A photograph of Elihu Root (1845 – 1937) accompanies these two short paragraphs from the 1915 VANITY FAIR “Hall of Fame”, in which Root was praised as “the ablest lawyer and diplomatic expert” in the nation at that time. He is remembered today as the one U.S. Secretary of War (1899 to 1904) who was most instrumental in modernizing the American military in such ways that allowed it to meet the demands that would be meted out during the course of the bloody Twentieth Century.
This small notice is interesting primarily because it lets it be known that the United States was jockying for a spot in the European peace negotiations two years prior to even having troops in the field.
