Dawes Off

Charles Gates Dawes walked his Chow dog Chung along the Olympic's promenade deck, puffed his underslung pipe. He was satisfied. Everything had been precise, prompt--his conference with the Secretary of State, his last talk with the President, his packing, his sailing. He had telegraphed to London asking the exact space allowance for bookcases in the U. S. Embassy, had promptly received statistics. Needing a private secretary, he had offered the diplomatic opportunity to rugged Nephew Henry Dawes. one year out of Williams College, oil company clerk in Columbus, Ohio. Nephew Dawes had promptly, diplomatically accepted. Promptest of all was Oxford University, which was to make Ambassador Dawes a Doctor of Civil Law almost immediately on his arrival. Simultaneously receiving the same degree would be Spanish Ambassador Alfonso Merry del Val, brother of the urbane and genial Cardinal, and Egyptian Prime Minister Mohamed Mahmud Pasha.*

* On such Oxford occasions memorable remarks often made. In 1864. at the beginning of the evolution controversy (see p. 40), the great Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli exclaimed: "The question is this: Is man an ape or an angel? I, my lord, am on the side of the angels."