The Alaska daily empire., 1921-10-13


 tionaf prominence when in 1901 President Mckinley appointed him as Attorney7GeneraL He retained that office under President .Roose. welt until 1904, when he resigned to accept an appointment as United States Senator from Pennsylvania to succeed the late Senator Quay
 As Attorney General he established record for prosecutions of trusts and combinations and in actions against railroads to prevent rebates and discrimination in race.
 Notable among his achievements while in this office was his suit against the Northern Securities Com pany, a corporation organized for the purpose of combining the Northern Pacific and Great Northern railroads He brought the government action to dissolve the merger and after a long legal fight beginning in 1902 he won the case in the United States Circuit Court a3
 Wages Notable Fight ? Mir. Knox also waged notable fight against the combination of sev- en beef scorprationst against whom he brought action in bat year l1sO2), charging them with being in conspir- acyx in restraint of trade. He ob- taMAds injunctions inst the de- fehdants which were made peranan- ept on appeal to the United States Supreme Court and the; combination was ordered4 to be dissoiveds
 Soon after Mir. Knox instituted pro- ceedings against IA railroad corpora tions charging them with being in combination in restraint of trade and finally won all the suits His friends declare that he was a pioneer in the movement to control corporations. It was upon his recommendation that Congress amended the laws against railroads so as to punish them for granting rebates, extend the author ity of courts to enjoin the carriers against making discriminatory rates and permit the Federal courts to give precedence to cases of great import ance to the public These actions made him powerful factor in the war against unfair practices by cor pQratiOns which was the outstanding feature of that period of President Roosevelt's administration.
 Evil of Trusts
 His own views on these powerful combinations were expressed in an address at that time in which he de- clared that over-capitalization was the. most conspicuously evil feature of the trusts but that other factors which contributed to their ill-effect upon the public were lack of pub licity of operation. discrimination in tion, a tendency to monopolize trade in their lines and failure to appreci- ate that they owed any service to the public.
 My purpose" he declared, "is to show that we are not hopelessly neip less to deal with serious problems which confront us"
 MT Knox has been credited by some with having actually carriad through" the purchase of the Panama Canal for $40,000,0O0 which was an achievement of the Roosevelt ad mfnistration. At Attorney-General. Mr. Knox went to Paris and asccr- tained that the new Panama Canal Company held a clear title to cna- vey the canal This enabled the United States to proceed with the purchase.
 Senator In 1904
 Mir. Knox was appointed United States Senator in 1904. As Secretary of State in President Taft's cabinet he inaugurated an active policy of aiding the extension of American trade with foreign countries, which was characterized as dollar diplOm- acy," designation intended in deri- sion but of which Secretary Knox afterward declared he was proud. He proposed that an Arbitral Court be established at The Hague and that the Manchurian Railway be neutral ized and approved he plan for the Central American Court of Justice for maintaining peace in Central America. He negotiated arbitration treaties with France and Great Brit ain and made notable trip to Cen.