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THE GREEN BAG
never failed to find the law to fit the facts. Industry and fidelity governed Mr. Fair banks in even' legal battle. However humble the client, or inconsequential the case, lawyer Fairbanks limited not his efforts to secure considerate judgment. He was eminently successful in the business he handled and within three years after he entered the practice of the law, had a reputation for thoroughness among men of consequence who were not tardy in calling him into important legal matters. The second mortgage bond-holders of the Chicago and Atlantic Railroad Company, finding their half-million of investment in danger called Mr. Fairbanks to their assis tance in a legal battle, or series of legal battles, extending for five years, in the courts of Ohio, Indiana and Illinois; and by his sagacity, skill and persistence he saved them whole. He represented the Receiver of the Bloomington and In dianapolis Road on an occasion where to have let the Receiver be dismissed he could have had employment by a proposed new organization of the railroad with the guaranty of pay for his service to the Receiver, who had not yet been able to pay him a cent for what he had done; — but he faithfully stood by his client and tided him through the troubled sea of financial diffi culties to a successful issue. In these matters, and others, he met in opposition the best legal minds the country afforded and came through with enhanced prestige every time. In a great legal battle involving the rights of prior lien-holders and bond holders relating to certain railroad properties in which a number of citizens in Indiana and Ohio were interested, Ex-President Harrison met him in opposition in a contest of several days duration, at Toledo, Ohio. Although that litigation was not concluded under Mr. Fairbanks' direction, he having severed his connection therewith on his election to the Senate, General Harrison said of his argument on that occasion that
"It was apt in its philosophy, correct in its logic, forceful in its application, and worthy of any lawyer." General Harrison was himself a great lawyer, and was not given to fulsome eulogy. When he complimented a man on an argument or a speech the recipient might well feel honored. F,or ten years of Mr. Fairbanks active practice just before coming to the Senate. he was engaged in great undertakings in the legal field, and was more in the Federal Courts than the State Courts. His motto as a lawyer was to make himself valuable to his clients, and he made himself so valuable to them that they could not get along without him. He possessed business acumen, and sometimes in connection with legal questions his advice was sought as to the expediency of things. It is an axiom in logic that all things that are right and lawful are not always expedient. Inter ested in great enterprises, he yet never forgot the individual rights which are often involved and which ought always to be respected and considered. He, therefore, had a liking for equity, and in equity practice he excelled even his brilliant efforts on the law side of the court. . His best briefs and arguments will, therefore, be found among the records in the equity cases in which he appeared as counsel. So broad was his learning and so accurate was his judgment in business law, that he had a clientele who had him regularly employed as counsel to keep them out of lawsuits. And those who thus employed him were never haled into court because of an error in his advice and direction. More and more the real lawyer is sought in his office for his advice as to what the law is — in short how to follow and obey the law. Mr. Fairbanks never learned the socalled "tricks of the trade" and, therefore, never studied how to evade the law. When a man once came to his office to "know how he could beat the law" in a particular matter, Mr. Fairbanks told him that he could not undertake to advise him in the
