The Marion daily mirror. (Marion, Ohio) 1892-1912, 1908-06-06


FIVE feet in height, Phllander Chase
Knox, Senator from Pennsylvania
|and former Attorney General of the
United States is, physically speaking
the most dimnutive candidate for
the presidency that the country has
ever seen. But short as he Is In
stature, he Is long in intellect.
There are other superlative ad-
jectives that might De applied. For
instance, he Is the richest of all the
Republican candidates, the dressiest,
the most reserved and the sporti-
est He owns some Of the best
blooded horses in America. He has
learned the biggest fees for defend
ing corporations, and he was the
first Attorney General TO find and
make use of an effective weapon to
lDrosacute them. He Is also the
taldest of all the candidates, and
| the only one that Is smooth shaven.
Konx likes the company OF young
men. At his house almost every
evening there Is a pinochle or bill
|
Senator and some youngsters OF his
acquaintance are the participants.
When he finds a young man display
ing marked ability in any line of
work, he is very apt 30 extend a
helping hand. 1t was thus that
Nlton d. Purdy, sometimes re-
ferred to as the trust buster" of
the admi;,ist ,Itlon, came into notice.
Knox nr. him wren ne was in Min
nesota N conrlUion vita the North
ern Securities case, when Purdy had
just begun TO climb the legal ladder.
Knox was attracted TO him and his
work. and ubeu the law was passed
Iauth"rizlng the department ct lust
ice to employ special assistant attor-
neys general, ue sent for Purdy and
gave him one OF the jobs. That
Purdy has mNde good is a tribute to
Knox's discriminating judgment of
| men
Knox Is sensitive. Some years
ago he entered at the New York
horse show a pair of blooded horses
that had pedigiees reaching back %
the Dark Ages, and which to his
mind, as an expert, was the finest
matched team of trotting horses in
America. The prizes. however, went
to horses of New York's social fav-
Iorltes and Knox's pair received no
lhlention. He has never exhibited
there since.
He owes his prominence partly to
the fact that he was once expelled
from the West Virginia University
for a boyish prank, One OF the
rules of the faculty was that no
students could attend theatricals.
One day a company playing ''East
Lynne came along and Knox, to-
gether with about twenty fellow stud
ents, decided to see the performance.
One of the professors, sent to take
the names of the offenders reported
them, and all were sentenced to ex-
lpulslon. Eighteen were reinstated
on signing an agreement not to OF
fend again, but Knox and one other
left.
He tie went to Mt. Union College,
Alliance Ohio. and It was there that
he first met William Mckinley, jr.
Undecided as to the profession he
iwould adopt, 1t was entirely due to
Mckinley that he finally resolved to
lbecome lawyer. But for that
Injecting, Knox might now be a bank
cashier In a country town, like his
father.
A close student, especially OF
leases in which he was interested
and with fine capacity of resolv-
ling abstruse statements of the law
into concise and lucid language un-
derrsandabe even by laymen, Knox
succeeded in his profession from
, the start. In the earlier days OF
a Andrew Carnegie he became the iron
masters lawyer and received, 1t Is
!. said an income of $4,000 a year from
!, this source alone.
= In the twenty years following hi
a resignation in 1876 as Assistant Unit
ed STATE Attorney for the western
:, disrtict OF Pennsylvania, a place tina
he held fol only one year, HIS per
sonal retainers averaged 100000 {
: year. These. with his interest II
: the other business of his firm
gave him an income of about $500
a year. and he came to be reoog
lnized as one OF the most successful
corporation lawyers In the country
incidentally he became a stoclshod
er In the United States steel COZ
poration, the Union Trust Co., tn
:. Pittsburg Bessemer and Lake Fri
. Railway CO., and other powerful col
!, porations. His largest single fe
was earned In a forty-hve minut
speech in opposition TO an attempt I
labrogate the charter and limit III
franchises OF the Indianapolis StreC