Our Leading Citizen (1939)

Lem Schofield a lawyer in a onetime smalltown turned industrialized big city runs his firm on examples set by Abraham Lincoln and is a friend to the poor Clay Clinton his late partners son joins the firm but is anxious for fast success and considers Schofields oldfashioned principles antiquated Being in love with Schofields daughter and impatient for success he moves to offices supplied by the citys most powerful industrialist JT Tapley who has plans to use Clays good family lineage as a stepping stone to political power The unscrupulous Tapley precipitates a strike in his factory mill which causes a rupture between the former partners Schofield sets out to bring Tapley and his political henchmen to justice