and coming attorneys. The firm quickly became one of Missouri's most successful in that era. Around the same time, in 1898, Harry Hawes was appointed to the St. Louis Police Board by an old friend, Missouri Governor Lon Vest Stephens. As chairman of the Police Board he received notoriety for his handling the St. Louis Streetcar Strike of 1900. Thousands of labor supporters rallied on behalf of the workers and considerable damage to property ensued over the spring and summer months, prompting a Federal judge to order Hawes and the Police Board to swear in a 2,500 man posse comitatus to help stop the unrest. In the period between May and September 1900, fourteen people were killed and two hundred wounded before the strike ended. Reappointed to the board again in 1901 by Governor Alexander M. Dockery, Hawes continued to serve in that position until 1904. Political and military service Harry B. Hawes entry into Missouri politics came in 1904, when he sought the Democratic nomination for governor. At the 1904 state Democratic convention Hawes was tapped as one of three candidates to possibly represent the party in the general election. Considering that the Democrats had held the governorship every term since 1873, it was likely that the convention winner would be the next Missouri Governor. However, it was not to be for Harry Hawes as he lost out to fellow Democrat and future Governor Joseph W. Folk by a wide margin. Hawes' next foray into elective politics was more successful, as in 1916 was elected to the Missouri House of Representatives. While brief, his career in the House was eventful. Hawes authored bills that created the Missouri Highway Department and revised state traffic laws. He also served as chairman of the Good Roads committee and led the effort to pass a $60 million bond issue for creation of the states first highway system. Pertaining to river transportation and its importance to Missouri, Hawes was one of the chief organizers of the "Lakes to the Gulf Waterway Association", whose goal was creating a series of locks & dams along the Mississippi, Illinois and Missouri rivers that would enable easier shipment of grain and other goods. Along with politics, military service was a long tradition in the Hawes family going back to the Revolutionary War. Harry's own father had been a Confederate Army Captain, badly wounded at the Battle of Shiloh.