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Root (ELIHU an American lawyer)

ELIHU, an American lawyer and statesman, born in Clinton, N. Y., College, of whose faculty his father was a member, then attended New York University Law School, being admitted to the bar in 1867. His first public office was that of United States District Attorney for the Southern District of New York, which he held in 1883. In that same year he was a delegate at large to the New York State Constitutional Convention, where he was appointed chairman of the judiciary committee. In 1899 he was appointed Secretary of War by President McKinley, and again in 1901. During this period, covering the Spanish-American War and the Filipino insurrection, he performed ROOT remarkable work in harmonizing the regular army and the state militia forces. It was at his initiative that the General Staff was created. In 1904 he again took up private law practice, but in the following year succeeded John Hay as Sec-' retary of State. In 1909 he went to Washington as Senator from New York, but declined to serve further as such in 7 ELIHU ROOT 1913. In 1910 he was made a permanent member of the International Court of Arbitration at the Hague, since which he has been prominently identified with the movement toward international peace. In 1912, he was awarded the Nobelprize.

In 1917 he was sent as special commissioner to represent President Wilson to the Provisional Government of the new Russian Republic, but was not well received there on account of his well known antipathy toward Socialistic ideas. During 1920, when it became apparent that the United States would not become a member of the League of Nations, Mr.

Root devoted his attention to drafting alternative proposals in the form of an international legislative body which would be less centralized than the League. Mr.

Root was generally considered one of the keenest American diplomats and experts on international law.

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