The charges, of course, were as wide of
the mark as most of the ebullitions of the yellow journals.
Mr. Knox began his public career by attacking the Northern
Securities merger, against the judgment of some of the highest-paid
lawyers of the country. The Supreme Court sustained him. It was the
greatest victory the government ever won under the Sherman law.
Thereafter Mr. Knox, who had been labeled a corporation lawyer, was
proclaimed a trust buster. By the time he was fifty he had become
the greatest Attorney General in a half century. Certainly the mark
he set has never been reached by any of his successors.
When Mr. Roosevelt came into the White House Mr. Knox was at the
pinnacle of his career and was as much admired by his new chief as
by his martyred predecessor. In ability Mr. Roosevelt considered
him next to Elihu Root, for which Mr. Root was never quite
forgiven. It is generally known that President Roosevelt believed
that Mr. Root was the best qualified man in the country to succeed
him, but at the same time, being an astute politician, he knew that
he could not be elected. His attitude to his Secretary of State was
the same as Senator Lodge's toward himself, when he said in 1920:
"I know that I would make an excellent President, but I realize
that I would make a poor candidate."
Root being out of it because of this obvious defect, President
Roosevelt proceeded to groom Mr.
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