The Dawes Plan

Saige DeLuca
Professor Griffin
15 April 2014

Dawes Plan Historiography
The repercussions of World War 1 developed into devastating reparations, primarily Germany to be held accountable for. The Dawes Plan was set to commence in 1924 in order to aid a depleted Germany from accumulated debt. Countless people perceived the plan to be the solution to Germanys economic decent, although on the other hand a number claimed it to only be prolonging the obligation. A plethora of authors involved in revealing the Dawes Plan are either directly affiliated or familiar to the foreign trade and reparations. George P. Auld is a prior Accountant-General of the Reparations Commission, placed in the United States. George Auld remained a strong patron of the Dawes Plan, therefor believed in it significantly. On the contrary authors for example Max Sering, insist French desired Germany to not recuperate and even the professional members of the Dawes committee remained influenced and biased in there working group pronouncements.
George P. Auld expresses in his book a crucial part of business is being cognizant to the connection of commerce alteration and the variation of credit. As an American economist he wanted to ensure that his writings enlightened the Dawes Plan sounding practical in addition to sufficient. It occurred very essential to him with business experience stating “reassure the American capitalist as to the reliability of German investments, so that the American loans may continue for the benefit of Germany and of her creditors.”1 George Auld is most of all looking forward to show that the New Economists headed by Professor Keynes, are completely incorrect including their speculative ideas, and unreal handling of facts in international commerce.
The Dawes Plan is often portrayed from an Americans interpretation if located in the United States, however Max Sering writes explaining the Dawes Plan on behalf of Germany, for the reason that his nationality is deeply German rooted. Expressing the Dawes plan in the substantial portion of time during the era between French worries of German re-establishment and an added unease of European pandemonium had great impact. Sering perceives indications of this encounter to influence primary events that the committee establishes during creating their strategy upon the materialization of an export surplus, even though “undoubtedly they were well aware that neither before nor since the war has any such surplus existed. But for obvious tactical reasons they never make any reference to the fact. To have denied the feasibility of achieving such an exportable surplus would have been equivalent to jeopardizing the acceptance of their scheme by France."2 The arguments Sering creates would be valid if Germany’s capital remained up to par. Confrontation along with seizures and warfare left Germany’s productions disadvantaged, in addition to industrial units substantially out of date. Densely inhabited as she existed, Germany would ultimately have to consume loans from a foreign country. The borrowing from an additional nation on top of the already established reparations spells disaster for Germanys dismantled economy.
Ernest Minor Patterson is a well-respected graduate from the University of Pennsylvania where he acquired a Ph.D. This is correspondingly where he was the professor of economics and president of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. His outlook on the Dawes plan included a myriad of articulate figures. “The Treaty of Versailles did not determine the amount to be paid by Germany reparations, but left it for settlement by Reparation Commission.”3 “Bad as was the agreement made later in May, 1921, it was a great improvement over what would have been possible in 1919.”4 “Yet in May, 1921, the demand for a principle sum of 132 billion gold marks ($33,000,000,000) and for immediate annual payments of three billion gold marks ($750,000,000) was entirely beyond the economic possibilities.”5 Dr. Patterson viewed the reparations that Germany was dealt with to handle as unfair and impossible to actually fulfill in reimbursing.
Rufus Cutler Dawes was conceived July 30, 1867 from a prominent family located in Marietta, Ohio. As an established American businessman in oil and banking, he along with three of his brothers turned out to be acknowledged all over the country. He proudly was the head of the prestigious and distinguished Commercial Club of Chicago. Throughout the 1920s he operated as a professional on the commissions to organize the Dawes Plan and attain German restitutions for the confidantes after World War I. General Charles G. Dawes, former vice-President of the United States is the brother of Rufus Dawes. Charles designated his brother Rufus to abolish the German compensations dilemma succeeding the First World War, initiating the Dawes Committee to be shaped. The literatures of Rufus during the committee consultations represent the group adequately. Although contrasting from George P. Auld as authors describing the Dawes Plan by means of methodical material creating challenges aimed at amateur readers, nevertheless as noticeably conservative in business and commerce, as to diminish its importance for the educated economist. Prominently Rufus understood Germans would inevitably recognize his excerpts on the Dawes Plan generating him to remain considerate towards Germany and her authorities. The process in which history is recorded is often how the information is perceived in the eyes of the general public. Documentation must demonstrate nondiscriminatory ideology in lieu of being authentic and citable. Considering the variations an author can devise it is crucial to remain open to multiple viewpoints and examining from different positions. George Aulds perception of the Dawes plan endured the beginning of my confidence into the Dawes plan, all the way through to past the skepticism of Max Sering’s, Germany under the Dawes plan. Articulating his standpoints in the long run did however alter my final point of view on the Dawes plan. Although conforming to what Sering persisted the Dawes committee did not entirely repair the inflation in Germany’s economy, it ultimately established a pathway in the direction of the elucidation.

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Bibliography
Auld George P. The Dawes plan and the new economics. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, Page and Company, 1927
Ciment, James. Encyclopedia of the Jazz Age: from the end of World War 1 to the great crash. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 2008
Dawes, Rufus C. The Dawes Plan in the making. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1925
Patterson, Ernest M.. "The Dawes Plan in Operation." The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science: 1925.
Frederick, Richard G.. Warren G. Harding: A Bibliography. Westport, CN: Greenwood Press, 1992
Sering, Max, and S. Milton Hart. Germany under the Dawes plan; origin, legal foundations, and economic effects of the reparation payments,. London: P.S. King, 1929.