70
The Green Bag
So far as birth and social position are concerned,
Mr.
Elliott was seriously
miles every Sunday in one direction to recite Latin to a soldier, and several
handicapped. What education he re ceived he had to fight for, working all day and studying the greater part of
ditions like that the young man fought
the night.
for an education in the law.
In the Bradford oil district in north western Pennslyvania in the early eighties there was a rush of legal business of the most chaotic sort. The laws governing the ownership of oil and gas were conflicting, and no one appeared to understand the law. Of all the lawyers who were then in this district young Mr. Elliott alone saw the great chance
miles in another direction to
Greek to a minister.
recite
It was imder con
By dint of much labor the small sum
necessary for a course in the University of Kansas was raised, and there young Ballinger went for three years. After his graduation from an Eastern school,
through which he was assisted by Senator John J. Ingalls, he studied in the office of S. Corning Judd, a prominent Chicago attorney. He went to Kanka
and took it. Very elaborately and painstakingly he went over every law that could possibly,
kee, Ill., and became city attorney; then to Decatur, Ala., to become city
by the farthest stretch of imagination,
ington, where, in Jefferson county, he
be applicable to any oil or gas case. Besides this he carefully familiarized
was for four years on the superior bench.
himself with all the methods used by the producer and the marketer of both
and in that city conducted a very high-class legal business before being called to join the Cabinet of Presi dent Taft.
these commodities. The reward for all this labor, which covered a period of many months, was
neither slow nor small. He won several cases from the Standard Oil Company. This was cause enough for him to attract
attorney; thence to the state of Wash
He later became mayor
of
Seattle,
R. S. Lovett, the late Mr. Harriman's “man behind the gun,” was discovered
away down in the Texan wilds. Just fifty years ago he was born at San
the attention of the magnates, but he
Jacinto, and the San Jacinto of 1860 was
went farther. He demonstrated that he knew all that could be learned about
“some Western place.” In what schools there were there young Lovett received his education, topping off, some years later, with a course in the Houston high school. This was all of the
the oil and gas business, and that he was really the only one who did and
who could apply his knowledge. As a result, he was soon invited to
identify himself exclusively with the Standard and its general solicitor, and, since the death of Samuel C. T. Dodd, the former counsel-general, he has been
academic that he received. But it was enough. He was the kind that, his mind once made up, would learn the law whether or not there were any schools. He began at the bottom and worked
the Interior, who, when not actively
up through all the complexities of rail road law, representing at times about every line in the state. One day Mr. Harriman invited him into his private car and without further ado carried
engaged in politics, is one of the lawyers of the highest fee, used to ride many
chief counsel of his entire railway
at the head of the company's legal forces, a position that had made him one
of the best paid lawyers in America. Richard A. Ballinger, Secretary of
him off to New York and made him
