Dawes, Charles Gates

Dawes, Charles Gates

(dôz), 1865–1951, American statesman and banker, b. Marietta, Ohio. Admitted (1886) to the bar, Dawes practiced law in Lincoln, Nebr., until 1894 and became interested in various gas and electric companies. He was a member of the Republican executive committee in William McKinleyMcKinley, William,
1843–1901, 25th president of the United States (1897–1901), b. Niles, Ohio. He was educated at Poland (Ohio) Seminary and Allegheny College. After service in the Union army in the Civil War, he returned to Ohio and became a lawyer at Canton.
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's presidential campaign (1896) and served (1897–1901) as comptroller of the Treasury. He organized the Central Trust Company of Illinois in 1902 and became a prominent figure in banking. After the United States entered World War I he was general purchasing agent of the American Expeditionary Force.

In 1921 he was appointed director (the first) of the U.S. Bureau of the Budget (see budgetbudget,
inclusive list of proposed expenditures and expected receipts of any person, enterprise, or government for a specified period, usually one year. Budget estimates are based on the expenditures and receipts of a similar previous period, modified by any expected changes.
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); in 1923–24 he was head of the reparations committee that advanced the Dawes PlanDawes Plan,
presented in 1924 by the committee headed (1923–24) by Charles G. Dawes to the Reparations Commission of the Allied nations. It was accepted the same year by Germany and the Allies.
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 as a means of stabilizing postwar German finances. His work was recognized by the award (shared with Sir Austen ChamberlainChamberlain, Sir Austen
(Joseph Austen Chamberlain) , 1863–1937, British statesman; son of Joseph Chamberlain and half-brother of Neville Chamberlain. He entered Parliament as a Conservative in 1892.
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) of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1925. Dawes served (1925–29) as Vice President under Calvin CoolidgeCoolidge, Calvin,
1872–1933, 30th President of the United States (1923–29), b. Plymouth, Vt. John Calvin Coolidge was a graduate of Amherst College and was admitted to the bar in 1897. He practiced (1897–1919) law in Northampton, Mass.
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. Herbert HooverHoover, Herbert Clark,
1874–1964, 31st President of the United States (1929–33), b. West Branch, Iowa. Wartime Relief Efforts

After graduating (1895) from Stanford, he worked as a mining engineer in many parts of the world.
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 appointed him ambassador to London in 1929, and in 1932 he was made president of the Reconstruction Finance CorporationReconstruction Finance Corporation
(RFC), former U.S. government agency, created in 1932 by the administration of Herbert Hoover. Its purpose was to facilitate economic activity by lending money in the depression.
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. His many books include Notes as Vice President (1935), A Journal of Reparations (1939), and Journal as Ambassador to Great Britain (1939).

Bibliography

See biography by B. N. Timmons (1953).

Dawes, Charles Gates

 

Born Aug. 27, 1865, in Marietta, Ohio; died Apr. 23, 1951, in Evanston, Illinois. US statesman and banker.

Dawes was chairman of the international committee of experts that in 1923 and 1924 worked out a reparations plan for Germany. A member of the Republican Party, he was the vice-president of the USA from 1925 to 1929. From 1929 to 1932 he served as ambassador to Great Britain.