The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1921-01-28
DAWES FACES
OPPOSITION
FOR CABINET
Old Guard is Suspicious Of
His Stand on League of
Nations is Acceptable to
Democrats.
UNEASY over RUM0R
BY MARK SULLIVAN

WASHINGTON, D. c., Jan. 28.-The
pressure to manouevre Harding into
substituting Andrew Mellon in the
place of Charles G. Dawes of Chicago
for secretary of treasury comes from
a group who are old guard leaders and
also violent irreconcilables.
Some of the irreconcilables can't get
away from their league of nations OBJ
session. They have kind of rabies
on the subject. Not content with the
result of the election, they like to go
back to it and pick it up in their
teeth and shake it,
They have invented the theory that
as regards the league of nations,
Dawes is not, from their point of view,
100 percent pure.
During the war Dawes spent consid-
cradle time abroad in charge of the
purchasing of supplies not merely for
I the American army but for all the
allies.
Uneasy Over Rumor.
In that connection these irreconcil-
ables have suspicion Mr.. Dawes may
have had communicating contacts with
! European statesmen. Further than
this, these irreconcilables are uneasy
over a rumor that Dawes once made
a speech that leaned toward the
league of nations.
Also, they have invented an esoteric
distinction between international
bankers, on the one hand, who are
supposed to have unclean leanings to-
ward the league of nations, and on the
! other hand what they term internal
bankers" Specifically, Dawes, as
! head of Chicago bank, would seem to
be just as much an 'internai' banker
as Mellon at the head of Pittsburg
bank. But the irreconcilables have
| figured out some kind of distinction
between the two.
Makes Distinction
Senator Penrose makes this distinc-
tion one Of his permanent political ak
IONS. He says that if he has to get in
/ bed with big business he Is going to
choose as his bed fellow the type of
big business man who keeps his money
at home and develops the country, like
| Standard Oil, and not what Penrose
! calls these International note-shav-
ers." W. ~, ss+
Economists may not be able to go
all the way with Penrose in recogniz-
ing any particular distinction of merit
between bankers who facilitate pro-
duction and bankers who facilitate
foreign markets. But as a matter of
practical politics it is rule one Of Pen
roses guide to success. Penrose's
relations with Standard Oil composed
one of the most enliving episodes of
/ American politics some years ago.
Old Guard Mumbies
Another thing that some of the old
/ guard leaders humble about is the
! fact that Dawes is acceptable to Demo-
Gratis to a degree which arouses their
suspicion. They have discovered that
Dawes indorsed John Shelton Will
liams, the present Democratic comp
! troller Of the treasury, when the lat
ter's appointment was before the
senate for confirmation.
! The particular scandal, if these old
guard leaders but knew it. is prob
! ably even worse. Those Of us who
move among the leaders of both par
| ties recall that at the time when Nc
Adoo resigned as secretary of the
treasury one of the men whom some
Democratic leaders recommended to
Wilson as McAdoo's successor was
! Dawes.
| Acceptable to Democrats
| The fact that Dawes character and
standing as a banker make him ac-
| ceptable to some Democrats over
ouduo"S lu tuc lllluUS VI tuCoc ouopI-
| cious standpatters the fact that Dawes
has been a Republican all his lif.:
that he was a Republican office hold
er under Mckinley twenty-five years
ago; that he has been more or less
active in Republican politics all his
life and that he took prominent
part in the Republican preconvention
campaign last year being the man who
was behind the movement to get the
! Republican nomination for Pershing
! There is little likelihood that the
sort of argument that is moving this
little group of old guard leaders will
! have much weight with Harding. This
| ought not to be said without also say
! ing that Mellon is very able man and
would make a good secretary of the
treasury. He is described as more of
a great business organizer than mere
ly a banker. He has organized and op-
Grated several large corporations en-
gagged in the oil business. in the steel
business, and in other lines.
Cite Courage.
The characteristic of Mellon is said
to be that he has initiated these cor
porations, organized them and contin-
ued to operate them personally. in dis
tinction from the usual custom of
bankers who merely deal in securities
of the corporation they are identified
with. Melons friends say this of him.
that with his various enterprises he
has entered into strenuous competi-
tion with the Standard Oil company
and the steel corporation and done it
successfully-a fact that is cited as
proof of his courage and his ability.
To the suggestion that he be sec
hretary of the treasury, Mellon is quot
ed as saying that he $50 years old,
that he might be willing to serve if
called, but that he forbids his friends
to make any drive in his behalf.
Copyright 1921 by the New York
. Evening Post, Inc.)