Knox, Philander Chase

Knox, Philander Chase (fəlăn`dər), 1853–1921, U.S. cabinet member, b. Brownsville, Pa. He built up a fortune as a corporation lawyer in Pittsburgh. He was Attorney General (1901–4) in the cabinets of Presidents William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt. He was prominently identified with trust prosecutions, but failed to dissolve any significant organizations, except that of the Northern Securities Company, a railroad holding corporation. He served as U.S. Senator by appointment (1904–5) and was elected for the succeeding full term, but resigned in 1909 to become Secretary of State under President Taft. Continuing the policies of his predecessors, John Hay and Elihu Root, Knox sought to protect financial interests abroad, particularly in Latin America and China—a policy that became known as "dollar diplomacy." Knox returned to the Senate in 1917 and allied himself with those who fought ratification of the Treaty of Versailles and participation in the League of Nations.

Bibliography

See S. F. Bemis, ed., The American Secretaries of State, Vol. IX (1929, repr. 1963).

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Knox, Philander Chase

(born May 6, 1853, Brownsville, Pa., U.S.—died Oct. 12, 1921, Washington, D.C.) U.S. lawyer and politician. After admission to the bar in 1875 he became a successful corporation lawyer in Pittsburgh. As legal counsel for the Carnegie Steel Company, he helped organize the United States Steel Corp. (1900–01). Appointed attorney general by Pres. Theodore Roosevelt in 1901, he initiated several suits under the Sherman Antitrust Act. He served in the U.S. Senate from 1904 to 1909. As secretary of state (1909–13) under Pres. William H. Taft, he helped develop the foreign policy of expanded U.S. investment later criticized as Dollar Diplomacy. During his second term in the Senate (1917–21), he opposed the formation of the League of Nations.

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Knox, Philander Chase (1853–1921) lawyer, cabinet member, U.S. senator; born in Brownsville, Pa. He practiced industrial law in Pittsburgh, Pa. (1877–99). As McKinley's attorney general (1901–04), he filed an antitrust suit that prevented J. P. Morgan's western railroad monopoly. A mid-term senator (Rep., Pa.; 1904–09), he became secretary of state (1909–13), initiating "dollar diplomacy" to protect American investments overseas. He returned to the Senate (1917–21).