, one suspects, did the immaculate
Pershing, the most fastidious of SOL
diers, shudder at the Generals in
gratating gaucheries. In fact, Cen
eral Dawes, in his just published
Journal of the Great War (Hough-
ton-Miflin), laughingly recounts sew
eral incidents wherein his digni-
fed associates were inpelled to
goose flesh and the warriors blush at
his mischievous infractions of military
ceremonial. They were always appre-
hensive that he would address Marshal
Foch as Boss" or appear at a con-
ference Of the Allied command with his
cap askew. Once before an imposing
convocation, in which Marshal Foch was
participant, General Pershing sent
Major General Harbord to inspect Gem
eral Dawes, and it was we'll that he did,
for the Generals blouse was discovered
to be unfastened at the collar and he
was smoking what is known as a long
black cigar.
Another of The Tribune's reviewers
will analyze and comment upon the
weightier elements of General Dawes's
Journal, which relates with an irresisti-
pie sincerity and eagerness the story of
the unification of the supply resources
and activities of the Allied armies in the
immediate rear. 1t was tough assign
ment for provincial banker to invent
a system of coordination and centraliza-
ton OF the separate supply services,
and it was yet a more difficult Job for
him to overcome the British disinclina-
ton to surrender their independence of
control. That he was able to co so, one
surmses, was because he was not mere
provincial banker, but a sodier-econo-
mist of great vision, an executive of
unusual power and determination. and
diplomat who tempered witness with
a vast honesty of purpose and of method.
But this reporter is pleased to con-
Germ himself with the more personal
items Of General Dawes and his history.
because in the days Immediately follow
ing the armistice he was an amazed and
a rather intimate observer of the Cen
erals operations in Paris. 1t fascinated
him during that perplexing period for
Americans in France to visit the Gener-
ais headquarters in the Elysee Palace
and there to observe him as he directed
the cosmic business of which he seemed
to be the head. Preceding the conference
OF the military board of Allied supply, in
which millions were always concerned.
he was the airy Middle West American
proferng the open cigar box, clapping
his associates upon their hospitable
backs, saluting u noble lord with a
friendly Hello, Duke!" and, with his
arms on the shoulder of some eminent
parsonage or other, inviting him to have
dinner at the Ritz and to hear Louise"
at the Opera Comique. Indignant Amer
lean majors and captains would besieec
him with complaints of the rapacity of |
the French and the stubbornness of the |
British, and he would conciliate them
with deft suggestions. As you watched |