ELIHU ROOT.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 12086, 15 August 1917, Page 5

ELIHU ROOT.

A GREAT AMERICAN. (" \>w York Tribune."> Elihu Root, on* of the figures of contemporary Amenoan lusfer %ent to Pclrogrnd a short time ago on n mission of to Nou Russia. Tho choice of President, A\ i - Jon of *o noted a conservative on such in errand to a provisional government n ado up of Workmen's and bold,™ SSepati is made Ipss remarkable by a knowledge of his distinguished achievements as a diplomat. , H was as Secretary of fetal* undei President Roosowlt that Mr Root won international fa mo as a shrewd and progressive promoter of international comity, for while his enemies were docrying his foreign relations as.those of "dollar diplomacy," tho results of hw South American tour were accepted gancrally as of great value. Elihu R.oot is ono of tho greatest figures in American life who has n»u reached tho Presidency. As Secretary of War und?r M'Kinlcy. ho helped to reconstruct Porto Rico, tho Philippines and Cuba. Later, as Senator for Now York, ho endeared himself still -further to the conservatives, bub never ceased to be a national influence, now controlling, Republican conventions and now occupying tho field as a Presidential possibility. As a. lawyer he is looked upon by his profession as a past master, and enormous fqfos are earned by him in regular practice as counsel. His enemies nro fond of recalling that ho was thd attorney for the notorious Tweed ring and was skilled in showing corporations and politicians "how to avoid conflict with penalties." Onlv recently We was the leader of the State, Constitutional Convention, chosen to draft a new constitution for Now York. The rather humiliating defeat of this constitutional programme has led his critics now to ask how ha can expect to frame an acceptable constitution for the peasants of Russia. But it is not as a practising lawyer nor yet as a framer of constitutions that Elihu Root arrives in Potrograd, but rather as the diplomat of long expedience, as the shrewd, calm counsel of prudence and the lortg-hended constructor of international relations. Mr Root wis born in 1845, at Clinton, N.Y. After a course in t]ia University of New York, ho was admitted to the bar in 1867. Ho succeeded General Alger as Secretary of War in 1899, and later accepted the portfolio of Scenetary of State under Roosevelt, succeeding Mr John Hay.