Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-06-28
ATTORNEY GEN. KNOX
Interesting Sketch Of a Mem
Der of the Cabinet.
EARNED 100000 YEAR
PLAYS GOLF, HUNTS AND FISHES
AND LOVES HORSES.
Has Never Made Political Address
What Forms His
Greed.
Copyright. 1902, by Alfred Alleyn.)


WASHINGTON, d. c., June %, 1902.
When Philander Chase Knox, who,
Attorney General of the United States, is
conducting the prosecution against the beef
trust, entered the cabinet he relinquished
a private law practice of 100000 a year.
The firm of Knox & Reed always demanded
and received large fees for their profession
al services.
The story of the indianapolis street-rail-
way case, the last great argument made by
Mr.. Knox before he came to Washington,
is illustrative. He was anxious to go to
Europe for a rest when the pressure upon
him to argue this case before the Supreme
Court became so strong that to rid himself
of further importantly, he named fee to
the company which he believed would be
prohibitive. To his surprise it was accept
ed instantly; he argued the case in con-
junction with the late eX-President Benja
min Harrison, and Won
General Harrison evidently regarded P.
c. Knox as a secondary consideration in
the presentation of the case, though the
consensus of the opinion was that Knox
had carried the court irresistibly by the
masterful character of his argument.
Some time later Harrison and Knox met
on the board walk of Atlantic City, and
after an exchange of civilitieS the EXPIRES
ident, in a manner that was not altogether
free from patronizing air, said:
by the way, Knox, how did you come
out in the settlement of your account with
the Indianapolis Street Railway Company?
1 got 81, 600 out of them for my services"
81 am very glad to hear it, general" re-
piled Knox pleasantly. Then in a mod
estly deferential way he continued: Il got
s125,OO0."
WHAT blurted the ex-President, over
whelmed with establishment. Then, appre-
ciating the embarrassment of the situation
he wheeled and continued his walk without
| another word.
A Country Bankers Son.
Phil Knox, as he was known then and
| he is known today among his intimates in
western Pennsylvania, was sixteen years
| of age when he left home to attend Mt.
| Union College, Ohio. He was born in
Brownville Fayette county, Pa, May 6,
| 1858 His father was a country banker,
boyhood friend of James G. Blaine, who
sent his son to the public schools until he
| was ready for college. He was graduated
in 1872 and Immediately registered as
law student in the office of H. Butcher
| Swope Pittsburg. No two natures were
| more dissimilar than preceptor and pupil.
Swope. then United States district attor-
| ney for the western district of Pennsyi-
| vania, was nervous, fiery, impetuous, ag-
| gressive and master of the greatest vocab-
| ulary of Vitriolic adjectives that was ever
| exhibited in a district court room. At all
times however, his diction was polished,
| and in this respect his pupil owes much to
I the master, though the former was Swope's
antithesis cool, self-reStrained natural
| logician, and a rhetorician whose COM
| mand of language is still charmingly exact.
P. G. Knox was admitted to the bar IN
| 1875 and in 1877 formed a partnership with
| James H. Reed, another young lawyer, the
| son of a Pittsburg physician. The career
| of these young men for the first few years
gave no hint of phenomenal success. They
| were chaperoned by no advantageous cir
| cumstances; they had no influential friends
| in the background; they were generally re-
| garded as an energetic pair who possessed
| no advantages above other junior members
of the bar.
he "Grew Up" With Pittsburg.
| But Pittsburg was then heading for inter-
| national fame. Conditions were shaping
themselves for the men who had wit and
| wisdom to mount the crest of waiting adj
/ vantage In the same class with phil
| Knox and Jim Reed in point of brains
| and energy, and equally as unknown, were
| Henry Clay Frick, subsequently president
| of the Carnegie company Representative
John Dalzell ]. NJ. Guffey, the phenomenally
! successful oil producer and millionaire, ma
| tonal committeeman from Pennsylvania
and head of the democratic party in that
| state; George T. Oliver, then small own
| er, now a multi-millionaire and director of
a great syndicate of Pittsburg newspapers,
| and John T. Chambers, the largest indi-
| vidual glass producer in the United States,
| at that period a partner in a struggling
| concern on the South Side, Pttsburg.
During his career in Pittsburg Phil
| Knox was known as a tireless worker. He
! frequently appeared at the Office in the
| morning before any Of the others had ar
| rived, when his sole companion was the
| office boy. This was particularly true when
| he had great case on hand. for 1t was
| his unvarying rule never to leave any of
| the preparation Of a great action to a SUBJ
| ordinate or junior member. Every docu-
ment letter, reference or scrap of infor-
| nation on evidence was examined by him
| self. 1t was no uncommon thing for him
| to spend eighteen or twenty hours a day
| in the preparation of a case.
This has developed rare faculty Of self
| control which invades even the domain of
sleep. Day or night the Attorney General
1 can awaken at any hour, or at the end of