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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/4206.txt b/4206.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ddd6627 --- /dev/null +++ b/4206.txt @@ -0,0 +1,17467 @@ +The Project Gutenberg Etext of The Letters of Franklin K. Lane + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before distributing this or any other +Project Gutenberg file. + +We encourage you to keep this file, exactly as it is, on your +own disk, thereby keeping an electronic path open for future +readers. Please do not remove this. + +This header should be the first thing seen when anyone starts to +view the etext. 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Hart +and may be reprinted only when these Etexts are free of all fees.] +[Project Gutenberg is a TradeMark and may not be used in any sales +of Project Gutenberg Etexts or other materials be they hardware or +software or any other related product without express permission.] + +*END THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.10/04/01*END* + + + + + + +This etext was produced by Robert Rowe, Charles Franks + and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team + + + + + + +THE LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE + +Personal and Political + +EDITED BY ANNE WINTERMUTE LANE AND LOUISE HERRICK WALL + +WITH ILLUSTRATIONS + + + + + +PREFACE + +Prom the thousands of typewritten letters found in his files, and +from the many holograph letters sent to me from his friends in +different parts of the country, we have attempted, in this volume, +to select chiefly those letters which tell the story of Franklin +K. Lane's life as it unfolded itself in service to his country +which was his passion. A few technical letters have been included, +because they represent some incomplete and original phases of the +work he attempted,--work, to which he brought an intensity of +interest and devotion that usually is given only to private +enterprise. + +In editing his letters we have omitted much, but we have in no way +changed anything that he wrote. Even where, in his haste, there +has been an obvious slip of the pen, we have left it. Owing to his +dictating to many stenographers, with their varying methods of +punctuation and paragraphing, and because the letters that he +wrote himself were often dashed off on the train, in bed, or in a +hurried five minutes before some engagement, we found in them no +uniformity of punctuation. In writing hastily he used only a +frequent dash and periods; these letters we have made agree with +those which were more formally written. + +With the oncoming of war his correspondence enormously increased-- +the more demanded of him, the more he seemed able to accomplish. +Upon opening his files it took us weeks to run through and destroy +just the requests for patronage, for commissions, passports, +appointments as chaplains, promotions, demands from artists who +desired to work on camouflage, farmers and chemists who wished +exemption, requests for appointments to the War Department; +letters asking for every kind of a position from that of night- +watchman to that of Brigadier-General. For his friends, and even +those who had no special claim upon him, knew that they could +count on his interest in them. + +One of his secretaries, Joseph J. Cotter, a man he greatly +trusted, in describing his office work says: "Whatever was of +human interest, interested Mr. Lane. His researches were by no +means limited to the Department of the Interior. For instance, I +remember that at one time, before the matter had been given any +consideration in any other quarter, he asked Secretary of +Agriculture Houston to come to his office, in the Interior +Department, and went with him into the question of the number of +ships it would take to transport our soldiers to the other side. +And as a result of this conference, a plan was laid before the +Secretary of War. I remember this particularly because it +necessitated my looking up dead-weight tonnage, and other matters, +with which I was entirely unfamiliar. ... + +"I have never known any one who could with equal facility follow +an intricate line of thought through repeated interruptions. I +have seen Mr. Lane, when interrupted in the middle of an involved +sentence of dictation, talk on some other subject for five or ten +minutes and return to his dictation, taking it up where he left it +and completing the sentence so that it could be typed as dictated, +and this without the stenographer's telling him at what point he +had been interrupted." + +His letters are peculiarly autobiographical, for whenever his +active mind was engaged on some personal, political, or +philosophical problem, his thought turned naturally to that friend +with whom he would most like to discuss the subject, and, if he +could possibly make the time, to him he wrote just what thoughts +raced through his mind. To Ambassador Page he wrote in 1918, "I +have a very old-fashioned love for writing from day to day what +pops into my mind, contradicting each day what I said the day +before, and gathering from my friends their impressions and their +spirit in the same way." And in another letter he says, "Now I +have gossiped, and preached, and prophesied, and mourned, and +otherwise revealed what passes through a wandering mind in half an +hour, so I send you at the close of this screed, my blessing, +which is a poor gift." + +At home on Sunday morning before the fire, he would often write +many letters--some of them twenty pages in length and some mere +scrappy notes. He wrote with a pencil on a pad on his knee, +rapidly stripping off the sheets for me to read, in his desire to +share all that was his, even his innermost thoughts. + +To the many correspondents who have generously returned to me +their letters, and with no restrictions as to their use, I wish +particularly to express here my profound gratitude. The limits of +one volume have made it possible to use only a part of those +received, deeply as I have regretted the necessity of omitting any +of them. In making these acknowledgments I wish especially to +thank John H. Wigmore, since to him we owe all the early letters-- +the only ones covering that period. + +For possible future use I shall be grateful for any letters that I +have not already seen, and if in the preparation of these letters +for publication we have allowed any mistakes to slip in, I hope +that the error will be called to my attention. + +Anne Wintermute Lane + +March, 1922 + + + + + +CONTENTS + +I. INTRODUCTION + +Youth--Education--Characteristics + +II. POLITICS AND JOURNALISM. 1884-1894 + +Politics--Newspaper Work--New York--Buying into Tacoma News +--Marriage--Sale of Newspaper + +LETTERS: +To John H. Wigmore +To John H. Wigmore +To John H. Wigmore +To John H. Wigmore + +III. LAW PRACTICE AND POLITICAL ACTIVITIES. 1894-1906 + +Law--Drafting New City Charter--Elected as City and County Attorney-- +Gubernatorial Campaign--Mayoralty Campaign--Earthquake +--Appointment as Interstate Commerce Commissioner + +LETTERS: +To P. T. Spurgeon +To John H. Wigmore +To John H. Wigmore +To John H. Wigmore +To Lyman Naugle +To John H. Wigmore +To John H. Wigmore +To William R. Wheeler +To Orva G. Williams +To the Iroquois Club, Los Angeles, California +To Isadore B. Dockweiler +To Edward B. Whitney +To Hon. Theodore Roosevelt +To Benjamin Ide Wheeler +To William E. Smythe +To John H. Wigmore +To Benjamin Ide Wheeler +To William R. Wheeler +To John H. Wigmore +To William R. Wheeler + +IV. RAILROAD AND NATIONAL POLITICS. 1906-1912 + +Increased Powers of Interstate Commerce Commission--Harriman +Inquiry--Railroad Regulation--Letters to Roosevelt + +LETTERS: +To Edward F. Adams +To Benjamin Ide Wheeler +To Elihu Root +To E. B. Beard +To George W. Lane +To Charles K. McClatchy +To Lawrence F. Abbott +To John H. Wigmore +To Mrs. Franklin K. Lane +To Theodore Roosevelt +To John H. Wigmore +To William R. Wheeler +To Lawrence F. Abbott +To Charles K. McClatchy +To Charles K. McClatchy +To John Crawford Burns +To Theodore Roosevelt +To Samuel G. Blythe +To Sidney E. Mezes +To John H. Wigmore +To George W. Lane +To Carl Snyder +From Oliver Wendell Holmes +To Oliver Wendell Holmes +To John H. Wigmore +To Daniel Willard +To John McNaught + +V. EXPRESS CASE--CABINET APPOINTMENTS 1912-1913 + +Politics--Democratic Convention--Nomination of Wilson --Report on +Express Case--Democratic Victory--Problems for New Administration +--On Cabinet Appointments + +LETTERS: +To Albert Shaw +To Curt G. Pfeiffer +To George W. Lane +To Oscar S. Straus +To Benjamin Ide Wheeler, +To George W. Lane. +To John H. Wigmore. +To Timothy Spellacy. +To Adolph C. Miller. +To William F. McComba, +To Hugo K. Asher. +To Francis G. Newlands. +To Woodrow Wilson. +To William J. Bryan. +To James D. Phelan. +To Herbert Harley. +To Charles K. McClatchy. +To Ernest S. Simpson. +To Fairfax Harrison. +To James P. Brown. +To Adolph C. Miller. +To Edward M. House. +To Benjamin Ide Wheeler. +To Sidney E. Mezes. +To John H. Wigmore. +To John H. Wigmore. +To Joseph N. Teal. +To Edward M. House. +To Mitchell Innes. + +VI. SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR. 1913-1915 + +Appointment as Secretary of the Interior--Reorganization of the +Department--Home Club--Bills on Public Lands + +LETTERS: + +To John H. Wigmore. +To Walter H. Page. +To Edwin A. Alderman. +To Theodore Roosevelt. +To Lawrence F. Abbott. +To William M. Bole. +To Fairfax Harrison. +To Frank Reese. +To Mark Sullivan. +To Edward M. House. +To James H. Barry. +To Edward F. Adams. +To Hon. Woodrow Wilson, +To Benjamin Ide Wheeler. +To Albert Shaw. +To Charles K. Field. +To Frederic J. Lane. +To Edward E. Leake. +To William R. Wheeler. +To--. +To his Brother on his Birthday. +To Cordenio Severance. +To Hon. Woodrow Wilson. +To Theodore Roosevelt. +To Hon. Woodrow Wilson. +To Lawrence F. Abbott. + +VII. EUROPEAN WAR AND PERSONAL CONCERNS. 1914-1915 + +Endorsement of Hoover--German Audacity--LL.D. from Alma Mater +--England's Sea Policy--Christmas letters + +LETTERS: +To William J. Bryan. +To John Crawford Burns. +To Alexander Vogelsang. +To John H. Wigmore. +To John Crawford Burns. +To Edward J. Wheeler. +To John Crawford Burns. +To William P. Lawlor. +To William G. McAdoo. +To John Crawford Burns. +To E. W. Scripps. +To George W. Wickersham. +To Frederic J. Lane. +To John Crawford Burns. +To Eugene A. Avery. +To John F. Davis. +To Dick Mead. +To John Crawford Burns. +To Sidney E. Mezes. +To Cordenio Severance. +To Frederick Dixon. +To Robert H. Patchin. +To Francis R. Wall. +To John H. Wigmore. +To Mrs. Adolph C. Miller. +To Mrs. Magnus Andersen. +To Mrs. Adolph C. Miller. + +VIII. AMERICAN AND MEXICAN AFFAIRS. + +On Writing English--Visit to Monticello--Citizenship for Indians--On +Religion--American-Mexican Joint Commission + +LETTERS: +To William M. Bole. +To Mrs. Adolph C. Miller. +To Edward F. Adams. +To Carl Snyder. +To Mrs. Franklin K. Lane. +To Will Irwin. +To--. +To Hon. Woodrow Wilson. +To Frederic J. Lane. +To Frank L Cobb. +To George W. Wickersham. +To H. B. Brougham. +To Frederic J. Lane. +To Hon. Woodrow Wilson. +To Mrs. Franklin K. Lane. +To Mrs. Adolph C. Miller. +To Mrs. Franklin K. Lane. +To William R. Wheeler. +To James S. Harlan. +To Hon. Woodrow Wilson. +To Alexander Vogelsang. +To Frederic J. Lane. +To Frank I. Cobb. +To R. M. Fitzgerald. +To James K. Moffitt. +To Benjamin Ide Wheeler. +To Roland Cotton Smith. +To James H. Barry. + +IX. CABINET TALK AND WAR PLANS. 1917 + +Cabinet Meetings--National Council of Defense--Bernstorff--War--Plan +for Railroad Consolidation--U-Boat Sinkings Revealed--Alaska + +LETTERS: +To George W. Lane. +To George W. Lane. +To George W. Lane. +To Frank I. Cobb. +To George W. Lane. +To George W. Lane. +To Edward J. Wheeler. +To George W. Lane. +To Frank I. Cobb. +To George W. Lane. +To George W. Lane. +To Frank I. Cobb. +To Will Irwin. +To Robert Lansing. +To Henry Lane Eno. +To George B. Dorr. +To Hon. Woodrow Wilson. +To Hon. Woodrow Wilson. +To John O'H. Cosgrave. + +X. CABINET NOTES IN WAR-TIME. 1918 + +Notes on Cabinet Meetings--School Gardens--A Democracy Lacks +Foresight--Use of National Resources--Washington in War-time--The +Sacrifice of War--Farms for Soldiers + +LETTERS: +To Franklin K. Lane, Jr. +To George W. Lane. +To Albert Shaw. +To Walter H. Page. +To John Lyon. +To Frank Lyon. +To Miss Genevieve King. +To John McNaught. +To Hon. Woodrow Wilson. +To Allan Pollok. +To E. S. Pillsbury. +To William Marion Reedy. +Notes on Cabinet Meetings. +To Daniel Willard. +To James H. Hawley. +To Samuel G. Blythe. +To George W. Lane. +To Edgar C. Bradley. + +XI. AFTER-WAR PROBLEMS--LEAVING WASHINGTON. 1919 + +After-war Problems--Roosevelt Memorials--Americanization--Religion +--Responsibility of Press--Resignation + +LETTERS: +To E. C. Bradley. +To George W. Lane. +To George W. Lane. +To William Boyce Thompson. +To Benjamin Ide Wheeler. +To E. S. Martin. +To George W. Lane. +To Van H. Manning. +To E. C. Bradley. +To Mrs. Louise Herrick Wall. +To--. +To M. A. Mathew. +To Herbert C. Pell, Jr. +To Henry P. Davison. +To George W. Lane. +To C. S. Jackson. +To John Crawford Burns. +To Frank I. Cobb. +To Mrs. Louise Herrick Wall. +To Mrs. M. A. Andersen. +To George W. Lane. +To Daniel J. O'Neill. +To Hamlin Garland. +To Hugo K. Asher. +To Admiral Gary Grayson. +To Herbert C. Pell, Jr. +To Hon. Woodrow Wilson. +To Frank W. Mondell. +To Robert W. De Forest. + +XII. POLITICAL COUNSEL--LINCOLN'S EYES. 1920 + +Suggestions to Democratic Nominee for President--On Election of +Senators--Lost Leaders--Lincoln's Eyes--William James's Letters + +LETTERS: +To William Phelps Eno. +To Roland Cotton Smith. +To James M. Cox. +To Timothy Spellacy. +To Edward L. Doheny. +To Franklin D. Roosevelt. +To Mrs. George Ehle. +To Isadore B. Dockweiler. +To Hall McAllister. +To Mrs. George Ehle. +To Benjamin Ide Wheeler. +To John W. Hallowell. +To John W. Hallowell. +To Robert Lansing. +To Carl Snyder. +To William R. Wheeler. +To George Otis Smith. +To George W. Wickersham. +Lincoln's Eyes. +To Benjamin Ide Wheeler. +To Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt. +To Lathrop Brown. +To Timothy Spellacy. +To Frank I. Cobb. +To John G. Gehring. +To John W. Hallowell. +To John G. Gehring. + +XIII. LETTERS TO ELIZABETH. 1919-1920 + +LETTERS: +To Mrs. Ralph Ellis. + +XIV. FRIENDS AND THE GREAT HOPE. 1921 + +Need for Democratic Program--Religious Faith--Men who have Influenced +Thought--A Sounder Industrial Life --A Super-University for Ideas +--"I Accept"--Fragment + +LETTERS: +To Mrs. Philip C. Kauffmann. +To Benjamin Ide Wheeler. +To Lathrop Brown. +To Mrs. George Ehle. +To Mrs. William Phillips. +To James H. Barry. +To Michael A. Spellacy. +To William R. Wheeler. +To V. C. Scott O'Connor. +Letter sent to several friends. +To John G. Gehring. +To Lathrop Brown. +To Lathrop Brown. +To Adolph C. Miller. +To John G. Gehring. +To John W. Hallowell. +To Curt G. Pfeiffer. +To John G. Gehring. +To D. M. Reynolds. +To Mrs. Cordenio Severance. +To Alexander Vogelsang. +To James S. Harlan. +To Adolph C. Miller. +To Lathrop Brown. +To John G. Gehring. +To John H. Wigmore. +To Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt. +To John W. Hallowell. +To John G. Gehring. +To Hall McAllister. +To Mrs. Frederic Peterson. +To Roland Cotton Smith. +To John G. Gehring. +To Adolph C. Miller. +To Robert Lansing. +To James D. Phelan. +To Mr. and Mrs. Louis Hertle. +To Alexander Vogelsang. +To John Finley. +To James H. Barry. +To Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt. +To friends who had telegraphed and written for news.--"I accept." +To Alexander Vogelsang. +To John W. Hallowell. +To Robert Lansing. +Fragment. + + + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + +FRANKLIN K. LANE With his younger brothers, George and Frederic. + +FRANKLIN K. LANE At eighteen. + +FRANKLIN K. LANE As City and County Attorney. + +FRANKLIN K. LANE, MRS. LANE, MRS. MILLER, AND ADOLPH C. MILLER + +FRANKLIN K. LANE WITH Ethan Allen, Superintendent of Rainier +National Park, Washington + +FRANKLIN K. LANE AND George B. Dorr +In Lafayette National Park, Mount Desert Island, Maine. + +FRANKLIN K. LANE IN 1917 Taken in Lafayette National Park. + +"LANE PEAK," Tatoosh Range, Rainier National Park + + + + + +DATES + +1864. July 15. Born near Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island. +1871-76. Taken to California. Went to Grammar School at Napa, + California. +1876. Went to Oakland, California. Oakland High School. +1884-86. University of California, Berkeley, California. Special student. +1885. Reporting on Alta California in San Francisco for John P. Irish. +1887. Studied Hastings Law School. +1888. Admitted to the Bar. +1889. Special Newspaper Correspondent in New York for San + Francisco Chronicle. +1891. Bought interest in Tacoma News and edited that paper. +1892. Campaigned in New York for Cleveland. +1893. Married. +1895. Returned to California. Practiced law. +1897-98. On Committee of One Hundred to draft new Charter for San + Francisco. +1898. Elected City and County Attorney to interpret new Charter. +1899. Reelected City and County Attorney. +1901. Reelected City and County Attorney. +1902. Nominated for Governor of California on Democratic and + Non-Partisan Tickets. +1903. Democratic vote in Legislature for United States Senator. +1903. Nominated for Mayor of San Francisco. +1905. December. Nominated by President Roosevelt as Interstate + Commerce Commissioner. +1906. June 29. Confirmed by Senate as Interstate Commerce Commissioner. +1909. Reappointed by President Taft as Interstate Commerce Commissioner. +1913. Appointed Secretary of the Interior under President Wilson. +1916. Chairman American-Mexican Joint Commission. +1918. Chairman Railroad Wage Commission. +1919. Chairman Industrial Conference. +1920. March 1. Resigned from the Cabinet. +1920. Vice-President of Pan-American Petroleum Company. +1921. May 18. Died at Rochester, Minnesota. + + + + + +FAMILY NAMES + +Franklin K. Lane was the eldest of four children. +Father: Christopher S. Lane. +Mother: Caroline Burns. +Brothers: George W. Lane. + Frederic J. Lane. +Sister: Maude (Mrs. M. A. Andersen). +He was married to Anne Wintermute, and had two children: +Franklin K. Lane, Jr. ("Ned"). +Nancy Lane (Mrs. Philip C. Kauffmann). + + + + + +THE LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + + + +I + +INTRODUCTION + +Youth--Education--Characteristics + + +Although Franklin Knight Lane was only fifty-seven years old when +he died, May 18, 1921, he had outlived, by many years, the men and +women who had most influenced the shaping of his early life. Of +his mother he wrote, in trying to comfort a friend, "The mystery +and the ordering of this world grows altogether inexplicable. ... +It requires far more religion or philosophy than I have, to say a +real word that might console one who has lost those who are dear +to him. Ten years ago my mother died, and I have never been +reconciled to her loss." Again he wrote of her, to his sister, +when their brother Frederic--the joyous, outdoor comrade of his +youth--was in his last illness, "Dear Fritz, dear, dear boy, how I +wish I could be there with him, though I could do no good. ... Each +night I pray for him, and I am so much of a Catholic, that I pray +to the only Saint I know, or ever knew, and ask her to help. If +she lives, her mind can reach the minds of the doctors. ... I don't +need her to intercede with God, but I would like her to intercede +with men. Why, Oh! why, do we not know whether she is or not? Then +all the Universe would be explained to me." + +From those who knew him best from childhood, no word of him is +left, and none from the two men whose strength and ideality +colored his morning at the University of California--Dr. George +H. Howison, the "darling Howison" of the William James' Letters, +and Dr. Joseph H. Le Conte, the wise and gentle geologist. "Names +that were Sierras along my skyline," Lane said of such men. To Dr. +Howison he wrote in 1913, when entering President Wilson's +Cabinet, "No letter that I have ever received has given me more +real pleasure than yours, and no man has been more of an +inspiration than you." + +The sealing of almost every source of intimate knowledge of the +boy, who was a mature man at twenty-two, has left the record of +the early period curiously scant. Fortunately, there are in his +letters and speeches some casual allusions to his childhood and +youth, and a few facts and anecdotes of the period from members of +his family, from school, college, and early newspaper associates. +In 1888, the story begins to gather form and coherence, for at +that date we have the first of his own letters that have been +preserved, written to his lifelong friend, John H. Wigmore. With +many breaks, especially in the early chapters, the sequence of +events, and his moods toward them, pour from him with increasing +fullness and spontaneity, until the day before he died. + +All the later record exists in his letters, most of them written +almost as unconsciously as the heart sends blood to the remotest +members of the body; and they come back, now, in slow diastole, +bearing within themselves evidence of the hour and day and place +of their inception; letters written with the stub of a pencil on +copy-paper, at some sleepless dawn; or, long ago, in the wide- +spaced type of a primitive traveling typewriter, and dated, +perhaps, on the Western desert, while he was on his way to secure +water for thirsty settlers; or dashed off in the glowing moment +just after a Cabinet meeting, with the heat of the discussion +still in his veins; others on the paper of the Department of the +Interior, with the symbol of the buffalo--chosen by him--richly +embossed in white on the corner, and other letters, soiled and +worn from being long carried in the pocket and often re-read, by +the brave old reformer who had hailed Lane when he first entered +the lists. This is the part of the record that cannot be +transcribed. + +Franklin Knight Lane was born on July 15, 1864, on his father's +farm near Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada, the eldest +of four children, all born within a few years. The low, white +farmhouse that is his birthplace still stands pleasantly +surrounded by tall trees, and at one side a huge, thirty-foot +hedge of hawthorn blooms each spring. His father, Christopher S. +Lane, was at the time of his son's birth a preacher. Later, when +his voice was affected by recurrent bronchitis, he became a +dentist. Lane speaks of him several times in his letters as a +Presbyterian, and alludes to the strict orthodoxy of his father's +faith, especially in regard to an active and personal devil. + +In 1917, when in the Cabinet, during President Wilson's second +term of office, Lane wrote to his brother, "To-night we give a +dinner to the Canadians, Sir George Foster, the acting Premier, +and Sir Joseph Polk, the Under-Secretary of External Affairs, who, +by the way, was born in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, and +says that he heard our father preach." + +But it was from his mother, whose maiden name was Caroline Burns, +and who was of direct Scotch ancestry, that Franklin Lane drew +most of his physical and many of his mental traits. From her he +derived the firmly-modeled structure of his face; the watchful +Scotch eyes; a fine white skin, that weathered to an even brown, +later in life; remarkably sound teeth, large and regular, giving +firm support to the round contour of the face; and the fresh line +of his lips, that was a marked family trait. A description of him, +when he was candidate for Governor of California, at thirty-eight, +was written by Grant Wallace. Cleared of some of the hot sweetness +of a campaign rhapsody it reads:-- + +"Picture a man a little above the average height ... with the deep +chest and deep voice that always go with the born leader of men; +the bigness and strength of the hands ... the clear eye and broad, +firm, and expressive mouth, and the massive head that suggests +irresistibly a combination of Napoleon and Ingersoll." + +These two resemblances, to Napoleon and to Robert Ingersoll, were +frequently rediscovered by others, in later years. + +The description concludes by saying, "That Lane is a man of +earnestness and vigorous action is shown in ... every movement. +You sit down to chat with him in his office. As he grows +interested in the subject, he kicks his chair back, thrusts his +hands way to the elbows in his trouser pockets and strides up and +down the room. With deepening interest he speaks more rapidly and +forcibly, and charges back and forth across the carpet with the +heavy tread of a grenadier." As an older man this impetuosity was +somewhat modified. What an early interviewer called his "frank +man-to-manness" became a manner of grave and cordial +concentration. With the warm, full grasp of his hand in greeting, +he gave his complete attention to the man before him. That, and +his rich, strong laugh of pleasure, and the varied play of his +moods of earnestness, gayety, and challenge, are what men remember +best. + +Lane's native bent from the first was toward public life. His +citizenship was determined when his father decided to take his +family to California, to escape the severity of the Canadian +climate. In 1902, Franklin Lane was asked how he became an +American. "By virtue of my father's citizenship," he replied, "I +have been a resident of California since seven years of age, +excepting during a brief absence in New York and Washington." + +In 1871, the mother, father, and four children, after visiting two +brothers of Mrs. Lane's on the way, finally reached the town of +Napa, California. + +"They came," says an old schoolmate of Napa days, "bringing with +them enough of the appearance and mannerisms of their former +environment to make us youngsters 'sit up and take notice,' for +the children were dressed in kilts, topped by handsome black +velvet and silk plaid caps. However, these costumes were soon +discarded, for at school the children found themselves the center +of both good--and bad-natured gibes, until they were glad to dress +as was the custom here." The "Lane boys," he says, were then put +into knee-trousers, "and Franklin, who was large for his age and +quite stout, looked already too old for this style," and so +continued to be annoyed by the children, until he put a forcible +end to it. "He 'licked' one of the ringleaders," says the +chronicler, and won to peace. "As we grew to know Franklin ... his +right to act became accepted ... . There was always something +about his personality which made one feel his importance." + +The little California community was impressed by the close +intimacy of the home-life of the Canadian family--closer than was +usual in hurriedly settled Western towns. The father found time to +take all three boys on daily walks. Another companion remembers +seeing them starting off together for a day's hunting and fishing. +But it was the mother, who read aloud to them and told them +stories and exacted quick obedience from them, who was the real +power in the house. There were regular family prayers, and family +singing of hymns and songs. + +This last custom survived among the brothers and sister through +all the years. Even after all had families of their own, and many +cares, some chance reunion, or a little family dinner would, at +parting, quicken memory and, with hats and coats already on, +perhaps, in readiness to separate to their homes, they would stand +together and shout, in unison, some song of the hour or some of +their old Scotch melodies with that pleasant harmony of voices of +one timbre, heard only in family singing. + +Lane had a baritone of stirring quality, coming straight from his +big lungs, and loved music all his life. In the last weeks of his +life he more than once wrote of his pleasure in his brother's +singing. At Rochester, a few days before his operation, he +reassured an anxious friend by writing, "My brother George is +here, with his splendid philosophy and his Scotch songs." + +His love and loyalty to past ties, though great and persistent, +still left his ideal of loyalty unsatisfied. Toward the end of his +life he wrote, "Roots we all have and we must not be torn up from +them and flung about as if we were young things that could take +hold in any soil. I have been--America has been--too indifferent +to roots--home roots, school roots. ... We should love stability +and tradition as well as love adventure and advancement." But the +practical labors of his life were directed toward creating means +to modify tradition in favor of a larger sort of justice than the +past had known. + +Resignation had no part in his political creed. "I hold with old +Cicero 'that the whole glory of virtue is in activity,'" comes +from him with the ring of authentic temperament. And of a friend's +biography he wrote, "What a fine life--all fight, interwoven with +fun and friendship." + +[Illustration with caption: FRANKLIN K. LANE WITH HIS YOUNGER +BROTHERS, GEORGE AND FREDERIC] + +All the anecdotes of his boyhood show him in action, moving among +his fellows, organizing, leading, and administering rough-and- +tumble justice. + +From grammar school in Napa he went, for a time, to a private +school called Oak Mound. In vacation, when he was eleven years +old, he was earning money as messenger-boy, and at about that +time as general helper to one of the merchants of the little town. +He left in his old employer's mind the memory of a boy +"exceedingly bright and enterprising." He recalls a fight that he +was told about, between Lane "and a boy of about his size," "and +Frank licked him," the old merchant exults, "and as he walked away +he said, 'If you want any more, you can get it at the same +place.'" + +It was in Napa--so he could not have been quite twelve years old-- +that Lane started to study Spanish, so that he might talk more +freely to the ranchers, who drove to town in their rickety little +carts, to "trade" at the stores. + +In 1876, the family moved from the full sunshine of the valley +town, with its roads muffled in pale dust, and its hillsides +lifting up the green of riotous vines, to Oakland, cool and +cloudy, with a climate to create and sustain vigor. In Oakland, +just across the bay from San Francisco, Lane entered the High +School. Again his schoolmates recall him with gusto. He was +muscular in build, "a good short-distance runner." His hands-- +always very characteristic of the man--were large and well-made, +strong to grasp but not adroit in the smaller crafts of tinkering. +"He impressed me," an Oakland schoolmate writes, "as a sturdy +youngster who had confidence in himself and would undoubtedly get +what he went after. Earnest and straightforward in manner," and +always engrossed in the other boys, "when they walked down Twelfth +Street, on their way to school, they had their arms around each +other's shoulders, discussing subjects of 'vast importance.'" + +His capacity for organized association developed rapidly. He had +part in school orations, amateur plays, school and Sunday school +clubs. Many of these he seems to have initiated, so that, with his +school work, his life was full. He says somewhere that by the time +he was sixteen he was earning his own way. His great delight in +people, and especially in the thrust and parry of controversial +talk, held him from the solitary pleasures of fishing and hunting, +so keenly relished by his two younger brothers. One of them said +of him, "Frank can't even enjoy a view from a mountain-peak +without wanting to call some one up to share it with him." He +writes of his feeling about solitary nature to his friend George +Dorr, in 1917, in connection with improvements for the new +National Park, near Bar Harbor, "A wilderness, no matter how +impressive or beautiful does not satisfy this soul of mine (if I +have that kind of a thing). It is a challenge to man. It says, +'Master me! Put me to use! Make me more than I am!'" About his +"need of a world of men," he was equally candid. To his wife he +writes, "I am going to dinner, and before I go alone into a +lonesome club, I must send a word to you. ... The world is all +people to me. I lean upon them. They induce thought and fancy. +They give color to my life. Thrown on myself I am a stranded +bark."... + +His love for cooperation and for action, "dramatic action," some +one says, never left him. In his last illness, in apolitical +crisis, he rallied the energy of younger men. He wrote of the need +of a Democratic program, suggested a group of compelling names, +"or any other group," he adds, "put up the plan and ask them what +they think of it--tentatively--just a quiet chat, but START!" And +about the same matter he wrote, "The time has come. Now strike!" + +To a friend wavering over her fitness for a piece of projected +work, he said drily, "There is only one way to do a thing, and +that is to do it." Late in life, the summation of this creed of +action seemed to come when he confessed, "I cannot get over the +feeling that we are here as conquerors, not as pacifists." + +And words, written and spoken words, were to him, of course, the +instrument of conquest. But the search for the fit and shining +word for his mark did not become research. In a droll letter, +about how he put simpler English into the Department of the +Interior, he tells of finding a letter written by one of the +lawyers of the Department to an Indian about his title to land, +that was "so involved and elaborately braided and beaded and +fringed that I could not understand it myself." So he sent the +ornate letter back and had it put into "straightaway English." + +His own practicable English he believed he had learned through his +newspaper training. He first worked in the printing office of the +Oakland Times, then became a reporter for that paper. He went +campaigning and made speeches for the Prohibition candidate for +Governor in 1884--before he was twenty-one. The next year he was +reporting for the Alta California, edited by Colonel John P. +Irish, himself a fiery orator, of the denunciatory type. Colonel +Irish recalls that he was at once impressed with the "copious and +excellent vocabulary" of his ambitious reporter, who was, even +then, he says, "determined upon a high and useful career." In a +letter to Colonel Irish, in 1913, Lane wrote, "That simple little +card of yours was a good thing for me. It took me for a minute out +of the maelstrom of pressing business and carried me back, about +thirty years, to the time when I was a boy working for you--an +unbaked, ambitious chap, who did not know where he was going, but +was trying to get somewhere." + +It is interesting to notice that in youth he did not suffer from +the usual phases of revolt from early teachings. His father was a +Prohibitionist, and Lane's first campaign was for a Prohibition +candidate for Governor; his father had been a preacher and Lane, +when very young, thought seriously of becoming a minister, so +seriously that he came before an examining board of the +Presbyterian church. After two hours of grilling, he was, though +found wanting, not rejected, but put upon a six months' probation +--the elders probably dreaded to lose so persuasive a tongue for +the sake of a little "insufficiency of damnation" in his creed. +One of his inquisitors, a Presbyterian minister, went from the +ordeal with Lane, and continued to try to convert him to the +tenets of Presbyterianism. Then suddenly, at some turn of the +talk, the clergyman abandoned his position and said carelessly, +"Well, Lane, why not become a Unitarian preacher?" + +The boy who had been walking the floor at night in the struggle to +reconcile the teachings of the church with his own doubts--knowing +that Eternal Damnation was held to be the reward for doubt of +Christ's divinity--was so horrified by the casuistry of the man +who could be an orthodox minister and yet speak of preaching as +just one way to make a living, that he swung sharply from any wish +to enter the church. + +The strictness of the orthodoxy of his home had not served to +alienate his sympathies, but he was chilled to the heart by this +indifference. He remembered the episode all his life with emotion, +but he was not embittered by it. He was young, a great lover, +greatly in love with life. + +[Illustration with caption: FRANKLIN K. LANE AT EIGHTEEN] + +In 1884, when he entered the University of California, it was as a +special not as a regular student. "I put myself through college," +he writes to a boy seeking advice on education, "by working during +vacation and after hours, and I am very glad I did it." He seems +to have arranged all his college courses for the mornings and +carried his reporting and printing-office work the last half of +the day. + +College at once offered a great forum for debate, and a richer +comradeship with men of strong mental fiber. Lane's eagerness in +discussion and love of large and sounding words made the students +call him "Demosthenes Lane." In his letters it is easy to trace +the gradual evolution from his early oratorical style into a final +form of free, imaginative expression of great simplicity. +Meanwhile, as he debated, he gathered to himself men who were to +be friends for the rest of his life. The "Sid" of the earliest +letters that we have is Dr. Sidney E. Mezes, now President of the +College of the City of New York, to whom one of his last letters +was addressed. His friendship for Dr. Wigmore, Dean of Law at the +Northwestern University, in Chicago, dates almost as far back. + +In college, Lane seized what he most wanted in courses on +Philosophy and Economics. "His was a mind of many facets and +hospitable in its interest," says his college and lifelong friend, +Adolph C. Miller, "but his years at Berkeley were devoted mainly +to the study of Philosophy and Government, and kindred subjects. +He was a leading figure in the Political Science Club, and intent +in his pursuit of philosophy. Often he could be seen walking back +and forth in a room in the old Bacon library, set apart for the +more serious-minded students, with some philosophical book in +hand; every line of his face expressing deep concentration, the +occasional light in his eye clearly betraying the moment when he +was feeling the joy of understanding." + +In two years, not waiting for formal graduation, Lane was back in +the world of public affairs that he had scarcely left. In the same +short-cut way he took his Hastings Law School work, and passed his +Supreme Court examination in 1888, in much less than the time +usually allowed for the work. + +By the time he left the law school, "a full fledged, but not a +flying attorney," his desire for aggressive citizenship was fully +formed. In fact, the whole active campaign, that was his life, was +made by the light of early ideals, enlarged and reinterpreted as +his climb to power brought under his survey wider horizons. + +The sketchiest summary of his early and late activities brings out +the singleness of the central purpose moving through his life. His +first fight, in 1888, for Ballot Reform was made that the will of +the people of the State might be honestly interpreted; later, in +Tacoma, Washington, he sided with his printers, against his +interest as owner, in their fight to maintain union wages; once +more in San Francisco, he took, without a retaining fee, the case +of the blackmailed householders whose titles were threatened by +the pretensions of the Noe claimants, and with his brother, +cleared title to all of their small homes; he joined, with his +friend, Arthur McEwen, in an editorial campaign against the +Southern Pacific, in the day of its tyrannous power over all the +shippers of California; later he drafted into the charter of San +Francisco new provisions to improve the wages of all city +employees; as its young city and county attorney, he aggressively +protected the city against street railway encroachments, +successfully enforcing the law against infractions; as Interstate +Commerce Commissioner, he disentangled a network of injustices in +the relations between shippers and railroads, exposed rebating and +demurrage evils; formulated new procedures in deflating, +reorganizing, and zoning the business of all the express companies +in the country; as Secretary of the Interior, he confirmed to the +people a fuller use of Federal Lands, and National Park Reserves, +laid the foundation for the development, on public domain, of +water powers, and the leasing of Government oil lands, and built +the Government railroad in Alaska; during the War, he contributed +to the Council of National Defense his inexhaustible enthusiasm +for cooperation, with definite plans for swift action, to focus +National resources to meet war needs; and finally, his last +carefully elaborated plan--killed by a partisan Congress--was to +place returned soldiers upon the land under conditions of hopeful +and decent independence. These were some of the "glories" of +activity into which he poured the resources of his energy and +imagination. + +But no catalogue of the work or the salient mental characteristics +of Franklin Lane gives a picture of the man, without taking into +account his temperament, for that colored every hour of his life, +and every act of his career. The things that he knew seized his +imagination. Even when a middle-aged man he sang, like a +troubadour, of the fertility of the soil; he was stirred by the +virtue and energy of what he saw and touched; his heart leaped at +the thought of the power of water ready to be unlocked for man's +use--most happy in that the thing that was his he could love. + +"To lose faith in the future of oil!" he cries, in the midst of a +sober statistical letter, "Why! that is as unthinkable as to lose +faith in your hands. Oil, coal, electricity, what are these but +multiplied and more adaptable, super-serviceable hands? They may +temporarily be unemployed, but the world can't go round without +them." A man who feels poetry in petroleum suffers from no wistful +"desire of the moth for the star." To his full sense of life the +moth and the star are of one essential substance, parts of one +glorious conquerable creation--and the moth just a fleck of star- +dust, with silly wings. + +In truth, both then and throughout most of the days of his life he +was completely oriented in this world, at home here, with his +strong feet planted upon reality. He liked so many homely things, +that his friendly glance responded to common sunlight without +astigmatism. + +That his sympathies should have outrun his repugnances was of +great practical moment in what he was able to achieve in a life +shortened at both ends, for though he had to lose time by earning +his own professional equipment, he lost little energy in friction. +He wrote to a political aspirant for high office, in 1921, "Pick a +few enemies and pick them with discretion. Chiefly be FOR things." +To a man who was making a personal attack on an adversary of +Lane's, while in 1914, as Secretary of the Interior, he was +engrossed in establishing his "conservation-by-use" policy, in +opposition to the older and narrower policy of conservation by +withdrawal, Lane wrote, "I have never seen any good come by +blurring an issue by personal conflict or antagonisms. ... I have +no time to waste in fighting people ... to fight for a thing the +best way is to show its advantages, and the need for it ... and my +only solicitude is that the things I care for should not be held +back by personal disputes." ... + +This lesson he had learned more from his own temperament than from +political expediency. It was bound up in his love of efficiency +and also in his sense of humor. During this same hot conservation +controversy he writes to an old friend, "I have no intention of +saying anything in reply to Pinchot. He wrote me thirty pages to +prove that I was a liar, and rather than read that again I will +admit the fact." + +This preoccupation with the main issue, in getting beneficial +results was one thing that made him glad to acclaim and use the +gifts of other men. Through his sympathies he could follow as well +as lead, and he caught enthusiasms as well as kindled them. He +believed in enthusiasm for itself, and because he saw in it one of +the great potencies of life. In writing of D'Annunzio's placing +Italy beside the Allies, he rejoices in the beautiful spectacle of +the spirit of a whole people "blown into flame by a poet-patriot." +But "the ideal," he urges, "must be translated into the possible. +Man cannot live by bread alone--nor on manna." + +His gay and challenging attitude toward life expressed only one +mood, for he paid, as men must, for intense buoyancy of temper by +black despairs. "Damn that Irish temperament, anyway!" he writes. +"O God, that I had been made a stolid, phlegmatic, non-nervous, +self-satisfied Britisher, instead of a wild cross between a crazy +Irishman with dreams, desires, fancies--and a dour Scot with his +conscience and his logical bitterness against himself--and his +eternal drive!" + +His exaggerations of hope and his moods of broken disappointment, +his ever-springing faith in men, and in the possibility of just +institutions, were more temperamental than logical. Moods of +astonished grief, when men showed greed and instability, gave +place to humorous and tolerant analysis of characters and events. +Even his loyalty to his friends was subject to the slight magnetic +deflections of a man of moods. He was true to them as the needle +to the pole; and with just the same piquing oscillations, before +the needle comes to rest at the inevitable North. + +Because he had caught, in its capricious rhythms, the subtle +movements of human intercourse he trusted himself to express to +other men the natural man within his breast, without fear of +misconstruction. He contrived to humanize, in parts, even his +government reports. They brought him, year by year, touching +letters of gratitude from weary political writers. The patient, +logical Scot in him that said, "I am going to take this thing up +bit by bit without trying to get a whole philosophy into the +work," anchored him to the heaviest tasks as if he were a true- +born plodder, while the "wild Irishman" with dreams and desires +lighted the way with gleams of Will-o'-the-Wisp. The quicksilver +in the veins of the patient Mercutio of railroad rates and +demurrage charges lightened his work for himself and others. Just +as in the five years when he served San Francisco, as City and +County Attorney, he labored to such effect that not one of his +hundreds of legal opinions was reversed by the Supreme Court of +the State, so he toiled on these same Annual Reports, so immersed +that, as he says, "I even have to take the blamed stuff to bed +with me." Fourteen and sixteen hours at his official desk were not +his longest hours, and sometimes he snatched a dinner of shredded +biscuit from beside the day's accumulations of papers upon his +heaped-up desk. He laid upon himself the burden of labor, +examining and cross-examining men for hours upon a single point of +essential fact--quick to detect fraud and intolerant of humbug,-- +but infinitely patient with those who were merely dull, evading no +drudgery, and, above all, never evading the dear pains of +building-up and maintaining friendship. + +LOUISE HERRICK WALL + +MARCH, 1922 + + + + + +II + +POLITICS AND JOURNALISM + +1884-1894 + +POLITICS--NEWSPAPER WORK--NEW YORK--BUYING INTO TACOMA NEWS-- +MARRIAGE--SALE OF NEWSPAPER + + +FRANKLIN K. LANE'S earliest political association, in California, +after reaching manhood, was with John H. Wigmore. Wigmore had +returned from Harvard, in 1883, with a plan, already matured, for +Civic Reform. The Municipal Reform League, created by Wigmore, +Lane, and several other young men, was to follow the general +outline of boss control, by precinct and ward organization, the +difference being that the League members were to hold no offices, +enjoy no spoils, and work for clean city politics. Each member of +the inner circle was to take over and make himself responsible for +a definite city district, making a card index of the name of each +voter, taking a real part in all caucus meetings--in saloon +parlors or wherever they were held--and studying practical +politics at first hand. "Blind Boss Buckley" was the Democratic +dictator of San Francisco, and against his regime the initial +efforts of the League were directed. + +It was a giant's task, an impossible task, for a small group of +newspaper writers and college undergraduates. The short career of +the Municipal Reform League ended when Wigmore went East to study +law, leaving Lane determined to increase his efficiency by earning +his way through college and the Hastings Law School. + +The first letters of this volume follow the theme of the political +interests of the two young men. + + + +TO JOHN H. WIGMORE + +Oakland, February 27, 1888 + +MY DEAR WIGMORE,--I am thinking of getting back in your part of +the world myself, and this is what I especially wanted to write +you about. I desire to see the world, to rub off some of my +provincialisms, to broaden a little before I settle down to a +prosaic existence. So, as I say, I want to live in Boston awhile +and my only possibility of so doing is to get a position on some +Boston paper, something that will afford me a living and allow +some little time for social and literary life. However I don't +care much what the billet is. I can bring letters of +recommendation from all the good newspaper men in San Francisco, +both as to my ability at editorial work (I have done considerable +for the San Francisco NEWS LETTER and EXAMINER), and at all kinds +of reportorial work. ... + +I passed the law examination before the Supreme Court last month, +so I am now a full-fledged--but not a flying, attorney. I have not +determined definitely on going into law. ... + +Politically speaking we Mugwumps out here are happy. ... +California has been opposed to Cleveland on every one of his great +proposals (civil service reform, silver question, tariff reform), +and yet the Republicans must nominate a very strong man to get +this State this year. The people admire old Grover's strength so +much, he is a positive man and an honest man, and when the people +see these two exceptional virtues mixed happily in a candidate +they grow to love and admire him out of the very idealism of their +natures. + +But I must not bother the Boston attorney any longer. Write me all +you know of opportunities there and believe me always your friend, + +FRANK K. LANE + + + +TO JOHN B. WIGMORE + +Oakland, May 9, 1888 + +MY DEAR WIGMORE,--Of course I would have to stand my chances in +getting a position. Newspaper men, perhaps more than any other +class, are rated by ability. Civil Service Reform principles rule +in every good newspaper office to their fullest extent. When I +wrote you, I was unsettled as to my plans for the coming year. My +brother desired to spend a year or so in Boston and I thought of +accompanying him. He has changed his plans and so have I. ... I am +regularly on the Chronicle staff, chiefly writing sensational +stories. I get a regular salary of twenty-five dollars a week +besides some extras, and have as easy and pleasant a billet as +there is on the paper, though editorial work would be more to my +liking. + +These arrangements do not interfere, however, with my Boston plan, +for sooner or later I shall breathe its intellectual atmosphere, +that I may outgrow provincialism and become intellectual by force +of habit rather than will. How long it will be before the wish can +be gratified I cannot tell. Probably next year. You see the law is +not altogether after my taste. I feel it a waste of time to spend +days quarreling like school-boys over a few hundred dollars. I +feel all the time as if I must be engaged in some life work which +will make more directly for the good of my fellows. I feel the +need which the world manifests for broader ideas in economics, +politics, the philosophy of life, and all social questions. +Feeling so, I cannot coop myself in a law library behind a pile of +briefs, spending my days and nights in search of some authority +which will save my client's dollar. I am unsettled, however, as to +my permanent work. ... + +Oakland, September 20, 1888 + +... The copies of the Massachusetts law have been duly received +and put to the best of use. On my motion our Young Men's League +appointed a Committee to draft a law for presentation to the +Legislature. Judge Maguire, Ferd, [Footnote: Ferdinand Vassault, a +college friend. ] and two others, with myself, are on that +Committee and we are hard at work. I send to-day a copy of the +Examiner containing a ballot reform bill just introduced by the +Federated Trades. It is based on the New York law but is very +faulty. We are working with that bill as a basis, proposing +various and very necessary amendments. We hope to get our bill +adopted in Committee as a substitute for the one introduced, and +believe that the Federated Trades will be perfectly willing to +adopt our measure. ... + +Tell me, please, how you select your election officials in your +large cities. Our mode of selection is really the weak point with +us, for no matter how good a law we might procure, its enforcement +would be left to "boss" tools--corruptionists of the worst +class. ... + +Oakland, December 2, 1888 + +... Your letter breathes the sentiments of thousands of +Republicans who voted against Cleveland. They are now "just a +little" sorry that so good a man is beaten. I never quite +understood your political position. Your letter to Ferd giving +your reason was, I must say, not conclusive, for I cannot believe +that you can find a greater field of usefulness or power in the +Republican than in the Democratic party, surely not now that the +new Democracy--a party aggressive, filled with the reform spirit, +and right in the direction it takes, now that such a party is in +the field. + +You surely ought to join us on the tariff fight, but then I wish +you the best of fortune whatever your choice. Ferd and several +others with myself are now organizing what will some day be a +great state, if not a great national institution. We call it the +Young Men's Democratic League [Footnote: This plan seems to have +been to enlarge the influence of the League mentioned in a former +letter.]--it is to be made up of young men from twenty-one to +forty-five; its scope--national politics, election of President +and Congressmen, and its immediate purpose to inform the people on +the tariff question. When our Constitution is published you shall +have one. We expect to organize branches all over the State and in +a year or two will be strong in the thousands. + +Your election article was of a singular kind but VERY good. I have +loaned it out among the old crowd. I spoke of it to Judge +Sullivan, who is compiling authorities on the "intention of the +voter" as governing, where the spelling is wrong on a ballot. +Sullivan ran for Supreme Justice and ran thousands ahead of his +ticket (the Democratic) but thinks that he was defeated by votes +thrown out in Alameda and Los Angeles counties because of +irregularities in the ballot--in one case his initials were +printed "J. D." instead of "J, F."--in another instance, his name +was printed a little below the title of the office, because of the +narrowness of the ticket. If these ballots were counted for him he +thinks he would have won. ... + +Fourteen years later, when the electoral count was made of +Franklin K. Lane's ballots for Governor of the State of +California, between eight and ten thousand ballots were thrown out +on similar ground of "irregularities," and he was counted out, +"the intention of the voter" being again frustrated. + + + +To John H. Wigmore + +San Francisco, California, January 29, 1889 + +My dear Wigmore,-- ... I want to report progress. We now have our +bill complete. ... The bill I send has been adopted by the +Federated Trades and will be substituted by them for their bill +now before the House. ... + +On Saturday evening there will be one of those huge "spontaneous" +mass meetings (which require so much preparation) in support and +endorsement of the bill. The most prominent men in both Houses of +the Legislature will speak. ... + +San Francisco, February 17, 1889 + +... I never have been busier in my life than in the last two +weeks. Ballot Reform has taken up a very great portion of my time. +I have just returned from a lobbying trip to Sacramento. The bill +will not pass, though the best men in both Houses favor it. I went +up on the invitation of the chairman of the Assembly Committee to +address the Committee. I spoke for an hour and a half. At the end +of that time only one man in the group openly opposed the scheme, +and he confessed that the bill would do just what I claimed for +it, and made this confession to the Committee. "But," said he, "it +tends to the disintegration of political parties and as they are +essential to our life we must not help on their destruction." ... + +The Committee of the Senate decided without any debate on the bill +to report adversely to it. I got them to reconsider their vote, +and we will have a hearing at any rate before the bill is killed. +The Legislature is altogether for boodle. ... + +Your book has been of the greatest assistance to me. I virtually +made my speech from it and left the book with the chairman of the +Committee at his special request. ... If it had come out a month +sooner we would have stood fifty per cent better chance of getting +the bill through, because the papers would have come to the front +so much sooner and we would have been thirty days ahead with our +bill. I tell you I felt quite proud in addressing the +distinguished legislature to refer to "my friend Wigmore's book." +... + +San Francisco, May 10, 1889 + +... I am coming nearer to you. On Monday I leave to take up my +residence in New York, as correspondent for the San Francisco +Chronicle. I do not know where I will be located, but mail +addressed to me at the Hoffman House will reach me when I arrive, +which will be in about ten days. + +My purpose is to breathe a new atmosphere for a while so that I +may broaden. We must make arrangements soon to meet. I want to +know your New York reform friends. ... + +New York, June 21, 1889 + +... This lapse of a couple of weeks means that I have been +enjoying the delights of a New York summer, in which only slaves +work and many of these find refuge in suicide. ... + +Not a single reformer, big or little, have I yet met. Your friend +Bishop [Footnote: Joseph Bucklin Bishop, editor of Theodore +Roosevelt and His Time.] I have not called on, though I have twice +started to do so, and have been switched off. ... I will go within +a couple of days for the spirit must be revived. One day early in +this week I had an intense desire to visit you immediately and was +almost on the verge of letting things go and rush off, but duty +held me. ... + +I see that Bellamy has captured Higginson, Savage, and others and +that they are going to work over the Kinsley-Maurice business. +Well, I would to God it would work. Something to make life happier +and steadier for these poor women and men who toil and never get +beyond a piece of meat and a cot! There is justification here for +a social-economic revolution and it will come, too, if things are +not bettered. + +If you have a stray thought let me know it and soon. + +Your friend, + +F. K. L. + +Lane's desire for stimulating companionship in New York was +quickly gratified. A spontaneous association of friendships, based +upon a young delight in life and a vast curiosity of the mind, +sprang up among a little group of men of very diverse types. All +were strangers in New York with no immediate home ties. "Women +played no part in our lives," one of them recalls. "We came +together to discuss plays, poetry, politics, anything and +everything--the great actors, comic operas, the songs of the +streets, science, politics." John Crawford Burns, Lane, Brydon +Lamb, Curt Pfeiffer formed the nucleus of what spread out +irregularly into larger groupings. + +John Crawford Burns, who was slightly older than the rest, a +purist, and something of a "dour Scot," was a man of conservative +and cultivated tastes and the dean of the group. He was in a +business house that imported linens, and lived in a "glorious room +with two outside windows, and ample seating capacity," so the +friends often met there and learned something of Gothic +architecture and of the abominations of slang, in spite of +themselves. With Burns, and of his firm, was Brydon Lamb, "also of +Scotch descent, but born in America, a delightful combination of +strength, sweetness and light. The simple grace of his manner, his +unhurried speech, his urbanity, captivated us all. We loved him +for what he was, and we considered him our arbiter elegantiarum" +Of Lane at that period the same friend writes, "I remember a fine, +stocky, muscular presence with a striking head. A massive, +commanding man, he was, a persuasive and compelling leader." But +none of the men had any sense of anything but complete friendly, +boyish equality. "Lane was," Pfeiffer says, "interested in human +beings, not problems, excepting as their solution might be made +serviceable to the needs of individuals. He had great tolerance +for the most unusual opinions. I don't think Lane ever had much +interest in the dogmas of science, religion, or philosophy; he +lived by the spirit of them, that cannot be expressed in formulae. +He had the peculiar sensitiveness of a poet for words, for colors +and sounds, and for moral beauty, and blended with it the +statesman's observant awareness of conditions in the world of +affairs." + +At the beginning of their friendship, in 1889, Curt Pfeiffer +himself was only nineteen years old, a youth whose family had come +from Holland and Germany. He appeared in the boarding-house on +32nd near Broadway, where Burns lived, fresh from three months at +the Paris Exposition, a vacation that had followed a course of +scientific study at Zurich, Switzerland. The wonders of Paris, +a-glitter with the blaze of undreamed-of electrical beauty, and the +greater wonder of the scientific discoveries and speculations, of +the eighties, as taught at the University of Zurich, gave the +young traveler an instant place among the others. Because of his +love for exact statement and his scientific approach in +discussion, young as he was, he contributed something very real to +the group whose chief preoccupation--aside from the joy of living- +was with art, government, and literature. + +They read separately, and when a book seemed intolerably good to +the discoverer, he brought it in and insisted on their reading +parts of it together. Browning, Darwin, the Vedic Hymns, +Stevenson, Taine, Buckle, Spencer, Kipling, Sir Henry Maine, on +primitive law, and Emerson! The relation of the men was almost +impersonal in the fervor of their explorations into life. +Differences of blood and tradition were not only easily bridged +but welcomed, because they assured, to the group as a whole, +sharper angles of mental refraction--breaking the ray of truth +they sought into more of its component colors. + +Pfeiffer recalls that "one Saturday night, under the influence of +reading from the Vedic Hymns, and a talk on astronomy, we went up +on the roof of our boarding-place, and observed a complete +revolution of the starry heavens, from dusk to dawn. We drifted +into talk, ... and when we finally descended to our beds on Sunday +morning, we found ourselves drenched to the skin from the +drizzling dew. We never forgot that experience, but we never +repeated it either." + +His political interests brought Lane into the Reform Club where +Progress and Poverty, Henry George's new book, was the center for +discussion upon the whole problem of the distribution of taxation. +Lane and Henry George established a cordial friendship. + +John Crawford Burns says that in 1889 "Lane's chief hero was +Cleveland, and his oracle Godkin, of the EVENING POST"--later, the +NATION. "When I knew him in New York he represented a San +Francisco newspaper, the CHRONICLE, I think, as correspondent. He +was not whole-heartedly in sympathy with his proprietor, nor +indeed with the sensational aspect of journalism, and he always +scoffed at the idea of newspaper writers constituting a modern +priesthood. He laughingly justified his association with the +CHRONICLE by saying he gave tone to it. For this and other +services, he received, I think, two thousand dollars a year, which +even thirty years ago did not admit of luxury and riotous living." + +Lane's whole stay in New York was less than two years in length, +but the vital ideas that he shared with disinterested minds made +of this period the seed-bed for future intellectual growth. + +In 1891, in spite of the delights of personal friendships, in New +York, Lane grew increasingly dissatisfied with the limitations of +newspaper corresponding. He wanted a paper of his own, in which he +could express without reserve the ideals of social and political +betterment with which his mind was teeming. In this mood, the +first acclaim of the rapid growth of the pioneer towns of the far +Northwest reached him. He saw in this his opportunity, and acted +quickly and decisively. He gathered together his own savings, +borrowed from his friend, Sidney Mezes, a few more thousand +dollars and went to Tacoma, Washington, to buy the Tacoma Evening +News. + +As soon as the transfer was well made, Lane threw himself +enthusiastically into the politics of the new town, already +suffering from boss rule. By his editorials he succeeded in +stirring up the City Hall, and drove into Alaskan exile the Chief +of Police--who, by the way, was said to have become immensely rich +in Alaska while Lane's paper was running into bankruptcy in +Tacoma. But Lane's misadventure was not wholly due to his civic +virtue. He had "bought in" at just the moment when the instruments +were tuning up for the prelude to the great panic crash of 1893. +Tacoma, and the whole Northwest, had been mainly developed by +casual investments of speculative Eastern capital, and this +capital, sensitive to change, was being withdrawn to meet home +needs. Investors, to protect real interests, were willing to +sacrifice their "little Western flyers," at almost any discount. + +As the terminal of the new Northern Pacific Railroad, Tacoma-- +lying on the bluffs overlooking the great inland sea of Puget +Sound, guardianed by the vastness of its mountain--was backed by +forests whose wealth could scarcely be exaggerated, even by +promoter's advertisements. She was noisily proclaimed to be the +"Gateway to the Orient," but trade was not yet firmly established +with the Orient, and, indeed, what was Washington's wealth of +uncut timber when the capital to develop it was slowly ebbing +Eastward? + +No paper without heavy capitalization, could have sustained a +policy of political reform, when, in the picturesque vernacular of +the time and place, "the bottom had dropped out of the town." A +rival newspaper, the LEDGER, in order to retrench, began a war on +the Printers' Union, to break wages. Lane repudiated the effort +made to "rat" his paper and to force the Union out. He sustained +his men in their fight to keep the Union rate, and lent them his +presses to carry on their propaganda. In after years he said, "As +to my labor record, it is a consistent one of thirty years length, +ever since I stood by the Union in Tacoma, and went broke." Again +he wrote to an acquaintance, "I often think of the old days in +Tacoma. We were a fighting bunch, and I think most of us are +fighting for the same things that we fought for then; a little bit +more decency and less graft in affairs, and a chance for a man to +rise by ability and not by pull alone." + +In April, 1893, Lane had married Anne Wintermute--he needed all +he could find of cheer in those depressing days. The whole town +was beaten to its knees by loss and fore-closure. Lane was +struggling to hold together his paper, and save his friend's +investment and his own little stake. The one bright interlude of +that time for him lay in reading, and in his new friendships. He +loved to chant aloud to a group of stranded young fellows gathered +in his rooms, in his gay trumpeting way, brave passages from the +Barrack-Room Ballads, of Kipling, that were lifting the spirits +of the English-speaking world with their freshness and daring. +Stevenson, too, with his polished optimism delighted Lane. "I can +remember," says one of the group, "just how I heard him read aloud +the last words from Stevenson's essay, Aes Triplex, in those +melancholy Tacoma days--'those happy days when we were so +miserable!'":-- + +"All who have meant good work with their whole hearts, have done +good work, although they may die before they have the time to sign +it. ... Does not life go down with a better grace, foaming in full +body over a precipice, than miserably straggling to an end in +sandy deltas? When the Greeks made their fine saying that those +whom the Gods love die young, I cannot help believing they had +this sort of death also in their eye. For surely, at whatever age +it overtake the man, this is to die young. Death has not been +suffered to take so much as an illusion from his heart. In the +hot-fit of life, a-tip-toe on the highest point of being, he +passes at a bound on to the other side. The noise of the mallet +and chisel is scarcely quenched, the trumpets are hardly done +blowing, when, trailing with him clouds of glory, this happy- +starred, full-blooded spirit shoots into the spiritual land." + +Still believing in the good work he had meant with his whole +heart, Lane turned from the bankruptcy of his paper, sold at +auction, to write to his friend of new adventures. + + + +To John H. Wigmore + +Tacoma, October 25, 1894 + +MY DEAR WIGMORE,--I have not heard from you for a year. You are in +my debt at least one, and I think two, letters. I have sent you an +occasional paper, just to let you know I was alive and I am +hazarding this letter to the old address. ... + +My affairs here have not prospered and I am thinking of going +somewhere else. ... Do you think Japan has anything to offer a +man such as myself? Would there be any chance there for a +newspaper run by an American? Are there any wealthy Americans +there who would be likely to put up a few thousands for such an +enterprise? ... Life is not the "giddy, reeling dream of love and +fame" that it once was, and I have decided on gathering a few +essential dollars. Now Japan may not be the place I am looking +for, ... but unless I am greatly mistaken, a man who is up on +American affairs and alive to business opportunities could do well +in Japan. But then this is all a guess, and I want you to put me +right ... + +Yours very truly, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + + + +III + +LAW PRACTICE AND POLITICAL ACTIVITIES 1894-1906 + +Law--Drafting New City Charter--Elected as City and County +Attorney--Gubernatorial Campaign--Mayoralty Campaign--Earthquake +--Appointment as Interstate Commerce Commissioner + + +Late in the fall of 1894 Lane returned to San Francisco and for +some months associated himself with Arthur McEwen, on Arthur +McEwen's Letter, a lively political weekly which attacked various +forms of civic corruption in San Francisco, and made an especial +target of the Southern Pacific Railroad, then in practical control +of the State. + +He also formed a law partnership with his brother, George W. Lane, +under the firm name of Lane and Lane. In 1895 a curious case, +estimated as involving about sixty million dollars worth of +property, was brought to the young attorneys. The Star, of San +Francisco, described the issue at stake by saying, "One Jose Noe +and four alleged grand-children of Jose Noe appear, who pretend +that they can show a clear title to an undivided one-half interest +in nearly forty-five hundred acres within the city, on which land +reside some five thousand or more owners, mostly men of small +means." + +Upon investigation Lane and his brother became convinced that the +suit had been instituted as a blackmailing scheme, in an attempt +to force the owners to pay for quit-claim deeds; they took and +energetically fought the case for the defendants, without asking +for a retainer. Their clients formed themselves into what they +called the San Miguel Defense Association. In a year the title of +the householders to their little homes was established beyond +peradventure. + +With the warmth of Latin gratitude this service was remembered. In +1898 when Lane ran for his first political office, as City and +County Attorney, the San Miguel Defense Association revived its +energies, formed a Franklin K. Lane Campaign Club and sent out +vivid circulars about Franklin K. Lane, "who nobly fought for us. +... It is now our turn to stand by him and see that he is elected +by a very large majority." Their proclamation ended with the +appeal, "Vote for Franklin K. Lane, the Foe to Blackmailers." + +As Lane's plurality in this first election was eight hundred and +thirty-two votes, there is little doubt that his grateful clients +played a real part in that success. + +The Tacoma printers had also sent a testimonial, which was widely +distributed in the campaign, as to Lane's friendship to labor, +saying that they, in gratitude, had made him an honorary member of +their Typographical Union. The campaign was made on the rights of +the plain people, for its chief issue. + +In the letter that follows, Lane, in 1913, tells of his formal +entry into politics, in 1898. + + + +To P. T. Spurgcon Herald, McClure Newspaper Syndicate + +Washington, December 30, 1913 + +DEAR MR. SPURGEON,--In reply to your inquiry of December 29, +permit me to say that I got into politics in this way:-- + +One day, while on my way to lunch, I met Mayor Phelan, of San +Francisco, who asked me if I would become a member of the +committee to draft a charter for the city. I said I would, and was +appointed. At that time I was practising law and had no idea +whatever that I would at any time run for public office, or take +any considerable part in public affairs. I helped to draft the +charter, and as it had to be submitted to the people for +ratification, I stumped the city for it. Later, when the first +election was held under it, my friends on the charter committee +insisted that I should accept the Democratic nomination for City +Attorney. Under the charter, the City Attorney was the legal +adviser of all the city and county officials, and it was his +business to define and construe this organic law, and the friends +of the charter wished some one who was in sympathy with the +instrument to give it initial construction. + +I was nominated by the Democratic party by an independent movement +and was elected; later re-elected, and elected for a third term. +After an unsuccessful candidacy for the governorship, I was +appointed a member of the Interstate Commerce Commission by +President Roosevelt. + +Cordially yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + +To John H. Wigmore + +San Francisco, November 14, 1898 + +MY DEAR WIGMORE,--This is a formal note of acknowledgment of the +service rendered me in the campaign, which has just closed +successfully. There were only three Democrats elected on the +general ticket, the Mayor, Assessor, and myself. I ran four +thousand five hundred votes ahead of my ticket. It was a splendid +tribute to worth! I never before realized how discriminating the +American public is. A man who scoffs at Democratic institutions +must be a tyrant at heart, or a defeated candidate. I tell you the +people know a good man when they see one. + +My opponent was the present Attorney General of the State, W. F. +Fitzgerald, a very capable man, and probably the best man on the +Republican ticket. He has been steadily in office for thirty +years, in Mississippi, Arizona, and California, and this is his +first defeat; and I sincerely regret that I had to take a fall out +of such a gentleman. + +Now, the perplexing problem arises as to how long I shall hold +office. The term is for two years. The new charter comes up before +the coming Legislature for approval in January, and that +instrument provides for another election next fall, to fill all +City and County offices. ... + +I don't want to stay in politics, two years in the office will be +long enough for me. I hope that I shall make a creditable record. +I can foresee that strong pressure will be brought to bear upon me +to act with the Examiner in making things disagreeable for the +corporations, and I will have no easy task in gaining the approval +of my own party, and of my conscience and judgment at the same +time. + +Let me thank you again very earnestly for what you did, and +believe me. Yours sincerely, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + +The City Charter that Lane had helped to draft, with its many new +provisions, never before adjudicated, made his first term as City +and County Attorney one requiring an especial amount of laborious +legal study. To meet the pressing need, Lane organized his corps +of assistants to include several men of marked legal ability and +the industry that the task demanded, appointing his brother, +George W. Lane, as his first assistant. + +It was partly due to the good team-work of the office that his +opinions rendered in four years were as "numerous as those +heretofore rendered by the department in about sixteen years," and +that during one of the years of his incumbency "snot a dollar of +damages was obtained against the city." + +[Illustration with caption: FRANKLIN K. LANE AS CITY AND COUNTY +ATTORNEY] + + + +To John H. Wigmore + +San Francisco, September 25, [1899] + +MY DEAR WIGMORE,-- ... As an evidence of what I am doing I sent +you a brief three or four days ago in the Charter case. I have +another just filed on the question of county officers holding over +under the Charter, a third on the new primary law which is a grand +thing if we can make it stick, and a fourth on the taxation of +bonds of quasi-public corporations, and a fifth on the taxation of +National Bank stock. + +I have hardly seen my baby for six weeks; have been at the office +from nine A.M. to eleven P.M. regularly. And now that I am nearly +dead a new campaign is on and I must run again. And, of course, I +have enemies now which I hadn't last year. + +Thank you once again for so kindly remembering me. + +Yours sincerely, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + +Lane's first child, a son, was born in the spring of 1898. He is +the "Ned" of the letters--Franklin K. Lane, Jr. Lane's attitude +toward children is shown in many of his letters. His own boy gave +a strong impetus to his most disinterested social ideals. In +writing of the birth of a friend's baby he said, "For the child we +act nobly, its call to us is always to our finer side. + + + +To John H. Wigmore + +San Francisco, November 10 + +MY DEAR WIGMORE,--This is to be a mere bulletin. I am elected once +again--10,500 majority, the largest received by any candidate. You +expected me to run for Mayor I know. Well, it was offered me--the +nomination, I mean--and all my campaign expenses promised. But I +couldn't accept, having told the Labor Union people that I was a +candidate for City Attorney and not for Mayor. This Labor Union +Party is a new one, the outgrowth of the recent strike. They have +elected their Mayor, a musician named Schmitz, a decent, +conservative young man, who will surprise the decent moneyed +people and anger the laboring people with his +conservatism.[Footnote: Lane lived to smile at his too charitable +characterization of this San Francisco Mayor.] I didn't have one +single word of praise from a newspaper in the campaign. They +hardly mentioned the fact that I was a candidate. It was jolly +good therefore to win as I did. + +And my congratulations to you, my honored friend, Dean Wigmore. +Next year I am to publish my Opinions, a copy of which, of course, +will go to you, but not by virtue of your office, old man. You are +arriving, of course, but there is something better in store. A +Federal Judgeship is the thing for you; and when I get into the +Cabinet you shall have it. But don't wait till then. I'm gray and +bald now and my boy patronizes me. So don't wait, but get your +lines out, and one of these days you'll make it. Where next I +shall land I don't know, probably in a law office, praying for +clients. ... Always yours, + +F. K. L. + +Lane's first majority in 1898 of 832 votes was increased to 10,500 +in 1899, when he was re-elected; and two years later he won by a +still larger majority. A number of his opinions, as City Attorney, +were collected and bound in a volume, as none of them had been +reversed by the Supreme Court of the State. + +He took much pleasure in a dinner club that he helped to form. The +members were University professors, lawyers, newspaper men, and a +few business men. "But," says one of them, "in spirit they were +poets, philosophers and prophets. They were aware that their +solutions of problems vexing to the brains of other men, would be +Utopian, but as they were not willing to be classed with ordinary +Utopians they named their club Amaurot, after the capital of +Utopia, thus signifying that while they dwelt in Utopia, they were +not subject to it but were lords of it--the teachers of its wisdom +and the makers of its laws." + +His home life absorbed much of his leisure. He and his family had +moved into a modest house on Gough Street, in San Francisco, with +a view of the bay, Alcatraz Island, and the Marin Hills from the +upstairs living-room window--for no house was a home to Lane that +had no view--and in the back-yard, among its red geraniums and +cosmos bushes, he played Treasure Island and Wild West with his +boy. + +In the summer of 1902, Lane was nominated as the Democratic and +Non-Partisan candidate for Governor of California. At the +Democratic Convention at Sacramento, an onlooker described the +excitement among the delegates before a selection was made, +"Throughout the night until late afternoon of the second day, +without any clear solution of the problem, came the roll-call of +the counties, then a wild stampede for the young City and County +Attorney of San Francisco, who was borne to the platform. ... + +"It was Franklin K. Lane who stood a goodly and confident figure, +waving a palm-leaf fan for quiet. He said:-- + +"'I was in the rear of the hall when Governor Budd made his speech +and voiced the call of the party for a winner, and, in response to +his call, I have taken this platform.'" + +This note of joyous truculence, with the little out-thrust of the +underlip, brought, as so often before and since, laughter and +applause. + +A hot and spirited campaign followed. California is naturally +Republican, and Lane had many times challenged and attacked the +great powers of the State. He made as his chief issues, +Irrigation, Prison Reform, and a fairer share in the world's goods +for all the people. He traveled far and fast, often speaking six +times in a day, at different places, and sometimes riding a +hundred and fifty miles in twenty-four hours, over the rough roads +of remote counties. + +While campaigning he outlined his notion of public service in this +way, "No man should have a political office because he wants a +job. A public office is not a job, it is an opportunity to do +something for the public. Once in office it remains for him to +prove that the opportunity was not wasted. ..." And again he +said,--"There is nothing that touches me so, in the little that I +have seen in political life, as this, that while it is a game in +which men can be mean, contemptible and dastardly, it is a game +also that brings out the finer, better, and nobler qualities. I +know why some men are in politics to their own financial loss. +Because they find it is a great big man's game, which calls for +men to fight it, and they want to stand beside their fellows and +do battle." + +In regretting that he could not attend a Democratic meeting, at +Richmond, California, he sent this letter,-- + + + +TO LYMAN NAUGLE + +MY DEAR MR. NAUGLE,-- ... The cause of Democracy is being given +more sincere and thoughtful interest this campaign than for many +years. One of its cardinal principles is that the individual is +more important to the State than mere property, and that the +welfare of the majority of our citizens must always be paramount +and their rights prevail, no matter what the weight of influence +in the other side of the balance. It is work and personal worth +which make a State great both politically and industrially, and in +my estimation they are to be found in largest proportions in the +Democratic party. For these reasons I believe there will be a very +large change in the vote of this State in our coming election. +Reports have reached me from many parts of the State, and I am +entirely satisfied that we shall win this fight provided that we +do our full share of earnest work, if that be lacking we don't +deserve it. ... Yours for honest victory, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + +At first Hearst's powerful paper, the San Francisco Examiner, took +a negative tone toward Lane's candidacy but soon became +dangerously, if covertly, antagonistic. Of Hearst's methods of +attack Lane wrote, in detail, on July 3, 1912, to Governor Woodrow +Wilson, then Democratic nominee for the Presidency. After +enumerating one specific count after another against the Examiner +Lane said:-- + +"When a boy putting myself through college I was business manager +of a temperance paper which advocated prohibition. He [Hearst] +published extracts from this paper and credited them to me, and on +the morning of election day sent a special train throughout the +whole of Northern California containing an issue of his paper, +appealing to the saloon-keepers and wine-growers for my defeat. + +"... No editorial word of his disfavor appeared, but in every news +article there was in the headline a cunning turn or twist, +calculated to arouse prejudice against me. I notice in this +morning's issue of the American the same policy is being pursued +regarding you. + +"Now the great mistake I made was in not boldly telling the public +just what I knew. ... I felt that it was a personal matter with +which the public was not concerned, but I know now, as I have +gotten older and seen more of politics, that it was a public +matter of the first importance, as to which the public should have +had knowledge. + +"Later when he [Hearst] budded as a candidate for President, in +1904, he sought an interview with me and said that he was not to +blame for the policy that had been pursued. Our interview closed +with this dialogue:-- + +"'Mr. Lane, if you ever wish anything that I can do, all you will +have to do will be to send me a telegram asking, and it will be +done.'" + +"To which I responded, 'Mr. Hearst, if you ever get a telegram +from me asking you to do anything, you can put that telegram down +as a forgery.'" + +In a State like California, one of whose chief industries was the +growing of wine-grapes, and where the Examiner was the farmer's +paper, at least one phase of the attack upon Lane bore heavy +fruit. Upon election day the count between Lane and Dr. George +Pardee, the Republican candidate, was found to be close. In the +end several thousand votes, unmistakably intended for Lane, were +thrown out upon technicalities. Lane was defeated, and Dr. Pardee +took office. It was a bitter blow. + +The night when the final bad news was brought to Lane in his home, +he called his son, of four, to him, leaning down he put his arm +around the boy very gravely and tenderly, and said, "Ned, it isn't +my little son, it is Dr. Pardee's little boy that is going to have +that white pony." + +The boy caught the emotion in his father's voice, and said +cheerily, "O, that's all right, Dad. That's all right." + +Lane found that in spite of the loss of the Governorship his +circle of personal contacts had been greatly widened by his +campaign. He had come to know, and be known by, the men most +prominent in California public affairs and he had made, and +confirmed, many friendships with men who had given themselves +whole-heartedly to his advancement. Of these friendships he wrote, +in 1920, to his friend Timothy Spellacy, "Eighteen years I have +known you and never a word or act have I heard of, or seen, that +did not make me feel that the campaign for Governor was worth +while because it gave me your acquaintance, friendship, +affection. ... When I get mad, as I do sometimes, over something +that the Irish do, I always am tempted to a hard generalization +that I am compelled to modify because of you and Mike and Dan +O'Neill, in San Francisco--and a few more of the Great Irish." + +Lane's second child, Nancy, was born January 4, 1903. + +Early in that year Lane was given the complimentary vote of his +party in the California Legislature for United States Senator. + +He was chosen in April to go to Washington to argue the case of +the need of the City of San Francisco for a pure water supply from +the Hetch-Hetchy Valley, an unused part of the Yosemite Park. + +A curious opposition to this measure had been worked up in the +East by a small group of well-intentioned nature lovers who did +not, perhaps, realize that this was one of many thousand valleys +in the Sierras, and one not, in any sense, unique in its beauty. +The plan proposed to convert a remote, mosquito-haunted marsh, +dreaded even by hunters because of the "bad-going" into a large +lake-reservoir to feed the city of San Francisco. This was the +first of Lane's fights to assure to man the use of neglected +resources, and at the same time, by great care, to protect natural +beauty for his delight. + +While in Washington on this errand, he met President Roosevelt +several times. Their informal talks served to increase Lane's +strong liking for the vigorous man of action, then at the height +of his powers. + +To his friend he writes of all this. + + + +To John H. Wigmore San Francisco, May 9,1903 + +MY DEAR WIGMORE,--My trip East was a great success. After leaving +you I stayed three or four days in Washington, where I found the +Department of the Interior pretty well stacked against me; I, +however, succeeded in having a day fixed upon which an argument +would be listened to, and after this victory went to New York, +where I met many old friends and made some new ones. ... + +Upon my return to Washington I had several days of argument before +the Department, saw the President [Roosevelt] twice and lunched +with him, and then went South; was invited by the Legislature of +Texas to speak before them, which I did with much satisfaction, +especially as there were but two Republicans in both houses. + +I stopped with my old friend Mezes, in Austin, who is the dean of +the University, ... and easily the most influential man socially, +politically, and educationally in the institution. ... + +I am having an extremely disagreeable time. The Democrats here +insist upon my running for Mayor, urging it as a duty which I owe +to the party, because they say I am the only man who can be +elected; and as a duty to the city, because they say that the +scoundrels who are now in office will continue, and worse ones +come in, unless we can elect some clean Democrat. I urge +everything against the thing, that comes to my mind, including my +poverty, the fact that I made four campaigns in five years, my +personal aversion to the office of Mayor, the inability of any one +to please the people of San Francisco as Mayor, the conspiracy of +the newspapers that exists against a government that is not +controlled by them, and the fact that to insist upon my taking +this office would be an act of political murder on the part of my +friends. ... Yours as always, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + +Heavy and continued pressure, through the spring and summer, was +brought, by his party, to bear upon Lane to accept the nomination +for Mayor of San Francisco. His letters show his reluctance and +distress. The appeal was made personal, with reminders of +sacrifices made for him. He at last agreed to run. His judgment of +the situation was fully confirmed in the final event. His defeat +was unequivocal. San Francisco had no idea of accepting a +Democratic mayor with a leaning toward reform. Lane analysed the +political situation in this letter:-- + + + +To John H. Wigmore + +San Francisco, January 26, 1904 + +MY DEAR WIGMORE,--What the effect of my defeat for Mayor will be, +it is of course impossible to say. Its immediate effect has been +to throw me into the active practice of law, and thus far I have +not starved. It will, of course, not lead to my retirement from +politics, but it will postpone no doubt, the realization of some +ambitions. I think I wrote you just what my state of mind was +previous to the nomination. I did not wish to make the fight, did +everything that was in my power to avoid the nomination, and even +went so far as to hold up the convention in a formal letter which +I addressed to it, telling them that I did not wish to be Mayor of +San Francisco and begging them to get some one else. + +The fight was along class lines entirely; the employers on one +side and the wage earners on the other. The Republican nominee +represented the employers, the Union Labor nominee, the wage +earners. I stood for good government, and in the battle my voice +could hardly be heard. It was a splendid old fight in which every +interest that was vicious, violent, or corrupt was solidly against +me. And while I did not win the election, I lost nothing in +prestige by the defeat, save among politicians who are always +looking for availability. It was not, in the nature of things, up +to me to run for Mayor, but my people all believed that I was +assured of election and felt that I was the only man who could +possibly be elected. I acted out of a sense of loyalty to my party +and a desire to do something to rid the city of its present cursed +administration. However, it may in the end be a very fortunate +thing, for I know no career more worthless than that of a +perpetual office-seeker. + +I received a letter from a friend in New York yesterday telling me +that Senator Hill [Footnote: In campaigning New York for +Cleveland, Lane had met David B. Hill.] had told him that the New +York delegation would cast its vote for me for Vice-President at +the Democratic National Convention, and that he regarded me as the +most available man to nominate; but, of course, I sent back word +that that was not to be considered. + +I should judge from the EXAMINER here, that Hearst was making a +very strong fight for a delegation from Illinois. His boom seems +to me to be increasing. That it is possible for such a man to +receive the nomination, is too humiliating to be thought of. ... +Very sincerely yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + +The day after his defeat Lane had written to thank a generous +friend:-- + + + +TO WILLIAM R. WHEELER + +San Francisco, Wednesday [November, 1908] + +MY DEAR WILL,--I can't go to the country without saying to you +once more that your self-sacrifice and manliness throughout this +campaign have endeared you to me to a degree that words cannot +convey. + +I had hoped the last day or two that I would be able to make your +critics ashamed to look you in the face, and that they would in +time come pleading to you for recognition. But now you must be +content with knowing that you did a man's part, and set a standard +in friendship and loyalty which my boy shall be taught to strive +for. + +I earnestly hope that your business relations will not be +disturbed by this trouble into which I got you. Had I been out of +it Crocker couldn't have won. My vote would largely have gone for +Schmitz. + +Give my love to Mrs. Wheeler and believe me, always your friend, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + +Wheeler, himself a Republican, belonged, at the time, to a firm of +irreconcilable Republicans, who had expressed sharp disapproval of +his activity in Lane's behalf. + +Out of office and back to the practise of the law, Lane soon built +his private practise on a firmer basis than before. His close +identification with the Democratic Party was not impaired, but the +frequent demands for attendance at public conventions and meetings +he could not leave his practise to accept. In declining one of +these invitations he replied:-- + + + +TO ORVA G. WILLIAMS IROQUOIS CLUB, CHICAGO, ILLINOIS + +San Francisco, April 7, 1904 + +... Permit me to say that we of the West look to you who are +closer to the center of things for leadership. ... This means only +that we must be true to the principles that make us Democrats. ... +The law must not be severe or lenient with any man simply because +he is rich nor because he is poor. It must not become the tool of +class antagonism for either the persecution of the well-to-do or +for the repression of the masses of the people. + +... We must resist the base opportunism which would abandon our +strong position of devotion to these fundamental principles of +good government for the sake of gaining temporary strength from +some passing passion of the hour. To identify our party with an +idea which springs from class distrust or class hatred is to gain +temporary stimulation at the expense of permanent weakness. If we +are to heed the voice which bids us cease to be Democrats in order +that we may win, we shall find that we have lost not only the +victory of being true, but also the victory at the polls, which +can be ours only in case we are true. + +... Our creed is simple and clear, but it cannot be recited by +those who would make our organization an annex to the Republican +party by catering to that conservatism which seeks only to bring +greater benefit to the already wealthy, nor by those who would +make it an annex to the Socialist party by joining in every +attack, no matter how unjust, upon the wealthy. Sincerely yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + +To the Iroquois Club of Los Angeles on the same day he wrote,--"It +becomes us to consider well the meaning of the signs of the times. +Miracles may not be worked with these waves of prosperity. It is +in no man's power to say 'Peace, be still' and quiet the troubled +sea of panic. But we may make sure that men of steady nerve, of +clear head and highest purpose are at the helm. I expect to see +the time when the Democratic party will, by fixed adherence to a +well-defined course, gain and hold the approval and support of the +majority of our people, not for a single election but for a long +series of elections, and if we begin now with this end in view we +certainly will be prepared for whatever may happen--victory or +defeat; and in both alike we will be proud of our party and give a +guarantee for the future." + +While campaigning California for Governor, in 1902, Isadore B. +Dockweiler ran on Lane's ticket, for the office of Lieutenant +Governor, and Dockweiler still looked to him for counsel. + + + +TO ISADORE B. DOCKWEILER + +San Francisco, April 16, 1904 + +MY DEAR DOCKWEILER,--You ask in your favor of the 14th whether +California will send a delegation to St. Louis pledged to Mr. +Hearst and if this program has been agreed upon, as is the report +in Los Angeles. + +I cannot tell what the Democrats of California will do, but I know +what they should do. A delegation should go from this state that +is free, unowned, unpledged, made up of men whose prime interest +is that of their party and whom the party does not need to bind +with pledges. To pledge the delegation is to make the delegates +mere pawns, puppets, counters, coins to trade with,--so much +political wampum. + +The object in holding a national convention is not to please the +vanity nor gratify the ambition of any individual, but to select a +national standard bearer who will proudly lead the party in the +campaign and be a credit to the party and an honor to the nation, +if elected. Surely the Democracy of California can select +candidates who can be depended upon to be guided by these +considerations. To tie the delegates hand and foot, toss them into +a bag, and sling them over the shoulder of one man to barter as he +may please, is not consistent with my notion of the dignity of +their position, nor does it appeal to me as the most certain +manner of making them effective in enlarging and emphasizing the +power of the state. ... + +As to your suggestion of a program to deliver this state to one +candidate--if there is such a program--I am not a party to it, +never have been, and never will be. ... The Democrats of +California ... will do much for the sake of harmony so long as +party welfare and public good are not sacrificed; but they must be +permitted to make their own program irrespective of the personal +alliances, affiliations, or ambitions of politicians. + +Personally, I am not in active political life. My views upon party +questions I do not attempt to impose upon my party, yet I know of +no reason why I should hesitate to give them expression. I cannot +but believe that if many a man were more indifferent to his +future, he would be more certain to have a future. + +There is one reason which to my mind should forbid my active +direction of any organized movement against Mr. Hearst, namely the +attitude of his paper during my recent campaign for the +governorship. I do not wish it to be said or thought that I am +seeking to use our party for purposes of personal retaliation. +Whatever reasons for bitterness I may have because of that +campaign I am persuaded it does not affect my judgment that it is +the part of wisdom to send an unpledged delegation to the national +convention. + +The Democrats of California should determine with calmness and +without passion what course will be most likely to prove a matter +of pride to themselves, their state, and the nation, and in that +sober judgment act fearlessly. + +Sincerely yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + +The Pacific Coast, in 1904, still suffered from transportation +problems of great complexity. The railroads, whose terminals were +here, were few and extraordinarily powerful and had, heretofore, +controlled rail traffic, to a large extent, in their own interest. +They wanted no regulation or interference from the Interstate +Commerce Commission and no Pacific Coast representative on that +Commission. The fruit, wheat, and lumber producers of the Western +Coast, on the other hand, felt the need of a strong representative +to protect their interests against the railroads, and to stabilize +freight rates. Lane's record for independence of sinister control, +his legal training and energy made him the natural choice of the +shippers for this position. + +Benjamin Ide Wheeler, President of the University of California, +was a friend of Lane's and also a friend of President Roosevelt's. +While in the East, in the spring of 1904, Wheeler had a talk with +Roosevelt, about Lane's qualifications for the Interstate Commerce +appointment. He told Roosevelt why the producers in California +needed a man that they could trust to be fair to their interests +on the Commission. Roosevelt heartily concurred, and promised to +name Lane for the next vacancy. + +When the vacancy occurred, however, just after an overwhelming +Republican victory, Roosevelt impulsively gave the appointment to +an old friend--Senator Cockrill of Missouri, a Democrat. Wheeler +at once telegraphed the President reminding him of the oversight, +and to this Roosevelt telegraphed this reply:-- + +"Am exceedingly sorry, had totally forgotten my promise about Lane +and have nothing to say excepting that I had totally forgotten it +when Senator Cockrill was offered the position. I can only say now +that I shall put him in some good position suitable to his great +talents and experience when the chance occurs. Of course when I +made the promise about Lane the idea of getting Cockrill for the +position could not be in any one's head. This does not excuse me +for breaking the promise, which I should never have done, and of +course, if I had remembered it I should not have offered the +position to Cockrill. I am very sorry. But as fortunately I have +another term, I shall make ample amends to Lane later." + +In September, 1905, while matters were in this position, Lane went +to Mexico, as legal adviser for a western rubber company. In +October, Roosevelt announced his intention to place Lane on the +Interstate Commerce Commission, to fill the annual vacancy that +occurred in December. The announcement caused much newspaper +comment, especially in the more partisan Republican press, as the +coming vacancy would leave two Republicans and two Democrats on +the Commission. + +When Lane reached the United States he wrote:-- + + + +TO EDWARD B. WHITNEY + +San Francisco, November 13,1905 + +MY DEAR WHITNEY,--I have just returned from a two months' trip +through Mexico, from the Rio Grande to Guatemala, and from the +Gulf to the Pacific, and know nothing whatever concerning the +Interstate Commerce Commissionership, save what I have seen in the +papers since my return. ... I have not put myself in the position +of soliciting, either directly or indirectly, this appointment; I +have never even stimulated to a slight degree the activity ... of +my friends on my behalf. There is some misgiving in my own mind as +to whether acceptance of the position would be of benefit to me +either politically, or otherwise. I have no doubt the nomination +for Governor can be mine next year without effort, and what the +outcome of an election would be in 1906, even in a Republican +State, is not now to be prophesied, in view of the somersaults in +Ohio and Pennsylvania of a week ago. Of course, ... it is a great +opportunity to prove or disprove the capacity of this government +to control effectively the corporations which seem determined to +be its master. + +It does look to me as if the problem of our generation is to be +the discovery of some effective method by which the artificial +persons whom we have created by law can be taught that they are +not the creators, the owners, and the rightful managers of the +government. The real greatness of the President's policy, to my +notion, is that he has determined to prove to the railroads that +they have not the whole works, and the policy that they have +followed is as short-sighted as it can be. It will lead, if +pursued as it has been begun, to the wildest kind of a craze for +government ownership of everything. Just as you people in New York +City were forced, by the delinquency and corruption of the gas +combine, to undertake the organization of a municipal ownership +movement, so it may be that the same qualities in the railroads +will create precisely the same spirit throughout the country. + +I appreciate thoroughly your position in New York. ... [Hearst] +knows public sentiment and how to develop it very well, and will +be a danger in the United States, I am afraid, for many years to +come. He has great capacity for disorganization of any movement +that is not his own, and an equal capacity for organization of any +movement that is his personal property. He feels with the people, +but he has no conscience. ... He is willing to do whatever for the +minute the people may want done and give them what they cry for, +unrestrained by sense of justice, or of ultimate effect. He is the +great American Pander. + +Reverting again to the Interstate Commerce Commissionership, I +think the railroads here are determined that no Pacific Coast man +shall be appointed. That has been the policy of the Southern +Pacific since the creation of the Commission. ... + +One of the amusing reports that has come to me is that the +railroad feels friendly toward me. I think probably the extent of +their friendliness is in acknowledging that I am not a +blackmailer. They know that I would not hold them up, just as well +as they know that I could not be held up. In the various campaigns +that I have made, it has never been suggested that the railroads +had any more influence with me than they ought to have, or that +anybody else had, and in my fight for the Governorship they did +not contribute so much as a single postcard, nor did an individual +railroad man contribute a dollar to the campaign fund. I +say this because I heard yesterday that word had gone to the +President that I was something of a railroad man, which is about +the most amusing thing that I have heard for sometime. The charge +never was made in any of my five campaigns, and certainly is made +only for foreign consumption, end not for home consumption. + +Do not in any way put yourself out regarding this matter. I am +satisfied that the President will do just what he wants to do and +just what he thinks right, without much respect to what anybody +says to him, and I don't want to bring pressure to bear upon him; +but, of course, I want him to know that I have friends who think +well of me. I am very appreciative of your offer and efforts, and +hope that, whether I am given this position or not, I shall before +very long have the opportunity of seeing you in New York. Very +sincerely, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + +TO HON. THEODORE ROOSEVELT THE WHITE HOUSE + +San Francisco, December 9, [1905] + +MY DEAR MR. PRESIDENT,--I have not written you before because of +my expectation that I would see you soon, but as there now seems +some doubt as to immediate confirmation I will not longer delay +expressing the deep gratification which the nomination gave me. +You gave the one answer I could have wished to the whispered +charge that I was bound by obligation of some sort to the +railroads--a charge never made in any form here, not even in the +hottest of my five campaigns. My honor stood pledged to you--by +the very fact of my willingness to accept the post--that I was +free, independent, self-owned, capable of unbiased action. And +that pledge remains. + +As to my confirmation, it has been suggested that it was the +customary and expected thing for me to go to Washington and help +in the fight. This I feel I should not do and have so written to +Senator Perkins and others. I do not wish to appear indifferent in +the slightest degree to the honor you have done me, or to the +office itself, but I feel that you will appreciate without my +setting them forth on paper the many reasons which hold me here. +This is no time for an Interstate Commerce Commissioner to be on +his knees before a United States Senator or to be thought to be in +that position. Very respectfully yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + +To Benjamin Ide Wheeler President, University of California + +San Francisco, December 15, 1905 + +MY DEAR MR. WHEELER,--I enclose copy of a letter sent this morning +to Mr. Smythe of San Diego, who is temporarily with Senator +Newlands in Washington. + +I wanted to tell you last night that I had written to the +President thanking him for the confidence he had shown in me, and +telling him that I did not think it was the right thing for me to +go to Washington under present circumstances. He may have a +different notion in this respect, and of course I should be guided +by his judgment ... I have no doubt that many of the Senators +would be quite willing to let the President have the law if they +could have the Commission ... + +Personally I should be most pleased to meet these critical +gentlemen of the Senate and give them a very full account of my +eventful career. But the fact that I am a Democrat could not be +disproved by my presence in Washington, and I am not likely to +apologize for what one of my kindly Republican critics calls "this +error of his boyhood." I am concerned in this matter because I do +not wish to cause the President any embarrassment. He is fighting +for far larger things than this appointment represents. He knows +his own game, and I am quite willing to stand on a side line and +see him play it to a finish, or get in and buck the center if I am +needed. I must apologize for troubling you with this matter, but I +do not wish you to regard me as indifferent or unappreciative. And +if you think that I am too far up in the clouds I want you frankly +to tell me so. Sincerely yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + +To William E. Smythe + +San Francisco, December 15,1905 + +MY DEAR MR. SMYTHE,--I have been out of town for a few days, else +I would have acknowledged your kind letter of congratulation +sooner. I sent a note the other day to our friend Senator Newlands +in recognition of the effort he has been making to secure action +upon my appointment, and I certainly regard myself as very +fortunate in having one who knows me upon that Committee. +[Footnote: The Interstate Commerce Committee.] + +According to the press despatches here I am regarded as something +of a monster by the more conservative Senators, a sort of cross +between Dennis Kearney and Eugene Debs with a little of Herr Most +thrown in ... I wish for confirmation, but not at the price of +having it thought that I in any way compromised myself to obtain +the Senate's favorable action. I know that you are not alone in +this view as to the wisdom of my going on, for I have received +other messages to the same effect. But, as you know, the President +made this appointment upon grounds quite superior to those of +political expediency and upon recommendations not at all political +in their nature ... Very truly yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + +To John H. Wigmore + +San Francisco, December 21, [1905] + +MY DEAR WIGMORE,--Your letter bore good fruit ... As for +confirmation it is not as likely as I could wish. However, I am +enjoying the situation hugely, and if the fight is kept up I may +enlarge into a national issue. + +The Press of California (notice the respectful capital) is +practically a unit for me ... My information is that the President +will stand pat. But the fight with the Senate is growing so large +that no one can tell what will happen. I have been urged to go to +Washington and meet the Senators, but I have refused. ... Am I not +right? + +Remember me very kindly to your wife, and to you both a Merry +Christmas. As always yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + +To Benjamin Ide Wheeler President, University of California + +San Francisco, December 22, [1905] + +MY DEAR MR. WHEELER,--It was mighty good of you to bring me that +message of good cheer last night. I have not told you, and cannot +now tell you the very great pleasure and gratification you have +given me by the many evidences of your personal friendship. To me +it is better to have that kind of friendship than any office. + +I have just received a letter from the President [Roosevelt] that +is so fine I want you to know of it at once--but the original I +keep for home use. Here it is:-- + +"... I thank you for your frank and manly letter. It is just the +kind of a letter I should have expected from you. You are +absolutely right in refraining from coming here. I shall make and +am making as stiff a fight as I know how for you. I think I shall +carry you through; but of course nothing of this kind is ever +certain. ..." + +Please remember me most kindly to Mrs. Wheeler and believe me +always, faithfully yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + +The California earthquake, of April 18, 1906, occurred at about +five o'clock in the morning. Lane was living in North Berkeley, +across the bay from San Francisco. His house built of light wood +and shingles, rocked, and his chimneys flung down bricks, in the +successive shocks, but with no serious damage. Meanwhile San +Francisco sprang into flames from hundreds of broken gas mains. +Lane reached the city early in the morning, and was at once put, +by the Mayor, upon the Committee of Fifty to look to the safety of +the City. + +Will Irwin wrote this picturesque story of the episode after +having heard his friend describe this adventure:-- + +"Lane has said since that, although he was brought up in the old +West, his was a city life after all. He had never tested himself +against primitive physical force, tried himself out in an +emergency, and he had always longed for such a test before he +died. When the test came it was a supreme one: the San Francisco +disaster. ... + +"On the last day but one of this visitation the fire, smoldering +slowly in the redwood houses, had taken virtually all the district +east of Van Ness Avenue, a broad street which bisects the +residence quarter. ... By this time the authorities had given up +dynamiting. Chief Sullivan, the one man among them who understood +the use of explosives in fire fighting, was dead. The work had +been done by soldiers from the Presidio, who blew up buildings too +close to the flames and so only scattered them. Lane stood on the +slope of Russian Hill, watching the fire approach Van Ness Avenue, +when a contractor named Anderson came along. 'That fire always +catches at the eaves, not the foundations,' said Lane. 'It could +be stopped right here if some one would dynamite all the block +beyond Van Ness Avenue. It could never jump across a strip so +broad.' 'But they've forbidden any more dynamiting,' said +Anderson. 'Never mind; I'd take the chance myself if we could get +any explosive,' replied Lane. 'Well, there's a launch full of +dynamite from Contra Costa County lying right now at Meigs's +Wharf,' said Anderson. Just then Mr. and Mrs. Tom Magee arrived, +driving an automobile on the wheel rims. Lane despatched them to +Meigs's Wharf for the dynamite. He and Anderson found an electric +battery, and cut some dangling wires from a telephone pole. By +this time the Magees were back, the machine loaded with dynamite; +Mrs. Magee carrying a box of detonators on her lap. Lane, +Anderson, and a corps of volunteers laid the battery and strung +the wires. 'How do you want this house to fall?' asked Anderson, +who understands explosives. 'Send her straight up,' replied Lane. + +"'And I've never forgotten the picture which followed,' Lane has +told me since. 'Anderson disappeared inside, came out, and said: +"All ready." I joined the two ends of wire which I held in my +hands. The house rose twenty feet in the air--intact, mind you! It +looked like a scene in a fairy book. At that point I rolled over +on my back, and when I got up the house was nothing but dust and +splinters.' + +"They went down the line, blowing up houses, schools, churches. +Then came bad news. To the south sparks were catching on the eaves +of the houses. Down there was a little water in cisterns. +Volunteers under Lane's direction made the householders stretch +wet blankets over the roofs and eaves. Then again bad news from +the north. There the fire had really crossed the avenue. It +threatened the Western Addition, the best residence district. The +cause seemed lost. Lane ran up and looked over the situation. Only +a few houses were afire, and the slow-burning redwood was +smoldering but feebly. 'Just a little water would stop this!' he +thought. The whole water system of San Francisco was gone, or +supposedly so, through the breaking of the mains. 'But I had a +hunch, just a hunch,' said Lane, 'that there was water somewhere +in the pipes.' He had learned that a fire company which had given +up the fight was asleep on a haystack somewhere in the Western +Addition. He went out and found them. They had been working for +thirty-six hours; they lay like dead men. Lane kicked the soles of +the nearest fireman. He returned only a grunt. The next fireman, +however, woke up; Lane managed to get him enthusiastic. He found a +wrench, and together he and Lane went from hydrant to hydrant, +turning on the cocks. The first five or six gave only a faint +spurt and ceased to flow. Then, and just when the fireman was +getting ready to go on strike, they turned a cock no more +promising than the others, and out spurted a full head of water. +No one knows to this day where that water came from, but it was +there! They shut off the stream. 'It will take three engines to +pump it to that blaze,' said the fireman. He, Lane, and Anderson +scattered in opposite directions looking for engines. When twenty +minutes later, Lane returned with an engine and company two others +had already arrived. But they had not yet coupled the hose up. The +companies were quarreling as to which, under the rules of the +department, should have the position of honor close to the +hydrant! Lane settled that question of etiquette with speed and +force. They got a stream on the incipient fire, and the water held +out. The other side of Van Ness Avenue gradually burned out and +settled down into red coals. The Western Addition was saved, and +the San Francisco disaster was over." + +A few days later Lane started to Washington in an attempt to raise +money for the rebuilding of San Francisco. When he found that +Congress would not act in this matter, he, with Senator Newlands, +of Nevada, and some others, went to the President and the +Secretary of the Treasury to see if Federal help could be secured +for the ruined city. + + + +To William R. Wheeler + +New York, June 23, [1906] + +MY DEAR WILL,--I have just returned from Washington, where I hope +we have accomplished some good for San Francisco, although it was +mighty hard to move anyone except the President and the Secretary +of the Treasury. But I did not intend to write of anything but +your personal affairs. Yesterday, on the train, I discovered that +you had met with another fire. This is rubbing it in, hitting a +man when he is down. The Gods don't fight fair. The decent rules +of the Marquis of Queensberry seem to have no recognition on +Olympus, or wherever the Gods live. I can quite appreciate the +strain you are under and the monumental difficulties of your +situation, dealing as you are with dispirited old men and +indifferent young ones, I hope this last blow will have some +benefit which I cannot now perceive, else it must come like almost +a knock-out to the concern. Brave, strong, bully old boy, no one +knows better than I do what a fight you have been making these +last few years and how many unkindnesses fortune has done you. +There is not much use either in preaching to one's self or to +another, the advantages of adversity. I don't believe that men are +made by fighting relentless Fate, the stuff they have is sometimes +proved by struggle,--that is the best that can be said for such +philosophy. + +More power to you my dear fellow! I took occasion to give M ... a +warm dose of Bill Wheeler. He is an old sour-ball who thinks he is +alive but evidently has been in the cemetery a long time. He +talked all right about you, but all wrong about San Francisco ... + +Give my regards to the dear wife whose heart is stout enough to +meet any calamity, and remember me most warmly to the Boy. +Sincerely and affectionately yours, FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + +The Hepburn Bill provided for seven men on the Interstate Commerce +Commission, instead of five. Roosevelt intimated that he would +appoint two Republicans. All opposition to Lane was then +withdrawn. + + + +To John H. Wigmore + +New York, June 27, [1906] + +MY DEAR WIGMORE,--Thanks, and again thanks, for your letter to +Senator Cullom and yours to me. It looks now as if with a seven +man Commission the objection to my Democracy would cease. Senator +Cullom's letter is very reassuring, and I wish that I had met him +when in Washington. ... + +Before another week this business of mine will have come to a +head, and I hope soon after to start West, via Chicago. + +If the report to-day is true that Harlan of Chicago is to go on +the Commission, you will have two friends on the body. I +personally think most highly of Harlan and would be mighty proud +to sit beside him. His political fortune seems to have been akin +to mine, and we have one dear and cherished enemy in common. + +Remember me most kindly to your wife and believe me, faithfully +yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + +Telegram. To John H. Wigmore + +New York, June 30, [1906] + +Confirmation has to-day arrived thanks to a friend or two like +Wigmore. + +LANE + + + +To William R. Wheeler + +Washington, July 2, [1906] + +MY DEAR BILL,--I have waited until this minute to write you, that +I might send you the first greeting from the new office. I have +just been sworn in and signed the oath, and to you I turn first to +express gratitude, appreciation, and affection. + +My hope is to leave here tomorrow and go to Chicago at once on +your affair, and then West. + +Remember me most affectionately to your wife, and believe me +always most faithfully yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + +At the same time an affectionate letter of appreciation went to +Benjamin Ide Wheeler. + + + + + +IV + +RAILROAD AND NATIONAL POLICIES + +1906-1912 + +Increased powers of Interstate Commerce Commission--Harriman +Inquiry--Railroad Regulation--Letters to Roosevelt + + +During the late summer of 1906, Lane was in Washington or +traveling through the South and West to attend the hearings of the +Interstate Commerce Commission. The Hepburn Act of 1906, among +other extensions of power to the Commission, brought the express +companies of the United States under its jurisdiction, and the +Commission began the close investigation into the rates, rules, +and practises, that finally resulted in a complete reorganization +and zoning of the companies. The new powers given the Commission, +by this Act, inspired fresh hope of righting old abuses, +associated with railroad finance, over-capitalization and stock- +jobbing. The Commission set itself to finding a way out of the +ancient quarrel between shippers and railroads in the matters of +rebating and demurrage charges. + +In the latter part of the year, President Roosevelt called an +important meeting at the White House, for the purpose of deciding +whether an inquiry should not be made into the merging of the +Western railroads, then under the control of E. H. Harriman. Elihu +Root, then Secretary of State; William H. Taft, Secretary of War; +Charles Bonaparte, Attorney General, were present; Chairman Martin +A. Knapp and Franklin K. Lane of the Interstate Commerce +Commission, and the special Counsel for the Commission--Frank B. +Kellogg. The matter of the proposed inquiry was discussed, each +man being asked, in turn, to express his opinion. Root and Knapp +were not in favor of beginning an investigation of the railroad +merger, Bonaparte, Kellogg, and Lane favored an immediate inquiry. +Lane declared that, in a few weeks, when the report of the +Interstate Commerce Commission was published, it would be +impossible to avoid making the inquiry. + +At this point, President Roosevelt turned to William H. Taft, who +as yet had expressed no opinion, saying, "Will, what do you think +of this?" Mr. Taft said quietly, "It's right, isn't it? Well, damn +it, do it then." And the plans for the famous Harriman Inquiry, +the first real step taken toward curbing the power of public +utilities, were then taken under consideration. + +During the inquiry, when E. H. Harriman was on the stand for +hours, the Commissioners trying to extract, by round-about +questioning, the admission from him that he would like to extend +his control over the railroads of the country, Lane, who had been +silent for some time, suddenly turned and asked Harriman the +direct question. What would he do with all the roads in the +country, if he had the power? With equal candor and simplicity, +Harriman replied that he would consolidate them under his own +management. This answer rang through the country. + + + +TO EDWARD F. ADAMS + +Washington, February 16, 1907 + +MY DEAR ADAMS,-- ... I think the standpoint taken by our railroad +friends in 1882 is that which possesses their souls to-day. I am +conscious each time I ask a question that there is deep resentment +in the heart of the railroad official at being compelled to +answer, but that he is compelled to, he recognizes. The operating +and traffic officials of the railroads are having a very hard time +these days with the law departments. They can not understand why +the law department advises them to give the information we demand, +and I have heard of some most lively conferences in which the +counsel of the companies were blackguarded heartily for being +cowards, in not fighting the Commission. You certainly took +advanced ground in 1882, ... --there can be no such thing as a +business secret in a quasi-public corporation. ... Very truly +yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + +TO BENJAMIN IDE WHEELER PRESIDENT, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA + +Washington, March 31,1907 + +MY DEAR MR. WHEELER,-- ... I have taken the liberty of giving Mr. +Aladyin, leader of the Group of Toil in the Russian Duma, a note +of introduction. He's an immensely interesting young man, a fine +speaker and comes from plain, peasant stock. He will talk to your +boys if you ask him. During these days of panic in Wall Street the +President [Roosevelt] has called me in often and shown in many +ways that he in no way regrets the appointment you urged. I have +been much interested in studying him in time of stress. He is one +of the most resolute of men and at the same time entirely and +altogether reasonable. No man I know is more willing to take +suggestion. No one leads him, not even Root, but no one need fear +to give suggestion. He lives up to his legend, so far as I can +discover, and that's a big order. The railroad men who are wise +will rush to the support of the policies he will urge before the +next Congress, or they will have national ownership to face as an +immediate issue, or a character of regulation that they will +regard as intolerable. + +You will be here again soon and I hope that you will come directly +to our house and give us the pleasure of a genuine visit. ... +Sincerely yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + +TO ELIHU ROOT + +Washington, February 14, 1908 + +My DEAR MR. SECRETARY,--I have lately been engaged in writing an +opinion upon the jurisdiction of the Interstate Commerce +Commission over ocean carriers engaged in foreign commerce, and it +has occurred to me that an extensive American merchant marine +might be developed by some legislation which would permit American +ships to enjoy preferential through routes in conjunction with our +railroad systems. The present Interstate Commerce Law, as I +interpret it, gives to the Commission jurisdiction over carriers +to the seaboard. It is the assumption of the law that rates will +be made to and from the American ports and that at such ports all +ships may equally compete for foreign cargo. + +Might it not be possible to extend the jurisdiction of the +Commission over all American vessels engaged in foreign trade, and +with such ships alone--they alone being fully amenable to our law +--permit the railroad which carries to the port to make through +joint rates to the foreign point of destination? There is so vast +a volume of this through traffic that the preference which could +thus be given to the American ship would act as a most substantial +subsidy. There may be objections to this suggestion arising either +out of national or international policy which render it unworthy +of further consideration. It has appealed to me, however, as +possibly containing the germ of what Mr. Webster would have termed +a "respectable idea." Faithfully yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + +TO E. B. BEARD + +Washington, December 19, 1908 + +MY DEAR MR. BEARD,--I have not seen the article in the CALL, to +which you refer, but have heard of it from a couple of +Californians, much to my distress. Of course I appreciate that at +a time of strain such as that which you shippers and business men +of California are now undergoing, it is to be expected that the +most conservative language will not be used. ... The trouble is +with the law. ... It is only upon complaint that an order can be +made reducing a rate, and I understand that such complaints are at +present being drafted in San Francisco and will in time come +before us but such matters cannot be brought to issue in a week +nor heard in a day, and when I tell you that we have on hand four +hundred cases, at the present time, you will appreciate how great +the volume of our work is, and that you are not alone in your +feeling of indignation or of distress. If you will examine the +docket of the Commission, you will find that the cases of the +Pacific Coast have been taken care of more promptly within the +last two years than the cases in any other part of the United +States. I have seen to this myself, because of the long neglect of +that part of the country. ... + +I want to speak one direct personal word to you. You are now +protesting against increased rates. I have outlined to you the +only remedy [a change in the law] that I see available against the +continuance of just such a policy on the part of the railroads, +and I think it might be well for you to see that the Senators and +Representatives from California support this legislation. It is +not calculated in any way to do injustice or injury to the +railroads. ... This is a plan which I have proposed myself, and +for which I have secured the endorsement of the Commission. The +San Francisco Chamber of Commerce has endorsed it. The whole +Pacific Coast should follow suit enthusiastically. + +Please remember that I am not the Commissioner from California; +that I am a Commissioner for the United States; and that it is not +my business to fight the railroads, but to hear impartially what +both sides may have to say and be as entirely fair with the +railroads as with the shippers. I am flattered to know that the +railroad men of the United States do not regard me as a deadhead +on this Commission. My aggressiveness on behalf of the shipping +public has brought upon my head much criticism, and it would be +the greatest satisfaction for those who have been prosecuted for +rebating or discovered in illegal practises to feel that they were +able in any degree to raise in the minds of the shippers any +question of my loyalty to duty. + +I expect to be in California during January, for a few days, and +hope that I may see you at that time. Very sincerely yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + +TO GEORGE W. LANE + +Washington, February 13, 1909 + +MY DEAR GEORGE,--... I suppose you haven't seen my interview on +the Japanese question. I gave it at the request of the President +[Roosevelt], because he said that the Republican Senators and +Congressmen would not stand by him if it was going to be a +partisan question in California politics. So I said that I would +give the value of my name and influence to the support of his +policy, so that Flint, Kahn, ET AL., could quote me as against any +attack by the Democrats. The President has done great work for the +Coast. Congress never would have done anything at this time, and +by the time it is willing to do something the problem will +practically be solved. I am expecting to be roasted somewhat, in +California, but I felt that it was only right to stand by the man +who was really making our fight without any real backing from the +East, and without many friends on the Pacific--so far as the +"pollies" are concerned. + +... The Harriman crowd seems to think that they will all be on +good terms with Taft, but unless I'm mistaken in the man they will +be greatly fooled. ... + +Have you noticed that nice point of constitutional law, dug up by +a newspaper reporter, which renders Knox ineligible as Secretary +of State? He voted for an increase in the salary of the Secretary +of State three years ago. They will try to avoid the effect of the +constitutional inhibition by repealing the act increasing the +salary. Technically this won't do Knox any good, altho' it will +probably be upheld by the Courts, if the matter is ever taken into +the Courts. + +Roosevelt is very nervous these days but as he said to me the +other day, "They know that I am President right up to March +fourth." I took Ned and Nancy to see him and he treated them most +beautifully. Gave Ned a pair of boar tusks from the Philippines +and told him a story about the boar ripping up a man's leg just +before he was shot, and to them both he gave a personal card. + +F. K. L. + +With this letter he sent a copy of a verse written by his +daughter, not yet seven. + + "On through the night as the willows go weeping + The daffodils sigh, + As the wind sweeps by + Right through the sky." + +TO CHARLES K. MCCLATCHY SACRAMENTO BEE + +Washington, March 20, 1909 + +My Dear McClatchy,--I am just in receipt of your letter of March +15th, with reference to my running for Governor next year. + +There is nothing in this rumor whatever. I have been approached by +a good many people on this matter, and perhaps I have not said as +definitely as I should that I had no expectation of re-entering +California politics. When I was last in California some of my +friends pointed out to me the great opening there would be for me +if I would become a Republican and lead the Lincoln-Roosevelt +people. There does not seem to be any line of demarcation between +a Democrat and a Republican these days, so that such a change +would not in itself be an act of suicide. My own personal belief +is that the organization in California on the Republican side +could be rather easily beaten, and we could do with California +what La Follette did with Wisconsin. But I am trying not to think +of politics, and I told those people who came to me that I thought +my line of work for the next few years was fixed. + +... No one yet knows from Mr. Taft's line of policy what kind of a +President he will make. Everybody is giving him the benefit of the +doubt. The thing, I find, that hangs over all Presidents and other +public men here to terrify them is the fear of bad times. The +greatness of Roosevelt lay, in a sense, in his recklessness. These +people undoubtedly have the power to bring on panics whenever they +want to and to depress business, and they will exercise that power +as against any administration that does not play their game, and +the "money power," as we used to call it, allows the President and +Congress a certain scope--a field within which it may move but if +it goes outside that field and follows policies or demands +measures which interfere with the game as played by the high +financiers, they do not hesitate to use their "big stick," which +is the threat of business depression. ... + +There are a lot of things to be done in our State yet before we +both pass out. ... As always, very truly yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + +TO LAWRENCE F. ABBOTT OUTLOOK + +Washington, September 22, 1909 + +MY DEAR ABBOTT,-- ... President Taft's suggestion of a Commerce +Court is a very sensible one. We suggested the institution of such +a Court some years ago, so that the question of nullifying our +order will be brought up before men who have special experience. +... The trouble with the Courts is that they know nothing about +the question. Fundamentally it is not ... law but economics that +we deal with. The fixing of a rate is a matter of politics. That +is the reason why I have always held that the traffic manager is +the most potent of our statesmen. So that we should have a Court +that will pass really upon the one question of confiscation--the +constitutionality of the rates fixed--and leave experienced men +to deal with the economic questions. ... + +I have long wanted to see you and have a talk about our work. At +times it is rather disheartening. The problem is vast, and we pass +few milestones. The one great accomplishment of the Commission, I +think, in the last three years, has been the enforcement of the +law as against rebating. We have a small force now that is used in +this connection under my personal direction, and I think the +greatest contribution that we have made, perhaps, to the railroads +has been during the time of panic when they were kept from cutting +rates directly or indirectly and throwing each other into the +hands of receivers. + +The great volume of our complaints comes from the territory west +of the Mississippi River and practically all of the larger cities +in the inter-mountain country have complaints pending before us +attacking the reasonableness of the rates charged them, and it is +to give consideration to these that the Commission, as a body, +goes West the first of the month. ... + +I have just returned from a trip to Europe, and I find that what I +said two or three years ago about the United States being the most +Conservative of the civilized countries is absolutely true. + +By the way, at the Sorbonne at Paris they are exhibiting the chair +in which President Roosevelt will sit when he comes to deliver his +address and I am thinking that he will have quite as hearty a +reception in Paris as in any of our cities. + +Very truly yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + +TO JOHN H. WIGMORE + +Washington, December 3, 1909 + +MY DEAR DOCTOR,--... I think there is but little doubt that De +Vries will receive the appointment, though of course everything +here is in absolute chaos. ... The best symptom in my own case is +that I have been called in twice to consult over proposed +amendments to the law, and the President's [Taft's] reference +thereto in his forthcoming message. He seems to think my judgment +worth something--more than I do myself, in fact--for down in my +heart, though I do not let anybody see it, I am really a modest +creature. + +Since my return from the West we have had one merry round of +sickness in the house ... but all are on their feet once more and +as gay as they can be with a more or less grumpy head of the +household in the neighborhood, (assuming for the nonce that I am +the head of the household). + +The President is going to appoint Lurton. [Footnote: To the +Supreme Bench.] He should have said so when he made up his mind to +do it, which was immediately after Peckham's death. He would have +saved himself an immense amount of trouble. Lurton seems to have +been very hostile to the Interstate Commerce Commission, and is +too old, but otherwise I hear nothing said against him. I really +would like to see Bowers put on the bench very much. He has made a +very favorable impression here, and is a clear lawyer, a very +strong man, and in sympathy with Federal control that's real. + +By the way, I had a talk the other day with Attorney General +Wickersham regarding the treatment of criminals, and I believe you +can secure through him the initiation of an enlightened policy in +this matter. He told me that he was going to make some +recommendations in his report, and perhaps the President may deal +with the matter slightly in his message. Wickersham is a +thoroughly modern proposition, and as he has charge of all the +penitentiaries, and his recommendations, with relation to parole +and such things, absolutely go with the President, I believe you +could do more good in an hour's talk with him than you could +effect in a year otherwise. If you could run down, during the +holiday vacation, I would bring you two together for a talk on +this matter, and you, also, might take up the very live question +with the President of cutting off red-tape in the courts. Give my +love to Mrs. Wigmore, and tell her, too, that we would be most +delighted to see her here. Faithfully yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + +On December 9,1909, President Taft reappointed Franklin K. Lane as +a member of the Interstate Commerce Commission. + + + +TO MRS. FRANKLIN K. LANE + +En route to California, Monday, March [1910] + +... I have spent a rather pleasant day reading, and looking at +this great desert of New Mexico and Arizona. No one on board that +I know or care to know, but the big sky and my books keep me busy. +Do you remember that picture in the Corcoran Gallery with a wee +line of land at the bottom and a great high reach of blue sky +above, covering nine-tenths of the canvas? I have thought of it +often to-day--"the high, irrepressible sky." It is moonlight and +the rare air gives physical tone, so that I feel a bit more like +myself, as was, than is ordinary. ... + +I have thought of a lecture to-day and you must keep this letter +as a reminder and make me do it one of these days: THE PROBLEMS OF +RAILROAD REGULATION. THE TRAFFIC MANAGER AS A STATESMAN: THE +UNEARNED INCREMENT OF OUR RAILROADS. + +And another: THE NEED OF A WORLD BANK: INTERNATIONAL AND +INDEPENDENT FINANCIAL AUTHORITY, which shall fix standards of +value, based on no one metal or commodity, but on a great number +of staples. + +I have thought much of the farm. It will be so far away and so +impracticable of use! But such an anchor to windward, for two most +hand-to-mouth spendthrifts! ... + + + +TO THEODORE ROOSEVELT + +Washington, April 29, 1910 + +MY DEAR MR. ROOSEVELT,--Mr. Kellogg tells me that he expects to +see you in Europe, and I avail myself of his offer to carry a word +of welcome to you, inasmuch as I must leave for Europe the day +after your arrival in New York, the President having appointed me +as a delegate to the International Railway Congress at Berne. + +The country is awaiting you anxiously--not out of mere curiosity +to know what your attitude will be, but to lead it, to give it +direction. The public opinion which you developed in favor of the +"square deal" is stronger to-day than when you left, and your +personal following is larger to-day than it ever has been. There +is no feeling (or if there is any it is negligible) that the +President [Taft] has been consciously disloyal to the policies +which you inaugurated or to his public promises. He is patriotic, +conscientious, and lovable. This was your own view as expressed to +me, and this view has been confirmed by my personal experience +with him. It is also, I believe, the judgment of the country at +large. But the people do not feel that they control the government +or that their interests will be safeguarded by a relationship that +is purely diplomatic between the White House and Congress. In +short we have a new consciousness of Democracy, largely resulting +from your administration, and it is such that the character of +government which satisfied the people of twenty years ago is found +lacking to-day. Practically all the criticism to which this +administration has been subjected arises out of the feeling of the +people that their opinions and desires are not sufficiently +consulted, and they are suspicious of everything and everybody +that is not open and frank with them. + +Outside of a few of the larger states the entire country is +insurgent, and insurgency means revolt against taking orders. The +prospect is that the next House will be Democratic, but the +Democrats apparently lack a realization of the many new problems +upon which the country is divided. Their success would not +indicate the acceptance of any positive program of legislation; it +would be a vote of lack of confidence in the Republican party +because it has allowed apparent party interest to rise superior to +public good. The prospect is that every measure which Congress +will pass at this session will be wise and in line with your +policies, but the people do not feel that THEY are passing the +bills. + +I have presumed to say this much, thinking that perhaps you would +regard my opinion as entirely unbiased, and in the hope that I +might throw some light upon what I regard as the fundamental +trouble which has to be dealt with. Whether you choose to re-enter +political life or not, men of all parties desire your leadership +and will accept your advice as they will that of none other. + +Pardon me for this typewriting, but I thought that you might +prefer a letter in this form which you could read to one in my own +hand which you could not read. Believe me, as always, faithfully +yours. + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + +From Berlin, Lane received from Theodore Roosevelt, dated May 13, +1910, these lines,-- + +" ... I think your letter most interesting. As far as I can judge +you have about sized up the situation right. With hearty good +wishes, faithfully yours, + +THEODORE ROOSEVELT + + + +TO JOHN H. WIGMORE + +Washington, March 2, 1911 + +MY DEAR JOHN,--No other letter that I have received has done me as +much good or given me as much pleasure, or has been as much of a +stimulus, as has yours. The fact that you took the time to go +through the REPORT so carefully is an evidence of a friendship +that is beyond all price, and of which I feel most unworthy. I +have had the figures checked over, resulting in some slight +changes, and will send you a revised copy as soon as it is +printed. The newspaper criticisms are generally very friendly, +although the FINANCIAL CHRONICLE, the WALL STREET JOURNAL, and +other railway organs are extremely bitter. The Western papers do +not seem to have been very much elated over the decision. It has +appeared to me from the beginning as if they had been "fixed" in +advance and that their reports were always biased for the +railroads, but the country at large will realize, I think, before +long, that the decisions are sound, sensible, and in the public +interest. Some of the least narrow of the railroad men also take +this view. The best editorial I have seen is in the New York +EVENING POST. Sincerely yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + +P. S. I got this note from Roosevelt this morning, headed THE +OUTLOOK:-- + +"Fine! I am really greatly obliged to you, and I shall read the +REPORT with genuine interest. More power to your elbow! Faithfully +yours." + +"This report was known," Commissioner Harlan explains, "as the +Western Advance Rate Case. It was one of the first of the great +cases covering many commodities and applying over largely extended +territories. In his opinion denying the rate advances proposed by +the carriers, Commissioner Lane discussed the Commission's new +powers of suspending the operation of increased rates pending +investigation and the burden of proof in such cases. He marshalled +a vast array of facts and figures and announced conclusions that +were accepted as convincing by the public at large. He then +pointed out that the laws enforced by the Commission sought +dominion over private capital for no other purpose than to secure +the public against injustice and thereby make capital itself more +secure." + + + +TO WILLIAM R. WHEELER TRAFFIC BUREAU, MERCHANTS' EXCHANGE SAN +FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA + +Washington, June 27, 1911 + +DEAR SIR,--Adverting to yours of June 22, IN RE express rates, I +beg to advise that nothing can be added to my previous letter +unless it is the expression of my personal opinion that a rate +should not be made for the carriage of 20,000 pound shipments by +express. + +We are receiving daily similar complaints to yours, respecting the +nonadjustment of express rates, and if you will call at this +office we shall be pleased to reveal the reason for our failure, +hitherto, to grant the relief desired. It is extremely warm in +Washington at the present time, but if anything could add to the +disagreeableness of life in the city it is the unreasoning +insistence on the part of the traffic bureaus of the country that +express rates shall be fixed overnight. + +I desire to say that I have given some year or two of more or less +profane contemplation to this question, and have now engaged a +large corps of men, under the direction of Mr. Frank Lyon as +attorney for the Commission, to seek a way out of the inextricable +maze of express company figures. Whether we will be able to find +the light before the Infinite Hand that controls our destinies +cuts short the cord, is a question to which no certain answer can +be given. Would you kindly advise the importunate members of a +most worthy institution, that express rates to San Francisco +possess me as an obsessment. My prayer is at night interfered with +by consideration of the question--"What should the 100 pound rate +be by Wells Fargo & Co. from New York to San Francisco?" And at +night often I am aroused from sleep, feeling confident in my +dreams that the mystic figure of "a just and reasonable rate," +under Section One, on 100-pound shipments to San Francisco, had +been determined, and awaken with a joyous cry upon my lips, to +discover that life has been made still more unhappy by the torture +of the subconscious mind during sleep. + +No doubt your shippers are being treated unfairly, both by the +express companies and by the Interstate Commerce Commission. This +is a cruel world. Congress itself adds to the torture, by almost +daily referring to us some bill touching express rates or parcels +post, or some such similar service, and while the thermometer +stands at 117 degrees in the shade we are requested to advise as +to whether express companies should not be abolished. It has only +been by the exercise of a rare and unusual degree of self-control +on my part, and by long periods of prayer, that I have refrained +from advising Congress that I thought express companies should be +abolished and designating the place to which they should be +relegated. + +As perhaps you may have heard, I shall visit the Pacific Coast in +person during the next few weeks, and there I trust I may have the +pleasure of meeting you and your noble Governing Committees, to +whom I shall explain in person and in detail the difficulties +attaching to the solution of this problem. ... Sincerely yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + +TO LAWRENCE F. ABBOTT OUTLOOK + +Washington, December 4, 1911 + +MY DEAR ABBOTT,-- ... We are making history fast these days, and +at the bottom of it all lies the idea, in the minds of the +American people, that they are going to use this machine they call +the Government. For the centuries and centuries that have passed, +government has been something imposed from above, to which the +subject or citizen must submit. For the first century of our +national life this idea has held good. Now, however, the people +have grown in imagination, so that they appreciate the fact that +the government is very little more than a cooperative institution +in which there is nothing inherently sacred, excepting in so far +as it is a crystallization of general sentiment and is a good +working arrangement. And the feeling with relation to big +business, when we get down to the bottom of it, is that if men +have made these tremendous fortunes out of privileges granted by +the whole people, we can correct this by a change in our laws. +They do not object to men making any amount of money so long as +the individual makes it, but if the Government makes it for him, +that is another matter. + +I have been meeting ... with some of the committees, in Congress +and out, that are drafting bills regulating trusts, and I expect +something by no means radical as a starter. + +You ask as to leadership in both Houses. There is not much in the +Lower House that can be relied upon to do constructive work, so +far as I can discover. Our Democratic leaders all wear hobble +skirts. But in the Senate there is some very good stuff. + +I expect to be in New York in January, and then I hope to see you. +Very truly yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + +When he was running for Governor in 1902, Lane made prison reform +one of the foremost issues of his campaign. Several years later +when a movement was started petitioning the Governor to parole +Abraham Ruef, who had served a part of his term in the +penitentiary for bribery in San Francisco, Lane signed the +petition. This brought a letter of remonstrance from his friend +Charles McClatchy, editor and owner of the Sacramento Bee, who +felt that such a movement was ill-timed and not in the interest of +the public good. + + + +TO CHARLES K. MCCLATCHY SACRAMENTO BEE + +Washington, December 12, 1911 + +MY DEAR CHARLES,--I have your letter regarding the paroling of +Abraham Ruef, and, far from taking offense at what you say, I know +that it expresses the opinion of probably the great body of our +people, but I have long thought that we dealt with criminals in a +manner which tended to keep them as criminals and altogether +opposed to the interests of society. I am not sentimental on this +proposition, but I think I am sensible. We are dealing with men +convicted of crime more harshly and more unreasonably than we deal +with dogs. Our fundamental mistake is that we utterly ignore the +fact that there is such a thing as psychology. We are treating +prisoners with the methods of five hundred years ago, before +anything was known about the nature of the human mind. ... There +are, of course, certain kinds of men who should for society's sake +be kept in prison as long as they live, just as there are kinds of +insane people that should be kept in insane asylums until they +die. ... + +I think if you will get the thought into your mind that our +present penal system is Silurian and unscientific--the same to-day +as it was 10,000 years ago--you will see my stand-point. Our +penitentiaries develop criminals, they make criminals out of men +who are not criminals to begin with--boys, for instance. They +debase and degrade men. The state by its system of punishment +reaches into the heart of a man and plucks out his very soul. I am +speaking of men who are when they enter responsive to good +impulses. ... + +I thoroughly appreciate the spirit in which you have written me, +and I hope that you will get my point of view. I have known Abe +Ruef for over twenty-five years. He was a perfectly straight young +man and anxious to help in San Francisco. I do not know the +influences that turned him into the direction that he took, but I +am absolutely certain that that man has suffered mental tortures +greater than any that he would have ever suffered if he had gone +to a physical hell of fire. He may appear brave, but he is in +fact, I will warrant you, a heart-broken man, because he has +failed of realizing his own decent ideals. ... He never was my +friend, politically, socially, or otherwise, but my judgment is +that society will be better off if he is allowed the limited +freedom that a parole gives and given an opportunity to live up to +his own ideal of Abe Ruef. + +Regards to Val, your wife, and family. As always, faithfully +yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + +TO CHARLES K. MCCLATCHY SACRAMENTO BEE + +[Washington, January, 1912] + +MY DEAR CHARLES,--I have your note regarding Ruef. ... It seems to +me you have made one good point against me, and only one,--that +there are poor men in jail who ought to be paroled at the end of a +year. Very well, why not parole them? If they are men who have +been reached by public opinion and are subject to it, I see no +reason why they should be kept in jail. Every case must be dealt +with by itself and to each case should be given the same kind of +treatment that I give to Ruef. You will be advocating this thing +yourself one of these days, calling it Christian and civilized and +denouncing those who do not agree with you as being barbarians. It +may be that Ruef fooled me when he was just out of college, but I +was a member of the Municipal Reform League which John H. Wigmore, +now Dean of the Northwestern University Law School, Ruef and +myself started. It did not last very long, but I think that Ruef +was as zealous as any of us for good government. + +With many wishes for the New Year, believe me always, my dear +Charles, yours faithfully, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + +TO JOHN CRAWFORD BURNS LONDON, ENGLAND + +December 13, 1911 + +MY DEAR BURNS,--I have felt grievously hurt, at hearing from +Pfeiffer several times, that you had written him, and nary a word +to me. The idea that I should write to you when you had nothing in +the world to do but write me, never entered my head. I want you to +understand distinctly the position which you now occupy in the +minds of your friends. You are a gentleman of leisure, traveling +in Europe with an invalid wife, necessarily bored, and anxious to +meet with anything that will give you an interesting life. Under +the circumstances, you may relieve your mind at any time, of any +intellectual bile, by correspondence. ... If you wish something +serious to do, I will formally direct you to make a report upon +Railway Rates and Railway Service in Europe. This will give you +some diversion in between your attacks of religion and +architecture. + +Pfeiffer, I presume, has returned from the Far West, but so far I +have not heard from him. The last letter I got was from the +Yosemite. He seems to have been enchanted with that country. He +says there is nothing in Europe to compare with it. It is splendid +to see a fellow of his age, and with all of his learning, keep up +his enthusiasm. It seems to me that he is more appreciative and +buoyant than he was twenty years ago, and he is really very sane. +His sympathies, unlike yours, are with the present and not with +the dead past. + +You will be interested in knowing that Mr. T. Roosevelt is likely +to be the next Republican nominee for President. Within the last +six weeks it has become quite manifest that Taft cannot be +elected. ... And so you see, the whirligig of time has made +another turn. Big Business in New York is looking to Roosevelt as +a statesman who is practical. The West regards him as the champion +of the plain people. He is keeping silent, but no doubt like the +negro lady he is quite willing to be "fo'ced." + +On the Democratic side all of the forces have united to destroy +Wilson, who is the strongest man in the West. The bosses are all +against him. They recently produced an application which he had +made for a pension, under the Carnegie Endowment Fund for +Teachers, which had been allowed to lie idle, unnoticed for a year +or so after its rejection, but owing to campaign emergencies was +produced, at this happy moment, to show that Wilson wanted a +pension. As a Philadelphia poet whom you never heard of says:-- + + "Ah, what a weary travel is our act, + Here, there, and back again, to win some prize, + Those who are wise their voyage do contract + To the safe space between each others' eyes." + +This line is in keeping with my reputation as an early Victorian. +... Do write me some good long letters. You have a better literary +style than any man who ever wrote a letter to me, and I love you +for the prejudices that are yours. Give my love to your wife. As +always yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LANES + + + +TO THEODORE ROOSEVELT + +Washington, December 10, 1911 + +MY DEAR COLONEL,--I have been thinking over what I said yesterday, +and I am going to presume upon my friendship and, I may say, my +affection for you to make a suggestion: + +Even though the call comes from a united party and under +circumstances the most flattering, do not accept it unless you are +convinced of two things: (1) that you are needed from a national +standpoint and not merely from a party standpoint; (2) that you +are certain of election. + +Sacrifice for one's country is splendid, but sacrifice for one's +party is foolish. You must feel assured before acceding to the +call, which I believe will certainly come, that it is more than +party-wide, and that it is sufficiently strong to overcome the +trend toward Democratic success. If I were asked I would say that +I think both of these conditions are present--that the desire to +have you again is much broader than any party, and so large that +it would insure your victory;--but no man is as wise a judge of +these things as the man himself whose fortunes are at stake. + +Thanking you again for the pleasure of a luncheon, believe me, as +always, faithfully yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + +Roosevelt in a letter marked PRIVATE AND CONFIDENTIAL replied:-- +... "That is a really kind and friendly letter from you, and I +appreciate it. Now I agree absolutely with you that I have no +business under any circumstances to accept any such call, even in +the greatly improbable event of its coming, unless I am convinced +that the need is National, a need of the people and not merely a +need of the Party. But as for considering my own chances in any +such event, my dear fellow, I simply would not know how to go +about it. I am always credited with far more political sagacity +than I really possess. I act purely on public grounds and then +this proves often to be good policy too. I assure you with all +possible sincerity that I have not thought and am not thinking of +the nomination, and that under no circumstances would I in the +remotest degree plan to bring about my nomination. I do not want +to be President again, I am not a candidate, I have not the +slightest idea of becoming a candidate, and I do not for one +moment believe that any such condition of affairs will arise that +would make it necessary to consider me accepting the nomination. +But as for the effect upon my own personal fortunes, I would not +know how to consider it, because I would not have the vaguest idea +what the effect would be, except that according to my own view it +could not but be bad and unpleasant for me personally. From the +personal standpoint I should view the nomination to the Presidency +as a real and serious misfortune. Nothing would persuade me to +take it, unless it appeared that the people really wished me to do +a given job, which I could not honorably shirk. ..." + + + +TO SAMUEL G. BLYTHE + +Washington, January 6, 1912 + +MY DEAR SAM,--... I, too, have been reading William James. His +VARIETIES OF RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE is the only philosophic work +that I was ever able to get all the way through. This thing gave +me real delight for a week. + +Have just read Mr. John Bigelow's REMINISCENCES, or bits thereof, +and find that the aforesaid John is much like another John that we +know in this city, the fine friend of the Pan-American Bureau. He +seems to have been a dignified and solemn gentleman who carried on +correspondence with a great many men for a number of years, +without ... having indulged in a flash of humor in all his +respectable days. ... + +Will you support me for Supreme Court Justice? I see that I am +mentioned. Between us, I am entirely ineligible, having a sense of +humor. As always yours, + +LANE + + + +TO SIDNEY E. MEZES PRESIDENT, UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS + +Washington, February 15,1912 + +MY DEAR SID,--Your weather has been no worse than ours, I want you +to understand; in fact, not so bad. I think the glacial period is +returning and the ice cap is moving down from the North Pole. + +The Supreme Bench I could not get because I am a Democrat, and the +President could not afford to appoint another Democrat on the +Bench. I do not know when McKenna goes out, and I am not going to +be disturbed about it anyway. If I had not been unlucky enough to +be born in Canada I could be nominated for President this year. +Things are in a devil of a condition. We could have elected +Wilson, hands down, if it had not been for Hearst's malevolent +influence. He is at the bottom of all this deviltry. His aim is to +kill Wilson off and nominate Clark, and Clark is in the lead now, +I think. God knows whether he can beat Taft or not. It looks to me +as if Taft will be nominated. I have a feeling somehow that the +Roosevelt boom won't materialize. + +My love to the Missis and to Mr. House. As always yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + +TO JOHN H. WIGMORE + +Washington, February 19, 1912 + +MY DEAR JOHN,--For two weeks there has been standing on my desk a +most elegantly bound set of your CASES ON TORTS sent to me by +Little, Brown & Co. at your request. You do not need to be told, I +know, how much I appreciate a thing that comes from you and how +poverty stricken I am when it comes to making adequate return. I +can prove that I have been working hard, but my work does not +crystallize into anything which is worth sending to a friend. + +The fact is that I have never worked as hard in my life as I have +lately. I get to my office about nine, and without going out of my +room (for I take my lunch at my desk), stay until six, and work at +home every night until half past eleven, and then take a volume of +essays or poems to bed with me for half or three-quarters of an +hour, and so to sleep. + +If the man in the White House had as much sense as I have, he +would name you for the Supreme Bench without asking, and "draft" +you, as Roosevelt says. By the way, I gave the suggestion of +"draft" in a talk I had with him a month or so ago. + +The political situation is interesting, but altogether un-lovely. +... It looks as if Clark might be the nominee on the Democratic +side. Taft is gaining in strength, and somehow I cannot feel that +Roosevelt will ever be in it, although you know how I like him. +The situation seems a bit artificial. + +Give my love to Mrs. John. As always yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + +TO GEORGE W. LANE + +Washington, February 23, 1912 + +MY DEAR GEORGE,-- ... Yesterday I delivered an address before the +University of Virginia on A Western View of Tradition--which when +it is printed I will send out to you--and in the afternoon was +taken up to Jefferson's home, Monticello. It is on a mountain, the +top of which he scraped off. It overlooks the whole surrounding +country, most of which at that time he owned. He planned the whole +house himself, even to the remotest details, the cornices and the +carvings on the mantels, the kind of lumber of which the floors +were to be made, the character of the timbers used, the carving of +the capitals on the columns, the folding ladder that was used to +wind up the clock over the doorway, the registers on the porch +that recorded the direction in which the wind was coming, as moved +by the weather-vane on the roof, the little elevator beside the +fireplace ... and a thousand other details. + +... I would like nothing better if I had any kind of skill in +using my hands than to take a year off and build a house. It is a +real religion to create something, and you do not need a great +deal of money to make a very beautiful little place. You must have +one large room, and the house must be on some elevation, and you +must get water, water, and water. ... It is water that makes land +valuable in California or anywhere else. Affectionately yours, + +F. K. L. + + + +TO CARL SNYDER + +Washington, March 6, 1912 + +MY DEAR CARL,--I have this minute for the first time seen the copy +of COLLIER'S, for February 24, 1912, and therefore for the first +time my eyes lighted upon your most delicious roast of the +Commerce Court. ... + +I do not know what the outcome of this movement will be. The only +settled policy of government is inertia. The House of +Representatives Committee on Appropriations, I believe, proposes +to abolish the appropriation for the Court, which looks like a +cowardly way to get at the thing, but perhaps it is most +effective. However, I really doubt if they will have the nerve to +do this. It is a mighty critical year, I think, in our history. It +looks to me as if the reactionaries were going to get possession +of both parties, and that a third party will be needed and nobody +will have the nerve to start it. Roosevelt has got everything west +of the Mississippi excepting Utah and Wyoming, in my judgment. +That he will be able to get the nomination I am not so sure; but +he does not care a tinker's damn whether he gets it himself or +not. That is the worst of it because the people won't give +anything to a man that he does not want. ... Well, we are living +in mighty interesting times anyway. + +As always yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + +On February 22, 1912, Lane delivered the annual address at the +University of Virginia. He spoke on American Tradition, saying +that as Americans are physically, industrially, and socially the +"heirs of all the ages" our supreme tradition is a "hatred of +injustice." That one of the great experiments that a Democracy +should make is to find a more equitable distribution of wealth +"without destroying individual initiative or blasting individual +capacity and imagination." This address brought a letter from +Oliver Wendell Holmes, Justice of the Supreme Court. + + + +TO FRANKLIN K. LANE + +March 17, 1912 + +MY DEAR SIR,--Let me thank you at once for your Virginia address, +which I have just received and just read--read with the greatest +pleasure. I admire its eloquence, its imagination, its style. I +sympathize with its attitude and with most of its implications. I +gain heart from its tone of hope. I am old--by the calendar at +least--and at times am more melancholy, so that it does me good to +hear the note of courage. One implication may carry conclusions to +which I think I ought to note my disagreement,--the reference to +unequal distribution. I think the prevailing fallacy is to +confound ownership with consumption of products. Ownership is a +gate, not a stopping place. You tell me little when you tell me +that Rockefeller or the United States is the owner. What I want to +know is who consumes the annual product, and for many years I have +been saying and believing that to think straight one should look +at the stream of annual products and ask what change one would +make in that under any REGIME. The luxuries of the few are a drop +in the bucket--the crowd now has all there is. The difference +between private and public ownership, it seems to me, is mainly in +the natural selection of those most competent to foresee the +future and to direct labor into the most productive channels, and +the greater poignancy of the illusion of self-seeking under which +the private owner works. The real problem, under socialism as well +as under individualism, is to ascertain, under the external +economic and inevitable conditions, the equilibrium of social +desires. The real struggle is between the different groups of +producers of the several objects of social desire. The bogey +capital is simply the force of all the other groups against the +one that is selling its product, trying to get that product for +the least it can. Capital is society purchasing and consuming-- +Labor is society producing. The laborers unfortunately are often +encouraged to think capital something up in the sky which they are +waiting for a Franklin to bring down into their jars. I think that +is a humbug and lament that I so rarely hear what seem to me the +commonplaces that I have uttered, expressed. Your fine address has +set me on my hobby and you have fallen a victim to the charm of +your own words. Very truly, yours, + +O. W. HOLMES + +P. S. Of course I am speaking only of economics not of political +or sentimental considerations--both very real, but as to which all +that one can say is, if you are sure that you want to go to the +show and have money enough to buy a ticket, go ahead, but don't +delude yourself with the notion that you are doing an economic +act. I make the only return I can in the form of the single speech +I have made for the last nine years. + + + +TO OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES JUSTICE OF THE SUPREME COURT + +Washington, March 20, 1912 + +MY DEAR MR. JUSTICE,--I sincerely thank you for the warmth and +generosity of your comment on my Virginia speech. Your economic +philosophy is fundamentally, I think, the same as mine--that the +wealth produced is a social product. And men may honestly differ +as to how best that stream of foods and other satisfactions may be +increased in volume, or more widely distributed. May I carry your +figure of the stream further by suggesting that the riparian owner +in England has the superior right, but in an arid country the +common law rule is abandoned because under new conditions it does +not make for the greatest public good? The land adjoining feels +the need of the water, and society takes from one to give to the +other. + +The last century was devoted to steaming up in production. This +century, it appears to me, will devote itself more definitely to +distribution. It is nonsense, of course, to say that because the +rich grow richer the poor grow poorer; but the poor are not the +same poor, they, too, have found new desires. Civilization has +given them new wants. Those desires will not be satisfied with +largesse, and with the machinery of government in their hands the +people are bound to experiment along economic lines. They will +certainly find that they get most when they preserve the captain +of industry, but may it not be that his imagination and +forethought may be commanded by society at a lower share of the +gross than he has heretofore received, or in exchange for +something of a different, perhaps of a sentimental nature? ... +Please pardon this typewritten note, but my own hand, unlike your +copper-plate, is absolutely illegible. I have been raised in a +typewriter age. + +Again thanking you for your letter, believe me, with the highest +regard, faithfully yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + +TO JOHN H. WIGMORE + +Washington, April 3, 1912 + +MY DEAR JOHN,--You overwhelm me. ... You have no right to say such +nice things to an innocent and trusting young thing like myself. +The flat, unabashed truth is that I appreciate your letter more +than any other that I have received concerning that speech. By way +of indicating the interest which it has excited I send you copies +of some correspondence between Mr. Justice Holmes and myself. + +Our plans for the summer are very unsettled. The probability is +that we will go up to Bras D'Or Lakes, in Cape Breton, where we +can have salt-water bathing and sailing and be most primitive. I +should like greatly to run over with you to Europe, and, by way of +making the temptation harder to resist, let me know how you expect +to go, and where. + +Give my love to the Lady Wigmore. As ever yours, + +F, K. L. + + + +TO DANIEL WITTARD PRESIDENT, BALTIMORE AND OHIO RAILROAD COMPANY + +Washington, June 19, 1912 + +MY DEAR MR. WILLARD,--That was a warm cordial note that you sent +me regarding my University of Virginia address, and what you say +of my sentiments confirms my own view that property must look to +men like yourself for protection in the future--men who are not +blind to public sentiment and whose methods are frank. The worst +enemy that capital has in the country is the man who thinks that +he can "put one over" on the people. An institution cannot remain +sacred long which is the creator of injustice, and that is what +some of our blind friends at Chicago do not see. Very truly yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + +TO JOHN MCNAUGHT NEW YORK WORLD + +Washington, March 23, 1912 + +MY DEAR JOHN,--I am very glad indeed to hear from you and to know +that you are in sympathy with my "eloquent" address at the +University of Virginia. You give me hope that I am on the right +track. As for Harmon and representative government, you won't get +either. ... Please see Mr. R. W. Emerson's Sphinx, in which occurs +this line: + + "The Lethe of Nature can't trance him again + Whose soul sees the perfect, which his eye seeks in vain." + +Fancy me surrounded by maps of the express systems of the United +States, digging through the rates on uncleaned rice from Texas to +the Southeast, dribbling off poetry to a man who sits in a tall +tower overlooking New York, who once had poetry which has per +necessity been smothered! Dear John, read your Bible, and in +Second Kings you will find the story of one Rehoboam, that son of +Solomon, who was also for Harmon and representative government. + +I am looking out of the window at the funeral procession for the +Maine dead, and it strikes me that our dear friend Cobb has +overlooked one trick in his campaign against T. R. Of course he +has other arrows in his quiver, and no doubt this one will come +later, but why not charge T. R. with having blown up the Maine? No +one can prove that he did not do it. He then undoubtedly was +planning to become President and knew that he never could be +unless he was given a chance to show his ability as a soldier- +patriot. He stole Panama of course, and is there any reason to +believe that a man who would steal Panama would hesitate at +blowing up a battleship? + +I hope you ... are giving over the life of a hermit--not that I +would advise you to take to the Great White Way, but the side +streets are sometimes pleasant. As always, devotedly yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + + + +V + +EXPRESS CASE--CABINET APPOINTMENTS + +1912-1913 + +Politics--Democratic Convention--Nomination of Wilson --Report on +Express Case--Democratic Victory--Problems for New Administration +--On Cabinet Appointments + + +TO ALBERT SHAW REVIEW OF REVIEWS + +Washington, April 30, 1912 + +MY DEAR DOCTOR,-- ... You certainly are very much in the right. +Everything begins to look as if the Republican party would prove +itself the Democratic party after all. Our Southern friends are so +obstinate and so traditional, and so insensible to the problems of +the day, that while they are honest they are too often found in +alliance with the Hearsts and Calhouns. The Republican party, on +the other hand, seems to have courage enough to take a purgative +every now and then. + +We must find ways of satisfying the plain man's notion of what the +fair thing is, or else worse things than the recall of judges will +come to pass. Every lawyer knows that the law has been turned into +a game of bridge whist. People are perfectly well satisfied that +they can submit a question to a body of fair-minded and honest +men, take their conclusion, and get rid of all our absurd rules of +evidence and our unending appeals. + +And as to economic problems, people are going to solve a lot of +these along very simple lines. I think I see a great body of +opinion rising in favor of the appropriation by the Government of +all natural resources. + +We saw a lot of the Severances while they were here. Cordy made a +great argument in the Merger Case, but if he wins, we won't get +anything more than a paper victory--another Northern Securities +victory. + +Please remember me very kindly to Mrs. Shaw, and believe me, as +always sincerely yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + +TO CURT G. PFEIFFER + +Washington, May 21, 1912 + +MY DEAR PFEIFFER,--I am acknowledging your note on the day when +Ohio votes. This is the critical day, for if T. R. wins more than +half the delegation in Ohio, he is nominated and, I might almost +say, elected. But I find that the Democrats feel more sure of his +strength than the Republicans do. Have you noticed how extremely +small the Democratic vote is at all of the primaries, not +amounting to more than one-fourth of the Republican vote? + +... The Democrats are in an awkward position. If Roosevelt is +nominated, one wing will be fighting for Underwood, to get the +disaffected conservative strength, while the other wing will be +fighting for Bryan, so as to hold as large a portion of the +radical support as possible. Oh, well, we have all got to come to +a real division of parties along lines of tendency and temperament +and have those of us who feel democratic-wise get into the same +wagon, and those who fear democracy, and whose first interest is +property, flock together on the tory side. As always, yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + +TO GEORGE W. LANE + +Washington, July 2, 1912 + +MY DEAR GEORGE,--I am off tomorrow for Baddeck, Cape Breton, where +I shall probably be until the 1st of September or thereabouts--if +I can endure that long period of country life and absence from the +political excitement of the United States. + +It looks, as I am writing, as if Wilson were to be nominated at +Baltimore. If he is he will sweep the country; Taft won't carry +three states. [Footnote: Taft carried Vermont and Utah.] Wilson is +clean, strong, high-minded and cold-blooded. To nominate him would +be a tremendous triumph for the anti-Hearst people. I have been +over at the convention several times. Hearst defeated Bryan for +temporary chairman by making a compact with Murphy, Sullivan and +Taggart. ... Bryan has fought a most splendid fight. I had a talk +with him. He was in splendid spirits and most cordial. The +California delegation headed by Theodore Bell has been made to +look like a lot of wooden Indians. Bell himself was shouted down +with the cry of "Hearst! Hearst!", the last time he rose to speak. +The delegation is probably the most discredited one in the entire +convention. ... + +My summer, I presume, will be put in chiefly in sailing a small +yawl with Gilbert Grosvenor, rowing a boat, fishing a little, and +walking some. My diet for the next two months will consist +exclusively of salmon and potatoes, cod-fish and potatoes, and +mutton and potatoes. + +I have just completed my report in the Express Case, a copy of +which will be sent you. It has been a most tremendous task, and +the work has not yet been completed for we have to pass upon the +rates in October; but I am in surprisingly good condition-- +largely, perhaps, because the weather has been so cool for the +last month ... + +All happiness, old man! Affectionately yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + +"Lane had a long look ahead," says James S. Harlan, "that often +reminded one of the extraordinary prevision of Colonel Roosevelt. +One striking instance of this was in connection with this Express +Case. + +"Early in the progress of the investigation of express companies +undertaken by him in 1911, at the request of the Interstate +Commerce Commission, Lane warned a group of high express officials +gathered around him that unless they promptly coordinated their +service more closely to the public requirements, revised their +archaic practices, readjusted and simplified their rate systems so +as to eliminate discriminations, the frequent collection of double +charges and other evils, and gave the public a cheaper and a +better service, the public would soon be demanding a parcel post. + +"The suggestion was received with incredulous smiles, one of the +express officials saying, apparently with the full approval of +them all, that a parcel post had been talked of in this country +for forty years and had never got beyond the talking point, and +never would. As a matter of fact, there was little, if any, +movement at that time in the public press or elsewhere for such a +service by the government. But Lane's alert mind had sensed in the +current of public thought a feeling that there was need of a +quicker, simpler, and cheaper way of handling the country's small +packages, and he saw no way out, other than a parcel post, if the +express companies stood still and made no effort to meet this +public need. + +"Within scarcely more than a year Congress, by the Act of August +24, 1912, had authorized a parcel post and such a service was in +actual operation on January 1, 1913. It was not until December of +the latter year that the express companies were ready to file with +the Commission the ingenious and entirely original system Lane had +devised for stating express rates. The form was so simple that +even the casual shipper in a few minutes' study could qualify +himself for ascertaining the rates, not only to and from his own +home express station but between any other points in the country. +But by that time the carriage of the country's small parcels had +permanently passed out of the hands of the express companies into +the hands of the postal service, by which Lane's unique form for +stating the express rates was adopted as the general form of +showing its parcel post charges." + + + +TO Oscar S. Straus + +Washington, July 8, 1912 + +MY DEAR MR. STRAUS,--I thank you heartily for your appreciative +note regarding my University of Virginia talk. I wanted to say +something to those people, especially to the younger men, that +would make them doubt the wisdom of staying forever with systems +and theories not adapted to our day. + +As I write, word comes that Woodrow Wilson has been nominated. I +do not know him, but from what I hear he promises if elected to be +a real leader in the war against injustice. The world wants +earnest men right now--not cynics, but men who BELIEVE, whether +rightly or wrongly; and the reason that the East is so much less +progressive as we say, than the West, is because the East is made +up so largely of cynics. + +Thanking you once more for your appreciative words, believe me, +sincerely yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + +TO BENJAMIN IDE WHEELER PRESIDENT, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA + +Baddeck, Nova Scotia, July 81, [1912] + +MY DEAR MR. WHEELER,--Your letter followed me here, where at least +one can breathe. This really is a most beautiful country filled +with self-respecting Gaelic-speaking Scotch from the islands of +the north--crofters driven here to make place for sheep and fine +estates on their ancestral homes in the Highlands. + +I am proud of your words of commendation. The express job is the +biggest one yet. I believe we've done a real service both to the +country and to the express companies. The latter will probably +live if their service and their rates improve. Otherwise the +Government will put them out of business, requiring the railroads +to give fast service for any forwarder, as in Germany. + +Politically, things look Wilson to me. Taft won't be in sight at +the finish. It will be a run between Wilson and T. R. I can't name +five states that Taft is really likely to carry. My friends in +Massachusetts say Wilson will win there, and so in Maine. Well, I +suppose you and I are in the same sad situation--eager to break +into the fight but bound not to do it. Do you know I believe that +T. R. has discovered, and just discovered, that it is our destiny +to be a Democracy. Hence the enthusiasm which Wall Street calls +whiskey. ... Sincerely yours, + +FRANKLIN K, LANE + + + +TO GEORGE W. LANE + +Washington, September 17, 1912 + +MY DEAR GEORGE,--I am mighty glad to get your Labor Day letter, +but sorry that its note is not more cheerful and gay. I can quite +understand your position though. We are all obsessed with the +desire to be of some use and unwilling to take things as they are. +I do not know a pair of more rankly absurd idealists than you and +myself, and along with idealism goes discontent. We do not see the +thing that satisfies us, and we can not abide resting with the +thing that does not satisfy us. We are of the prods in the world, +the bit of acid that is thrown upon it to test it, the spur which +makes the lazy thing move on. + +This summer I saw a great deal of a man ... [who was] perfectly +complacent. ... And I noticed that he took no acids of any kind-- +never a pickle, nor vinegar, nor salad--but would heap half a +roll of butter on a single sheet of bread and eat sardines whole. +And I just came to the conclusion that there was something in a +fellow's stomach that accounted for his temperament. If I ever get +the time I am going to try and work out the theory. The contented +people are those who generate their own acid and have an appetite +for fats, while the discontented people are those whose craving is +for acids. A lack of a sense of humor and a love for concrete +facts, as opposed to dreams, goes along with the first +temperament. You just turn this thing over and see if there is not +something in it. I am long past the stage of trying to correct +myself; I am just trying to understand a lot of things--why they +are. ... + +F. K L. + + + +TO JOHN H. WIGMORE + +Washington, July 3, 1912 + +MY DEAR JOHN,--Of course you may keep the Napoleon book. It is +intended for you. Your criticism of T. R.'s literary style is +appreciated, and no doubt he lacks in precision of thought. + +Now we shall have a chance to see what a college president can do +as President of the United States. I believe Wilson will be +elected. What a splendid jump in three years that man has made! +They tell me he is very cold-blooded. We need a cold-blooded +fellow these days ... + +September 21, 1912 + +... You will by this time have picked up all the politics of the +time. Wilson is strong, but not stronger than he was when +nominated. T. R. is gaining strength daily, that is my best guess. +He has the laboring man with him most enthusiastically but not +unanimously, of course. The far West--Pacific Coast--is his. All +the railroad men and the miners ... + +I am not sure of Wilson. He is not "wise" to modern conditions, I +fear. Tearing up the tariff won't change many prices. Doesn't he +seem to talk too much like a professor and too little like a +statesman? Hearst is knifing him for all he is worth. He has fixed +in the workingmen's minds that Wilson favors Chinese immigration. + +Well, when am I to see you again? And how is Mrs. John? How I do +wish you were here! As always, + +F. K. L. + + + +To Timothy Spellacy + +Washington, September 30, 1912 + +MY DEAR TIM,--I have your fine, long letter of September 23, and +this is no more than just an acknowledgment. I am glad to know +that you are taking so hearty an interest in the campaign. It is +really too bad that you did not stay longer in Baltimore and see +Bryan win out all along the line. + +I don't want a position in the Cabinet. I am not looking for any +further honors, but I want to help Wilson make a success of his +administration, for I think he will be elected. I am afraid that +he will become surrounded by Southern reactionaries--men of his +own blood and feeling, who are not of the Northern and more +progressive type. We have got to cut some sharp corners in doing +the things that are right. By this I don't mean that we will do +anything that is wrong; but from the standpoint of the Southern +Democrat it is illegal to have a strong central government--one +that is effective--and we have got to have such a government if we +are going to hold possession of the Nation. The people want things +done. Wilson is a bit too conservative for me, but maybe when he +realizes the necessity for strength he will be for it. + +I am sorry for B--. Poor chap! His alliance with Hearst undid +years of good work ... As always yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + +To Adolph C. Miller + +Washington, October 18, 1912 + +MY DEAR ADOLPH,--I have postponed until the last minute writing +you regarding my proposed visit in California. I see now clearly +that it is impossible for me to get out there this fall. The +Express Case ... is still on my hands, and with all of my energy I +shall not be able to get rid of it until the first of the year at +least ... Moreover (and this is a personal matter that I wish you +would not say anything about) ... I am doing my work in a great +deal of pain, and have been for the last three or four weeks ... I +cannot work as hard as I did some time ago ... + +I rebel at sickness as much as I do at death. The scheme of +existence does not appeal to me, at the moment, as the most +perfect which a highly imaginative Creator could have invented. My +transcendental philosophy seems a pretty good working article when +things are going smoothly, but it is not quite equal to hard +practical strain, I fear. + +Politically things look like Wilson, though I suppose T. R. will +get California and a lot of other states. I think he will beat +Taft badly. The new party has come to stay, and it will be a +tremendous influence for good. I don't take any stock in the talk +about T. R's personal ambition being his controlling motive. I +think that he has found a religious purpose in life to which he +can devote himself the rest of his days, not to get himself into +office but to keep things moving along right lines. + +Remember me most kindly to your wife and President Wheeler. As +always yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + +To William F. McCombs Chairman, Democratic National Committee + +Washington, October 19,1912 + +Dear Mr. McCombs,--I cannot go to California and make speeches for +Governor Wilson without resigning from the Commission. Four years +ago two Republican members of the Commission were strongly urged +at a critical time in the campaign to get into Mr. Taft's fight so +as to help with the labor vote. I insisted that they should not do +it, and the matter was brought before the Commission, and we then +decided that no member of the Commission should take part in +politics. So you see when the telegrams began to come in this +year, urging that I go out to California and the other Pacific +Coast states, I was compelled to say that I was stopped by my +position of four years ago. + +I have never wanted to get into a campaign as much as I have this +one. Governor Wilson represents all that I have been fighting for, +for the last twenty years in my State; but I think that it would +be almost fatal to the independence and high repute of this +Commission for its members to take part in a national campaign. We +have so much power that we can exercise upon the railroads and +upon railroad men that any announcement made by a member of this +Commission could properly be construed as a threat or a suggestion +that should be heeded by the wise. I know that this view of the +matter will appeal to you as entirely sensible when you reflect +upon it, and to my impatient friends in California, to whom it has +been very hard to say no. + +I am glad to see that you are holding the fight up so hard at the +tail end of the campaign. That is when Democratic campaigns have +so often been lost. Governor Wilson is maintaining himself +splendidly, and our one danger has been over-confidence. Sincerely +yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + +About the political situation he wrote to one of his former +Assistants in the City and County Attorney's office in San +Francisco + +To Hugo K. Asher + +Washington, October 22,1912 + +MY DEAR HUGO,--I have your long letter which you promised in your +telegram. Now, old man, I want to have a perfectly open talk with +you. I understand your attitude of affectionate ambition for me, +and I am mighty proud of it, that after the years we were +associated together, the ups and downs we had, you feel the way +you do. + +Wilson is going to be elected unless some miracle happens, and I +would tremendously like to get out to California and speak to the +people once more. You do not know just how the old lust for battle +has come over me. Following your telegram came a letter from +McCombs, the Chairman of the National Committee, saying that he +had received a lot of telegrams urging him to have me go and that +Governor Wilson would like me to. But I wrote him precisely as I +have you. If the members of this Commission once get into +politics, the institution is gone to hell, for we can make or +unmake any candidate we wish. This is the most powerful body in +the United States, and we must act with a full sense of the +responsibility that is on us ... + +As for being a member of Wilson's Cabinet, I don't want to be. In +the first place I can't afford it. There is no Cabinet man here +who lives on his salary, and as you know, I have got nothing else. +I save nothing now out of the salary that I get, and if the social +obligations of a Cabinet position were placed upon me I would have +to run in debt ... + +Furthermore, I am doing just as big work and as satisfactory work +as any member of the Cabinet. The work that a Cabinet officer +chiefly does is to sign his name to letters or papers that other +people write. There is very little constructive work done in any +Cabinet office. While the glamour of intimate association with the +President--the honor that comes from such a position--appeals to +me, for I still have all my old-time vanity and love of dignity +and appreciation; yet the position that I occupy is one of so much +power, and I am conscious so thoroughly of its usefulness, that I +do not want to change it. I should be more or less close to the +President anyway, I presume. His friends are my friends, and I +shall have an opportunity to help make his administration a +success by advising with him, if he desires my advice. + +Now, old man, I have talked to you very frankly, and I know that +you will understand just what I mean. If I were out of office I +would have been in Wilson's campaign a year ago. If I wanted a +Cabinet position now I would resign from the Commission and go out +to help him. I think probably if I felt that California's vote was +necessary to Wilson's success and that I could help to get it, I +would take the latter course, although it is not clear that that +would be my duty, in view of conditions in the Commission. + +With warmest regards, believe me, as always, faithfully yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + +To Francis G. Newlands Reno, Nevada + +Washington, October 28, 1912 + +MY DEAR SENATOR,--I am delighted at the receipt of your long +letter, for I have been very anxious to know how you felt about +your own State. Of course it has been a foregone conclusion for +some time that Wilson would carry the United States, but I was +desirous that you should carry Nevada for your own sake ... + +In my judgment the Interstate Trades Commission needs all of your +concentrated energy for the next year. The bill should be your +bill, and you should be the leading authority upon the matter. + +Wilson should look to you for advice along this line of dealing +with the trust problem. He will, if you have the greater body of +information upon the subject. Of course Roosevelt did not know +where he was going as to his Trades Commission, and he would not +have had any opportunity were he elected to go any farther, ... +because that Commission has got to feel its way along. Wilson, you +can see from his speeches, has swallowed Brandeis' theory without +knowing much about the problem, but he certainly has handled +himself well during the campaign ... What he does will very +largely depend, I think, upon those who surround him. He must have +access to sources of information outside of the formal +administrative officers who make up his Cabinet. This is a very +delicate way of saying that he must have a sort of "kitchen +cabinet" made up of men like you and myself who will be willing to +talk frankly to him, and whom he will listen to with confidence +and respect. If he can get the Southerners into line with the +Northern Democrats he can make over the Democratic Party and give +it a long lease of life. If he cannot do this, and his party +splits, Roosevelt's party will come into possession of the country +in four years, and hold it for a long time ... + +I am glad to see that you have been able to take so personal and +direct an interest in the campaign. Faithfully yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + +Following the news of the Democratic victory, in the election of +Woodrow Wilson to the Presidency, Lane sent these letters:-- + + + +To Woodrow Wilson Trenton, N. J. + +Washington, November 6, 1912 + +MY DEAR GOVERNOR,--The door of opportunity has opened to the +Progressive Democracy. I know that you will enter courageously. +The struggle of the next four years will be to persuade our timid +brethren to follow your leadership, "gentlemen unafraid." I am +persuaded from my experience here that no President can be a +success unless he takes the position of a real party leader--the +premier in Parliament as well as a chief executive. The +theoretical idea of the President's aloofness from Congress--of a +President dealing with the National Legislature as if he were an +independent government dealing with another--is wrong, because it +has been demonstrated to be ineffective and ruinous. We need +definiteness of program and cooperation between both ends of +Pennsylvania Avenue. There is generally one end of the Avenue that +does not know its own mind, and sometimes it is one, and sometimes +the other. + +Your friends have been made happy through the campaign by the +manner in which you have conducted yourself. You spoiled so many +bad prophecies. + +With heartiest of personal congratulations, believe me, faithfully +yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + +To William Jennings Bryan Washington, November 6, 1912 + +MY DEAR MR. BRYAN,--The unprecedented heroism of your fight at +Baltimore has borne fruit, and every man who has fought with you +for the last sixteen years rejoices that this victory is yours. +Now comes the time when it is to be proved whether we are worthy +of confidence. We shall see whether Democrats will follow a wise, +aggressive, modern leadership. Faithfully yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + +To James D. Phelan Washington, November 6, 1912 + +DEAR PHELAN,--Hurrah! Hurrah! and again Hurrah! You have done +nobly. The victory in California came late, but it was none the +less surprising and gratifying. We can dance like Miriam, as we +see the enemies of Israel go down in the flood. + +I shall expect to see you here before long. With warmest +congratulations to you personally. As always, sincerely yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + +To Herbert Harley + +Washington, November 18, 1912 + +MY DEAR MR. HARLEY,--... There are many hopeful signs, as you say, +not the least of which is that the Supreme Court has at last been +moved to amend its equity rules. The whole agitation for judicial +recall will do good because it will not lead to judicial recall +but to the securing of a superior order of men on the bench and to +simplified procedure. I find that it is better to decide matters +promptly and sometimes wrongly than to have long delays. The +people have very little confidence in our courts, and this is +because of one reason: Our judges are not self-owned; either they +are dominated by a political machine or by associations of an even +worse character. Few men on the bench are corrupt; many of them +are lazy, and others are chosen from the class who feel with +property interests exclusively. I am heartily in sympathy with a +movement such as that you are promoting. It is in my opinion a +very practical way--perhaps the only practical way--of heading off +universal judicial recall. This is a Democracy and the people are +going to have men and methods adopted that will give them the kind +of judicial procedure that they want. They are not going to be +unfair unless driven to be radical by intolerable conditions. ... + +Sincerely yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + +Immediately after Woodrow Wilson's election in November, telegrams +and letters from different parts of the country, and especially +from his many friends in California, began to reach Lane asking +that he should consider himself available for a Cabinet position, +offering support and requesting his permission for them to make a +strong effort in his behalf. This he emphatically refused, saying +that he was not a candidate, but in spite of his refusals, +editorials began to appear in many Western papers. + + + +To Charles K. McClatchy Sacramento Bee + +Washington, November 25, 1912 + +MY DEAR CHARLES,--I received your note and this morning have a +copy of the paper containing the cartoon on "Unfinished Business," +the original of which, by the way, I should like to have for my +library. ... + +I know absolutely nothing about the suggestion made by the Call as +to my being appointed to the Cabinet. I rather think that it was +Ernest Simpson's friendly act, though I have not heard from him at +all. Three men have been to me from the Coast who wanted to be in +the Cabinet, and I have told each one the same thing:--That I was +not a candidate; that no one would speak to the President for me +with my consent; but that I would not say that I would not accept +an appointment, because I would do almost anything to make +Wilson's administration a success, for I believe that he has faced +the right way and the only difficulty that he will have will be in +securing strong enough support to carry out his own policies. I +think he lacks somewhat in adroitness and that his campaign was +much less radical than he would voluntarily have made it. I do not +know him and shall not go near him unless he sends for me. If he +does send for me I shall tell him the truth regarding anybody of +whom he speaks to me. I shall advocate nobody. I am not going to +be a job peddler or solicitor. My present position makes all the +demand upon my imagination, initiative, and capacity that my +abilities justify. I could not work any harder or do any better +work for the people in any position that the Government has to +give. I am not at all enamored of the honor of a Cabinet place. + +Now, I am talking to you in the utmost frankness as if you were +sitting just across the table from me. Of course what I am saying +to you is absolutely private and personal. ... + +We will just let this matter rest "on the knees of the gods," and +I shall try to serve with as little personal ambition moving me as +is possible with a man who has some temperament. + +Sincerely yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + +To Ernest S. Simpson San Francisco, Cal. + +Washington, November 26, 1912 + +MY DEAR SIMPSON,--How it ever entered into your head to give me so +splendid a boom for a position in Wilson's Cabinet I do not know. +Someone suggested that the tip came from Ira Bennett at this end, +and I see that the Sacramento Bee suggests that the railroads wish +to remove me from my present sphere of troublesomeness; but my own +guess is that your own good heart and our long-time friendship was +the sole cause of this most kindly act. + +Some of the California papers, I notice, have had editorials +saying I should stay where I am (which is not a disagreeable fate +to be condemned to, barring a slight surplus of work), but of +course Wilson is not going to appoint anyone to his Cabinet +because of pull. He has a more difficult job than any President +has ever had since Lincoln, because he has to reconcile a +progressive Northern Democracy with a conservative Southern +Democracy, and satisfy one with policies and another with offices. +My guess is that he will have to turn over the whole question of +patronage practically to his Cabinet and that he will become the +actual leader of his party and attempt to formulate the +legislative policies of the party. He has a distinct ideal of what +the Presidency may be made. Whether he can make good under +conditions so apparently irreconcilable is a question that time +only can answer. His political family he will choose for himself. +They ought to be the very largest men that our country can +produce, and I am not fool enough to think that I am entitled to +be in such a group. + +With the warmest thanks, my dear Simpson, for your kindness, +believe me, as always, cordially yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + +To Fairfax Harrison + +Washington, November 26, 191L + +MY DEAR MR. HARRISON,--That is an exceedingly interesting and +philosophical presentation of your reason for adherence to the +Progressive Party. I understand your point of view and I +sympathize with it thoroughly. I had the hope that Colonel +Roosevelt would carry several of the Southern states. The +Democratic party of the North is distinct from the Democratic +party of the South, at least I fear that it is. The next four +years will demonstrate the possibility of these two elements +living together in effective cooperation. If Governor Wilson is a +mere doctrinaire the present victory will be of no value to the +Democratic party, but may be of great value to the country, for +the horizontal cleavage in the two parties will become manifest, +unmistakable, and open, and out of the breaking up will come a re- +alignment upon real lines of tendency. If President Wilson +attempts to do anything which satisfies the reasonable demand of +the progressive North he will run counter to the traditional +policy of the South; that is to say, effective regulation of child +labor, of interstate corporations--railroad and industrial--flood +waters, irrigation projects. [These,] and a multitude of other +matters make necessary the wiping out of state lines to the extent +that a national policy shall be supreme over a state policy. As +our good Spanish friend said some centuries ago, "Where two men +ride of a horse one must needs ride behind." + +This fact is stronger than any written word, and facts are the +things which statesmen deal with. If the South is large enough to +see this--if it has grown to have national vision--the hope of the +Northern Democrat can be realized. Otherwise the traditionalists +of both North and South will make a party by themselves, and the +rest of the country will follow in your lead into THE new party or +A new party. + +With warm regards, believe me, cordially yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + +To James P. Brown + +Washington, November 27, 1912 + +MY DEAR JIM,--I see your point of view and am glad you have taken +the position that you have, because you can demonstrate whether +there is anything excepting a sawed-off shot-gun that will compel +some editors to tell the truth. ... + +I shall not read your pamphlet because I have too much other +reading that I am compelled to do. My own guess, being totally +ignorant on the subject, is that you have violated the Sherman +Law, but everybody knows that the Sherman Law should be amended +and the conditions stated upon which there may be combination. Do +get out of your head, however, the idea that a railroad +corporation and an industrial corporation are subject to the same +philosophy, as to competition. One is necessarily a monopoly and +therefore must be regulated; the other is not necessarily a +monopoly, and the least regulation that it can be subjected to the +better. We have let things go free for so long that we have +created a big problem that sane men must deal with sensibly; not +admitting all there is to be right, but recognizing every natural +and legitimate economic tendency. With warm regards, believe me, +as always, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + +TO ADOLPH C. MILLER + +Washington, December 4, 1912 + +MY DEAR ADOLPH,--Hon. J. J. London, Minister from the Netherlands +to the United States, left last night for San Francisco and will +be there about the ninth of the month. I have told him somewhat of +you and I want you to call on him. He is one of the most charming +men in Washington, really a poet in nature. He loves the beautiful +and good things of the world and is totally unspoiled by success +and position. ... + +It is very good to know that you and President Wheeler have a sort +of mutual agreement on me for a Cabinet position, but I don't +think of it for myself. ... I find that I do not have the ambition +that I once had, excepting to do the work in hand just as well as +possible, and I am altogether impatient with the way I do it. I +should like to see you Secretary of the Treasury. There is to be +some change made in our currency laws during the next four years, +and a man of perfectly sane, level mind is tremendously needed to +guide Wilson in this matter, for I guess he is very ignorant upon +the subject. Especially is this true if Bryan goes into the +Cabinet. E. M. House, who is Sid Mezes' brother-in-law, is as +close to Wilson as any other man, and I will drop him a note, +telling him something about you, for I know that he is interested +in selecting Cabinet officers as he has been talking to me about +possible Attorney Generals. I have told him that I wanted nothing. +... + +Mezes is the same adroit diplomat that he has always been, since +receiving the Presidency at Texas. He is doing big things for his +University and says that in two or three years he will be in a +position to retire, and will retire and spend the most of his time +in Europe; but unless my guess is wrong, his ambition has at last +been fired and he will look for other worlds to conquer if he +achieves what he is after in Texas. Cordially yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + +TO EDWARD M. HOUSE + +Washington, December 13, 1912 + +MY DEAR MR. HOUSE,--Another suggestion as to the Attorney +Generalship. ... Have you ever heard of John H. Wigmore who is now +Dean of the Law Department of the Northwestern University? He is +one of the most remarkable men in our country. ... He has written +the greatest law book produced in this country in half a century, +WIGMORE ON EVIDENCE, besides several minor works. There is no +lawyer at the American bar who is not familiar with his name and +his work. ... + +... Wigmore is a Progressive democrat with a capital P. and a +small d; can give reason for his faith based on his philosophy of +government. He has national vision and has rare good common sense. +The man who can write a good law book is rarely one who would make +a good lobbyist, although Judah P. Benjamin was this sort of +genius. So with Wigmore. He is practical, wise, in the sense that +this word is used by the boys on the street; knows men and knows +how to deal with them; never lets theory get the better of +judgment; commands as much respect for his strength as for his +reasonableness; has the enthusiasm of a boy for all good things; +and has infinite capacity for hard work; can say "No" without +developing personal bitterness; and is above all a gentleman in +face, manner, and nature. All this I have said with enthusiasm, +but every word of it is true. I have known him for thirty years. +... + +He would not thank me for writing this letter, I know. The only +way he could be had to serve would be by persuading him that he is +absolutely needed. ... + +You have brought this long letter upon your own head by the +gracious nature of your invitation to me to advise with you. Very +truly yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + +TO BENJAMIN IDE WHEELER PRESIDENT, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA + +Washington, December 23, 1912 + +DEAR DR. WHEELER,--What you say regarding the President-to-be is +extremely interesting. That he is headstrong, arbitrary, and +positive, his friends admit. These are real virtues in this day of +slackness and sloppiness. I have just returned from New York where +I have talked with McAdoo and House who are extremely close to +him, and advising him regarding his Cabinet, and they tell me he +is a most satisfactory man to deal with. He listens quite +patiently and makes up his mind, and then "stays put." His Cabinet +will be his advisers but no one will control him. + +I heard him make that speech at the Southern Society dinner, which +was really much larger than the audience could understand. It was +a presentation of the theory that the thought of the nation +determined its destiny and that we could only have prosperity if +our ideal was one of honor. His warning to Wall Street, that an +artificial panic should not be created, was done in a most +impressive way. ... + +I was asked to give the names of men from California who would +make good Cabinet material, and I named Phelan and Adolph Miller. +The currency question will be the big problem in the next two or +three years, and I should like Wilson to have the benefit of as +sane a mind as Miller's; but I fancy that even if everything else +was all right there might be some difficulty in getting a college +professor to appoint another college professor. + +I hope we shall see you here soon. With holiday greetings to Mrs. +Wheeler and the Boy, believe me, as always, faithfully yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + +TO SIDNEY E. MEZES PRESIDENT, UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS + +Washington, December 23, 1912 + +MY DEAR SID,--I have your letter enclosing a telegram from Miller. +I received a note from him acknowledging the telegram. He was +evidently extremely delighted at being remembered. The sturdy, +strong old Dutchman has a whole lot of sentiment in him; and he +makes few friends, has drawn pretty much to himself, I think, and +falls back upon those whom he has known in earlier days. I sent a +note to Mr. House regarding him. He would be a splendid man to +have here in some capacity connected with the Government, now that +we are to deal with currency matters. I told Mr. House that he +could find out all about Miller from you. + +I saw House a couple of times in New York. He certainly is an +adroit and masterful diplomat. The fact is I do not know that I +have seen a man who is altogether so capable of handling a +delicate situation. By some look of the eye or appreciative smile +at the right moment he gives you to understand his sympathy with +and full comprehension of what you are saying to him. They tell me +in New York that he is really the man closest to Wilson, and he +tells me that Wilson is a delightful man to deal with because he +has got a mind that is firm as a rock. ... + +I send my Christmas greetings to you both. We have a sick little +girl on our hands, but she is coming along all right now. As +always yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + +To John H. Wigmore + +Washington, January 8,1913 + +MY DEAR JOHN,--... You may not know it, but I suggested your name +to Mr. House, an intimate of President-elect Wilson, for Attorney +General. ... He told me that he gave the letter to Governor +Wilson. ... + +Like so many of the Southerners, I fear that Wilson's idea is that +he can declare a general policy and be indifferent as to the men +who carry it out. There is a certain lack of effectiveness running +through the South which makes for sloppiness and a lack of +precision. I have found that generalizations do not get anywhere. +The strength of any proposition lies in its application. The +railroads and the trusts and the packers, and all the others who +are violating the statutes, are indifferent as to how big the law +is and upon what sound principles it is based, provided they have +a lot of speechmakers to enforce the law. They don't care what the +law is; their only concern is as to its enforcement. I am going to +give the Democratic Party four years of honest trial, and then if +it has not more precision, definiteness, and clearness of aim, am +going to call myself a Progressive, or a Republican, or something +else. + +Wilson is strong, capable of keeping his own counsel, and capable +of making up his own mind. In these three respects he differs +materially from our present President whose last flop on the +arbitration of the Panama Canal proposition is characteristic. ... + +Now, old man, let me say to you that you must take the very best +of care of yourself, for we need you more than anybody else in +this country, right at this time. As always yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + +To John H. Wigmore Washington, January 20, 1913 + +MY DEAR JOHN,--I have received both of your letters, and I am very +glad that you made that mistake regarding my address for it +brought me two letters instead of one. I received your Continental +Legal History months ago and thought that I had acknowledged it +with all kinds of appreciation, but perhaps I only thought the +things. ... I turned the book over to Minister Loudon of the +Netherlands who knew the Dutch professor who had written one of +the articles, and the rascal has not returned the book, but I +shall get it from him one of these days. ... Washington is now +greatly stirred because Wilson has frowned upon the Inaugural +Ball--a very proper frown, to my way of thinking--but inasmuch as +all of the merchants who advance money for the inaugural +ceremonies recoup themselves from the receipts from the Inaugural +Ball, there is much weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth, and +Wilson will enter Washington, in my judgment, a very unpopular +president, locally. The fact is, I think, he is apt to prove one +of the most tremendously disliked men in Washington that ever has +been here. + +He has a great disrespect for individuals, and so far as I can +discover a very large respect for the mass. His code is a little +new to us; and I feel justified in proceeding upon the theory that +every man should help him, and that it is within his (Wilson's) +proper function to throw Mr. Everyman down whenever public good +requires it, and that his silence never estops him from +interfering at any time. Perhaps you cannot make out just what +this means. I am dictating, sitting in my room at home with a very +bad cold, and perhaps I do not know precisely what I mean myself; +but I am trying to say that under all circumstances Wilson regards +himself as a free man, and that he is bound by no ties whatever to +do anything or to follow any course; that he recognizes no such +thing as consistency, or logic, or gratitude, as in the slightest +embarrassing him. ... + +I do hope that the President will get some capable effective +administration officers who will take the burden of patronage off +his shoulders and give him a chance to think on the money +question, which is his big problem. I like his Chicago speech, I +like his New York speech, but I do not find many people who +understand him, because he is really a sort of philosopher. He +teaches the psychology of new thought, the influence and effect of +thought upon government. + +I have written an article for the World's Work which is to appear +in March, entitled What I Am Trying To Do, but it is really sort +of an answer to one or two articles that they have had upon the +railroad side of the question of regulation--a demonstration of +the chaotic condition of things that existed prior to the +establishment of the Commission; and that the effect of regulation +has been to increase railroad earnings and put things upon a +stable and more satisfactory basis. ... I find that I have a copy +of the proofs in the office and I am going to send it to you and +ask you to criticise it. ... + +With my love to your good wife, believe me, as always, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + +To Joseph N. Teal + +Washington, January 20, 1913 + +MY DEAR JOE,--... You know we practically have the power now to +make a physical appraisement. ... We should not ourselves attempt +to arrive at cost. That is a very hard thing for the railroads to +furnish. They have taken good care to destroy most of the books +and papers that would show cost. + +Politically, I hear of no news. Wilson is able to keep his own +counsel more perfectly than anybody I have ever known, and nobody +comes back from Trenton knowing anything more than when he went. +... The money question is going to be the big one, and it looks to +me as though certain gentlemen were preparing to intimidate him +with a panic, which they won't do because he will appeal to the +country. He has got splendid nerve, and while Washington won't +like him a little, little bit, the country, I think, will put him +down as a very great President. As always, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + +To Edward M. House + +Washington, January 22, 1913 + +DEAR MR. HOUSE,--You ask me what is the precise political +situation on the Pacific Coast as to various candidates for the +Cabinet. + +As I have told you, I am to be eliminated from consideration. +California has but one candidate, one who was in Governor Wilson's +primary campaign and who made the fight for him in that state, in +the person of James D. Phelan whom you have met. ... Recognition +given to Phelan will be given to the foremost man in the +progressive fight in California. ... He is a brilliant speaker and +a man of excellent business judgment. ... He has fine social +quality and sufficient money to maintain such a position in proper +dignity. Not to recognize him in some first-class manner would be +a triumph for his enemies--and his enemies are the crooks of the +state. + +Joseph N. Teal who is spoken of from Oregon as a possible +Secretary of the Interior, is a good lawyer and a most public- +spirited man who has been identified with every sane movement for +progress in that state. He is a man of means and is deeply +interested in questions of conservation and the improvement of our +waterways. ... + + ... As a matter of party politics I do not think that any Pacific +Coast state can be made Democratic by the appointment of a member +of the Cabinet from it; as a matter of national politics, it seems +to be necessary that that part of the country should have a voice +in the council of the President. + +Now, I want to say a word or two on a more important matter. You +realize, I presume (and Governor Wilson evidently does) that there +is talk of a probable panic in the air. He dealt with this matter +masterfully in his New York speech. Worse things than panic can +befall a nation. We must preserve our self-respect as a self- +governing people. But what is the cause of this loose talk? +Apprehension. The business interests of the country do not know +what they are to expect. As a party we are too much given to +generalization; we have too little precision of thought. You will +notice how the New York papers of yesterday speak of Governor +Wilson's bill regarding the regulation of trusts. This is +something definite, and does not frighten because it is known. The +problems we have to deal with--the tariff, currency, and trusts-- +should all be dealt with in this same manner. The Administration +should have a definite program on each one of these questions; and +I mean by that, bills framed in conference between the leaders +which should be presented as party measures at the very first +possible moment. I have information that the banks are already +saying that they will stop loans until these questions are dealt +with. This is the way by which panic can be produced. The country +is too prosperous to allow a widespread industrial panic if the +measures favored by the Government commend themselves to the +people as sane and necessary. Why can't we, as the boys on the +street say, "beat them to it"? If Congress is called by the middle +of March, and the tariff is quickly put out of the way, and a +currency bill promptly follows, we can restore the mind of the +country to its normal state by midsummer. You know that this +problem of government is largely one of psychology. The doctor +must speak with definiteness and certainty to quiet the patient's +nerves, and the doctor is the party as represented in the +President and Congress. + +With warm regards to Mrs. House, believe me, as always, cordially +yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + +To Mitchell Innes + +Washington, February 26, 1913 + +MY DEAR MR. INNES,--I received your pamphlet and have read it +through with the deepest interest. These young men [Footnote: A +group of young men organized for social and political betterment, +who sought advice.] are deserving of the strongest encouragement. +I have no criticism whatever to make of their prospectus--for that +word, I presume, without slight, can be properly used. + +My conviction is that we can find no solution for the problems of +social, political, economic, or spiritual unrest. "The man's the +man" philosophy has taken hold of the world. We have lost all +traditional moorings. We have no religion. We have no philosophy. +Our age is greater than any other that the world has seen. We have +been lifted clear off our feet and taken up into a high place +where we have been shown the universe. The result has been a +tremendous and exaggerated growth of the ego, and we have regarded +ourselves as masters of everything, and subject to nothing. +Agnosticism led to sensualism, and sensualism had its foundation +in hopelessness. We are materialists because we have no faith. +This thing, however, is being changed. We are coming to recognize +spiritual forces, and I put my hope for the future, not in a +reduction in the high cost of living, nor in any scheme of +government, but in a recognition by the people that after all +there is a God in the world. Mind you, I have no religion, I +attend no church, and I deal all day long with hard questions of +economics, so that I am nothing of a preacher; but I know that +there never will come anything like peace or serenity by a mere +redistribution of wealth, although that redistribution is +necessary and must come. + +If I were these young men and wished to concentrate upon some +economic question, I should put my time in on the cost of +distribution. ... That is the economic problem of the next +century--how to get the goods from the farm to the people with the +lowest possible expenditure of effort; how to get the manufactured +product from the factory to the house with the least possible +expense. I have an idea that we have too many stores, too many +middlemen, too much waste motion. So that I have only two thoughts +to suggest: The first is that the ultimate problem is to +substitute some adequate philosophy or religion for that which we +have lost; and the second is to concentrate on the simple economic +problem. Have we the cheapest system of distribution possible? ... +Sincerely yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + + + +VI + +SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR 1913-1915 + +Appointment as Secretary of the Interior--Reorganization of the +Department--Home Club--Bills on Public Lands + + +His appointment, as Secretary of the Interior, came to Lane in a +letter from President-elect Wilson, stating that he was being +"drafted" by the President for public service in his Cabinet. The +letter was written about the middle of February, 1913. The urgent +manner of the appointment was caused by Lane's frankly-expressed +reluctance to leave his work on the Interstate Commerce +Commission, where opportunity for yet fuller accomplishment had +been assured by his recent appointment as Chairman of the +Commission. Seven years of application to the intricate problems +of adjustment between the conflicting claims of the public, the +shippers, and the railroads, did not solve all the issues involved +in new and profoundly interesting cases coming up for +adjudication. In addition to this natural desire to expand and +perfect the technique of administration of his Commission, Lane +dreaded the great increase in social and financial demands +involved in a Cabinet position. In addition to these reasons, the +change in service would mean work with men that he knew only +slightly, if at all, and under a President whom he had never met. +Perhaps the consideration that weighed more heavily than any of +these, in his feeling of reluctance, was that the portfolio of the +Department of the Interior, with its congeries of ill-assorted +bureaus was in itself unattractive to a man with Lane's love of +logical order. His liking for strong team-work and for the +building of morale among a force of mutually helpful workers +seemed to have no possible promise of gratification among bureau +chiefs as unrelated as those of the General Land Office, the +Indian Office, the Bureau of Pensions, Patent Office, Bureau of +Education, Geological Survey, Reclamation Service, and Bureau of +Mines. + +It was, therefore, with something of the spirit of a drafted man +that Lane set his face toward his new work. Members of his +immediate family recall days of depression after the appointment +first came, but the cordial response of the press of the country +to his appointment, the flooding in of many hundreds of letters +and telegrams of congratulation, and President Wilson's own +cordiality--lifted Lane's mood to its normal hopefulness. + +In relating the history of the appointment itself, Arthur W. Page, +of the World's Work, writes, after talking with E. M. House of the +matter, "House recommended Lane, as perhaps the one man available, +adapted to any Cabinet position from Secretary of State down. At +one time Lane was slated for the War Department, at another time +another department and finally placed as Secretary of the Interior +because being a good conservationist, as a Western man he could +promote conservation with more tact and less criticism than an +Eastern man." + +Confronted by a complex and definite task, Lane's mind quickened +to the attack. The situation of the Indian seized his sympathy. In +his first official report he wrote, "That the Indian is confused +in mind as to his status and very much at sea as to our ultimate +purpose toward him is not surprising. For a hundred years he has +been spun round like a blindfolded child in a game of blindman's +buff. Treated as an enemy at first, overcome, driven from his +lands, negotiated with most formally as an independent nation, +given by treaty a distinct boundary which was never to be changed +while water runs and grass grows,' he later found himself pushed +beyond that boundary line, negotiated with again, and then set +down upon a reservation, half captive, half protege." + +With this at heart Lane wrote a letter of vigorous appeal to John +H. Wigmore to become his First Assistant. + + + +To John H. Wigmore + +Washington, March 9,1913 + +MY DEAR JOHN,--I want you as my First Assistant. It is absolutely +essential that I should have you!! I am aiming to gather around me +the largest men whom I can secure and to form a cabinet of equals. +Four years of this life here would bring a great deal of +satisfaction to you. You would meet the distinguished men of the +world. It is the center of all the great law movements of the +world,--for peace, international arbitration, reform in procedure, +and such matters. Beside that, we have two or three of the +greatest problems to meet and solve that have ever been presented +to the American people. First in the public mind is the land +problem. How can we develop our lands and yet save the interest of +the Nation in them? Second, and I think perhaps this should be +first, is the Indian problem. Here we have thousands of Indians, +as large a population as composes some of the States, owning +hundreds of millions of dollars worth of property which is rapidly +rising in value. I am their guardian. I must see that they are +protected. They have schools over which we have absolute control-- +the question of teachers that they are to have, the question of +the kind of education that they are to be given, the question of +industry that they are to pursue. Their morals, I understand, are +in a frightful state, largely owing to our negligence and the lack +of enforcement of our laws. We can save a great people; and the +First Assistant has this matter as his special care. I do not know +of any place in the United States which calls for as much wisdom +and for as great a soul as this particular job. I will give you +men under you over whom you will have entire control and who will +be to your liking. I will give you men to sit beside you at the +table who will be of your own class. You can do more good in four +years in this place than you can possibly do in forty where you +are now. There are a lot of men who can teach law, and lots of men +who can write the philosophy of the law, but there are few men who +can put the spirit of righteousness into the business, social, and +educational affairs of an entire race. Think of that work! Beside +that you have the constructive work in framing and helping to +frame a line of policy as to the disposition of our national +lands--the opening of Alaska. + +Now, John, I have looked over the entire United States and you are +the only man that I want. The salary is five thousand a year. You +can live on that here without embarrassment. The President will be +delighted to have you, and you will find him treating you with the +same consideration and giving you the same dignity that he does +all the members of his Cabinet; all the Supreme Court. I have +never seen a man more considerate, more reasonable. Dr. Houston, +who has become Secretary of Agriculture, left Washington +University in St. Louis, under an arrangement by which he can +return at the end of his term. You, doubtless, could make a +similar arrangement, and if you wish to, you will have plenty of +opportunity to give one or two courses of lectures in the +University during the year, + +I have thought seriously of going out to see you, but with Cabinet +conditions as they are it is impossible, for we are passing upon +important questions now that prevent that. I am very selfish in +urging you to this, but I am also giving you an opportunity to do +work that will be more congenial than any you have ever done, and +to be with a more congenial lot of people. If there is any doubt +in your mind let me know, but don't say "No" to me. The country +needs you. You have done a great work. There is nothing higher to +be done in your line. Now come here and help in a great +constructive policy. Sincerely and affectionately, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + +To Walter H. Page Worlds Work + +Washington, March 12, 1918 + +MY DEAR PAGE,--I have just now seen your letter of March 2nd, else +it would have had earlier recognition. + +The President is the most charming man imaginable to work with. +Most of us in politics have been used to being lied about, but +there has been a particularly active set of liars engaged in +giving the country the impression that W. W. was what we call out +West a "cold nose." He is the most sympathetic, cordial and +considerate presiding officer that can be imagined. And he sees so +clearly. He has no fog in his brain. + +As you perhaps know, I didn't want to go into the Cabinet, but I +am delighted that I was given the opportunity and accepted it, +because of the personal relationship; and I think all the Cabinet +feel the way that I do. If we can't make this thing a success, the +Democratic Party is absolutely gone, and entirely useless. + +I hope next time you are down here I shall see you. Cordially +yours, FRANKLIN K LANE + + + +To Edwin Alderman President, University of Virginia + +Washington, March 17,1913 + +MY DEAR DR. ALDERMAN,--Your letter of the 14th gives me +exceptional satisfaction, ... because it brings with it extremely +good news. You say you will win in your fight [Footnote: After a +long serious illness Dr. Alderman was regaining health.] and that +rejoices me even more than it does to be told of the real +satisfaction that you get out of my appointment. + +It was a surprise to me. It came at the last minute. I had to +introduce myself to the President-elect the day before the +inauguration. I find him consideration itself in Cabinet meetings +and he never seems to be groping. In my mental processes I find +myself constantly like a man climbing a mountain, pushing through +belts of fog, but his way seems clear and definite. + +You certainly would feel at home around the Cabinet table, and all +of us would rejoice to see you there. ... I shall take your note +home to Mrs. Lane and show it to her with much pride. ... +Sincerely yours, FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + +To Theodore Roosevelt + +Washington, March 24, 1913 + +MY DEAR COLONEL,--I have received a great many hundred letters, +but I think I can honestly say that no other one has given me the +pleasure that yours has. I am struggling hard to get the reins of +this six-horse team in my hands and every day I feel more acutely +the weight of the responsibility that I bear. The last few weeks +have been put in being interviewed by Senators and Congressmen, +who wish to name men for the few positions in the office. It has +been rather enjoyable, and they have been fair and by no means +peremptory. The hardest place I have to fill is that of +Commissioner of Indian Affairs. How absurd to try to get a man to +handle the interests of an entire race, owning a thousand million +dollars' worth of property, and have to offer a salary of $5,000 a +year! + +I hope that you will feel free to give me the benefit of any +advice as to the conduct of my department that may happen to come +to you out of your great experience. As always, faithfully yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + +TO LAWRENCE F. ABBOTT OUTLOOK + +Washington, April 9, 1913 + +MY DEAR LAWRENCE,--The Japanese are reducing the value of +California lands by buying a piece in a picked valley, paying any +price that is demanded. They swarm then over this particular piece +of property until they reduce the value of all the adjacent land. +No one wishes to be near them; with the result that they buy or +lease the adjoining land, and so they radiate from this center +until now they have possession of some of the best valleys. Really +the influx of the Japanese is quite as dangerous as that of the +Chinese. The proposed legislation in California is not to exclude +Japanese alone, but to make it impossible for any alien to own +land, at least until he declares his intention to become a +citizen. Inasmuch, of course, as Orientals can not become +citizens, this disbars them from owning land. + +There is, of course, as in all things Californian, a good deal of +hysteria over this matter, and I think your Progressive friends +are trying to put the Democrats in a bit of a hole by making it +appear that the Democrats are being influenced by the Federal +Government to take a more conservative course than the +Progressives desire. + +My information is that some restrictive legislation will be passed +by the legislature, no matter what Japan's attitude may be, but +Japan's face will be saved and every need met if the legislation +is general in terms. ... + + + +April 20, 1913 + +... I do not like the sudden turn that Johnson seems to have taken +in the last day or two but I still have faith that those people +out there will do the sensible thing and allow us to save Japan's +face while very properly excluding the Japanese from owning land +in California; and I have no objection whatever to excluding all +the Englishmen and Scotchmen who flock in there without any +intention of becoming citizens. As always, yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + +TO WILLIAM M. BOLE GREAT FALLS TRIBUNE + +Washington, May 26, 1913 + +MY DEAR MR. BOLE,--That is just the kind of a letter that I want +and that is helpful to me. As to the settler, I have one policy-- +to make it as easy as possible under the law for the bonafide +settler to get a home, and to make it just as difficult as +possible for the dummy entryman to get land, which he will sell +out to monopolies. These Western lands are needed for homes for +the people, not as a basis of speculation. + +As to the Reclamation Service ... There really was a very bad +showing made by the Montana projects. It was disheartening to feel +that we had spent so many million dollars and that the Government +was looked upon as a bunko sharp who had brought people into +Montana where they were slowly starving to death. The Government +has returned to Montana almost as much as her public lands have +yielded, whereas in other states, like Oregon and California, less +than a quarter of the amount they have yielded has been returned +to them. + +Ever since I came here Senators and Congressmen have been +overwhelming me with curses upon the Reclamation Service, and I +thought I ought to find out for myself just what the facts were. I +gave every one a chance to tell his story. Now I am being +overwhelmed with protests against the discontinuance of this work. +Every state is insisting that I shall now start up some new +enterprises or continue some old ones, and I do not know where the +money is going to come from. We are bound to be short of funds +even to continue existing work, if we can get no money out of +projects that are really under way, and there seems to be a +unanimity of opinion among Western Senators and Congressmen that +payment by the settlers must be postponed, because they are having +a hard enough time as it now is. I certainly am not going to be a +party to gold-bricking the poor devil of a farmer who has been +told by everybody that he is being charged twice as much as he +ought to be charged by the Government ... Cordially yours, + +FRANKLIN K LANE + + + +To Fairfax Harrison + +Washington, June 10, 1913 + +MY DEAR MR. HARRISON,--I have not had a minute for a personal +letter in a month. Hence my shabbiness toward you. Condorcet's Vie +de Turgot, I am sorry to say, I have not read. Does he say +anything as to how to make a reclamation project pay, or as to +what is the best method of teaching Indians, or how much work a +homesteader should do on his land before being entitled to patent? +These are the great and momentous questions that fill my mind. + +I had thought perhaps that as a member of the Cabinet I would have +an opportunity, say once a month or so, to think upon questions of +statecraft and policy, but I find myself locked in a cocoon--no +wings and no chance for wings to grow. + +As to my inability to get to you of a Sunday, let me tell you that +that is the one day when somewhat undisturbed I catch up with the +week's work. "Ah, what a weary travel is our act, here, there and +back again to win some prize." + +I hope some of these nights to be able to make you acquainted with +some of my colleagues. They are a charming lot. Every one has a +sense of humor and as little partisanship as possible, and still +bear the title of Democrat. You would enjoy every one of them, +including Bryan, who is fundamentally good. + +With kindest regards, cordially yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + +To Frank Reese + +Washington, July 2, 1913 + +MY DEAR FRANK,--I am delighted to get your letter and to know that +I still stand well with my California friends, especially +yourself, but I am not going to run for United States Senator. Of +course, I am not making a virtue of not running, and I certainly +am gratified to know that you at least think that I could be +elected. My work here is just as interesting as any work that a +Senator has. Under this primary system I do not believe there is +any chance for a man who has not got a great deal of money. The +candidate must devote practically a year of his time to make the +race, must be able to support his family and himself in the +meantime. ... Now, when I knew you first I had no money. I have +the same amount to-day, so that you see there is no possibility of +my getting into such a fight. Furthermore, we have Phelan as a +candidate, and it seems to me he ought to be acceptable. There was +also some talk of Patton getting into the race, and he is a good +man. + +Thankfully and cordially yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + +Early in July, 1913, Lane started on a tour of investigation of +National Reclamation projects, Indian reservations and National +Parks. With him went Adolph C. Miller, who had become the Director +of the Bureau of National Parks in May. They turned to the +Northwest, beginning in Minnesota and then proceeding to Montana, +Wyoming, and Washington. That he might be thoroughly informed as +to conditions in each place, Lane sent ahead of him an old friend +and trusted employee, William A. Ryan, whose part it was to go +over each project or reservation and find what the causes for +complaint were, where poor work had been done, what groups and +individuals were dissatisfied, and why. In no way was William Ryan +to let it be suspected that he was in any way identified with the +Department of the Interior. Traveling in this way, two weeks ahead +of the Secretary, Ryan was able to put a complete report of each +project in Lane's hands some time before he arrived, so that the +Secretary was thoroughly familiar with all complaints and +conditions before he was met on the train by the representatives +of the Department, who naturally wished to show him only the best +work. In addition to this, Lane everywhere held public meetings, +inviting all settlers to meet him and make their complaints. + +This plan enabled him to cover the ground touched by his +Department in a comparatively short time. He traveled by night, +wherever possible, and interviewed all those who wished to see him +upon business from seven in the morning until twelve or one at +night. Sometimes, in a day, he went a hundred and fifty miles in +an automobile, spoke to many groups of farmers in different +places, heard their complaints against the Department, and told +them what the Government was trying to do for them. + +During this first tour of inspection Lane reached Portland, +Oregon, the latter part of August, and received a telegram from +the President asking him to go directly to Denver, there to +represent the President and address the Conference of Governors, +on August 26th. + +Lane left the completion of the proposed itinerary of +investigation, in Oregon, to Miller and turned back to Colorado. +He made the opening address at the Governors' Conference and then +rejoined his party in San Francisco, the first of September. Here, +after several days of conferences and speeches, while standing in +the sun reviewing the Admission Day parade of the Native Sons, he +collapsed. This proved to be an attack of the angina pectoris +which, several years later, returned with violence. For three +weeks he was ill, but at the end of that time, against the +doctor's orders, he insisted upon returning to Washington to his +work. + + + +To Mark Sullivan Collier's Weekly + +Washington, November 6, 1913 + +MY DEAR SULLIVAN,--I want to thank you for your sympathetic notice +regarding my hard luck out in California, and to let you know that +I am in just as good shape now as I have been for twenty years. + +[Illustration with caption: FRANKLIN K. LANE, MRS. LANE, MRS. +MILLER, AND ADOLPH C. MILLER] + +At the end of your little comment you spoke of conditions in the +lower grades of the Department as being almost as bad as if they +were corrupt. I have not your article before me, but I think this +is the meat of it. I wish you would tell me just what you mean by +this. I know that lots of things come to men like you that do not +reach my ears, although I have retained pretty well my old +newspaper faculty of smoking things out. + +If we have anything here that is almost rotten, I want to know it +before it gets thoroughly rotten. I have found a lot of things +that were wrong, and have set most of them right. There has +already been a great improvement; for instance, in Indian +affairs. Under the last Administration, for example, the highest +bid on 200,000 acres of Indian oil lands was one-eighth royalty +and a bonus of one dollar an acre. We recently leased 10,000 of +these same acres at one-sixth royalty and a bonus of $500,000. + +I have had an examination made into probate matters, in Oklahoma, +and found an appalling condition of things. In one county where +there are six thousand probate cases pending, all involving the +interests of Indian minors, the guardians in three thousand cases +were delinquent in filing reports, and otherwise in complying with +the law. This week I have arranged with the Five Civilized Tribes +to institute a cooperative method of checking up all of these +accounts and giving them personal consideration; especially +appointing an attorney to look after the interests of these minors +in each of the counties in eastern Oklahoma. We are to aid the +Oklahoma courts in cleaning up the State. + +Let me have any facts that will be of help. Cordially yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + +To Edward M. House + +Washington, November 19, 1913 + +MY DEAR COLONEL,--I had a call last Sunday morning from Mr. Blank +of New York, who came to feel me out on the reorganization of the +Democratic party in New York City, with particular reference to +the question of how to treat one William R. Hearst ... + +... [He] has been working for some years, evidently in more or +less close but indirect alliance with Hearst, through Clarence +Shearn and a man named O'Reilly, who is Hearst's political +secretary. In re-creating the Democratic organization in New York, +he felt it necessary to take Hearst's assistance. + +I was perfectly frank with him, saying that Hearst would be +pleased no doubt to reorganize a new Tammany Hall, or any other +Democratic organization, provided he could run it. He would stand +in with anybody and be as gentle as a queen dove for the purpose +of destroying the existing organization, but that he was a very +overbearing and arbitrary man, with whom no one could work in +creating a new organization, unless he regarded himself as an +employee of Hearst. Moreover, I did not see how it was possible to +take Hearst and his crowd, even on a minority basis, so long as +they were fighting the Administration, and that I understood +Hearst had recently more emphatically than ever read himself out +of the Democratic Party. I told Blank that ... I should not expect +any cooperation between the Federal Government and an organization +in which Hearst was a factor. However, I said that I knew nothing +whatever as to the feeling of any member of the Cabinet or the +President respecting the matter, because I had not discussed the +matter with them. + +... I am writing this because I want you to know what is going on. +Evidently Blank came over from New York on the midnight train and +had no other business here except to see me, and perhaps others, +on this matter. ... Cordially yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + +When President Wilson took Franklin K. Lane from the Interstate +Commerce Commission to put him in his Cabinet there arose the +question of his successor, on the Commission. After consulting +Lane, the President appointed in his place, John Marble, also of +California. A few months after his appointment Mr. Marble died +suddenly, and Lane lost one of his closest friends. + + + +To James H. Barry San Francisco Star + +Washington, December 1, 1913 + +MY DEAR JIM,--I didn't get your telegram until Monday, but I had +taken care of you in the same way that I took care of myself, in +regard to flowers. I bought three bunches, one for you, one for +Mrs. Lane, and one for myself. + +The most surprising thing, my dear Jim, is the manner in which +Mrs. Marble has taken John's death. We took her to our house, +where the morning after his death she told me that she had talked +with him; that he had chided her on breaking down constantly. +Since then, both morning and evening, she says she has seen him +and talked with him. The result is a spirit on her part almost of +gayety, at times. She is really reconciled to his going, because +he has told her that it was best and that he has other work to do. + +I don't know what to say of all this. It mystifies me. It has +tended greatly to support me against the depth of sorrow which I +felt at the beginning. There is no evidence of hysteria on her +part, whatever. She dictated to Mrs. Lane, who was sitting beside +her, some of the things that John said to her. It certainly is a +glorious belief, at such a time, and I am not prepared to say that +it is not so, and that its manifestations are not real. + +... It is an impossible thing to get a man to take his place, +either on the Commission or in our hearts. I believe that he +worked himself to death ... Affectionately yours, + +F. K. L. + + + +To Edward F. Adams + +Washington, January 10, 1914 + +MY DEAR MR. ADAMS,-- ... Our most difficult problem is that of +water. Colorado, for instance, claims that all of the water that +falls within her borders can be used and should be used +exclusively for the development of Colorado lands. Southern +California has made a protest against my giving rights of way in +the upper reaches of the Colorado for the diversion of water on to +Colorado lands saying that Imperial Valley is entitled to the full +normal flow of the Colorado. The group of men who hold land in +Mexico south of the Imperial Valley make the same claim. Arizona +wishes to have a large part of this water used on her soil, and +the people of Colorado are divided as to whether the water should +be carried over on to the eastern side of the Rockies or allowed +to flow down in its natural channel on the western side. + +We have a similar trouble as to the Rio Grande, which rises in +Colorado, where the Coloradans claim all the water can be used and +can be put to the highest beneficial use. New Mexico, Texas, and +Old Mexico all claim their right to the water for all kinds of +purposes. If we recognize Colorado's full claim there is probably +enough water in Colorado to irrigate all of her soil, but portions +of Wyoming, Nebraska, Arkansas, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and +Utah would remain desert. + +If you can tell me how to solve this problem so as to recognize +the right that you claim Colorado has, and to maintain the rights +that the Federal Government and the adjoining States have, I shall +certainly be deeply grateful. + +With all good wishes for the New Year, believe me as always, +affectionately yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + +The Hon. Woodrow Wilson The White House + +Washington, March 11, 1914 + +MY DEAR MR. PRESIDENT,--I have your note of yesterday referring to +me the correspondence between yourself and the Civil Service +Commission on the question of the participation of women Civil +Service employees in woman suffrage organizations. I think perhaps +I am a prejudiced partisan in this matter for I believe that the +women should have the right to agitate for the suffrage. +Furthermore, I think they are going to get the suffrage, and that +it would be politically unwise for the administration to create +the impression that it was attempting to block the movement. I +should think it the part of wisdom for you personally to make the +announcement that women Civil Service employees will be protected +in the right to join woman suffrage organizations and to +participate in woman suffrage parades or meetings. This is +practically what the Civil Service Commission says, but in a more +careful, lawyer-like manner, whereas whatever is said should be +said in a rather robust, forthright style. The real thing that we +are after in making regulations as to political activity is to +keep those who are in the employ of the Government from using +their positions to further their personal ends or to serve some +political party. What they may do as individuals outside of the +Government offices is none of our business, so long as they do +nothing toward breaking it down as a merit service, do not +discredit the service, or render themselves unfit for it ... + +The spoils system is a combination of gratitude and blackmail. The +merit system is an attempt to secure efficiency without +recognizing friendship or fear. We can safely allow the +participation of merit system employees in an agitation so long as +they do not go to the point where official advantage may be had +through the agitation by securing a reward through party success +... + +I believe you might well make a statement of two or three hundred +words in which you could state your decision with the philosophy +that underlies it, in such a manner as to make the women +understand that you are taking a liberal attitude and yet +protecting the full spirit of the Civil Service idea. Cordially +yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + +In March 1914, for the second time, Lane was invited to the +University of California to receive a degree. This was an honor +from his Alma Mater that he greatly desired. The previous year, +the reorganization of his Department and the pressure of new work, +had made it impossible for him to leave Washington. But this year +he had promised to go. + +To Benjamin Ide Wheeler President, University of California + +Washington, 13 [March, 1914] [The day I was to be with you.] + +MY DEAR DOCTOR,--I was prepared to leave last Friday--tickets, +reservations all secured. I had made a mighty effort. My +conservation bills were not all out of Committee but I had +arranged to get them out. The House was to caucus and the Senate +to confer, and I had written pleading letters and made my prayers +in person that my bills should be included in the program. On +Thursday, the War Department refused the use of an engineer for +the Alaskan railroad. In one day I drafted and secured the passage +of a joint resolution giving me the man I wanted. The war scare +had subsided and I had seen the Mediators who said that nothing +would be doing for two weeks. So I went to the Cabinet meeting +prepared to say goodbye. Then came a bomb--two European powers +served notice that they would hold us responsible for what was +likely to happen in Mexico City upon the incoming of Zapata and +Villa, and wanted to know how prepared we were. We left the +Cabinet divided as to what should be done. A group of us met in +the afternoon and decided to ask for another meeting. I carried +the message. The reply was that the matter must be held over till +the next meeting, and meanwhile we were asked to suggest a +program. Then I sent my message to you. I have told this to no one +but Anne. You deserve no less than the fullest statement from me. +Please treat it as the most sacred of secrets. Always gratefully +yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + +The following letter, written about a year after Lane's entry into +the Cabinet, shows what, in the course of a year, he had been able +to accomplish in building the men of his heterogeneous department +into a cooperative social unit by means of what he called his +"Land Cabinet" and the Home Club. + + + +To Albert Shaw Review of Reviews + +Washington, April 8,1914 + +MY DEAR MR. SHAW,--Of course I saw the Review for April before +your copies arrived, for somebody was good enough to tell me that +there was a good word in it for me, and no matter how busy I am I +always manage to read a boost ... + +You ask what I am doing to bring about team-work in the +Department. Many things. As you probably don't know, this has been +a rather disjointed Department. It was intended originally that it +should be called the Home Department, and its Secretary the +Secretary for Home Affairs. How we come to have some of the +bureaus I don't know. Patents and Pensions, for instance, would +not seem to have a very intimate connection with Indians and +Irrigation. Education and Public Lands, the hot springs of +Arkansas, and the asylum for the insane for the District of +Columbia do not appear to have any natural affiliation. The result +has been that the bureaus have stood up as independent entities, +and I have sought to bring them together, centering in this +office. + +One of the first things I did was to form what is called a Land +Cabinet, made up of the Assistant Secretaries, the Commissioner of +the Land Office, and the Director of the Geological Survey. We +meet every Monday afternoon and go over our problems together. The +Reclamation Commission is another organization of a similar sort, +and we have constant conferences between the heads of bureaus +which have to do with different branches of Indian work, lands, +irrigation, and pensions. + +Some time ago in order to develop greater good feeling between the +heads of the bureaus we organized a noonday mess, at which all the +chiefs of bureaus and most of their assistants take their luncheon +... + +But the largest work, I think, in the way of promoting the right +kind of spirit within the Department was the organization of the +Home Club. This is a purely social institution, which the members +themselves maintain. We have now some seventeen hundred members, +all pay the same initiation fee and the same dues, and all meet +upon a common ground in the club. Our club house is one of the +finest old mansions in this city, formerly the residence of +Schuyler Colfax ... It is a four-story building in LaFayette +Square, within a half a block of the White House. This house we +have furnished ourselves in very comfortable shape without the +help of a dollar from the outside, and we maintain it upon dues of +fifty cents a month. Each night during the week we have some form +of entertainment in the club--moving pictures, or a lecture, or a +dance, or a musicale. + +I organized this club for the purpose of showing to these people +of moderate salaries what could be done by cooperation. It is +managed entirely by the members of the Department. There is no +caste line or snobbery in the institution, and for the first time +the people in the different bureaus are becoming acquainted with +each other, and enjoy the opportunities of club life. The idea +should be extended. We should have in the city of Washington a +great service club, covering a block of land, containing fifteen +or twenty thousand members, in which for a trifle per month we +could get all of the advantages of the finest social and athletic +club that New York contains. In the Home Club we have a billiard +room, card rooms, a library, and a suite of rooms especially set +aside for the ladies. We are fitting up one of the larger rooms as +a gymnasium for the young men and boys, and expect to have bowling +alleys, and possible tennis courts on a near-by lot. In this way I +meet many of those who work with me, whom I never would see +otherwise, and from the amount of work that the Department is +doing, which is increasing, I am quite satisfied that it has +helped to make the Department more efficient. Cordially yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + +To Charles K. Field Sunset Magazine + +Washington, April 18, 1914 + +MY BEAR CHARLES,-- ... My picture on the cover of the May Sunset +is altogether the best one I have had taken for some time, and the +Democratic donkey is encouragingly fat. + +I wish in some way it were possible to impress upon our Western +Senators and Congressmen the advisability of putting through the +bills that I have before Congress in line with my report--a +general leasing bill, under which coal, oil, and phosphate lands +could be developed by lease, and a water power bill. As it is now, +a man runs the risk of going to jail to get a piece of coal land +that is big enough to work; and the very bad situation in the oil +field in California is entirely due to the inapplicability of our +oil land laws. We have a couple of million acres of good phosphate +lands withdrawn, totally undeveloped because no one can get hold +of them, and no capital will go into our Western power sites +because we can give at present only a revocable permit, whereas +capital wants the certainty of a fixed term. + +I have tried to draft laws, copies of which I inclose, that are +the best possible under the circumstances. I mean by that, that +they are reasonable and will be passed by Congress if the West can +only show a little interest in them, but so far the men who have +been fighting them are Westerners. Why? For no better reason than +that these gentlemen are in favor of having all of the public +lands turned over to the states. It is useless to argue this +question as to whether it is right or wrong, because Congress +would never do it, so that opposition to these bills is simply +opposition to further development of the West. + +Now if you can punch these people up a bit in some way and make +them understand that the West should want to go ahead, rather than +block development for all time, ... you will be rendering a public +service. + +With these few remarks I submit the matter to your prayerful +consideration. As always, cordially yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + +To Frederic J. Lane + +Washington, April 27, 1914 + +MY DEAR FRITZ,--I have just received your letter in relation to +Stuart. I sent you a letter on Saturday saying that Daniels was +going to recommend him. Of course, if he can't pass the physical +examination that is the end of it, but I would let him try ... + +Ned is a great deal like Stuart--smart and lazy, but you know that +all boys can't be expected to come up to the ideal conduct of +their fathers at sixteen and eighteen. They go through life a damn +sight more human. I don't see any reason why a fellow should work +if he can get along without it, and the trouble is that your boy +is spoiled by you, and my boy is spoiled by his mother! You have +raised Stuart on the theory that he was a millionaire's son and, +as such, he can't take life very seriously. + +I am figuring now on getting Ned off to some boarding-school where +he will have more discipline than I can give him. The truth is +that both of us, having had rather a prosaic Christian bringing +up, have cultivated the idea in our youngsters that it is a good +thing to be a sport, and the aforesaid youngsters are living up to +it. If there was a school in the country where they taught boys +the different kinds of trees, and the different rocks and flowers, +birds, and fish, with some good sense, and American history, I +would like to send Ned to it ... Affectionately yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + +To Edward E. Leake + +Treasury Department + +San Francisco, California + +Washington, May 26, 1914. + +MY DEAR ED,--I have yours of the 21st. I know that you are +sincere, old man, when you tempt me with the governorship, and you +write in such a winning manner that my blood quickens, but really +it is quite out of the question. I want to see California lined up +strongly on the Democratic side. I also want to see Phelan come to +the Senate and I am ready to do all that I can to help out the old +State, but my work is cut out for me here and until I have put +over some of the things that I believe will benefit the West as a +whole, I do not believe I should relinquish the reins of this +particular portfolio. It is an honor to me, a big one, to be +considered by my friends for the governorship and I know that they +would stand gallantly behind me, and when I send this negative +answer, you must believe me when I say that I send it with +considerable regret. + +I shall be very glad to see you at this end, when you are here, +and you need no excuse to camp on my doorstep. + +Cordially yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + +To William R. Wheeler + +Washington, June 6, 1914 + +MY DEAR BILL,--I am extremely sorry to hear of your being robbed. +That comes from being wealthy. Poor Lady Alice Isabel! How +outraged and disconsolate she must be! If that diamond tiara I +gave her is gone tell her I will replace it the first time I visit +Tiffany's. Of course this only holds good as to the one I gave +her. ... You know, I have often wondered if a burglar should get +into our house what he would find worth taking away. I have some +small burglary insurance on my house, but this was so I could turn +over and sleep without coming down stairs with a shotgun. What +were you doing, going to Sacramento, anyway? Any fellow who goes +to Sacramento gets into trouble. That is the home of Diggs, +Caminetti, and Hiram Johnson. I see that Johnson is going to be +re-elected Governor, and that the other two are going to jail. I +hope that all three will lead better lives in the future. + +Well, old man, if you need a new suit of clothes or anything in +the line of underwear, let me know. I have gotten to the point +where I have been wearing what Ned does not take, and I will pass +some of them along to you. ... + +There is nothing new here. I fear that I shall not get up to +Alaska, as I promised myself, for Congress will be in session for +some time, and I am striving desperately to get my conservation +bills through. Moreover, just what phase the Mexican situation +will take cannot be foreseen, from day to day. I was broken- +hearted at not being able to get out to California, but just at +that particular time--while I was about to go, tickets and +everything purchased--the President called upon me to do something +which held me back. The toll bills will probably pass next week, +by a majority of nine. Then the trust bills will come up in the +Senate and every man will have to make a speech. ... + +Cordially yours, + +F. K. L. + + + +The next letter has been included because it shows Lane's direct +and unequivocal method when defending a subordinate whom he +thought unfairly criticized. He quoted, and in office practised, +Roosevelt's maxim of giving a man his fullest support as long as +he thought him worthy to be entrusted with public business. The +names are omitted here for obvious reasons. + + + +To-- + +Washington, June 10, 1914 + +MY DEAR BILLY,--I have your letter of June 9th, relating to summer +residence homesteads, and referring sneeringly several times to +Blank. I wonder if you realize that Blank is my appointee and my +friend. [He] has done you no wrong, and he intends to do the +public no wrong. He is as public-spirited as you are, but you +differ with him as to certain phases of our land policy, though +not so widely as you yourself think. Is that any reason why you +should discredit him? Is it not possible for men to differ with +you on questions of public policy without being crooks? Your talk +has started Chicago talking; nothing definite, just whispers. Is +this fair to Blank? Is it fair to me? ... Is the test of a man's +public usefulness decided by his views as to whether the desert +lands should be leased or homesteaded? + +I am saying this to you in the utmost friendliness, because I +think that your attitude is not worthy of your own ideal of +yourself, and it certainly does not comport with my ideal of you, +which I very much wish to hold. Surely honest men may differ as to +whether grazing lands should be leased, and if Blank is not honest +then it is your duty to the public service and to me to show this +fact. + +At the bottom of your letter you say, "This report will introduce +you to Mr. Blank." Now it just so happens that that line should +read "This report will introduce you to Mr. Lane," for I am +responsible for that report. It was not written until after he had +consulted with me, and I dictated an outline of its terms. ... As +always, cordially yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + To his Brother on his Birthday + +Washington, [August, 1914] + +... This is somewhere around your birthday time, isn't it? Well, +if it is, you are about forty-nine years of age and I look upon +you as the one real philosopher that I know. I'd trade all that I +have by way of honors and office for the nobility and serenity of +your character. You feel that you have not done enough for the +world. So do we all. But you have done far more than most of us, +for you have proved your own soul. You have made a soul. You have +taught some of us what a real man may be in this devilish world of +selfishness. What other man of your acquaintance has the affection +of men who know him for the nobility of his nature? I don't know +one. You know many who are lovable, like--sympathetic like myself, +brilliant, sweet-tempered,--lots of them. But who are the noble +ones? Who look at all things asking only, "What is worthy?" And +doing that thing only. You tell the world that you will not +conform to all its littlenesses. That, I haven't at all the +courage to do. You tell the world that you are not willing to feed +your vanity with your everlasting soul. Where are the rest of us, +judged by that test? + +Ah, my dear boy, you have inspired many a fellow you don't know +anything about, with a desire to emulate you, and always to +emulate something that is genuine and big in you--not a trick of +speech or a small quality of mind or manner. I envy you--and so do +many. Nancy could tell you why you are worth while. She knows the +genuine from the spurious. She knows the metal that rings true +when tests come. + +So there, ... put all this inside of your smooth noddle and take a +drink to me--a drink of "cald, cald water." + +And I just want you to understand that I am in no self- +deprecatory mood right now, for I am in my office at eight o'clock +of a Saturday evening, working away with all my might on some +damned land cases, having had a dinner at my desk, consisting of +two shredded-wheat biscuits with milk, and one pear. Now you can +realize what a virtuous, self-appreciative mood I am in. No man +denies himself dinner for the sake of work without being really +vain. + +And what is this I hear about your having neuritis and going to +the hospital? Damn these nerves, I say! Damn them! I have to +swelter here because I can't let an electric fan play on my face, +nor near me, without getting neuralgia. And swelter is the word, +for it has been 104-5 degrees, with humidity, to boot, this week. + +Nerves--that means a wireless system, keen to perceive, to feel, +to know the things hidden to the mass. I look forward to years of +torture with the accursed things. The only thing that relieves, +and of course it does not cure, is osteopathy, stimulating the +nerve where it enters the spine. But never let them touch the sore +place. That is fatal. It raises all the devils and they begin +scraping on the strings at once. + +Well, by the time this reaches you I hope you will be quite a bit +fitter. Avoid strain. Don't lift. Don't carry. If you stretch the +infernal wires they curl up and squeal. + +May the God of Things as they Are be good to you. ... Mother may +know all about us. How I wish I could know that it was so. You +have the philosophy that says--"Well, if it is best, she does." I +wish I had it. My God, how I do cling to what scraps of faith I +have and put them together to make a cap for my poor head. With +all the love I have. + +Frank + + To Cordenio Severance + +Washington, September 24,1914 + +My dear Cordy,--I have just received your note. Why don't you come +down here and spend three or four days resting up? Nancy and Anne +will be delighted to cart you around in the victoria and show you +all the beautiful trees and a sunset or two, and we will give you +some home cooking and put you on your feet, and then you will have +an opportunity to beg forgiveness for not having gone up to Essex. +I am mighty sorry that you have been ill. If we had had the +faintest notion that you were, we would have stayed in New York to +see you, but as it was we came down on the Albany boat and we went +directly from the boat to the train. I think that we would have +stopped over two or three hours and seen you anyway if it had not +been for the presence of our dog, who was regarded by the women as +the most important member of the family. + +Did you ever travel with a dog? We came down through Lake George, +and the Secretary of the Interior sat on a beer box in the prow of +the steamship, surrounded by automobiles and kerosine oil cans and +cooks and roustabouts, because they would not let a dog go on the +salon deck. Only my sense of humor saved me from beating my wife +and child, and throwing the dog overboard. On the train some +member of the family had to stay with the dog and hold his paw +while he was in the baggage car. The trouble with you and me is +that we are not ugly enough to receive such attention. If we had +undershot jaws and projecting teeth and no nose, we probably would +be regarded with greater tenderness and attention. + +Ned is at Phillips-Exeter and is the most homesick kid you ever +heard of. He writes two letters a day and has sent for his Bible, +and tells us he is going to church. If that is no evidence, then I +am no judge of a psychological state. + +Come on down. Faithfully yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + +To Hon. Woodrow Wilson + +The White House + +Washington, October 1, 1914 + +DEAR MR. PRESIDENT,--Mother Jones called on me yesterday and I had +a very interesting and enjoyable chat with her. During our talk +some reference was made to the sterling qualities of your +Secretary of Labor, for whom she entertains the highest regard. +She told me this little story about him:-- + +One evening sometime ago, when there was a strike of some workmen +in Secretary Wilson's town, she was in the Secretary's home +waiting to see him. The Secretary was engaged in another room with +representatives of those opposed to the strikers, and she +overheard their talk. One of the men said, "Mr. Wilson, you have a +mortgage on this house, I believe." + +The reply was in the affirmative. + +"Then," said the speaker, "if you will see that this strike is +called away from our neighborhood--we don't ask you to terminate +it, but merely to see that the strikers leave our town--if you +will do this, we will take pleasure in presenting you with a large +purse and also in wiping off the mortgage on your home." + +Mr. Wilson arose, his voice trembling and his arm lifted, and +said, "You gentlemen are in my house. If you come as friends and +as gentlemen, all of the hospitalities that this home has to offer +are yours. But if you come here to bribe me to break faith with my +people, who trust me and whom I represent, there is the door, and +I wish you to leave immediately." + +Mother Jones concluded by saying, "Mr. Wilson never tells this +story, but I heard it with my own ears, and I know what a real man +he is." + +I wish that you could have heard the story yourself. I am telling +it to you now, for I know how pleased you will be to hear of it, +even in this indirect way. Faithfully yours, FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + +On November 30, 1914 Colonel Roosevelt wrote to Lane saying,-- + +"That's a mighty fine poem on Uncle Sam's Thanksgiving! I wish you +would give me a chance to see you sometime. + +"I do not know Mr. Garrison and perhaps he would resent my saying +that I think he has managed his Department excellently; but if you +think he would not resent it, pray tell him so. I hear nothing but +good of you--but if I did hear anything else I should not pay any +heed to it. ..." + + + +To Theodore Roosevelt + +Washington, December 3, 1914 + +MY DEAR COLONEL,--I have just received your note of November 30th, +and I am very much gratified at your reference to my Thanksgiving +lines. You may be interested in knowing that the Home Club, before +which I read these lines, is an institution that I organized since +becoming Secretary, for the officers and employees of my +Department. ... + +You may rest assured that I shall convey your message to Mr. +Garrison, and I know that he will be just as pleased to receive it +as I am in being able to carry it. + +... The work of the Department keeps me pretty closely to my desk, +so that I have few opportunities of getting away from Washington. +I certainly shall not let a chance of seeing you go by without +taking advantage of it. + +Cordially yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + +To Hon. Woodrow Wilson + +The White House + +Washington, January 9, 1915 + +MY DEAR MR. PRESIDENT,--That was a bully speech, a corker! You may +have made a better speech in your life but I never have heard of +it. Other Presidents may have made better speeches, but I have +never heard of them. It was simply great because it was the proper +blend of philosophy and practicality. It had punch in every +paragraph. The country will respond to it splendidly. It was +jubilant, did not contain a single minor note of apology and the +country will visualize you at the head of the column. You know +this country, and every country, wants a man to lead it of whom it +is proud, not because of his talent but because of his +personality,--that which is as indefinable as charm in a woman, +and I want to see your personality known to the American people, +just as well as we know it who sit around the Cabinet table. Your +speech glows with it, and that is why it gives me such joy that I +can't help writing you as enthusiastically as I do. Sincerely +yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + +To Lawrence F. Abbott + +Outlook + +Washington, January 12, 1915 + +MY DEAR MR. ABBOTT,--I enclose you two statements made with +reference to our public lands water power bill and our western +development bill. The power trust is fighting the power bill, +although as amended by the Senate Committee it is especially +liberal and fair and will bring millions of dollars into the West +for development of water power. There seems to be no real +opposition to the western development bill, generally called the +leasing bill, excepting from those who believe that all of our +public lands should be turned over to the States. + +These are non-partisan measures. They have been drafted in +Consultation with Republicans and Progressives, as well as +Democrats, and I regard them as the ultimate word of generosity on +the part of the Federal Government, because all of the money +produced is to go into western development. If these bills are +killed, I fear that the West will never get another opportunity to +have its withdrawn lands thrown open for development upon terms as +satisfactory to it. + +It is easy to understand why men who already have great power +plants on public land should be opposing such a bill as our power +bill, and equally easy to understand why the coal monopolists +should be fighting off all opportunity for any competitor to get +into the field. The oil men are anxious for such legislation. Of +course this legislation is not ideal, because it is the result of +compromise between minds, as to methods. The power bill is vitally +right in one thing; that the rights granted revert at the end of +fifty years to the Government, if the Government wishes to take +the plant over. The development bill is right, because it sets +aside a group of archaic laws under which monopoly and litigation +and illegal practices have thrived. Both of these bills have +passed the House, and are before the Senate. I trust that the +fixed determination of those who are hostile to them will not +prevail. + +Cordially yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + This letter, duplicated, was sent to several editors of +magazines, to inform the public as to pending legislation. + + + + + +VII + +EUROPEAN WAR AND PERSONAL CONCERNS + +1914-1915 + +Endorsement of Hoover--German Audacity--LL.D. from Alma Mater +--England's Sea Policy--Christmas letters + + +TO WILLIAM JENNINGS BRYAN + +Washington, November 17, 1914 + +MY DEAR MR. SECRETARY,--If it is true that the State Department is +not informed regarding Mr. Hoover and his entire responsibility, I +can send to you to-day his attorney, Judge Curtis H. Lindley, of +San Francisco, who stands at the head of our bar. + +I know of Mr. Hoover very well. He is probably the greatest mining +engineer that the world holds to-day, and is yet a very young man. +He is a graduate of Stanford University. + +I suppose that you do not wish to make any statement regarding Mr. +Hoover, but I should fancy that there is no objection to Mr. +Fletcher making any statement that he desires. There are hundreds +of thousands of people in the United States to-day who are anxious +to know how the things that they are preparing for the different +European countries, especially for the Belgians, can be sent to +them. Some information along this line might be very helpful. + +Cordially yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + +TO JOHN CRAWFORD BURNS + +ROME, ITALY + +Washington, January 22, 1915 + +MY DEAR JOHN,--I have often thought of you during these last few +months, and wished for a good long talk so some of the kinks in my +own brain might be straightened out. It looks to me very much as +if the war were a stalemate. Even if England throws another +million men into the field in May I can't see how she can get +through Belgium and over the Rhine. Germany is practically self- +supported, excepting for gasoline and copper, and no doubt a +considerable amount of these are being smuggled in, one way or +another. The Christians are having a hard time reconciling +themselves to existing conditions. ... England is making a fool of +herself by antagonizing American opinion, insisting upon rights of +search which she never has acknowledged as to herself. If she +persists she will be successful in driving from her the opinion of +this country, which is ninety per cent in her favor, although +practically all of the German-Americans are loyal to their home +country. We have some ambition to have a shipping of our own, and +England's claim to own the seas, as Germany puts it, does not +strike the American mind favorably. No doubt this will be regarded +by you as quite an absurdity, that we should have any such dream, +but I find myself from day to day feeling a twinge or two of +bitterness over England's stubbornness, which seems to be as +irremovable a quality as it was in some past days. ... + +Your little Nancy is no longer little. She is up to my ear, has +gone out to several evening parties, is at last going to school +like other girls, keeps up her violin, and is very much of a +joy. ... + +I knew that you would like our Ambassador. Cultivate him every +chance you get. + +Affectionately yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + +On February 20, 1915, Lane went to San Francisco and formally +opened the Panama Pacific Exposition, as the personal +representative of the President. He spoke on "That slender, +dauntless, plodding, modest figure, the American pioneer, ... +whose long journey ... beside the oxen is at an end." + + + +TO ALEXANDER VOGELSANG + +En route, near Ogden, Utah, February 22, 1915 + +MY DEAR ALECK.--You are the best of good fellows, and I don't see +any reason why I should not tell you so, and of my affection for +you. Don't mind the slaps and raps that you get, regarding the +high duty you perform. The people respect you as an entirely +honest and efficient public servant. It did my heart good to hear +the men I talked with speak so appreciatively of you. I enjoyed my +two days with you as I have not enjoyed any two days for many +years. The best thing in all this blooming world is the friendship +that one fellow has for another. I would truly love to have the +President know our Amaurot crowd, but I can't quite plan out a way +by which it could be done. ... As always, affectionately yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + +TO JOHN H. WIGMORE + +En route to Chicago, February 25, 1915 + +MY DEAR JOHN,--I have read your preface with great satisfaction. +It will, no doubt, renew your self-confidence to know that it has +my approval. You make some profound suggestions which would never +in the world have occurred to me. The American believes that the +doctrine of equality necessarily implies unlimited appeal. This is +my psychological explanation for the unwillingness to give our +judges more power. Another explanation is that the American people +are governed by sets of words, one formula being that this is a +government by law, hence the judge must have no discretion and +rules must be arbitrary and fixed. + +I had a roaring good time in San Francisco. Spoke to fifty +thousand people, and more, who could not hear me. Made a rotten +speech and met those I loved best, so I am not altogether +displeased with having taken the trip after all. + +Hope your arm is doing finely. Give my love to your dear wife. +Affectionately yours, + +F. K. L. + + + +TO JOHN CRAWFORD BURNS + +ROME, ITALY + +Washington, March 3, 1915 + +MY DEAR JOHN,--All things are so large these days that I can not +compress them within the confines of a letter. I mean, don't you +know, that there is no small talk. We are dealing with life and +death propositions, life or death to somebody all the time. + +I suppose if you were a few years younger you would be over in the +trenches, or up in England getting ready. From all we hear, the +Scotchmen are the only fellows that the Germans really are afraid +of or entirely respect. The position of a neutral is a hard one. +We are being generously damned by the Germans and the aggressive +Irish for being pro-British, and the English press people and +sympathizers in this country are generously damning us as the +grossest of commercialists who are willing to sell them into the +eternal slavery of Germany for the sake of selling a few bushels +of wheat. Neither side being pleased, the inference is reasonable +that we are being loyal to our central position. ... + +I went out recently and opened the San Francisco Fair, parading at +the head of a procession of a hundred thousand people. The Fair is +truly most exquisitely beautiful. There are many buildings that +would even, no doubt, please your most fastidious eye. + +We have tried to get a Shipping Bill through which would allow us +to get into South American and other trade, but the Republicans +have blocked us, not because they feared we would get mixed up +with the war but because they don't want us to do a thing that +would further Government ownership of anything. + +The Administration is weak, east of the Alleghanies; and strong, +west of the Alleghanies. Bryan is a very much larger man and more +competent than the papers credit him with being. The President is +growing daily in the admiration of the people. He has little of +the quality that develops affection, but this, I think, comes from +his long life of isolation. + +We regard ourselves as very lucky in the men we have in the +foreign posts, notwithstanding the attacks made upon us by your +press. ... + +I wish you would convey my hearty respects to His Excellency, the +Ambassador, and to your wife, of whose return to health I am +delighted to hear. Cordially yours, + +LANE + + + +TO EDWARD J. WHEELER + +CURRENT OPINION + +Washington, March 4, 1915 + +DEAR MR. WHEELER,--I am extremely obliged to you for your +appreciative letter regarding my speech, [Footnote: On the +American Pioneer.] but don't publish it in the Poetry Department +or you will absolutely ruin my reputation as a hard working +official. No man in American politics can survive the reputation +of being a poet. It is as bad as having a fine tenor voice, or +knowing the difference between a Murillo and a Turner. The only +reason I am forgiven for being occasionally flowery of speech is +that I have been put down as having been one of those literary +fellows in the past. Cordially yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + +TO JOHN CRAWFORD BURNS + +ROME, ITALY + +Washington, March 13, 1915 + +MY DEAR JOHN,--I have received three letters from you within the +last two weeks, greatly to my joy. Your first and longest letter, +but not a word too long, I thought so very good that I had it +duplicated on the typewriter and sent a copy to each member of the +Cabinet, excepting Bryan, whom you refer to in not too +complimentary a manner. On the same day that I received this +letter I received one from Pfeiffer, presenting the American +merchants' point of view, who desire to get goods from Germany, a +copy of which I inclose. So I put your letter and his together, +and told them all who you both are. Thus, old man, you have become +a factor in the determination of international policy. Several +members of the Cabinet have spoken with the warmest admiration of +your letter, one scurrilous individual remarking that he was +astonished to learn that I had such a learned literary gent as an +intimate friend. + +We are just at present amused over the coming into port of the +German converted cruiser Eitel, with the captain and the crew of +the American bark, William P. Frye, on board. The calm gall of the +thing really appeals to the American sense of humor. Here is a +German captain, who captured a becalmed sailing ship, loaded with +wheat, and blows her up; sails through fifteen thousand miles of +sea, in danger every day of being sunk by an English cruiser, and +then calmly comes in to an American port for coal and repairs. The +cheek of the thing is so monumental as to fairly captivate the +American mind. What we shall do with him, of course, is a very +considerable question. He can not be treated as a pirate, I +suppose, because there can not be such a thing as a pirate ship +commanded by an officer of a foreign navy and flying a foreign +flag. But he plainly pursued the policy of a pirate, and I am +expecting any day to find Germany apologizing and offering amends. +But there may be some audacious logic by which Germany can justify +such conduct. Talking of Belgium, I was referred the other day to +the report of the debates in the House of Commons found in the +10th volume of Cobbett's Parliamentary Reports, touching the +attack on Copenhagen by England in 1808, in which the Ministry +justified its ruthless attack upon a neutral power in almost +precisely the same language that Von Bethmann Hollweg used in +justifying the attack on Belgium, and Lord Ponsonby used the sort +of reasoning then, in answer to the Government, that England is +now using in answer to Germany. I was distrustful of the +quotations that were given to me and looked the volume up, and +found that England was governed by much the same idea that Germany +was--just sheer necessity. Of course, your answer is that we have +traveled a long way since 1808. + +Doesn't it look to you an impossible task for England and France +to get beyond the Rhine, or even get there? England, of course, +has hardly tried her hand in the game yet and if the Turk is +cleaned up she will have a lot of Australians and others to help +out in Belgium. Sir George Paish told me they expect to have a +million and a half men in the field by the end of this summer. + +Pfeiffer comes here to-day to spend a couple of days trying to do +something for the State Department; I don't know just what, but I +shall be mighty glad to see the old chap. I haven't seen anything +of Lamb since his return. + +Do write me again. Affectionately yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + +On the sixteenth of March Lane again started for San Francisco, +crossing the continent for the third time within a month. Vice- +President Marshall, Adolph C. Miller, now of the Federal Reserve +Board, and Franklin D. Roosevelt, assistant Secretary of the Navy, +who were going out to visit officially the Exposition, were the +principal members of the party. In Berkeley, on March twenty- +third, 1915, Lane received his degree from the University of +California. In conferring this degree President Wheeler said:-- + +"Franklin K. Lane,--Your Alma Mater gladly writes to-day your name +upon her list of honour,--in recognition not so much of your +brilliant and unsparing service to state and nation, as of your +sympathetic insight into the institutions of popular government as +the people intended them. An instinctive faith in the righteous +intentions of the average man has endowed you with a singular +power to discern the best intent of the public will. Men follow +gladly in your lead, and are not deceived. + +"By direction of the Regents of the University of California I +confer upon you the degree of Doctor of Laws:-- + +"Creative statesman in a democracy; big-hearted American." On +December 7, 1915, upon receiving a copy of the diploma Lane wrote +in acknowledgement to Dr. Wheeler,--"I have the diploma which it +has taken all the talent of the office to translate. I had one man +from Columbia, another from the University of Virginia, one from +Nebraska, and one at large at work on it. Thank you. It takes the +place of honor over my mantel." + + + +TO WILLIAM P. LAWLOR + +JUSTICE, SUPREME COURT OF CALIFORNIA + +Washington, April 13, 1915 + +MY DEAR JUDGE,--I have read Eddy O'Day's poem with great delight. +Along toward the end it carries a sentiment that our dear old +friend John Boyle O'Reilly expressed in his poem Bohemia, in which +he speaks of those, + +"Who deal out a charity, scrimped and iced, In the name of a +cautious, statistical Christ." + +I have never been able to write a line of verse myself, although I +have tried once in a while, but long ago my incapacity was proved. +Pegasus always bucks me off. + +I am sorry you took so seriously what I had to say of the wedding +invitation, but you know I am one of those very sentimental chaps, +who loves his friends with a great devotion, and when anything +good comes to them I want to know of it first, and no better +fortune can come to any man than to marry a devoted, high-minded +woman. + +Your rise has been a joy to me, because neither you nor I came to +the bar nor to our positions by conventional methods. The union +spirit is very strong among lawyers, and if a man has ideas +outside of law, or wishes to humanize the law, he is regarded with +suspicion by his fellows at the bar. You have proved yourself and +arrived against great odds. No man that I know has ever had such a +testimonial of public confidence as you received in the last +election. I hope that with the hard work much joy will come to +you. + +Mrs. Lane has just dropped in and wishes me to send you her warm +regards. Always sincerely yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + +TO WILLIAM G. MCADOO + +SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY + +Washington, April 27, 1915 + +MY DEAR MAC,--Here is a man for us to get next to. He is a +Harriman, a Morgan, a Huntington, a Hill, a Bismarck, a Kuhn Loeb, +and a damn Yankee all rolled into one! Can you beat it? His +daughter also looks like a peach. I do not know the purpose of +this financial congress in which these geniuses from the hot belt +are to gather; but unless I am mistaken you are looking around for +some convenient retreat to go to when this Riggs litigation is +over and you are turned out scalpless upon a cruel world. Here is +your chance! Tie up with Pearson. He has banks, railroads, cows, +horses, mules, land, girls, alfalfa, clubs, and is connected with +every distinguished family in North and South America. + +This man, Dr. Hoover, is a genius. When I knew him he was giving +lessons in physical training; but, now, like myself, he is an +LL.D., and, of course, as a fellow LL.D. I have got to treat his +friend properly. So I pass him along to you. Please see that he +has the front bench and is called upon to open the congress with +prayer, which, being a Yankee and a pirate, he undoubtedly can do +in fine fashion. + +When he comes, if you will let me know, I shall go out to meet him +in my private yacht; take him for a drive in my tally-ho; give him +a dinner at Childs', and take him to the movies at the Home Club. + +I shall also ask Redfield to invite him to the much-heralded shad +luncheon, to which I have received the fourth invitation. Do you +think he would like to meet my friend, Jess Willard? + +Cordially yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + A letter from John Burns, from Rome, spoke sarcastically of the +American attitude of neutrality toward the European war, and of +what he called the "new American motto--'Trust the President.'" + + + +TO JOHN CRAWFORD BURNS + +ROME, ITALY + +Washington, May 29, 1915 + +MY DEAR JOHN,--I saw Pfeiffer, Lamb, and Mezes the other day up in +New York. Mezes lives among Hebrews, Lamb is broken-hearted that +he can not get into the war, and Pfeiffer is trying to get England +to let his German goods through Holland. Lamb and Pfeiffer do not +agree as to England's duty to allow non-contraband on neutral +ships to pass unmolested. + +England is playing a rather high game, violating international law +every day. ... England's attempt to starve Germany has been a +fizzle. Germany will be better off this summer than she was two +years ago, have more food on hand. There are no more men in +Germany outside of the Army. Practically every one has been called +out who could carry a gun, but the women are running the mills and +the prisoners are tilling the farms. Von Hindenburg will come down +upon Italy, when he has lured the Italians up into some pass and +given them a sample of what the Russians got in East Prussia. + +You see I am in quite a prophetic mood this afternoon. + +Tell me if you understand Italy's position--just how she justifies +herself in entering the war? I have seen no authoritative +justification that I thought would hold water. + +The Coalition ministry in England is weaker than the Liberal +ministry. Lord Northcliffe, who is the Hearst of England, has +become its boss. Inasmuch as you object to our new motto, "Trust +the President," I offer as a substitute, "Trust Lord Northcliffe, +Bonar Law, and the Philosopher of Negation." The dear bishops +won't give up their toddy, so England must go without ammunition. +Germany is standing off Belgium, England and France, with her +right hand; Russia with her left, and is about to step on Italy. +Germany has not yet answered our protest in the Lusitania matter. +Neither has England answered our protest, sent some three months +ago, against the invasion of our rights upon the seas. I was very +glad to read the other day that while only eighty per cent of +English-made shells explode, over ninety per cent of American-made +shells explode. + +Cordially yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + +TO E. W. SCRIPPS + +SCRIPPS MCRAE SYNDICATE + +Washington, June 1, 1915 + +MY DEAR MR. SCRIPPS,--I am extremely glad to get your letter--and +such a hearty, noble-spirited letter. It came this morning, and +was so extraordinary in its patriotic spirit that I took it to the +White House and left it with the President. + +I am sure that great good will come of the effort you are making +to gather the people in support of the President. The poor man has +been so worried by the great responsibilities put upon him that he +has not had time to think or deal with matters of internal +concern. ... He is extremely appreciative of the spirit you have +shown. I have a large number of matters in my own Department-- +Alaskan railroad affairs and proposed legislation--that I ought to +take up with him; but I can not worry him with them while +international concerns are so pressing. + +I feel that at last the country has come to a consciousness of the +President's magnitude. They see him as we do who are in close +touch with him. ... My own ability to help him is very limited, +for he is one of those men made by nature to tread the wine-press +alone. The opportunity comes now and then to give a suggestion or +to utter a word of warning, but on the whole I feel that he +probably is less dependent upon others than any President of our +time. He is conscious of public sentiment--surprisingly so--for a +man who sees comparatively few people, and yet he never takes +public sentiment as offering a solution for a difficulty; if he +can think the thing through and arrive at the point where public +sentiment supports him, so much the better. He will loom very +large in the historian's mind two or three decades from now. + +In the fall I am going to ask you to lend a hand in support of my +conservation bills, which look like piffling affairs now in +contrast with the big events of the day. + +Once more I thank you heartily for your letter. Cordially yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + +TO GEORGE W. WICKERSHAM + +Washington, July 18, 1915 + +MY DEAR AND DISTINGUISHED SIR,--I once knew a vainglorious chap +who wrote a poem on the Crucifixion of Christ. The refrain was,-- + +"Had I been there with three score men, Christ Jesus had not +died." + +All of us feel "that-a-way" once in a while when we think of +Germany, Mexico, and such. I shall have a few words to say upon +the German note next Tuesday. [Footnote: Day of Cabinet meeting.] +They will be short and somewhat ugly Anglo-Saxon words, utterly +undiplomatic, and I hope that some of them will be used. + +There is no man who has a greater capacity for indignation than +the gentleman who has to write that note, and no man who has a +sincerer feeling of dignity, and no man who dislikes more to have +a damned army officer, filled with struttitudinousness, spit upon +the American Flag--a damned goose-stepping army officer! + +This morning comes word that they tried to torpedo the Orduna, but +failed by a hair. This does not look like a reversal of policy. Of +course those chaps think we are bluffing because we have been too +polite. We have talked Princetonian English to a water-front +bully. I did not believe for one moment that our friends, the +Germans, were so unable to see any other standpoint than their +own. + +I saw ex-secretary Nagel here the other day. We were at the same +table for lunch at the Cosmos Club. One of the men at the table +said, "I think Lane ought to have been appointed Secretary of +State." Nagel's usual diplomacy deserted him, and with a face +evidencing a heated mind replied, "Oh, my God, that would never +do, never do; born in Canada." So you see I am cut out from all +these great honors. Is this visiting the sins of the fathers upon +the children? + +I wish you joy in your work and I wish I could lay some of my +troubles on your shoulders. Mrs. Lane and I are going up to see +you just as soon as we get the chance. I had to decline to address +the American Bar Association because I did not want to be away +from here for a week. This is Sunday, and I am trying to catch up +some of my personal mail which has been neglected for six weeks. +Thus you may know that I am in the Government Service. + +I send you by this mail a copy of my speech in San Francisco, +which has been gotten up to suit the artistic taste of my private +secretary. As always, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + TO FREDERIC J. LANE + +Washington, July 21, 1915 + +MY DEAR FRITZ,--I wish I could think of something I could do for +you dear people back there. I haven't heard from George for a long +while, but I hope he is getting something in mind that makes him +think life worth living. It is strange that every lawyer I know +would like to be situated just as George is, with a little farm in +a quiet dell. Last night I talked with Senator Sutherland. It is +his hope sometime to reach this ideal. And the other night I +talked with Justice Lamar, and told him of George's life, and he +said that he had dreamt of such an existence for fifty years but +has never been able to see his way to its realization. + +There is no chance of our getting out to the Coast this year. The +President expects us to be within call, and I am very much +interested in the Mexican question, as to which I have presented a +program to him which so far he has accepted. These are times of +terrible strain upon him. I saw him last night for a couple of +hours, and the responsibility of the situation weighs terribly +upon him. How to keep us out of war and at the same time maintain +our dignity--this is a task certainly large enough for the largest +of men. + +Conditions politically are very unsettled, and much will turn I +suppose on what Congress does. More and more I am getting to +believe that it would be a good thing to have universal military +service. To have a boy of eighteen given a couple of months for +two or three years in the open would be a good thing for him and +would develop a very strong national sense, which we much lack. +The country believes that a man must be paid for doing anything +for his country. We even propose to pay men for the time they put +in drilling, so as to protect their own liberties and property. +This is absurd! We must all learn that sacrifices are necessary if +we are to have a country. The theory of the American people, +apparently, is that the country is to give, give, give, and buy +everything that it gets. + +Hope things are going well with you. Drop me a line when you can. +Affectionately, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + +TO JOHN CRAWFORD BURNS + +ROME, ITALY + +Washington, July 30, 1915 + +MY DEAR JOHN,--Things have come to such a tension here that I +doubt the wisdom of my discussing international politics with you; +nevertheless, I want you not to be weary in well-doing, but +continue to give me the views of the Tory Squire. I hope that your +admiration for Balfour will prove justified. Of course, our press, +which can not be said to sympathize strongly with the conservative +side, makes it appear that Lloyd George is now bearing a great +part in the work of securing ammunition. This is the inevitable +result of allowing the people to vote. The man who has the +people's confidence proves to be the most useful in a time of +emergency. However, it may be that Balfour is himself directing +all that Lloyd George does. + +This morning's papers contain an official statement from Petrograd +suggesting that the English get to work upon the west line. This +seems to me extremely unkind, inasmuch as the English have already +lost over 300,000 and have furnished a large amount of money to +Russia, I understand. + +Pfeiffer sent me an article the other day from a German professor, +in which he said that the three million men that Kitchener talked +about was all a bluff. Pfeiffer keeps sending me long protests +against England's attitude regarding our trade, which seem to me +to be fair statements of international law. + +The word that I get rather leads me to believe that the war will +last for at least another year and a half, which is quite in line +with Kitchener's prophecy, but where will all these countries be +from a financial standpoint at the end of that time? I fancy some +of them will have to go into bankruptcy and actually repudiate +their debt, and what will become by that time of the high-spirited +French, who are holding three hundred and fifty miles of line +against eleven held by the British and thirty by the Belgians? + +Yesterday I received a request from a German Independence League +for my resignation, as I was born under the British flag and was +supposed to be influential with the President, who has recently +sent a very direct and business-like letter to Germany. My answer +was that they had mistaken my nationality. My real name was Lange +and my father had stricken out the G.! Affectionately yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + +TO EUGENE A. AVERY + +Washington, August 2, 1915 + +MY DEAR AVERY,--I am very glad to hear from you and to get your +verse. I had a glorious time at Berkeley. I could have received no +honor that would have given me greater satisfaction, but oh! as I +look over that old list of professors and associate professors! I +don't know a tenth of them, and I never heard of half of them. How +far I am removed from the scholastic life, and how far we both are +from those old days when you used to sit with your pipe in your +mouth, in front of your cabin, and discourse to me upon God and +men! + +Well, we don't any of us know any more about God, but we know +something more about man. But after all is said and done, I guess +I like him about as much, as I did in the enthusiastic days when +we used to quiz old Moses. The streak of ideality that I had then +I still retain. The reason that I have remained a Democrat is +because I felt that we gave prime concern to the interests of men, +as such, and had more faith that we could help on a revolution. + +These are times of trial. The well we look into is very deep. The +stars are not very bright. It is hard to find our way, but the +pilot has a good nerve. I know the trouble that Ulysses had with +Scylla and Charybdis. + +Thank you, old man, very heartily for your word of cheer. +Cordially yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + +TO JOHN F. DAVIS + +Washington, August 2, 1915 + +MY DEAR JOHN,--I am very glad to get your letter of July 28, +telling me your views regarding the last note. I believe the +paragraph to which you refer was absolutely essential to make +Germany understand that we meant business; that she could not have +taken our opposition seriously is evidenced by her previous note, +and which, I think, was as insulting as any note ever addressed by +one power to another. Think of the absurd proposition, that we +should be allowed a certain number of ships to be prescribed by +Germany upon which our people could sail! Of course, if we +accepted her conditions, we would have to accept the conditions +that any other belligerent, or neutral, for that matter, might +impose. What becomes of a neutral's rights under these conditions? + +The Leenalaw case shows that Germany can do exactly what we have +been asking her to do; namely, give people a chance to get off the +ship before they blow her up. This is good sense and good morals; +and the whole neutral world is behind us. If, in response to our +note, Germany had said, "We regret the destruction of American +lives, and are willing to make reparation, and have directed our +submarines that they shall not torpedo any ships until the ship +has been given an opportunity to halt," there would have been no +trouble; but Germany evidently did not take us seriously. Our +English was a bit too diplomatic. + +I am writing you thus frankly, and in confidence, of course, +because I respect your opinion greatly. Cordially yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + In the middle of August, Lane joined his family at Essex-on- +Champlain, New York, for a few days. While there he went with Mr. +and Mrs. James S. Harlan to Westport, some miles further south on +the lake, to see the summer boat races and water sports. Mr. +Harlan's motor-boat, the Gladwater, which had been built on his +dock by Dick Mead, won the race, and that evening on their return +Lane gave the following letter to the successful builder:-- + +August 21, 1915 + +To "Dick" Mead on winning the race at Westport in the Gladwater. + +We wonder sometimes why man was made, so full is life of things +that terrorize, that sadden and embitter. This life is a sea; +tranquil sometimes but so often fierce and cruel. And you and I +are conscript sailors. Whether we will or no we must sail the sea +of life, and in a ship that each must build for himself. To each +is given iron and unhewn timber, to some more and to some less, +with which to fashion his craft. Then the race really starts. + +Some of us build ships that are no more than rafts, formless, lazy +things that float. Fair weather things for moonlight nights. But +others, high-hearted men of vision, will not be satisfied to drift +with the current or accept the easy way. They know that they can +do better than drift, and they must! The timber and the iron +become plastic under their touch. The dreams of the long night +they test in the too-short day. They make and they unmake; they +drop their tools perhaps for a time and drift; they despair and +curse their impatient and unsatisfied souls. But rising, they set +to work again, and one day comes the reward, the planks fit +together, and feeling the purpose of the builder, clasp each other +in firm and beautiful lines; the unwilling metal at last melts +into form and place and becomes the harmonious heart of the whole +--and so a ship is born that masters the cruel sea, that cuts the +fierce waves with a knife of courage. + +To dream and model, to join and file, to melt and carve, to +balance and adjust, to test and to toil--these are the making of +the ship. And to a few like yourself comes the vision of the true +line and the glory of the victory. Sincerely yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + +TO JOHN CRAWFORD BURNS + +ROME, ITALY + +Washington, August 31, 1915 + +MY DEAR JOHN,-- ... I met three friends of yours in New York the +other day, Lamb, Fletcher, and Pfeiffer, to whom I told in my +dismal way, the correspondence that we have been carrying on, and +all sympathized with me very sincerely. + +Things look brighter now. The President seems to have been able to +make Germany hear him at last. I am very much surprised that you +think we ought to enter the war. Now that you have secured Italy +to intervene, what is the necessity? What have you to offer by way +of a bribe? I see that you are distributing territory generously. +Or do you think that we should go in because we were threatened as +England was--although she says it was Belgium that brought her in? +Fletcher is very much for fighting; Lamb says that the Allies will +win in the next two weeks. Pfeiffer thinks that nobody will win. I +can't tell you what I think. If I were only nearer I would have +more fun with you. Affectionately yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + TO SIDNEY E. MEZES + +PRESIDENT OF THE COLLEGE OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK + +Washington, September 7, 1915 + +MY DEAR SID,--I enclose a more formal letter for presentation to +your friend, Baron de--. Why in hell you should plague me with +this thing, except that I am the only real good-natured man +connected with the Government, I don't understand. Speaking of +good nature reminds me that you are a clam; in fact, a clam is +vociferous alongside of you. + +As you know I have been guiding the affairs of this Government for +the past three months, and have received advice from every man, +woman, and child in the country, including the German-American +Union, the Independent Union, the Friends of Peace, the Sons of +Hibernia, and all the other troglodytes that live; and yet, you +alone have not thought me of sufficient consequence to advise me +as to what to do with the Kaiser or Carranza or Hoke Smith or +Roosevelt. + +Before you go back to work why don't you come down here and spend +a day or two? We can have a perfectly bully time, and I will tell +you how to run your University and you can tell me how to run the +Government. ... + +I have not seen House nor heard from him, though I have wanted to +talk with him more than with any other human being, these three +months gone. Yours as always, + +F. K. L. + + TO CORDENIO SEVERANCE + +Washington, September 13, 1915 + +MY DEAR CORDY,--I envy you very much the opportunity that you have +to entertain Miss Nancy Lane. [Footnote: Born January 4, 1903.] +When she is herself, she is a most charming young lady. She has +powers of fascination excelled by few. If she grows angry, owing +to her artistic temperament, and throws plates at you or chases +you out of the house with a broom, you must forgive her because +you know that great artists like Sarah Bernhardt often have this +failing. + +Perhaps you do not know it, but she used to be a great violinist +in her younger days. I doubt if she knows one string from another +now. The only strings that she can play on are your heart strings, +or mine, or any other man's that comes into her neighborhood. I +shall rely upon your honor not to propose to her, because she is +already engaged to me; in fact, we have been engaged nearly twelve +years, and if she should become engaged to you, I will sue you for +stealing her affections and will engage the firm of Davis Kellogg +and Severance to prosecute my suit. If she says anything about a +desire to get back to school, you can put it down as a bluff, and +I trust that you will not swamp her with attentions and with +company lest it should turn her head. She is accustomed to the +simple life--a breakfast of oatmeal porridge, a luncheon of boiled +macaroni, and a dinner of hash--these are the three things that +she is used to. If she shows any disposition to be affectionate +toward you or Aunt Maidie, I trust that you will repress her with +an iron hand. The young women of this day, as you know, are very +forward, and these new dances seem to be especially designed to +destroy maiden modesty. + +... You may tell her that her brother seems to be very anxious to +hear from her, being solicitous two or three times a day as to the +mail. I judge from this that he is expecting a letter from her--or +someone else. + +You are very good to be giving my little one such a fine time. My +love to Maidie. Cordially yours, + +F. K. L. + + TO FREDERICK DIXON + +CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR + +Washington, October 7, 1915 + +DEAR MR. DIXON,--I have your letter of October 1st. You have asked +me a very difficult question, which is really this:--How to get +into a man's nature an appreciation of our form of government and +its benefits? + +I cannot answer this question. There are certain natures which do +not sympathize with the exercise of or the development of common +authority, which is the essence of Democracy. They are +instinctively monarchists. They love order more than liberty. They +do not see how a balance can be struck between the two. By force +of environment and education their sons may see otherwise. I know +of no other way of making Americans, than by getting into them by +environment and education a love for liberty and a recognition of +its advantages. Cordially yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + TO ROBERT H. PATCHIN + +Washington, November 27, 1915 + +MY DEAR PATCHIN,--Mrs. Lane and I would be delighted to join in +your fiesta to Mrs. Eleanor Egan, but we just can't. Why? Because +we have a dinner on December 2nd, also because we are neutral. ... + +We can not countenance any one who has been in jail. To have been +in jail proves poverty. Nor do we regard it as fitting that a +young woman should have been torpedoed and spent forty-five +minutes in the water splashing around like Mrs. Lecks or Mrs. +Aleshine. If she was torpedoed why didn't she go down or up like a +heroine? Then she would have had an atrocious iron statue erected +in her honor among the other horrors in Central Park. After her +experience she will doubtless be more sympathetic toward those of +us who are torpedoed daily and weekly and monthly and have to +splash around for the amusement of a curious public. + +I hope your dinner of welcome and rejoicing will be as gay as the +cherubic smile of the Right Honorable Egan. Cordially, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + +TO FRANCIS R. WALL + +Washington, November 27, 1915 + +MY DEAR WALL,--I wish that I had time for a long letter to you, +such as yours to me. But I am only to-day able to get at my +personal correspondence which has accumulated in the last six +weeks. These have been times of annual reports and estimates, and +we have a large number of internal troubles which need constant +attention. + +I am afraid that we are going to have a great deal of trouble in +getting our preparedness program through, because of dissension in +our own ranks and because the Republicans are so anxious to take +advantage of this emergency to raise the tariff duties and to gain +credit for whatever is done in the way of preparation. We are too +much dominated by partisanship to be really patriotic. This is a +very broad indictment, but it seems to be justified. Of course, +the people like Bryan and Ford, and the women generally, are moved +by a philosophy that is too idealistic, and some of them are only +moved, I fear, by an intense exaggerated ego. If I would have to +name the one curse of the present day, I would say it is the love +of notoriety and the assumption by almost everyone that his +judgment is as good as that of the ablest. Of course, the trouble +with the ablest people is that they are so largely moved by forces +that do not appear on the surface, that one does not know that the +views they express are really their own judgment. Democracy seems +to be government by suspicion, in large part. We have faith in +ourselves, but not in each other. A man to be a good partisan +seems called upon to believe that every man of different view is a +crook or a weakling. This is the Roosevelt idea. And half of it is +the Bryan idea. + +I wish that I could see you, old man, and have one of our old time +talks. ... + +I shall bear in mind what you say as to the availability of your +service, but I hope it may not be necessary to take you from that +land of sunshine and dreams that seems so remote from this center +of intrigue and trouble. Affectionately yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + +TO JOHN H. WIGMORE + +Washington, December 8, 1915 + +MY DEAR JOHN,-- ... Things are not looking at all nice as to +Germany and Austria. I know that the country is not satisfied, at +least part of it, with our patience, but I don't see just what +else we can do but be patient. Our ships are not needed anywhere, +and our soldiers do not exist. To-day brings word of the blowing +up of an American ship. Of course, we do not know the details but +the thing looks ugly. + +Wasn't the President's message on the hyphenated gentlemen bully? +You could not have beaten that yourself. And your dear friend T. +Roosevelt, did certainly write himself down as one large and +glorious ass in his criticism of the message. He hates Wilson so, +that he has just lost his mind. I wish I didn't have to say this +about Roosevelt, because I am extremely fond of him (which you are +not), but a poorer interview on the message could not have been +written. ... As always yours, + +F. K. L. + + + +The following letter was written to Mrs. Adolph Miller when she +was in a hospital in New York. + + + +TO MRS. ADOLPH C. MILLER + +Washington, December 12, [1915] + +MY DEAR MARY,--We have just returned from Church and all morning I +have been thinking of you and Adolph--praying for you I suppose +in my Pagan way. + +Poor dear girl, I know you are brave but I'd just like to hold +your hand or look steadily into your eyes, to tell you that you +have the best thing that this world gives--friends who are one +with you. I can see old Adolph with his grimness and his great +love, which makes him more grim and far more mandatory, what a +sturdy old Dutch Calvinist he is! He really is more Dutch than +German--Dutch modified by the California sun--and Calvinist +sweetened by you and Boulder Creek, and Berkeley and William James +and B. I. Wheeler and his Saint of a Mother. Well, let him pass, +why should I talk of him when you really want me to talk of +myself! + +Last night we had the GRIDIRON dinner, and the President made an +exalted speech. He is spiritually great, Mary, and don't you dare +smile and think of the widow! We are all dual, old Emerson said it +in his ESSAY ON FREE WILL, and Adolph can tell you what old Greek +said it. And this duality is where the fight comes in, and the two +people walk side by side, to-day is Jekyll's day, and tomorrow is +Hyde's, and so they alternate. + +Well, the GRIDIRON was a grind on Bryan and Villard and Ford, and +a boost for preparedness and Garrison and the Army and Navy. Tell +Adolph they had a Democratic mule, two men walking together under +a cover, the head end reasonable, the hind end kicking--the front +end of course represented the Wilson crowd and the hind end the +Bryan-Kitchin,--and the two wouldn't work together. The whole +thing was splendidly done and was a lesson to the few Democrats +who were there--which they won't learn. + +Nancy went to her second party last night--a joyous thing in a new +evening cloak of old rose, which made her feel that Cleopatra and +the Queen of Sheba and Mrs. Galt and all other exalted ladies had +nothing on her. What a glorious thing life would be if we could +remain children, with all the simple joys and none of the horrors +that age brings on. There is certainly a good fifty per cent +chance that this fine spirit will marry some damn brute who will +worry and harass the soul out of her. For so the world goes. I +hope she'll be as fortunate as you have been. + +To-night we go to the Polks to see Mrs. Martin Egan who was on a +torpedoed ship in the Mediterranean, and although she couldn't +swim floated forty-five minutes till rescued. You must know the +Polks well. She has very real charm and your old Mormon of a +husband will desert his other fairies for her. + +Now I have gossiped and preached and prophesied and mourned and +otherwise revealed what passes through a wandering mind in half an +hour, so I send you, at the close of this screed, my blessing, +which is a poor gift, and I would send you the parcel post limit +of my love if it weren't for Anne and Adolph, who are narrow- +minded Dutch Calvinists. May good fortune betide you and bring you +back very soon to the many whose hearts are sympathetic. + +FRANK + + + +TO MRS. MAGNUS ANDERSEN + +Washington, D.C., December 24, [1915] + +MY DEAR MAUDIE,--It is Christmas eve, and while Nancy and Anne are +filling the mysterious stockings, I am writing these letters to +the best of brothers and sister. It has been a long, a +disgracefully long time since I wrote you, but I have kept in +touch pretty well through George and Anne. ... So you have now a +philosophy--something to hang to! I am glad of it. The standpoint +is the valuable thing. There are profound depths in the idea that +lies under Christian Science, but like all other new things it +goes to unreasonable lengths. "Be Moderate," were the words +written over the Temple on the Acropolis, and this applies to all +things. This world is curiously complex, and no one knows how to +answer all our puzzles. Sometimes I think that God himself does +not. There is a fine poem by Emerson called, THE SPHINX, which is +the most hopeful thing that I have found, because it recognizes +the dual world in which we live, for everything goes not singly +but in pairs--good and evil, matter and mind. Then, too, you may +be interested in his essay on FATE. + +Dear Fritz--dear, dear boy, how I wish I could be there with him, +though I could do no good. ... Each night I pray for him, and I am +so much of a Catholic that I pray to the only Saint I know or ever +knew and ask her to help. If she lives her mind can reach the +minds of the doctors just as surely as there is such a thing as +transmission of thought between us, or hypnotism. I don't need her +to intercede with God, but I would like her to intercede with man. +Why, oh why, do we not know whether she is or not! Then all the +universe would be explained to me. The only miracle that I care +about is the resurrection. If we live again we certainly have +reason for living now. I think that belief is the foundation hope +of religion. Anne has it with a certainty that is to me nothing +less than amazing. And people of noble minds, of exalted spirits, +not necessarily of greatest intellects have it. George has it in +his own way, and he is certainly one of the real men of the earth. +The President has it strongly. He is, in fact, deeply, truly +religious. The slanders on him are infamous. + +... We are to have the quietest possible Christmas. No one but +ourselves at dinner--I give no presents at all--for financially +we are up to our eyebrows. I probably will work all day except for +an hour or two which I shall use in playing with Nancy, for her +gay spirit will not allow anything but the Christmas spirit to +prevail. She is so like our Dear One, so determined, cheerful, +hopeful, courageous, yet very shy. Ned will be out all night at +dances and tomorrow too, for he is a most popular chap and very +well-behaved indeed. His manners are excellent and he has plenty +of dash. He is learning these things now which I learned only +after many years, the little things which make the conventional +man of the world. + +I hope that you will find the New Year one of great peace of mind +and real serenity of soul. May you commune with the Spirit of the +Infinite and find yourself growing more and more in the spiritual +image of the Dear One. + +My tenderest love to you and to your good high-hearted man, and to +the Boy. + +FRANK + + + +TO MRS. ADOLPH C. MILLER + +Washington [1915] + +This is a Christmas letter and is addressed:--"To a Brave Young +Woman." I am afraid it is not just as cheery and merry as it +should be because, you see, it's like this, I am poor--very, very +poor, and I have very good taste--very, very good taste. Now +those two things can't get on together at Christmas. Then, too, I +am busy--very, very busy, so I don't have time to shop. Now if you +were very, very poor and had very, very good taste and were very, +very busy and couldn't shop--how in heaven could you buy anything +for anyone? + +I did take half an hour or so to look at things, and things were +so ugly that were cheap that of course I couldn't buy them without +confessing poor taste, or they were so very expensive that I +couldn't buy them without confessing bankruptcy. Now there you +are! So what could a poor boy do but come home empty-handed, +nothing for Anne or Nancy or Ned or you--not even something for +myself! And I need things, socks and pipe, and better writing +paper than this, and music and toothpaste and some new clothes, +and a house near your palace, and a more contented spirit and +another job and Ahellofalotof things. Don't get nervous about me, +because I'm not going to kill myself for lack of all these things, +although a true-born Samurai, loyal to Bushido might do so. For it +is dishonor not to be rich at Christmas time; not to feel rich, +anyway. But then let me see what I've got! There's Anne! I expect +if sold on the block, at public auction, say in Alaska, where +women are scarce, she would bring some price; but her digestion +isn't very good and her heart is quite weak and her hair is +falling out. But these things, of course, the auctioneer wouldn't +reveal. She would make a fine Duchess, but the market just now is +overstocked with Duchesses. And she is a good provider when +furnished with the provisions. + +Now there is Ned--he could hire out as a male assistant to a +female dancer and get fifty a week, perhaps. Nancy couldn't even +do that. They are both liabilities. So there you are, with +Duchesses on the contraband list, and Nancy not old enough to +marry a decayed old Pittsburg millionaire, I will be compelled to +keep on working. For my assets aren't what your noble husband +would call quick, though they are live. I really don't know what +to do. I shall wait till Anne comes home and then, as usual, do +what she says. + +I really did look for something for you. But the only thing I saw +that I thought you would care for was a brooch, opal and diamonds +for seven hundred and seventy-five dollars, so I said you wouldn't +care for it. But I bought it for you A LA Christian Science. You +have it, see? I think you have it, that I gave it to you. And that +Adolph doesn't know it, see? + +Well you have the opal and I am happy because you are enjoying it. +Such fire! What a superb setting! And such refined taste, +platinum, do you notice! oh, so modest! No one else has any such +jewel. How Henry will admire it--and how mystified Adolph is! +Tell him you bought it out of the money you saved on corned beef. +How I shall enjoy seeing you wear it, and knowing that it bears in +its fiery heart all the ardent poetry that I would fain pour out, +but am deterred by my shyness. But you will understand! Each night +you must take it out just for a glimpse before saying your +prayers. The opal is from Australia, the platinum from Siberia, +the diamonds from Africa, the setting was designed in Paris. And +here it is, the circle of the world has been made to secure this +little thing of beauty for you. What symbolism! + +I hope it will make you happy, and cause you to forget all your +pain and weakness. It has given me great happiness to give you +this little gift. And so we will both have a merry Christmas. + +FRANK + + + + + +VIII + +AMERICAN AND MEXICAN AFFAIRS + +1916 + +On Writing English--Visit to Monticello--Citizenship for Indians--On +Religion--American-Mexican Joint Commission + + +TO WILLIAM M. BOLE + +GREAT FALLS TRIBUNE + +Washington, December 29, 1915 + +DEAR BOLE,--I am very much gratified by the manner in which you +treated my annual report. Certainly my old newspaper training has +stood me in good stead in writing my reports. In fact it always +has, for while I was Corporation Counsel in San Francisco, and a +member of the Interstate Commerce Commission, I wrote legal +opinions that were intelligible to the layman, and I tried to +present my facts in such manner as to make their presentation +interesting. The result was that the courts read my opinions and +sustained them, but whether they were equally impressive upon the +strictly legal mind, I have my doubts, because you know inside the +"union" there is a strong feeling that the argot of the bar must +be spoken and the simplest legal questions dealt with in profound, +philosophic, latinized vocabulary. + +I remember that after I was elected Corporation Counsel, when I +was almost unknown to the bar of San Francisco, I began to hear +criticism from my legal friends that my opinions were written in +English that was too simple, so I indulged myself by writing a +dozen or so in all the heavy style that I could put on, writing in +as many Latin phrases and as much old Norman French as was +possible. This was by way of showing the crowd that I was still a +member of the union. + +I find that all our scientific bureaus suffer from the same +malady. These scientists write for each other, as the women say +they dress for each other. One of the first orders that I issued +was that our letters should be written in simple English, in words +of one syllable if possible, and on one page if possible. + +Soon after I came here I found a letter from one of our lawyers to +an Indian, explaining the conditions of his title, that was so +involved and elaborately braided and beaded and fringed that I +could not understand it myself. I outraged the sensibilities of +every lawyer in the Department, and we have five hundred or more +of them, by sending this letter back and asking that it be put in +straightaway English. ... Cordially yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + +TO MRS. ADOLPH C. MILLER + +Washington, [January 1, 1916] + +Having just sent a wire to you I shall now indulge myself in a few +minutes talk with that many-sided, multiple-natured, quite +obvious-and-yet-altogether-hidden person who is known to me as +Mary Miller. + +The flash of brilliant crimson on the eastern side of the opal, do +you catch it? Now that is the flash of courage, the brilliant +flame that will lead you to hold your head high. ... I like very +much what you say as to wearing our jewel "discreetly but +constantly." No combination of words could more perfectly express +the relationship which this bit of sunrise has established between +us--devotion, loyalty, telepathic communication without publicity. +I am sure you are belittling yourself. ... you are a game bird,-- +good, you understand, but with a tang, a something wild in flavor, +a touch of the woods and mountain flowers and hidden dells in +bosky places, and wanderings and sweet revolt against captivity. +... + +This is my first line of the New Year. Anne is a true daughter of +Martha this morning--her heart is troubled with many things, +getting ready for the raid of the Huns this afternoon. She says +she will write when she repossesses herself of her right arm. Good +health! + +Some days later + +... I have been receiving your wireless messages all week, my dear +Mary, and not one was an S. O. S. Good! The fair ship MARY MILLER +is safe. Hurrah! She never has been staunch, but she was the +gayest thing on the sea, and when her sails were all set from jib +to spanker she made a gladsome sight, and some speed. + +Of course, being so gay she was venturesome. That's where the +Devil comes in. He is always looking about for the gay things. He +hates anything that doesn't make medicine for him. If you are gay +you are likely to be venturesome, and if venturesome, you can be +led astray. So the good ship MARY MILLER instead of hugging the +shore took a try at the vasty deep and got all blown to pieces. +Then she sent out a cry for help. The wireless worked and now with +a little puttering along in the sunshine and a lazy sea, she will +be her gay self once more, and like Kipling's Three Decker will +"carry tired people to the Islands of the Blest." + +That was a most charming letter you sent me, a real bit of +intimate talk. Anne read it first. She is very careful as to my +reading. And I was glad to know that she could discover nothing in +it which might injuriously affect my trustful young mind. Anne is +really a good woman. I don't believe in husband's abusing their +wives, publicly. Good manners are essential to happiness in +married life. We are short on manners in this country, and that +explains the prevalence of divorce. How much better, as our friend +L. Sterne once said, "These things are ordered in France." + +F. K L. + + + +TO EDWARD F. ADAMS + +SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE + +Washington, January 11, 1916 + +MY DEAR ADAMS,--I have yours of the 2nd. Of course, you can not +sue the United States to get possession of its property without +the consent of the United States; but I will forgive you for all +your peculiar and archaic notions regarding government lands and +schools and sich, because I love you for what you are and not +because of your inheritance of old-fashioned ideas. + +As I am dictating this letter I look up at the wall and discover +there the head of a bull moose, and that bull moose makes me think +of all the things you said four years ago about Roosevelt. And now +he is to be again the master of your party--perhaps not a +candidate, because he may be guilty of an act of self-abnegation +and put away the crown, or take it in his own hands and place it +upon some one else's brow. + +I remember the manner--the scornful, satirical, sometimes pitiful +and sometimes abusive manner--in which you treated the Bull Moose; +and so we are going to have a great spectacle, the Bull Moose and +the Elephant kissing each other at Chicago; and seated on the +Elephant's shoulders will be the crowned mahout with the big +barbed stick in his hand, telling you which way to turn and when +to kneel! + +Of course, you will abuse us all for our land policies, but +overlook the fact that the brutalities of these policies were +committed in other days--those good, old Republican days. It +really is a wonder that you are not cynical and that you still +have enthusiasm. I should not be surprised if you said your +prayers and had belief in another world, where all the bad +Democrats would sizzle to the eternal joy of the good Republicans. +In those days I shall look up to you and I know that you will not +deny me the drop of cold water. + +I shall be very much interested in seeing what kind of a fist our +man Claxton makes out of your school system, and I hope you can +use him as a means of arousing interest in the schools. That is +one trouble with the public school system, because we get our +education for nothing we treat it as if it was worth nothing--I +mean those of us who are parents. We never know that the school +exists except to make some complaint about discipline or taxes. + +May you live long and be happy. Always yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + +From time to time as vacancies occurred on the Supreme Bench, +letters and telegrams came to Lane from friends that begged him to +allow them to urge his appointment to this office. In 1912, 1914, +and 1916 the newspapers in different parts of the country +mentioned him as a probable appointee. While, as a young lawyer, +this office had seemed to him to be one greatly to be desired, +after he came to Washington and knew more of the nature of the +cases that necessarily formed the greater part of the work passed +upon by the Supreme Court, his interest waned. As early as 1913 he +wrote of the decisions of the Interstate Commerce Commission, "If +we are wise, we are not to be terrorized by our own precedents." +An office in which there was little opportunity for constructive +or executive work grew to have less and less attraction for him. + + + +To Carl Snyder + +Washington, January 22, 1916 + +MY DEAR CARL,--I am your most dutiful and obedient servant; the +aforesaid modest declaration being induced by your letter of +January fifth, offering to place me on the Bench. I regret greatly +that you are not the President of the United States, but he seems +to have a notion that it would be a shame to spoil an excellent +Secretary of the Interior. + +Talking of robes, there is an idea in Chesterton that is not bad, +that all those who exercise power in the world wear skirts--the +judge, who can officially kill a man; the woman, who can +unofficially do the same thing; and the King, who is the State; +likewise the Pope, who can save the souls of all. + +Garrett was in to-day, and if you haven't seen him since his +return, edge up next to him. He is full of facts, some of which +are new to us. + +I guess I am to credit you with that little editorial in +Collier's, eh? Cordially yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + +To Mrs. Franklin K. Lane + +Atlantic City + +Washington, February 5, 1916 + +MOST RESPECTED LADY,--Having just returned from luncheon and being +in the enjoyment of a cigar of fine aroma I sit me down for a +quiet talk. I am visualizing you as by my side and addressing you +in person. + +First, no doubt, you will care to hear of the reception given at +the White House last evening. According to your directions, I +first dined with the Secretary of Agriculture, his wife, and a +lady from Providence. ... Going then to the White House we +socialized for a few minutes before proceeding down stairs. The +President expressed himself as regretting your absence, and the +President's lady, having heard from you, expressed solicitude as +to your health. I loitered for a few minutes behind the line and +then betook me to the President's library, where I spent most of +the evening hearing the Postmaster General tell of the great +burden that it was to have a Congress on his hands. Bernard Shaw +writes of the Superman, and so does, I believe, the crazy +philosopher of Germany. I was convinced last night that I had met +one in the flesh. ... + +The President is cheerful, regarding his Western tour as one of +triumph. His lady still wears the smile which has given her such +pre-eminence. Mrs. Marshall was in line, looking like a girl of +twenty. Those absent were the Wife of the Secretary of War, the +wife of the Secretary of the Interior, and the wife of the +Secretary of Labor. ... + +You have two most excellent children, dear madam--a youth of some +eighteen years who has a frisky wit and a more frisky pair of +feet. Your daughter is a most charming witch. I mean by this not +to refer to her age ... but to that combination of poise, +directness, tenderness, fire, hypocrisy, and other feminine +virtues which go to make up the most charming, because the most +elusive, of your sex. I am inclined to believe that Mr. Ruggles, +of Red Gap, would not regard either your son or your daughter as +fitted for those high social circles in which they move by reason +of the precision of their vocabulary or their extreme reserve in +manner, both being of very distinct personality. One is flint and +the other steel, I find, so that fire is struck when they come +together. While engaged, however, in the game of draw poker, these +antipathetic qualities do not reveal themselves in such a manner +as to seriously affect domestic peace. I have spent two entire +evenings with your children, much to my entertainment. That I will +not be able to enjoy this evening with them is a matter of regret, +but I am committed to a dinner with the Honorable Kirke Porter, +and tomorrow evening I believe that I am to dine with the lady on +R. Street, the name of the aforesaid lady being now out of my +mind, but you will recall her as having a brilliant mind and very +slight eyebrows. + +Neither the President nor myself alluded to the late lamented +oversight on his part, and on meeting the members of the Supreme +Court I did not find that by the omission to appoint me on said +Court the members thereof felt that a great national loss had been +suffered. No one, in fact, throughout the evening alluded to this +miscarriage of wisdom. ... + +... Much solicitude was expressed by many of those present +regarding your health. I told them in my off-hand manner that I +was enjoying your absence greatly. ... + +Having now had this most enjoyable talk with you, I shall delight +myself with an hour's discussion of oil leases upon the Osage +Reservation with one Cato Sells. + +Believe me, my dear madam, your most respectful obedient, humble, +meek, modest, mild, loyal, loving, and disconsolate servant, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + +TO WILL IRWIN + +Washington, February 11, 1916 + +DEAR WILL,--So you are off for the happiest voyage you have ever +made, with the girl of your heart, to see the whole world being +changed and a new world made. What a joy! Don't put off returning +too long. Remember that books must be timely now, and after you +have a gizzard full of good chapter headings, come back and grind. + +Nancy entirely approves of your wife and her books. As always +yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + +TO-- + +Washington, February 29, 1916 + +... It is none of my business, but I have just seen an article +coming out over your name respecting Pinchot, the wisdom of which +I doubt. I have never found any good to come by blurring an issue +by personal contest or antagonisms. You asked me when you left if +you might not come in once in a while and talk with me, and I am +taking the liberty in this way of dropping in on you, for I am +deeply interested in water power development and want to see +something result this Session. + +I have no time to waste in fighting people, and I have found that +by pursuing this policy I can promote measures that I favor. To +fight for a thing, the best way is to show its advantages and the +need for it, and ignore those who do not take the same view, +because there is an umpire in Congress that must balance the two +positions, and therefore I can rely upon the strength of my +position as against the weakness of the other man's position. If +those who are in favor of water power development get to fighting +each other, nothing will result. + +I am giving you the benefit of this attitude of mine for your own +guidance. It may be entirely contrary to the policy that you, or +your people, wish to pursue and my only solicitude is that the +things I am for, should not be held back any longer by personal +disputes. Cordially yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + +TO HON. WOODROW WILSON + +THE WHITE HOUSE + +Washington, March 13, 1916 + +MY DEAR MR. PRESIDENT,--I shall be pleased to go to the San Diego +Exposition, on my way to San Francisco, and say a word as your +representative at its opening. + +I hope that you may find your way made less difficult than now +appears possible, as to entering Mexico, My judgment is that to +fail in getting Villa would ruin us in the eyes of all Latin- +Americans. I do not say that they respect only force, but like +children they pile insult upon insult if they are not stopped when +the first insult is given. If I can be of any service to you by +observation or by carrying any message for you to anybody, while I +am West, I trust that you will command me. I can return by way of +Arizona and New Mexico. ... Faithfully yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + +Lane re-opened the California International Exposition at San +Diego, where, voicing the President's regret that he could not +himself be present, Lane said,--"He had intended to make this trip +himself; but circumstances, some to the east of him and some to +the south of him, made that impossible. ... Pitted against him are +the trained and cunning intellects of the whole world, ... and no +one can be more conscious than is he that it is difficult to +reconcile pride and patience. I give you his greeting therefore, +not out of a heart that is joyous and buoyant, but out of a heart +that is grave and firm in its resolution that the future of our +Republic and all republics shall not be put in peril." + +[Illustration with caption: FRANKLIN K. LANE WITH ETHAN ALLEN, +SUPERINTENDENT OF RAINIER NATIONAL PARK] + +From San Diego he went north to San Francisco, to see his brother +Frederic J. Lane, who had been ill for some months. After a few +days with him Lane returned to his desk, in Washington. + + + +TO FREDERIC J. LANE + +Washington, April 26, 1916 + +MY DEAR FRITZ,-- ... I certainly will not despair of your being +cured until every possible resource has been exhausted. The odds, +it seems to me, are in your favor. Whenever Abrams and Vecchi say +that they have done all that they can, if you are still in +condition to travel, I want you to try the Arkansas Hot Springs +and I will go down there to meet you. ... + +I wrote you from the train the other day on my way to Harpers +Ferry, where I took an auto and went down through the Shenandoah +Valley and across the mountains to Charlottesville, where the +University of Virginia is. I went with the Harlans. Anne joined us +at Charlottesville. ... We visited Monticello, where Jefferson +lived, and saw a country quite as beautiful as any valley I know +of in California, not even excepting the Santa Clara Valley, in +prune blossom time. Those old fellows who built their houses a +hundred years ago knew how to build and build beautifully. We have +no such places in California as some that were built a hundred and +fifty years ago in Virginia, and they did not care how far they +got away from town, in those days. + +Jefferson's house is up on the top of a hill, as are most of the +others,--there are very few on the roads. Most of them are from a +mile to five miles back, and although the land is covered with +timber they built of brick, and imported Italian laborers to do +the wood-carving. When I think of how much less in money and in +trouble make a place far more magnificent in California, I wonder +our people have not lovelier places. Of course, the difference is +that in Virginia there were just three classes of people--the +aristocrat, the middle class, and the negroes. The aristocracy had +the land, the middle class were the artisans, and the negroes the +slaves. The only ones who had fine houses were the aristocracy, +whereas with us the great mass of our people are business and +professional men of comparatively small means and we have few men +who build palaces. + +Things have blown up in Ireland, I see, and the Irish are going to +suffer for this foolish venture. This man Casement who is posing +as the George Washington of the Irish revolution, has held office +all his life under the English Government and now draws a pension. +His last position was that of Consul General at Rio de Janeiro. I +got a pamphlet from him a year or so ago, in which he proposed an +alliance between Germany, the Republic of Ireland, and the +Republic of the United States, which should control the politics +of the world. ... + +Doesn't the thought of Henry Ford as Presidential candidate ... +surprise you? It looks to me very much as if the Ford vote +demonstrates Roosevelt's weakness as a candidate. Last night I +went to dinner at old Uncle Joe Cannon's house, and as I came out +Senator O'Gorman pointed to Uncle Joe and Justice Hughes talking +together and said, "There is the old leader passing over the wand +of power to the new leader." ... + +Well, old man, I know that I do not need to tell you to keep your +spirits up and your faith strong. Give me all the news, good as +well as bad. Affectionately yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + +TO FRANK I. COBB + +NEW YORK WORLD + +Washington, May 8, 1916 + +MY DEAR COBB,--Here is a memorandum that has been drafted +respecting the leasing bill, that we are now pushing to have taken +up by the Senate. This bill, as you know, covers oil, phosphate, +and potash lands. ... There are three million acres of phosphate +lands, two and a half million acres of oil lands, and a small +acreage of potash lands, under withdrawal now, that cannot be +developed because of lack of legislation. ... + +The situation here is tense. Of course, nobody knows what will be +done. I favor telling Germany that we will make no trade with her, +and if she fails to make good her word we will stop talking to her +altogether. I am getting tired of having the Kaiser and Carranza +vent their impudence at our expense, because they know we do not +want to go to war and because they want to keep their own people +in line. ... Cordially yours, + +LANE + + + +TO GEORGE W. WICKERSHAM + +Washington, May 17, 1916 + +MY DEAR WICKERSHAM,--I am just back from a trip to South Dakota, +where I, by ritual, a copy of which is inclosed for your perusal, +made citizens out of a bunch of Indians who never can become +hyphenates, and for this reason your letter has remained +unanswered. + +And just because we love you, and love ourselves even better, we +will break all rules, precedents, promises, appointments, +agreements, and covenants of all kinds whatsoever, and steal over +to see you a week from Saturday. Just what hour I will wire you, +and what time we can stay depends upon things various and sundry. +But you may depend upon it that it will be as long a time as a +very flexible conscience will permit. + +Remember me, in terms of endearment, to that noble lady who +desolated Washington by her departure. As always, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + +TO H. B. BROUGHAM + +Washington, May 20, 1916 + +DEAR MR. BROUGHAM,-- ... I recently returned from the Yankton +Sioux Reservation in South Dakota where I admitted some one +hundred and fifty competent Indians to full American citizenship +in accordance with a ritual. ... The ceremony was really +impressive and taken quite seriously by the Indians. Why should +not some such ceremony as this be used when we give citizenship to +foreigners who come to this country? Surely it tends to instil +patriotism and presents the duties of citizenship in a manner that +leaves a lasting impression. Here is a story that should be +interesting to all, if properly presented. Cordially yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + +INDIAN RITUAL ADMISSION TO CITIZENSHIP + +The Secretary stands before one of the candidates and says:-- + +"Joseph T. Cook, what was your Indian name?" + +"Tunkansapa," answers the Indian. + +"Tunkansapa, I hand you a bow and arrow. Take this bow and shoot +the arrow." + +The Indian does so. + +"Tunkansapa, you have shot your last arrow. That means you are no +longer to live the life of an Indian. You are from this day +forward to live the life of the white man. But you may keep that +arrow. It will be to you a symbol of your noble race and of the +pride you may feel that you come from the first of all Americans." + +Addressing Tunkansapa by his white name. + +"Joseph T. Cook, take in your hands this plough." Cook does so. +"This act means that you have chosen to live the life of the white +man. The white man lives by work. From the earth we must all get +our living, and the earth will not yield unless man pours upon it +the sweat of his brow. + +"Joseph T. Cook, I give you a purse. It will always say to you +that the money you gain must be wisely kept. The wise man saves +his money, so that when the sun does not smile and the grass does +not grow he will not starve." + +The Secretary now takes up the American flag. He and the Indian +hold it together. + +"I give into your hands the flag of your country. This is the only +flag you ever will have. It is the flag of free men, the flag of a +hundred million free men and women, of whom you are now one. That +flag has a request to make of you, Joseph T. Cook, that you repeat +these words." + +Cook then repeats the following after the Secretary. + +"Forasmuch as the President has said that I am worthy to be a +citizen of the United States, I now promise this flag that I will +give my hands, my head, and my heart to the doing of all that will +make me a true American citizen." + +The Secretary then takes a badge upon which is the American eagle, +with the national colors, and, pinning it upon the Indian's +breast, speaks as follows:-- + +"And now, beneath this flag, I place upon your breast the emblem +of citizenship. Wear this badge always, and may the eagle that is +on it never see you do aught of which the flag will not be proud." + + + +TO FREDERIC J. LANE + +Washington, June 6, 1916 + +MY DEAR FRITZ,--We have a letter from Mary this morning saying you +are holding your own pretty well, which is mighty good news, and +that Abrams is still convinced that he is right, which is also +good news. By the same mail I learn that Hugo Asher was hit by a +train and nearly killed. Whether he will recover or not is a +question. Asher is a most lovable fellow and loyal to the core. It +would break my heart to have him go. I got into my fight with +Hearst over Asher. His people demanded that I should fire Asher, +and I refused to do it. + +I guess you are beaten on Roosevelt, old man. The word that we get +here is that he is done for at Chicago. Of course before this gets +to you the nomination will be made. My own thought has been that +he laid too much stress on the support of big business. To have +Gary, and Armour, and Perkins as your chief boomers doesn't make +you very popular in Kansas and Iowa. Hughes may be the easiest man +to beat, after all, because he vetoed the Income tax amendment in +New York, a two-cent fare bill, and other things which are pretty +popular. He is a good man, honest and fine, but not a liberal. The +whole Congressional push has been for Hughes for months, but I +haven't believed that he would accept the nomination. I made the +prophesy to some newspaper men the other day that Roosevelt would +get in and endorse Hughes with both fists. They were inclined to +doubt this, but I still believe that I am right. ... + +To-day, comes word that Kitchener has been drowned and Yuan Shi +Kai poisoned. Heaven knows whose turn comes next. Just think of +three such events within a week as that sea battle off Denmark, +the greatest naval battle of the world; the torpedoing of the +Secretary of War and all of his staff; and the poisoning of the +Emperor of China. I doubt if there ever was a period in the whole +history of the world when things moved as fast and there was as +much that was exciting. Of course now we have it all thrown onto a +screen in front of our faces, whereas a hundred years ago we would +have had to wait for perhaps a year before knowing that the +Emperor of China had been killed. Nevertheless I think there is +more passion and violence on exhibition to-day than at any time in +a great many years. + +I had a talk with the President the other day which was very +touching. He made reference to the infamous stories that are being +circulated regarding him with such indignation and pathos that I +felt really very sorry for him. I suppose that these stories will +be believed by some and made the basis of a very nasty kind of +campaign. But there is no truth in them and yet a man can't deny +them. It is a strange thing that when a man is not liable to any +other charge they trump up some story about a woman. ... + +Now my dear boy, may you have a continuance of courage, for there +is no telling what day the tide may turn and things swing your +way. We know so damned little about nature yet. Affectionately +yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + +TO HON. WOODROW WILSON + +THE WHITE HOUSE + +Washington, June 8, 1916 + +MY DEAR MR. PRESIDENT,--I see by the papers that it is repeatedly +announced that you are writing the platform. Now I want to take +the liberty of saying that this is not altogether good news to me. +Our platform should contain such an appreciation of you and your +administration, that you could not write it, much less have it +known that you have written it. It should be one long joyful shout +of exultation over the achievements of the Administration, and I +can't quite see you leading the shout. + +The Republican party was for half a century a constructive party, +and the Democratic party was the party of negation and complaint. +We have taken the play from them. The Democratic party has become +the party of construction. You have outlined new policies and put +them into effect through every department, from State to Labor. +Therefore, our platform should be generously filled with words of +boasting that will hearten and make proud the Democrats of the +country; a plain tale of large things simply done. + +If there is any truth at all in the newspaper statement and any +purpose in making it, perhaps the end that is desired might be +reached by a statement that you are not undertaking to write the +platform, but that at the request of some of the leaders you are +giving them a concrete statement of your foreign policy. +Faithfully yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + +TO MRS. FRANKLIN K. LANE + +ESSEX ON CHAMPLAIN, N. Y. + +Washington, June 22, 1918 + +MY DEAR ANNE,--I am just back this minute from Brown [University] +where I had a right good time. I arrived in the morning early and +kept the Dean waiting for me for a half an hour. ... + +After breakfast I went over to the University grounds, which are +very quaint, on the crest of a hill with fine old buildings, and +there found that Hughes was the hero of the day, of course; every +step he took he was cheered. He was very genial about it. We +marched in our robes, down through the winding streets of this old +New England town to a meeting house one hundred and seventy-five +years old, and there we sat in pews, while the President of Brown, +Mr. Faunce, gave the degrees in Latin. I have not heard so much +Latin since I left school. There were a pretty good looking lot of +boys, about half of them New Englanders and about half of them +Westerners. We heard some orations by the students and then +marched up the hill again where we had lunch, and then went over +to a great tent on the campus where William Roscoe Thayer--who +wrote the life of Hay--President Faunce, Judge Brown, Mr. Hughes, +and I spoke. + +I spoke for about half an hour. My speech fitted in very well, +because Thayer preceded me, and he spoke of the lack of an +American spirit; I had already prepared a speech upon the +abundance of American spirit, [Footnote: Speech published in book +entitled, The American Spirit.] so that I answered Thayer, and +answered him with scorn. I told him that if New England was +growing weak in her American pride or her vigor that we would take +these boys and carry them out West where there was not any lack of +virility or hardiness or red blood, and that if they wanted to +know whether the American was willing to fight or not, to go to +any recruiting office of the United States to-day and see how +crowded it was. I told them about our pioneers, who were taking up +ten or twelve million acres of land, the men who had gone to +Alaska, and then turned upon the real proposition which was that +there was a difference between national spirit and martial spirit. + +War used to be the only opportunity for glory or romance or +achievement, while there are a million other opportunities now +open, because man's imagination has grown. In the morning the +College had given honorary degrees of LL.D. to Brand Whitlock and +Herbert Hoover. So when I came to the close of my talk I told them +about Hoover's Belgian work, and that Brand Whitlock had refused +to leave Brussels; and while there was no English and no French +and no Italian and no Spanish and no other flag in Brussels, the +Stars and Stripes in front of the American Legation had never come +down, and the Belgian peasant when he went to his work in the +morning took his hat off in honor of our flag, and I asked those +people to stand with me in front of that peasant to take their +hats off and take heart. + +Well, I had the crowd with me right along. Then Hughes came and he +took American Spirit as his text, and he made it quite evident +what his campaign is going to be; that it is going to be a charge, +veiled and very poorly supported by facts, that we have not known +where we were going, that we were vacillating, that we did not +have any enthusiasm, that we did not arouse the people and make +them feel proud that they were Americans. How in the mischief he +is going to get away with this, I do not understand. Whom were we +to be mad at--England, or Germany, or everybody in the world? Were +we to war with the entire outfit? He seems to be able to have +satisfied the Providence Journal, which is run by an Australian +who has been running the spy system for the British Embassy, and +has been printing a lot ... about Germany and all the German +press. If he can get away with this he is some politician. I see +that Teddy has had an understanding with him. Von Meyer was there +yesterday to hold a conference with him. + +But I do not think that we lost anything in the discussion of +yesterday. There were not any Democrats there who were not on +their toes at the end of the meeting; but, of course, practically +everybody in Rhode Island is a Republican. It is the closest thing +to a proprietary estate that I have ever seen. + +... I left at 6 o'clock and on my way back met President Vincent, +of Minneapolis, and George Foster Peabody. You knew that Frank +Kellogg was nominated, [Footnote: For the United States Senate.] +didn't you, Clapp running third? ... + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + +TO MRS. ADOLPH MILLER + +Washington, July 4, 1916 + +... I see you with blooming cheeks and star-lit eyes peeping out +from under a sun-bonnet, enshrined in all the glories of the +mountain redwoods, and I long to be with you if only to get some +of the freshness and joy of the California mountains into my +rather desolate soul. + +How is the old clam? Do his lips come together in that precise +Prussian way, and does he order the universe about? Or does a new +spirit come over him when he gets with nature? Is she a soothing +mistress who smooths his stiff hair with her soft hand, and pats +his cheek and nestles him in her arms, and with her cool breath +makes him forget a federal, or any other kind, of reserve? + +Why has nature been so unkind to me as to make me a lover but +always from afar, never to come near her, never to compel me to a +sweet surrender, never to give me peace and contentment, never to +so surround me as to keep out the world of fools and follies and +pharisees? + +You know, I would like to write some servant girl novels. I +believe I could do it. My love-making would either be rather tame +and stiff or too intensely early Victorian. But I should like to +swing off into an ecstasy of large turgid words and let my mind +hear the mushy housemaid cry, "Isn't that just too sweet!" ... + +I enclose a copy of my speech made at Brown University. Perhaps it +will interest that old farmer potato bug. He does not deserve to +have it said, but I miss him very much. Please obey him an you +love me. Cut out all social activities, giving yourself up to the +acquisition of a few more of the right kind of corpuscles in your +too-blue blood. As always, yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + +To Mrs. Franklin K. Lane + +Essex-on-Champlain + +Washington, July 4, 1916 + +... There is no news that I can give you. The weather is very +warm. Politics is growing warmer. I think Heney will run for +Senator in California, probably against Hiram Johnson. Will +Crocker is also said to be a candidate for the Republican +nomination. I could get the nomination by saying that I would +accept. Phelan told me yesterday that he would see that all the +necessary money was raised,--that I could win in a walk. +Dockweiler says the same thing. The latter is here and we have +seen much of each other. What do you say if I run for Senator? I +really feel very much tempted to do it at times because things +have been made so uncomfortable by some of my fool colleagues who +have butted in on my affairs; and then I feel I would like the +excitement of the stump and to make the personal appeal once more. +You could go round with me over the State in an automobile. While +I would not insist upon your making speeches for me, I know that +your presence would add greatly to my success. + +There is no telling what way this campaign may go. It may be a +landslide for Wilson, it may be a landslide the other way. We have +the hazards because we have the decision of questions. There is +bound to be a lot of objection to whatever course we take with +regard to Mexico. I fear from what Benjamin Ide Wheeler told me +the other day that Germany any day may decide to put her +submarines into active service again on the old lines, especially +if things on land go as they have been going lately against the +Teutons. + +... I shall not decide in favor of accepting the nomination until +I hear from you. In the meantime don't lose any sleep over it. And +so my Nancy has a beau? Well, the little rascal must be given some +good advice now. So I shall turn my attention to her ... + +F.K.L. + +Washington, July 24, 1916 + +... To-day I have spent most quietly,--had Bill Wheeler up for +breakfast and then went to the Cosmos Club for lunch with +Dockweiler. He is very anxious to get a Catholic on the Mexican +Commission and so am I. I want Chief Justice White, but I fear the +President won't ask him ... + +Dear old Dockweiler is an awfully good man ... From youth he has +gauged every act by his conception of the will of God, and in +doubt has asked God's representative, the priest. What a +comforting thing to have a church like that; it makes for +happiness, if it does not make for progress. Why is it that +progress must come from discontent? The latter is the divine spark +in man, no doubt, + + "O to be satisfied, satisfied, + Only to lie at Thy feet." + +is a hymn we used to sing in church. We yearn to be satisfied and +yet we know because we are not satisfied we grow . ... + +"The mystical hanker after something higher," is religion, and yet +it should not be all of religion; for man's own sake there should +be some cross to which one can cling, some Christ who can hear and +give peace to the waves. I wish I could be a Catholic, and yet I +can not feel that once you have a free spirit that it is right to +go back into the monastery, and shut yourself up away from doubts, +making your soul strong only through prayer. There are two +principles in the world fighting all the time, and the one makes +the other possible. There is no "perfect," there is a "better" +only. And in this fight one does not become better by prayer-- +prayer is only the ammunition wagon, the supply train, where one +can get masks for poison gas and cartridges for the guns. + +Pfeiffer said a good thing the other day, quite like him to say +it, too. We were talking of churches and he said he never went to +one because he did not believe in abasing or prostrating himself +before God, he saw no sense in it; God didn't respect one for it, +and moreover he was part of God himself and he couldn't prostrate +himself before himself. I asked him if he didn't recognize +humility as a virtue, and he said, "No, the higher you hold your +head the more God-like you are." + +Humility, to me, seems to be the basis of sympathy. We stoop to +conquer in that we are not self-assertive and self-assured, for if +we "know" that we are right we can not know how others think or +feel. We can not grow. + +You know there are two great classes of people, those who are +challenged by what they see, and those who are not. Now the only +kind who grow are the former. But what is it to grow? If we +"evermore come out by that same door wherein we went" surely there +is no object in being curious. Can there be growth when we are in +an endless circle? ... + +Now after all my struggle, I fall back not on reason but on +instinct, on a primal desire, and perhaps this is my rudimentary +soul, the mystical hanker after something higher. That is a real +thing. The purpose of nature seems to be to put it into me and +make it very important to me. That being so I can not overlook it, +and must obey it. The thing that pleases me as I look back upon +it, is the thing I must do; that sets the standard for me; that is +morals and religion. If there is any chap who the day after sings +with joy over being a devil--that man I never heard of--but if he +takes delight in what he did that was fiendish, then he must +follow and should follow that bent until he SEES that it is +fiendish. He has to have more light. But I really don't believe +there is any such fellow, who clearly sees what he did and +rejoices in it. All of us sing, "I want to be an angel." THERE is +the whole of revelation, and all things that tend to make us +gratify that desire are good. I guess that is pragmatism, in words +of one syllable. + +You see that all religion comes from a desire to know something +definite. We prayed logically, in the old time, to the devil and +tried to propitiate him, so that harm would not come to us. That +is stage number one in our climb. Then we find the good spirit and +pray to him to whip the devil, which is stage number two. Then we +ask the good spirit to give us strength to whip the devil +ourselves. That is stage number three. Buddha and Christ come in +the number three stage, and that is where we are. We may find, as +stage number four, that the good spirit is only a muscle in our +brain or a fluid in our nerves, which we strengthen, and become +masters of ourselves--greater, stronger, more clear-sighted-- +without any OUTSIDE Great Spirit. That we are all things in +ourselves, and that we are, in making ourselves, making the God. I +fancy that is Pfeiffer's idea. It is Mezes', I believe. Then comes +in the mystery of transmitting that highly developed spirit. A +woman of such a super-soul may marry a man of most carnal nature +whose children are held down to earth and gross things, and her +fine spirit is lost, unless it lives elsewhere. So we come back to +the question, how is the good preserved? "Never any bright thing +dies," may be true, but if so it means an immortality of the +spirit. This is all confusion and despair. We do not see where we +are going. But we must climb, we must grow, we must do better, for +the same reason that our bodies must feed. The rest we leave with +all the other mysteries ... + + + +July 28, 1916 + +I am going to dinner ... and before I go alone into a lonesome +club, I must send a word to you. Not that I have any particular +word to say, for my mind is heavy, nor that you will find in what +I may say anything that will illumine the way, but why should we +not talk? What! may a friend not call upon a friend in time of +vacancy to listen to his idle babble? O these pestiferous dealers +in facts and these prosy philosophers, the world must have +surcease from them and wander in the great spaces. To idle +together in the sweet fields of the mind--this is companionship, +when thoughts come not by bidding, and argument is taboo; to have +the mind as open as that of a child for all impressions, and speak +as the skylark sings, this is the mood that proves companionship. + +I shall be lonely to-night, going into a modern monastery and +driving home alone. The world is all people to me. I lean upon +them. They induce thought and fancy. They give color to my life. +They keep me from looking inward, where, alas! I never find that +which satisfies me. For of all men I am most critical of myself. +Others when they go to bed or sit by themselves may chuckle over +things well done; or find satisfaction in the inner life, as +George does; but not so with me. Thrown on myself I am a stranded +bark upon a foreign shore. And this I know is not as it should be. +Each one should learn to stand alone and find in contemplation and +in fancy the rich material with which to fashion some new fabric, +or build more solidly the substance of his soul. + +I like to have you talk, as in your latest letter, of the making +of yourself. It seems so much more possible than that I could do +the same. But I am a miserable groping creature, cast on a sea of +doubt, rejecting one spar to grasp another, and crying all the +time against the storm, for help. I do not know another man who +has tortured himself so insistently with the problems that are +unsolvable. You are firmer in your grasp, and when you get +something you cling to it and push your way like a practical +person toward the shore, that shore of solid earth which is NOT, +but by the pushing you realize the illusion, or the reality, of +progress. + +Here I am talking loosely of the greatest things, and perhaps +pedantically; well, we agreed to talk, didn't we, of anything and +everything? You have the birds, the lake, the mountains beyond, +the children next door, and the Fairy all our own, and I have my +desk to look at and outside brick blocks and the sky. If I ever do +hypnotize myself into any kind of faith, or find contentment in +any one thing, it will be the sky. The reason I like the water is +because it is so much like the sky. There is an amplitude in it +that gives me chance for infinite wanderings. The clouds and the +stars are somehow the most companionable of all things that do not +walk and talk. + +Well, we have walked a bit together and have come to the edge of +the field where we look off and see the unending stretch of +prairie and the great dome. ... + +FRANK + + + +To William R. Wheeler + +Washington, August 21, 1916 + +MY DEAR BILL,--Owing to your departure I have been laid up in bed, +ill for a week. You left on Thursday and on Friday night I went to +bed ... The doctors don't know what I had, excepting that I had +things with "itis" at the end of them. I have had allopaths, +Christian Scientists, osteopaths, and Dockweilers. The latter has +been my nurse at night, his chief service being to keep me +interested in the variety of his snoring. I really have had one +damn hell of a time. The whole back and top of my head blew out, +and I expected an eruption of lava to flow down my back. The only +explanation of it is a combination of air-drafts and a little too +much work and worry. I am now somewhat weak, but otherwise in +pretty good condition ... + +I have no intention of saying anything in reply to Pinchot. He +wrote me thirty pages to prove that I was a liar, and rather than +read that again I will admit the fact. + +My regards to the Lady Alice Isabel. As always affectionately +yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LAKE + + + +To James Harlan + +[August, 1916] + +MY DEAR JIM,--I am writing you from my bed where I have been laid +up for a few days with a hard dose of tonsillitis. Don't know what +happened but the wicked bug got me and I have suffered more than +was good for my slender soul. + +I am so glad to hear of your Mother's improvement. Bless her noble +heart! I hope she lives a long time to give you the inspiration of +that beautiful smile. + +The Mexican business does not hasten as I had hoped. Brandeis' +withdrawal was a great surprise to us and I can't quite understand +it. Meantime the railroad situation engrosses our attention fully, +and Mexico can wait ... + +Hughes' speeches have been a surprise and disappointment to me ... +One might fancy a candidate for Congress doing no better but not a +man of such record and position. I think your dear old party +relies upon holding the regular party men out of loyalty and +protection, and buying enough Democrats and crooks to get the +majority. But I don't believe it can be done. The Republican +organization is perfect, but the people are not as gullible as +once they were. + +Tell me some more about the Latin-American. How much form should I +put on? Can you warm up to them? How do you get the truth out of +them? And how do you get them to stay by their word? What are they +suspicious of, silence or volubility? Do they expect you to ask +for more than you expect to get? Do they appreciate candor and +fair dealing, or must you be crafty and indirect? If they expect +the latter I am not the man for the job, but I can be patient and +listen. My love to the Lady Maud. + +FRANK + + + +To Hon. Woodrow Wilson + +The White House + +Washington, August 28, 1916 + +MY DEAR MR. PRESIDENT,--I have had talks this morning with three +men, all of them Democrats, all of them strongly for you under any +circumstances. None of them are related to railroads or to labor +unions. Two of them have recently been out of this city and +believe that they have a knowledge of the feeling of the country. +All express the same view and I want to tell it to you in case you +write a message to Congress. + +They say that the people do not grasp the meaning of your +statement that society has made its judgment in favor of an eight- +hour day. This, the people think, is a matter that can be +arbitrated. They ask why can't it be arbitrated? They say that the +country feels that you have lined yourself up with the labor +unions irrevocably for an eight-hour day, as against the railroads +who wish to arbitrate the necessity for putting in an eight-hour +day immediately, and irrespective of the additional cost to the +railroads. They say that the men are attempting to bludgeon the +railroads into granting their demand which has not been shown to +the people to be reasonable. This demand is that the men should +have ten hours pay for eight hours work or less. They say that if +this question cannot be arbitrated, the railroads must yield on +every question and that freight rates and passenger rates instead +of going down, as they have for the past twenty years, must +inevitably increasingly go up. They say that the people do not +realize that you have been willing to entertain any proposition +made by the railroads, but that you have stood steadfastly for +something which the men have demanded. + +Now, all of this indicates a lack of knowledge of what your +position has been. I am giving you the gist of these conversations +because they represent a point of view so that if you desire you +may meet such criticism. + +You must remember, Mr. President, that the American people have +not had for fifty years a President who was not at this period in +a campaign bending all of his power to purely personal and +political ends. Your ideality and unselfishness are so rare that +things need to be made particularly clear to them. Faithfully +yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + +In the beginning of September Lane was appointed Chairman of the +American-Mexican Joint Commission, the other Americans being Judge +George Gray, of Delaware, and John R. Mott, secretary of the Young +Men's Christian Association. The Mexican members were Luis +Cabrera, Minister of Finance, Alberto Pani, and Ignatio Bonillas, +afterward Ambassador to Washington. + +It was the hope of the Administration that this Commission would +lay the foundation for a better understanding between America and +Mexico. The Commission started its work in New London, but later +as the hearings dragged on, they went to Atlantic City. + +Just before this Commission was named, Lane wrote to his brother, +"I have been turned all topsy turvy by the Mexican situation. I +have suggested to the President the establishment of a commission +to deal with this matter upon a fundamental basis, but Carranza is +obsessed with the idea that he is a real god and not a tin god, +that he holds thunderbolts in his hands instead of confetti, and +he won't let us help him." + + + +To Alexander Vogelsang + +Acting Secretary of the Interior American-Mexican Joint Commission + +September 29, 1916 + +MY DEAR ALECK,--Don't worry about yourself. Don't worry about the +office. You will be all right, and so will the office. I am not +worrying about you because I haven't got time to. I'll take your +job if you will take mine. The interpreting of a city charter is +nothing to the interpreting of the Mexican mind. Dealing with +Congress is not so difficult as dealing with Mexican statesmen. I +have had some jobs in my life, but none in which I was put to it +as I am in this. Now I have not only a question as to what to do +in the making of a nation, the development of its opportunity, the +education of its people, the establishment of its finances, and +the opening of its industries in the establishment of its +relations with other countries, but also the problem as to where +the men can be found that can carry out the program, once it is +made. If I were only Dictator I could handle the thing, I think, +all right. The hardest part of all is to convince a proud and +obstinate people that they really need any help. + +... Remember me to the noble bunch of fellows who add loyalty to +pluck, pluck to capacity. Cordially yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + +To Frederic J. Lane + +American-Mexican Joint Commission + +September 29, 1916 + +MY DEAR FRITZ,--I sent you a wire the other night just to let you +know that I was thinking of you. I am now steaming down Long +Island Sound in the midst of a rainstorm and with fog all around +us, in the Government's boat Sylph. We are on our way to Atlantic +City where the conference will continue, the hotel at New London +having been closed. ... + +It looks to me at long range as if Johnson would surely carry +California. Whether Wilson will, or not, is a question. I hope to +God he may. Whether I shall get an opportunity to get out and +stump for him depends entirely upon this Commission, which is +holding me down hard. We are working from ten in the morning till +twelve at night, and not making as rapid progress as we should +because of the Latin-American temperament. They want to start a +government afresh down there; that is, go upon the theory that +there never was any government and that they now know how a +government should be formed and the kind of laws there should be, +disregarding all that is past, and basing their plans upon ideals +which sometimes are very impracticable. They distrust us. They +will not believe that we do not want to take some of their +territory. + +I despair often, but I take new courage when I think of you, of +the struggle you are making and the brave way in which you are +making it. What a superbly glorious thing it would be if you could +master the hellish fiend that has attacked you! ... + +My best love to you, dear Fritz, affectionately yours, F. K. L. + + + +To Frank I. Cobb New York World + +American-Mexican Joint Commission Atlantic City, November 11, 1916 + +MY DEAR COBB,--My very warm, earnest, and enthusiastic +congratulations to you. You made the best editorial campaign that +I have ever known to be made. I would give more for the editorial +support of the New York World than for that of any two papers that +I know of. The result in California turned, really as the result +in the entire West did, upon the real progressivism of the +progressives. It was not pique because Johnson was not recognized. +No man, not Johnson nor Roosevelt, carries the progressives in his +pocket. The progressives in the East were Perkins progressives who +could be delivered. THE WEST THINKS FOR ITSELF. Johnson could not +deliver California. Johnson made very strong speeches for Hughes. +The West is really progressive. ... + +Speaking of the election, there are two things I want you to bear +distinctly in mind, my dear Mr. Cobb. One is that the states which +the Interior Department deals with are the states which elected +Mr. Wilson. ... And the second is that we kept the Mexican +situation from blowing up in a most critical part of the campaign, +which is also due to the Secretary of the Interior, damn you! In +fact, next to you, I think the Secretary of the Interior is the +most important part of this whole show! Cordially yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + +To R. M. Fitzgerald American-Mexican Commission + +Atlantic City, November 12, 1916 + +DEAR BOB,--I am very glad to get your telegram. I know that it +took work, judgment, and finesse to bring about the result that +was obtained in California. What a splendid thing it is to have +our state the pivotal state! The eastern papers are attempting to +make it appear that the state turned toward Wilson because of the +slight put upon Johnson by Hughes. These people in the East are +not large enough to understand that the people think for +themselves out West, and are not governed by little personalities, +that we don't play "Follow the leader," as they do here. The real +fact is that Roosevelt undertook to deliver the progressives and +could not do it in the West. Now we must hold all these forward- +looking people in line with us and make the Democratic party +realize the dream that you and I had of it when we were boys, +thirty years ago, and took part in our first campaign. There is +room for only two parties in the United States, the liberal and +the conservative, and ours must be the liberal party. Cordially +yours, + +Franklin K. Lane + + + +To James K. Moffitt + +Atlantic City, November 12, 1916 + +My dear Jim,--It was fine of you to send me that telegram, and I +am not too modest to "allow" as Artemus Ward used to say, as how +the Interior Department is rather stuck up over the result. The +Department certainly had not been very popular in the West. ... +All of us will be taken a bit more seriously now, I guess. I wired +Cushing and the others who led in the fight and I am going to +write a note to Benjamin Ide Wheeler, who from the first, be it +said to his credit, claimed California for Wilson. Wheeler is +certainly a thoroughbred. I wish I could get your way soon and see +you all, and rejoice with you. + +I have just received a telegram from Bryan, reading:-- + +"Shake. Many thanks. It was great. The West, a stone which the +builders rejected, has become the head of the corner." Cordially +yours, + +Franklin K. Lane + + + +To Benjamin Ide Wheeler + +Atlantic City, November 14,1916 + +Dear Mr. Wheeler,--I know that you rejoice with all of us. You +were the first man to tell me that Wilson would carry California, +and I never believed it as truly as you did, but I have taken many +occasions lately to say that you were a true prophet. And speaking +of prophets, what a lot have been unmade! Did you see that I +wanted to bet a hat with George Harvey that he could not name four +states west of the Alleghenies that would go for Hughes? The truth +about the thing, as I see it, is that you can't deliver the +Western man and you can't deliver the true progressive, anyhow. +The people of the East are in a far more feudal state than the +people of the West. Here they live by sufferance, by favor; they +are helpless if they lose their jobs. Out there hope is high in +their hearts and they feel that there is a fair world around them, +in which they have another chance. The resentment was strong +against Roosevelt undertaking to turn over his vote. Of course I +am glad of Johnson's election, as he is a strong, stalwart chap, +capable of tremendous things for good. He will probably be a +presidential candidate four years from now, and I see no man now +who can beat him, nor should he be beaten unless we have a good +deal better material than our run of ... rank opportunists. + +I am working on a treadmill here. Perhaps by the time you come on +in December I will be able to report something accomplished. But +oh! the misery of dealing with people who are eternally suspicious +and have no sense of good faith! + +We went with the Millers to the James Roosevelt place up at Hyde +Park on the Hudson, just before election, and had an exquisite +time. I put in four or five days campaigning, and this was the end +of my trip. My speeches were all made in New York where I thought +they might count, but the organizations were too perfect for us. + +President Wilson will leave a mere shadow of a party, unless he +takes an interest in reorganizing it. He has drawn a lot of young +men to him who should be tied together, as we were in the early +Cleveland days. Of course, we must have a cause, not merely a +slogan. + +Mrs., Lane is here while I am writing this and she sends her love +to both you and your wife, as do I. As always, cordially yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + +To Roland Cotton Smith + +Sunday, [January 7? 1917] + +MY DEAR DR. SMITH,--I know that you are human enough to like +appreciation and so I am sending you this word,--no more than I +feel! + +Your address of this morning was a bit of real literature. It +produced the effect you desired without making a bid for it. It +was as subtle and full of suggestion as Jusserand's book on France +and the United States. You gave an atmosphere to the old building +as an institution, which made every one of us feel something more +of ennobling standards and traditions. You touched emotion. Many +an old chap there felt called upon suddenly and apologetically to +blow his nose. And the crowning bit of fine sentiment was asking +us all to rise, as you read the list of the distinguished ones who +had worshipped there. You have the art of making men better by not +preaching to them. So here is my hand in admiration and in +gratitude. Sincerely, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + +To James H. Barry San Francisco Star + +Washington, [January 9, 1917] + +MY DEAR JIM,--That card of yours spoke to me so directly and +warmly from the heart, that it revived in my memory all the long +years of our friendship, and made me feel that the world had been +good to me beyond most men, in that it had brought a "few friends +and their affection tried." These are to be trying years--these +next four--and it will take courage and rare good sense to keep +this old ship on her true path. You have a part and so have I. We +take our turn at the wheel. May God give us strength and +steadiness! + +Please give my greetings to your fine boys, and to all the old +group that are still with you, and know that always I hold you in +deep affection. Sincerely, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + + + +IX + +CABINET TALK AND WAR PLANS + +1917 + +Cabinet Meetings--National Council of Defense--Bernstorff--War-- +Plan for Railroad Consolidation--U-Boat Sinkings Revealed--Alaska + +To George W. Lane + +Washington, February 9,1917 + +MY DEAR GEORGE,--I am going to write you in confidence some of the +talks we have at the Cabinet and you may keep these letters in +case I ever wish to remind myself of what transpired. A week ago +yesterday, (February 1st), the word came that Germany was to turn +"mad dog" again, and sink all ships going within her war zone. +This was the question, of course, taken up at the meeting of the +Cabinet on February 2nd. The President opened by saying that this +notice was an "astounding surprise." He had received no intimation +of such a reversal of policy. Indeed, Zimmermann, the German +Minister of Foreign Affairs, had within ten days told Gerard that +such a thing was an "impossibility." At this point Lansing said +that he had good reason to believe that Bernstorff had the note +for fully ten days before delivering it, and had held it off +because of the President's Peace Message to Congress, which had +made it seem inadvisable to deliver it then. In answer to a +question as to which side he wished to see win, the President said +that he didn't wish to see either side win,--for both had been +equally indifferent to the rights of neutrals--though Germany had +been brutal in taking life, and England only in taking property. +He would like to see the neutrals unite. I ventured the expression +that to ask them to do this would be idle, as they could not +afford to join with us if it meant the insistence on their rights +to the point of war. He thought we might coordinate the neutral +forces, but was persuaded that an effort to do this publicly, as +he proposed, would put some of the small powers in a delicate +position. We talked the world situation over. I spoke of the +likelihood of a German-Russian-Japanese alliance as the natural +thing at the end of the war because they all were nearly in the +same stage of development. He thought the Russian peasant might +save the world this misfortune. The fact that Russia had been, but +a short time since, on the verge of an independent peace with +Germany was brought out as evidencing the possibility of a break +on the Allies' side. His conclusion was that nothing should be +done now,--awaiting the "overt act" by Germany, which would take +him to Congress to ask for power. + +At the next meeting of the Cabinet on February 6th, the main +question discussed was whether we should convoy, or arm, our +merchant ships. Secretary Baker said that unless we did our ships +would stay in American ports, and thus Germany would have us +effectively locked up by her threat. The St. Louis, of the +American line, wanted to go out with mail but asked the right to +arm and the use of guns and gunners. After a long discussion, the +decision of the President was that we should not convoy because +that made a double hazard,--this being the report of the Navy,-- +but that ships should be told that they MIGHT arm, but that +without new power from Congress they should not be furnished with +guns and gunners. + +The President said that he was "passionately" determined not to +over-step the slightest punctilio of honor in dealing with +Germany, or interned Germans, or the property of Germans. He would +not take the interned ships, not even though they were being +gutted of their machinery. He wished an announcement made that all +property of Germans would be held inviolate, and that interned +sailors on merchant ships could enter the United States. If we are +to have war we must go in with our hands clean and without any +basis for criticism against us. The fact that before Bernstorff +gave the note telling of the new warfare, the ships had been +dismantled as to their machinery, was not to move us to any act +that would look like hostility. + +February 10 + +Yesterday we talked of the holding of Gerard as a hostage. Lansing +said there was no doubt of it. He thought it an act of war in +itself. But did not know on what theory it was done, except that +Germany was doing what she thought we would do. Germany evidently +was excited over her sailors here, fearing that they would be +interned, and over her ships, fearing that they would be taken. I +said that it seemed to be established that Germany meant to do +what she said she would do, and that we might as well act on that +assumption. The President said that he had always believed this, +but thought that there were chances of her modifying her position, +and that he could do nothing, in good faith toward Congress, +without going before that body. He felt that in a few days +something would be done that would make this necessary. + +So there you are up to date--in a scrappy way. Now don't tell what +you know. Ned is flying at Newport News. He sent me a telegram +saying that the President could go as far as he liked, "the bunch" +would back him up. Strange how warlike young fellows are, +especially if they think that they are preparing for some +usefulness in war. That's the militaristic spirit that is bad. +Much love to you and Frances. Give me good long letters telling me +what is in the back of that wise old head. + +F. K. + + + +To George W. Lane + +February 16, [1917] + +MY DEAR GEORGE,--That letter and proposed wire were received and +your spirit is mine--the form of your letter could not be improved +upon--and you are absolutely sound as to policy. + +At the last meeting of the Cabinet, we again urged that we should +convoy our own ships, but the President said that this was not +possible without going to Congress, and he was not ready to do +that now. The Navy people say that to convoy would be foolish +because it would make a double target, but it seems to me the +right thing to risk a naval ship in the enforcement of our right. + +At our dinner to the President last night he said he was not in +sympathy with any great preparedness--that Europe would be man and +money poor by the end of the war. I think he is dead wrong in +this, and as I am a member of the National Council of Defense, I +am pushing for everything possible. This week we have had a +meeting of the Council every day--the Secretary of War, Navy, +Interior, Commerce, and Labor--with an Advisory Commission +consisting of seven business men. We are developing a plan for the +mobilization of all our national industries and resources so that +we may be ready for getting guns, munitions, trucks, supplies, +airplanes, and other material things as soon as war comes--IF NOT +TOO SOON. It is a great organization of industry and resources. I +think that I shall urge Hoover as the head of the work. His +Belgian experience has made him the most competent man in this +country for such work. He has promised to come to me as one of my +assistants but the other work is the larger, and I can get on with +a smaller man. He will correlate the industrial life of the nation +against the day of danger and immediate need. France seems to be +ahead in this work. The essentials are to commandeer all material +resources of certain kinds (steel, copper, rubber, nickel, etc.); +then have ready all drawings, machines, etc., necessary in advance +for all munitions and supplies; and know the plant that can +produce these on a standard basis. + +The Army and Navy are so set and stereotyped and stand-pat that I +am almost hopeless as to moving them to do the wise, large, +wholesale job. They are governed by red-tape,--worse than any +Union. + +The Chief of Staff fell asleep at our meeting to-day--Mars and +Morpheus in one! + +To-day's meeting has resulted in nothing, though in Mexico, Cuba, +Costa Rica, and Europe we have trouble. The country is growing +tired of delay, and without positive leadership is losing its +keenness of conscience and becoming inured to insult. Our +Ambassador in Berlin is held as a hostage for days--our Consuls' +wives are stripped naked at the border, our ships are sunk, our +people killed--and yet we wait and wait! What for I do not know. +Germany is winning by her bluff, for she has our ships interned in +our own harbors. + +Well, dear boy, I'm not a pacifist as you see. Much love, + +FRANK + +To George W. Lane + +Washington, February 20, [1917] + +DEAR GEORGE,--Another Cabinet meeting and no light yet on what our +policy will be as to Germany. We evidently are waiting for the +"overt act," which I think Germany will not commit. We are all, +with the exception of one or two pro-Germans, feeling humiliated +by the situation, but nothing can be done. + +McAdoo brought up the matter of shipping being held in our ports. +It appears that something more than half of the normal number of +ships has gone out since February 1st, and they all seem to be +getting over the first scare, because Germany is not doing more +than her former amount of damage. + +We were told of intercepted cables to the Wolfe News Agency, in +Berlin, in which the American people were represented as being +against war under any circumstances--sympathizing strongly with a +neutrality that would keep all Americans off the seas. Thus does +the Kaiser learn of American sentiment! No wonder he sizes us up +as cowards! ... + +F. K. L. + + + +To Frank I. Cobb + +Washington, February 21, 1917 + +MY DEAR COBB,--I have told Henry Hall that he should come down +here and give the story of how Bernstorff handled the newspaper +men, and thus worked the American people, ... He ought to get out +of the newspaper men themselves, and he can, the whole atmosphere +of the Washington situation since Dernberg left,--Bernstorff's +little knot of society friends, chiefly women, the dinners that +they had, his appeals for sympathy, the manner in which he would +offset whatever the State Department was attempting to get before +the American people. He would give away to newspaper men news that +he got from his own government before it got to the State +Department. He would give away also the news that he got from the +State Department before the State Department itself gave it out, +and he had a regular room in which he received these newspaper +men, and handed them cigars and so on, and carried on a propaganda +against the policy of the United States while acting as Ambassador +for Germany, the like of which nobody has carried on since Genet; +and worse than his, because it was carried on secretly and +cunningly. ... + +Hall will be able to get a ripping good story, I am satisfied,--a +good two pages on "Modern Diplomacy," which will reveal how long- +suffering the United States has been. Cordially yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + +To George W. Lane + +Washington, February 25, 1917 + +MY DEAR GEORGE,--On Friday we had one of the most animated +sessions of the Cabinet that I suppose has ever been held under +this or any other President. It all arose out of a very innocent +question of mine as to whether it was true that the wives of +American Consuls on leaving Germany had been stripped naked, given +an acid bath to detect writing on their flesh, and subjected to +other indignities. Lansing answered that it was true. Then I asked +Houston about the bread riots in New York, as to whether there was +shortage of food because of car shortage due to vessels not going +out with exports. This led to a discussion of the great problem +which we all had been afraid to raise--Why shouldn't we send our +ships out with guns or convoys? Daniels said we must not convoy-- +that would be dangerous. (Think of a Secretary of the Navy talking +of danger!) The President said that the country was not willing +that we should take any risks of war. I said that I got no such +sentiment out of the country, but if the country knew that our +Consuls' wives had been treated so outrageously that there would +be no question as to the sentiment. This, the President took as a +suggestion that we should work up a propaganda of hatred against +Germany. Of course, I said I had no such idea, but that I felt +that in a Democracy the people were entitled to know the facts. +McAdoo, Houston, and Redfield joined me. The President turned on +them bitterly, especially on McAdoo, and reproached all of us with +appealing to the spirit of the Code Duello. We couldn't get the +idea out of his head that we were bent on pushing the country into +war. Houston talked of resigning after the meeting. McAdoo will-- +within a year, I believe. I tried to smooth them down by recalling +our past experiences with the President. We have had to push, and +push, and push, to get him to take any forward step--the Trade +Commission, the Tariff Commission. He comes out right but he is +slower than a glacier--and things are mighty disagreeable, +whenever anything has to be done. + +Now he is being abused by the Republicans for being slow, and this +will probably help a bit, though it may make him more obstinate. +He wants no extra session, and the Republicans fear that he will +submit to anything in the way of indignity or national humiliation +without "getting back," so they are standing for an extra session. +The President believes, I think, that the munitions makers are +back of the Republican plan. But I doubt this. They simply want to +have a "say"; and the President wants to be alone and unbothered. +He probably would not call Cabinet meetings if Congress adjourned. +Then I would go to Honolulu, where the land problem vexes. + +I don't know whether the President is an internationalist or a +pacifist, he seems to be very mildly national--his patriotism is +covered over with a film of philosophic humanitarianism, that +certainly doesn't make for "punch" at such a time as this. + +My love to you old man,--do write me oftener and tell me if you +get all my letters. + +F. K L. + + + +To George W. Lane + +Washington, March 6, [1917] + +Well my dear George, the new administration is launched--smoothly +but not on a smooth sea. The old Congress went out in disgrace, +talking to death a bill to enable the President to protect +Americans on the seas. The reactionaries and the progressives +combined--Penrose and La Follette joined hands to stop all +legislation, so that the government is without money to carry on +its work. + +It is unjust to charge the whole thing on the La Follette group; +they served to do the trick which the whole Republican machine +wished done. For the Penrose, Lodge people would not let any bills +through and were glad to get La Follette's help. The Democrats +fought and died--because there was no "previous question" in the +Senate rules. + +The weather changed for inauguration--Wilson luck--and the event +went off without accident. To-day, we had expected a meeting of +the Cabinet to determine what we should do in the absence of +legislation, but that has gone over,--I expect to give the +Attorney General a chance to draft an opinion on the armed ship +matter. I am for prompt action--putting the guns on the ships and +convoying, if necessary. Much love. + +K.F. + + + +To Edward J. Wheeler Current Opinion + +Washington, March 15, 1917 + +MY DEAR MY. WHEELER,--I wish that I could be with you to honor Mr. +Howells. But who are we, to honor him? Is he not an institution? +Is he not the Master? Has he not taught for half a century that +this new and peculiar man, the American, is worth drawing? Why, +for an American not to take off his hat to Howells would be to +fail in appreciation of one's self as an object of art--an +unlikely, belittling, and soul-destroying sin. + +I do not know whether Howells is a great photographer or a great +artist; but this I do know, that I like him because he sees +through his own eyes, and I like his eyes. If that be treason, +make the most of it. Cordially yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + +To George W. Lane + +Washington, April 1, 1917 + +MY DEAR GEORGE,--I took your letter and your proposed wire as to +our going into war and sent them to the President as suggestions +for his proposed message which in a couple of days will come out-- +what it is to be I don't know--excepting in spirit. He is to be +for recognizing war and taking hold of the situation in such a +fashion as will eventually lead to an Allies' victory over +Germany. But he goes unwillingly. The Cabinet is at last a unit. +We can stand Germany's insolence and murderous policy no longer. +Burleson, Gregory, Daniels, and Wilson were the last to come over. + +The meetings of the Cabinet lately have been nothing less than +councils of war. The die is cast--and yet no one has seen the +message. The President hasn't shown us a line. He seems to think +that in war the Pacific Coast will not be strongly with him. They +don't want war to be sure--no one does. But they will not suffer +further humiliation. I sent West for some telegrams telling of the +local feeling in different States and all said, "Do as the +President says." Yet none came back that spoke as if they felt +that we had been outraged or that it was necessary for humanity +that Germany be brought to a Democracy. There is little pride or +sense of national dignity in most of our politicians. + +The Council of National Defense is getting ready. I yesterday +proposed a resolution, which was adopted, that our contracts for +ships, ammunition, and supplies be made upon the basis of a three +years' program. We may win in two years. If we had the nerve to +raise five million men at once we could end it in six months, + +The first thing is to let Russia and France have money. And the +second thing, to see that Russia has munitions, of which they are +short--depending largely, too largely, upon Japan. I shouldn't be +surprised if we would operate the Russian railroads. And ships, +ships! How we do need ships, and there are none in the world. +Ships to feed England and to make the Russian machine work. +Hindenburg is to turn next toward Petrograd--he is only three +hundred miles away now. I fear he will succeed. But that does not +mean the conquest of Russia! The lovable, kindly Russians are not +to be conquered,--and it makes me rejoice that we are to be with +them. + +All sides need aeroplanes--for the war that is perhaps the +greatest of all needs; and there Germany is strongest. Ned will go +among the first. He is flying alone now and is enjoying the risk, +--the consciousness of his own skill. Anne is very brave about it. + +This is the program as far as we have gone: Navy, to make a line +across the sea and hunt submarines; Army, one million at once, and +as many more as necessary as soon as they can be got ready. +Financed by income taxes largely. Men and capital both drafted. + +I'm deep in the work. Have just appointed a War-Secretary of my +own--an ex-Congressman named Lathrop Brown from New York, who is to +see that we get mines, etc., at work. I wish you were here but the +weather would be too much for you, I fear. Very hot right now! + +Sometime I'll tell you how we stopped the strike. It was a big +piece of work that was blanketed by the Supreme Court's decision +next day. But we came near to having something akin to Civil War. +Much love, my dear boy. + +F. K. L. + +Grosvenor Clarkson, Director of the Council of National Defense, +in recording the activities of that body says:-- + +"It is, of course, well known that Secretary Lane, as a member of +the Council of National Defense, played a dramatic and successful +part in the settlement of the threatened great railroad strike of +March, 1917. By resolution of the Council of National Defense of +March 16, 1917, Secretary Lane and Secretary of Labor Wilson, as +members of the Council, and Daniel Willard, President of the +Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, and Samuel Gompers of the Advisory +Commission, were designated to represent the government, at the +meeting in New York with the representatives of the railroad +brotherhoods and railroad executives--the meeting that stopped the +strike." + + + +TO FRANK I. COBB NEW YORK WORLD + +Washington, April 13, 1917 + +MY DEAR FRANK,--I have your note and am thoroughly in sympathy +with it. The great need of France at this moment is to get ships +to carry the supplies across the water. It is a secret, but a +fact, that France has 600,000 tons of freight in New York and +other harbors waiting to ship. I am in favor of taking all the +German ships under requisition, paying for their use eventually, +but this is a matter of months. Immediately, I think we should +take all the coastwise ships, or the larger portion of them. The +Navy colliers and Army transports can be put into the business of +carrying supplies to France. + +We are to have a meeting of the Council of National Defense to-day, +and I am going to take this matter up. I have been pushing on +it for several weeks. As to the purchasing of supplies, I think we +ought to protect the Allies, especially Russia, but, of course, we +cannot touch their present contracts. ... + + + +TO GEORGE W. LANE + +Washington, April 15, 1917 + +MY DEAR GEORGE,--I enclose a couple of confidential papers that +will interest you. The situation is not as happy in Russia as it +should be. The people are so infatuated with their own internal +reforms that there is danger of their making a separate peace, +which would throw the entire strength of Germany on the west +front, and compel us to go in with millions of men where we had +thought that a few would suffice. + +My work on the National Council of Defense lately has been dealing +with many things, chiefly mobilization of our railroads and the +securing of new shipping. At my suggestion to Mr. Willard he +called together the leading forty-five railroad presidents of the +United States, and I addressed them upon the necessity of tying +together all of the railroads within one unit and making a single +operating system of the 250,000 miles. They met the proposition +splendidly and appointed a committee to effect this. It will +require some sacrifice on the part of the railroads, and +considerable on the part of the shippers; for free time on cars +will have to be cut down, some passenger trains taken off, and +equipment allowed to flow freely from one system to the other +under a single direction, no matter who owns the locomotives or +the cars. I put it up to them as a test of the efficiency of +private ownership. + +On the shipping side we are not only going about the task of +building a thousand wooden ships, under the direction of Denman +and Goethals, but we are going to take our coastwise shipping off, +making the railroads carry this freight, and put all available +ships into the trans-Atlantic business. We want, also, to get +some steel ships built. The great trouble with this is the +shortage of plates and the shortage of shipyards. In order to +effect this, I expect we will have to postpone the building of +some of our large dreadnaughts and battle cruisers, which could +not be in service for three years anyhow. Whether we will succeed +in getting the Secretary of the Navy to agree to this is a +question, but I am going to try. + +We, of course, are going to press into service at once the German +and Austrian ships, such of them as can be repaired and will be of +use in the freight business, but we will not confiscate them. We +will deal with them exactly as we will deal with American ships, +paying at the end of the war whatever their services were worth. +This spirit of fairness is to animate us throughout the war. Of +course enemy warships were seized as prizes of war, but there are +very few of these, and of no considerable value. I do not believe +they can be of any use. + +England is sending over Mr. Balfour with a very high Commission. +These gentlemen will arrive here this week, and I expect with them +Viviani and Joffre, from France. We will have intimate talks with +them and gain the benefit of their experience. I expect Mr. +Balfour to make some speeches that will put England in a more +favorable light, and the presence of Joffre will stimulate +recruiting in our Army and Navy. He is the one real figure who has +come out of the war so far. + +We are raising seven billions; three billions to go to the Allies, +largely for purchases to be made here. Money contributions pass +unanimously, but there is to be trouble over our war measures +respecting conscription and the raising of an adequate army. Some +pacifists and other pro-Germans are cultivating the idea that none +but volunteers should be sent to Europe. Some are also saying +Germany can have peace with us if she stops her submarine warfare. +I doubt if that line of agitation will be successful before +Congress. Certainly it will not be successful with the President +or the Cabinet. We are now very happily united upon following +every course that will lead to the quickest and most complete +victory. + +The greatest impending danger is the drive on the east front into +Russia, possibly the taking of Petrograd, and the weakness on the +part of the Russians because of so large a socialistic element now +in control of Russian affairs. We offered Russia a commission of +railroad men to look over their railroad systems and advise with +them as to the best means of operating them. At first Russia +inclined to welcome such a commission, but later the offer was +declined because of local feeling. We intend to send a commission +ourselves to Russia, possibly headed by McAdoo or Root, and on +this commission we will have a railroad man with expert knowledge +who can be of some service to them, I hope. The Russian and the +French governments have ordered hundreds of locomotives and tens +of thousands of cars in this country, a large part of which are +ready for shipment, but which cannot be shipped because of lack of +shipping facilities. Affectionately yours, + +F.K.L. + + + +Grosvenor Clarkson, who was first Secretary and then Director of +the Council of National Defense, writes in February, 1922, this +account of the work of the Council:-- + +"As early as February 12, 1917, or nearly two months before we +went into the war, Secretary Lane presented resolutions at a joint +meeting of the Council of National Defense and its Advisory +Commission, to the effect that the Council 'Call a series of +conferences with the leading men in each industry, fundamentally +necessary to the defense of the country in the event of war.' The +resolutions also proposed that the Council at once proceed to +confer with those familiar with the manner by which foreign +governments in the war enlisted their industries and, further, +that the Council should establish a committee to investigate and +report upon such regulations as to hours and safety of labor as +should apply to all war labor. + +"Secretary Lane's resolution was referred to the Advisory +Commission, and on February 13, at a joint meeting of the Council +and Commission, the matter was thoroughly discussed. Out of this +resolution grew the famous cooperative committees of the Advisory +Commission. Here was the inception of the dollar-a-year man. + +"This organization, set up by the Advisory Commission, furnished +for the first eight or ten months of our participation in the war, +almost the only thing in the way of a war machine under the +government on the civilian or industrial side. + +"In the first week of May, 1917, the Council of National Defense +called to Washington representatives of each state in the Union, +to confer with the federal government as to the common prosecution +of the war. The state delegates, consisting of many Governors and +in each case of leading citizens of the respective commonwealths, +were received by the six Cabinet officers, forming the Council, in +the office of Secretary Baker in April. + +"Secretary Lane thought that the most effective way to wake the +country up out of its dream of security was to tell the truth +about the submarine losses, the country up to that time not having +really appreciated what the losses amounted to. He said, 'The +President is going to address the State representatives at the +White House, and I am going to urge him to cut loose on the +submarine losses,' and he asked me to prepare a memorandum for him +to give to the President. This I did. The President, however, +apparently decided not to go into the subject, and Secretary Lane, +with a courage that can only be appreciated by those who knew the +atmosphere of official Washington at that time, decided to take +the bull by the horns himself, and at the next meeting with the +representatives with the Council in Secretary Baker's office, +Secretary Lane ... cut loose and told the actual truth about +submarine losses at that time. ... The next morning it was the +story of the day in the newspapers and it did as much to arouse +the country as a whole as to what we were up against as any one +thing that occurred during this period, save only the President's +war message itself. + +"Secretary Lane became chairman of the field division of the +Council of National Defense toward the end of the war. This was +the body that guided and coordinated the work of the 184,000 units +of the state, county, community, and municipal Councils of +Defense, and of those of the Woman's Committee of the Council--no +doubt the greatest organization of the kind that the world has +ever known." + + + +To George W. Lane + +Washington, May 3, 1917 + +These are great days. Their significance will not be realized for +many years. We are forming a close union with France and England. +The most impressive sight I have ever seen was that at +Washington's tomb last Sunday. We went down on the Mayflower--the +French and the English commissions and the members of the Cabinet. +Viviani and Balfour spoke. Joffre laid a bronze palm upon +Washington's tomb, then stood up in his soldierly way and stood at +salute for a minute, Balfour laid a wreath of lilies upon the +tomb, and leaned over as if in prayer. Above the tomb, for the +first time, flew the flag of another country than our own, the +Stars and Stripes, and on either side, the British Jack and the +French Tricolor. This is a combination of the Democracies of the +world against feudalism and autocracy. + +I heard a story from one of Joffre's aides. Joffre, by the way, is +the quietest, sweetest, most naive, and babylike individual I ever +met. All of the women, as well as the men, are in love with him. +When he met Nancy, at a garden party, he kissed her on both +cheeks. Nancy, as you may imagine, was ecstatically delighted. +This simple, grave, kindly soldier sat in his room while the +Germans came marching upon Paris, saying nothing. Every few +minutes an aide would come in and move the French markers back +upon the map, and the German markers forward, toward Paris. Day +after day he saw this advance, but said nothing. At last when they +came to the valley of the Marne, an aide came in and marked the +map, showing that the Germans were within thirty miles of Paris. +Then Joffre quietly said, "This thing has gone far enough," and +taking up a pad of paper he called to his troops to stand fast and +die upon the Marne, if necessary, to save France. There is nothing +finer than this in history. + +Joffre has a skin like a baby. He has the utmost frankness and +simplicity of speech. When McAdoo asked him at the White House if +the present drive was satisfactory, he said in the most innocent +way, "I am not there." Viviani, who is the head of the French +Commission, is as jealous as a prima donna, terribly jealous of +Joffre, (which makes Joffre feel most uncomfortable) because, of +course, Joffre is the hero of the Marne. + +I spoke at the Belasco Theatre the other day for the benefit of +the French war relief fund, introducing Ambassador Herrick and the +lecturer, a young Frenchman. Joffre and Viviani were in a box. +Every mention of the name of Joffre brought the people to their +feet. Yesterday I spoke again at a meeting of the State Councils +of Defense and I enclose you what the New York Post had to say. + +Last night I dined with Balfour. I have seen quite a little of +him. He is sixty-nine years old and stands about six feet two. He +is a perfect type of the aristocratic Englishman, with a charming +smile. His real heart is in the study of philosophy. Anne sat next +to him at dinner and he told her that he believed in a personal +God, personal identity after death, and answer to prayer, which is +a remarkable statement of faith for one who has lived through our +scientific age. I think at bottom he is a mystic. + +On all sides they are frank in telling of their distress. We did +not come in a minute too soon. England and France, I believe, were +gone if we had not come in. It delights me to see how much +sympathy there is with England as well as with France. The Irish +alone seem to be unreconciled with England as our ally. + +Ned got your letter, and I suppose in time will answer it, I had +the question put to me by Baker yesterday as to whether I wished +him to go to the other side, and I had to say frankly that I did. +It was to me the most momentous decision that I have made in the +war. He has passed his final test, and I hope that he will get his +commission in a few days. + +To-night we give a dinner to the Canadians, Sir George Foster, the +acting Premier, and Sir Joseph Polk, the Under Secretary of +External Affairs, who, by the way, was born in Charlottetown, +Prince Edward Island, and says he heard our father preach. + +The country's crops are going to be short, I fear, and we have had +little rain. Ships and grain--these are the two things that we +must get. Ships, to carry our grain and our locomotives and rails, +and grain to keep the fighters alive. The U-boats are destroying +twice as much as the producing tonnage of the world. We need every +bushel that California can produce. With much love, affectionately +yours, + +F.K.L. + +To Frank I. Cobb New York World + +Washington, May 5, 1917 + +MY DEAR COBB,--I had a long talk with Hoover yesterday. He tells +me that the U-boat situation is really worse than I stated it. +There is no question but that the actual sinkings amounted to more +than 300,000 tons in a week, and if we add those put out of +business by mines, they will exceed 400,000 tons. The French are +absolutely desperate. One of the French ministers told Hoover that +they had fixed on the first of November as their last day, if the +United States had not come in. Admiral Chocheprat told me, with +tears in his eyes, three nights ago, that they felt themselves +helpless. They were absolutely at the mercy of the submarines +because of their lack of destroyers, and they had feared we were +preparing to defend our own shores rather than fight across the +water. I know that the latter has been the policy of the heads of +the Navy Department. + +Do not, I beg of you, minimize the immediate danger. This is the +time to defend the United States; and the United States is +woefully indifferent to its dangers and to the needs of the +situation. We have been carrying on a ship-building program with +reference to conditions after the war. It is only within ten days +that we have realized that the end of the war will be one of +defeat unless we build twice as fast as we proposed to build. You +know that I am not pessimistic. It is not my habit to look upon +the gloomy side of things. It is no kindness to the American +people or to France or England to give them words of good cheer +now. This war is right at this minute a challenge to every +particle of brains and inventive skill that we have got. + +Please treat this as entirely confidential. Cordially yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + +May 8 + +The only dissension in the Council is over the use that will be +made of Hoover. Houston, I think, is rather making a mistake, +though it may work out all right. I hope it will. + +Don't "bat" us; we are a nervous lot right now. ... + +"Lane was among the first to grasp the bigness of the danger to +the allied cause," James S. Harlan says, "in Germany's underwater +attack on the merchant marine of the world. He also realized the +magnitude of the task of frustrating the new peril and the need of +prompt measures to save the situation. Lane had no anxieties or +hesitations in his personal contact with big men; but he had a +genuine fear of small men when big things were doing. And so in +this great emergency he naturally thought of Schwab. How well I +recall the fine force and vigor in his expression when, rising +from his chair and standing with clenched fist pointed at me, he +said in substance:--'The President ought to send for Schwab and +hand him a treasury warrant for a billion dollars and set him to +work building ships, with no government inspectors or supervisors +or accountants or auditors or other red tape to bother him. Let +the President just put it up to Schwab's patriotism and put Schwab +on his honor. Nothing more is needed. Schwab will do the job.' + +"This was a full year before Schwab was called down to Washington +to talk over the question of building ships." + + + +To Will Irwin Paris, France + +Washington, July 21, 1917 + +MY DEAR WILL,--I have just received your letter. Thank you very +much for what you say of my speech. I am doing my damndest to keep +things going here but it is awfully hard work, because the minute +my head raises above the water some neighboring ship plugs it. + +I think you are dead right in staying with the Post. The feeling +here is that we are not getting real facts regarding the +desperateness of the U-boat situation. We need to be told facts in +order to have our minds challenged. We are not cowards, and I hope +you will give us realistic pictures of just what is happening if +you can. ... + +My boy is the youngest lieutenant in the Army--nine-teen. He goes +next week to Illinois as an instructor in aviation, and I suppose +in a little while when he gets the machines, he will be crossing +over. + +With warm affection, my dear Will. Always yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + +To Robert Lansing Secretary of State + +Beverly, Massachusetts. [August, 1917] + +MY DEAR LANSING,--I had lunch yesterday with Colonel House who +asked me what I thought should be done as to the Pope's appeal for +peace. I told him I thought it should be taken seriously. He +agreed and asked what the President should say. I answered that, +inasmuch as all the evidence pointed to the conclusion that the +German Centerists and Austria were responsible for this appeal, +that we could not afford to have them feel that we were for a +policy of annihilation,--for this would be playing the War +Party's game and would place the burden on us of continuing the +war. And this we could neither afford [to do] at home or abroad. +This opportunity should be seized, I said, to make plain not so +much our terms of peace as the things in Germany that seemed to +make peace difficult,--Germany's attitude toward the world, the +spirit against which we are fighting. That we wished peace; that +we had been patient to the limit; that we had come in in the hope +that we could destroy the idea in the German mind that it could +impose its authority and system, by force, upon an unwilling +world; that we were not opposed to talking peace, provided, at the +outset, and as a SINE QUA NON, the Central Powers would assume +that Government by the Soldier was not a possibility in the 20th +century. + +The Colonel said that he had written the President to this same +effect. That he had written you, or not, he did not say. So I am +telling you the Colonel's view for your own benefit. He thought +that the Allies would strongly insist upon concerted action, +putting aside the Pope's appeal, and that this had to be resisted, +for we should play our own game. I find all I meet here strong for +the war, but of course I only meet the high-spirited. There is +much feeling that we are going about it too mechanically, with too +little emotion and passion. ... As always, + +LANE + + + +Toward the middle of August, Lane started for Mount Desert to +inspect the proposed National Park created there through the +public-spirited devotion of George B. Dorr. This northern trip was +taken to decide whether he would accept, as Secretary of the +Interior, this addition to the National Parks. Two years later in +writing to Senator Myers, Chairman of the Committee on Public +Lands, of this National Park, the only one east of the +Mississippi, Lane said, "The name Lafayette is substituted for +that of Mount Desert, the name proposed by the former bill, and I +consider it singularly appropriate that the name of Lafayette +should be commemorated by these splendid mountains facing on the +sea, on what was once a corner of Old France, and with it the +early friendship of the two nations which are so closely allied in +the present war." + +[Illustration with caption: Franklin K. Lane and George B. Dorr in +Lafayette National Park, Mount Desert Island, Maine] + + + +To Henry Lane Eno Bar Harbori, Maine + +Washington, Saturday, [September 2, 1917] + +There are not many weeks in a man's life of which he can say that +one was without a flaw, that it could not have been improved upon +in company, comfort, or surroundings. And all these things, my +dear Mr. Eno, I can affirm of the days spent with you. I have a +better opinion of my fellows and of my country because of them. +Perhaps, after all, that is as complete a test as any other. As I +look back I think of but one thing that gives occasion for regret +--we had too few good, mind-stretching talks, you, Dorr, and +myself. But those we had were certainly not about affairs of small +concern. We indulged ourselves as social philosophers, +psychologists, war-makers, and international statesmen. The world +was ours, and more--the worlds beyond. To do things worth while by +day, and to dream things worth while by night, and to believe that +both are worth while, that is the perfect life. If one can't get +to Heaven by following that course, then are we lost. + +I am sending a line to Dorr, noble, unselfish, high-spirited, +broad-minded gentleman that he is. ... Sincerely and heartily +yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + +To George Dorr, Bar Harbor, Maine + +Washington, [September 2,1917] + +MY DEAR MR. DORR,--You do not know what good you did my tired +politics-soaked soul by showing me, under such happy conditions, +the beauties and the possibilities of your island. And I came to +know two men at least, whose heads and hearts were working for a +less pudgy and flat-footed world. ... To have enthusiasm is to +beat the Devil. So I have you down in my Saints' book. + +You know a man in politics is always looking about for some place +to which he can retire when the whirligig brings in another group +of more popular patriots. Now I can frankly say that if I could +have an extended term of exile on your island with you and your +friends, I would feel reconciled to banishment from politics for +life, provided however (I must say this for conscience' sake) that +we had time and money to make the Park what it should be--a +demonstration school for the American to show how much he can add +to the beauty of Nature. + +A wilderness, no matter how impressive and beautiful, does not +satisfy this soul of mine, (if I have that kind of thing). It is a +challenge to man. It says, "Master me! Put me to use! Make me +something more than I am." So what you have done in the Park--the +Spring House and the Arts Building, the cliff trails and the +opened woods, show how much may be added by the love and thought +of man. May the Gods be good to you, the God of Mammon +immediately, that your dreams may come true, and that you may give +to others the pleasure you gave to yours sincerely, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + +TO HON. WOODROW WILSON THE WHITE HOUSE + +Washington, September 21, 1917 + +MY DEAR MR. PRESIDENT,--It will interest you to know that the +Commission which I sent up this year to Alaska to look into the +Alaskan Railroad matters has just returned. The engineer on this +Commission was Mr. Wendt, who was formerly Chief Engineer of the +Pittsburg and Lake Erie Railroad, and who is now in charge of the +appraisal of eastern roads under the Interstate Commerce +Commission. He tells me that our Alaskan road could not have been +built for less money if handled by a private concern; that he has +never seen any railroad camps where the men were provided with as +good food and where there was such care taken of their health. +They have had no smallpox and but one case of typhoid fever. No +liquor is allowed on the line of the road. The road in his +judgment has followed the best possible location. Our hospitals +are well run. The compensation plan adopted for injuries is +satisfactory to the men. + +I have directed that all possible speed be made in connecting the +Matanuska coal fields with Seward. This involves the heaviest +construction that we will have to undertake, which is along +Turnagain Ann, but by the middle of next year, no strikes +intervening, and transportation for supplies being available, this +part of the work should be done. Faithfully and cordially yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + +In Lane's Annual REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR, dated +November 20, 1919, he writes of the Alaskan railroad enterprise:-- +"One of the first recommendations made by me in my report of seven +years ago was that the Government build a railroad from Seward to +Fairbanks in Alaska. Five years ago you intrusted to me the +direction of this work. The road is now more than two-thirds built +and Congress at this session after exhaustively examining into the +work has authorized an additional appropriation sufficient for its +completion. The showing made before Congress was that the road had +been built without graft; every dollar has gone into actual work +or material. It has been built without giving profits to any large +contractors, for it has been constructed entirely by small +contractors or by day's labor. It has been built without touch of +politics; every man on the road has been chosen exclusively for +ability and experience." + +This memorandum touching the early history of Alaska was found in +Lane's files. + + + +MANUSCRIPT NOTE + +Washington, December 29, 1911 + +Last night I dined with Charles Henry Butler, reporter for the +Supreme Court and a son of William Alien Butler, for so long a +leader of the New York bar. + +In the course of the evening Mr. Charles Glover, President of the +Riggs National Bank, told me this bit of history. That when he was +a boy, in the bank one day Mr. Cochran came to him and handed him +two warrants upon the United States Treasury, one for $1,400,000. +and the other for $5,800,000. He said, "Put those in the safe." +Mr. Glover did so, and they remained there for a week, when they +were sent to New York. Mr., Glover said "These warrants were the +payment of Russia for the Territory of Alaska. Why were there two +warrants? I never knew until some years later, when I learned the +story from Senator Dawes, who said that prior to the war, there +had been some negotiations between the United States and Russia +for the purchase of Alaska, and the price of $1,400,000. was +agreed upon. In fact this was the amount that Russia asked for +this great territory, which was regarded as nothing more than a +barren field of ice. + +"During the war the matter lay dormant. We had more territory than +we could take care of. When England, however, began to manifest +her friendly disposition toward the Confederacy, and we learned +from Europe that England and France were carrying on negotiations +for the recognition of the Southern States, and possibly of some +manifestation by their fleets against the blockade which we had +instituted, (and which they claimed was not effective and merely a +paper blockade), we looked about for a friend, and Russia was the +only European country upon whose friendship we could rely. +Thereupon Secretary Seward secured from Russia a demonstration, in +American ports, of Russian friendship. Her ships of war sailed to +both of our coasts, the Atlantic and Pacific, with the +understanding that the expense of this demonstration should be met +by the United States, out of the contingent fund. It was to be a +secret matter. "The war came to a close, and immediately +thereafter Lincoln was assassinated and the administration +changed. It was no longer possible to pay for this demonstration, +secretly, under the excuse of war, but a way was found for paying +Russia through the purchase of Alaska. The warrant for $1,400,000. +was the warrant for the purchase of Alaska, the warrant for +$5,800,000. was for Russia's expenses in her naval demonstration +in our behalf, but history only knows the fact that the United +States paid $7,200,000. for this territory, which is now +demonstrated to be one of the richest portions of the earth in +mineral deposits." + + + +TO HON. WOODROW WILSON + +THE WHITE HOUSE + +Washington, November 3, 1917 + +MY DEAR MR. PRESIDENT,--On April 7, 1917, the Council of National +Defense adopted a report, submitted by the Chairman of the +Executive Committee on Labor of the Advisory Commission of the +Council, urging that no change in existing standards be made +during the war, by either employers or employees, except with the +approval of the Council of National Defense. ... + +The next step for producing efficiency must be no strikes. + +The annual convention of the American Federation of Labor, +consisting of international unions, will be held at Buffalo on +November 12th. I would urge that about thirty executives of the +unions, which more directly control essential war production, be +invited to confer with you prior to that date, to determine on a +policy which will prevent the constant interruption of production +for war purposes. The Commissioners of Conciliation of the +Department of Labor and the President's Commission have a +wonderful record of accomplishments for settling strikes after +they have occurred. Organized labor should give the Government the +opportunity to adjust controversies before strikes occur. + +At this conference it could safely be made plain that for the war, +employers would agree not to object to the peaceable extension of +trade unionism; that they would make no efforts to "open" a +"closed shop"; that they would submit all controversies concerning +standards, including wages and lockouts, to any official body on +which they have equal representation with labor, and would abide +by its decisions; that they would adhere strictly to health and +safety laws, and laws concerning woman and child labor; that they +would not lower prices now in force for piece work, except by +Government direction; that if a union in a "closed" shop after due +notice was unable to furnish sufficient workers, any non-union +employees taken on would be the first to be dismissed on the +contraction of business, and the shop restored to its previous +"closed" status; that the only barrier in the way of steady +production is the unwillingness of the unions to uphold the +proposition of settlement before a strike, instead of after a +strike. + +The imminence of this convention seems to me to make some step +necessary at this time. I would take the matter up with Secretary +Wilson were he here, and have sent a copy of this letter to him. +You undoubtedly can put an end to this most serious situation by +calling on the international labor leaders to take a stand that +will not be so radical as that taken in England, and yet will +insure to the men good wages and good conditions, and make sure +that our industry will not be paralyzed. Cordially yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + +TO J. O'H. COSGRAVE NEW YORK WORLD + +Washington, December 21, 1917 + +MY DEAR JACK,--My spirit does not permit me to give you an +interview on the moral benefits of the war. This would be sheer +camouflage. Of course, we will get some good out of it, and we +will learn some efficiency--if that is a moral benefit--and a +purer sense of nationalism. But the war will degrade us. That is +the plain fact, make sheer brutes out of us, because we will have +to descend to the methods that the Germans employ. + +So you must go somewhere else for your uplift stuff. Cordially +yours, + +FRANKLIN E. LANE + + + + + +X + +CABINET NOTES IN WAR-TIME + +1918 + +Notes on Cabinet Meetings--School Gardens--A Democracy Lacks +Foresight--Use of National Resources--Washington in War-time--The +Sacrifice of War--Farms for Soldiers + + +NOTES ON CABINET MEETINGS + +FOUND IN LANE'S FILES + +February 25, 1918 + +As I entered the building this morning Dr. Parsons [Footnote: Of +the Department of the Interior, Bureau of Mines.] met me. I asked +how the cyanide plant was getting on. His reply was to ask if he +might request the War Department to allow us to make the contract +--that he could have the whole thing done in two days. This is +where we are at the end of more than six months of effort. It is +hopeless! We find the process, everything!--but cannot get the +contract, through the intricate, infinite fault-findings and +negligence of the War Department. + +Manning [Footnote: Of the Department of the Interior, Bureau of +Mines.] came to see me to say that he expected, after the Overman +bill was passed, that the President would take over the gas work-- +order it into the War Department. He had been asked twice if he +could be tempted by a uniform into that Department, and had said +that he was freer as a civilian,--had planned the work and +gathered the force as a civilian, and would not leave the +Department. He felt damned sore and indignant, that a work so well +done should be the subject of envy, and possibly be made less +effective and useful. ... + +Everit Macy lunched with me and told me the sad story of the +mishandling of labor affairs by the Shipping Board. He had gone to +the Pacific Coast and with his colleagues, Coolidge and others, +made an agreement with the shipbuilding trades. Five dollars and +twenty-five cents for machinists, etc. In Seattle, however, +because of one firm's bidding for labor, he felt that there would +have to come a strike before this schedule would be accepted. +Before he got back the threatened strike came, and then the demand +of the men for a ten per cent bonus was acceded to, upsetting all +other settlements in San Francisco, Portland, Los Angeles, etc. +Result, ten per cent gain everywhere. And now the Eastern and +Southern men ask the Pacific scale, and he can't see how it can be +avoided, nor can I. They will have to standardize all wages. + +Poor chap, his advice was scorned, for he protested against the +bonus being given to Seattle, and as he said, "If it had not been +war-time I would have resigned." To increase the men in the South, +to this unprecedented scale, will not get more ships, he fears, +but less, for they will not work if they have wages in four days, +equal to seven days' needs. I advised for standardization. He said +the Navy wouldn't hear of it, as it would demoralize their yards. +... + +Politics, politics, curse of the country! It has gotten into the +whole war program. Hoover and McAdoo are at swords drawn. Hoover +had a cable signed by the three Premiers, George, Clemenceau, and +Orlando, crying for wheat and charging us with not keeping our +word--and starvation threatening all three countries--in fact, +almost sure, because we have not been able to get the wheat to the +ships; and with starvation will come revolution, if it gets bad +enough. ... I asked Hoover about this on Sunday night, ... and he +said that a list of eight hundred cars had been on McAdoo's desk +FOR A WEEK. ... + +(McChord said on the bench [Footnote: The Interstate Commerce +Commission.] to-day that he thought Hoover seventy-five per cent +right.) + + + +March 1, [1918] + +Yesterday, at Cabinet meeting, we had the first real talk on the +war in weeks, yes, in months! Burleson brought up the matter of +Russia, ... would we support Japan in taking Siberia, or even +Vladivostock? Should we join Japan actively--in force? + +The President said "No," for the very practical reason that we had +no ships. We had difficulty in providing for our men in France and +for our Allies, (the President never uses this word, saying that +we are not "allies"). How hopeless it would be to carry everything +seven or eight thousand miles--not only men and munitions, but +food!--for Japan has none to spare, and none we could eat. Her men +feed on rice and smoked fish, and she raises nothing we would +want. Nor could the country support us. So there was an end of +talking of an American force in Siberia! Yes, we were needed-- +perhaps as a guarantee of good faith on Japan's part that she +would not go too far, nor stay too long. But we would not do it. +And besides, Russia would not like it, therefore we must keep +hands off and let Japan take the blame and the responsibility. + +The question is not simple, for Russia will say that we threw her +to Japan, and possibly she would rush into Germany's arms as the +lesser of evils. My single word of caution was to so act that +Russia, when she "came back," should not hate us, for there was +our new land for development--Siberia--and we should have front +place at that table, if we did not let our fears and our hatred +and our contempt get away with us now. + +Daniels whispered to-day that Russia had five fast cruisers in the +Baltic, which could raid the Atlantic and put our ships off the +sea. He had wired Sims to see if they couldn't be sunk. I hope +it is not too late; surely England must have done something on so +important a matter, though she is slow in thinking. And how is +anyone to get there with the Baltic full of submarines and mines! +The thought is horrible, the possibilities! We certainly have made +a bad fist of things Russian from the start. They have deserted us +because they were trying to drive the cart ahead of the horse, +economical revolution before political revolution, socialism ahead +of liberty with law. And they know we are capitalistic, because we +do not approve of socialism by force. + + + +March 12, (1918) + +Nothing talked of at Cabinet that would interest a nation, a +family, or a child. No talk of the war. No talk of Russia or +Japan. Talk by McAdoo about some bills in Congress, by the +President about giving the veterans of the Spanish war leave, with +pay, to attend their annual encampment. And he treated this +seriously as if it were a matter of first importance! No word from +Baker nor mention of his mission or his doings. ... + + + +TO FRANKLIN K. LANE, JR. + +SOMEWHERE IN FRANCE + +Washington, February 15, 1918 + +MY DEAR BOY,--... We are anxiously awaiting some word telling +where you are, what you are doing, and how you got on in your +trip. I thought your cablegram was a model of condensation, quite +like that of Caesar, "Veni, vidi, vici." ... + +Sergeant Empey has just left the office with a letter to the +Secretary of War, asking that he be given a commission. He has +been lecturing among the cantonments and wants to get back to +France. ... He says that the boys in the cantonments are anxious to +go across, and that they are beginning to criticise us because +they do not have their chance. But they will all get there soon +enough for them. Our national problem is to get ships to carry +them, and to carry the food for the Allies. ... We have undertaken +to supply a certain amount of food to the other side, and our +contract, so far, has not been fulfilled. During December and +January, however, this was, of course, due to railroad conditions. + +You are a long way off, but you must not visualize the distance. +Nothing so breaks the spirit as to dwell upon unfortunate facts. +Some one day or another you had to leave the nest, and this is +your day for flying. Wherever you are, with people whose language +you understand only imperfectly, with a civilization that is +somewhat strange, and under conditions that often-times will be +trying, don't adopt the usual attitude of the American in a +foreign country and wonder "why the damn fools don't speak +English." No doubt some of the French will pity you because of +your delinquency in their language. + +Another thing that differentiates us from other people is our +lavishness in expenditure, and in what appears to us to be their +"nearness." ... From these same thrifty French have come great +things. They have always been great soldiers; they have led the +world in the arts, especially in poetry, painting and fiction-- +perhaps, too, I should add architecture. So that men who are +careful of their pennies are not necessarily small in their minds. +... + +I have less doubt, however, of your ability to get on with the +Frenchman than I have with the Englishman. ... You will have +difficulty--at least I should--in understanding the rather heavy, +sober, non-humorous Englishman. ... He is always a self-important +gentleman who regards England as having spoken pretty much the +last word in all things, and who will abuse his own country, his +countrymen, and institutions, frankly and with abandon, but will +allow no one else this liberty. He is not a "quitter" though, and +he has done his bit through the centuries for the making of the +world. + +... See as many people as you can, present all your letters, +accept invitations. Remember that while you are there and we miss +you, we are not spending our time in moping. Every night we go to +dinner and we chatter with the rest of the magpies, as if the +world were free from suffering. Last night I talked with +Paderewski for an hour on the sorrows of Poland, and it was one +long tale of horror. ... + +To-day the Russians are calling their people back to arms to stop +the oncoming Germans. Foolish, foolish idealists who believed that +they could establish what they call an economic democracy, without +being willing to support their ideal in modern fashion by force. +The best of things can not live unless they are fought for, and +while I do not think that their socialism was the best of +anything, it was their dream. ... With much love, my dear boy, +your DAD + + + +To George W. Lane February 16, 1918 + +MY DEAR GEORGE,--... Things are going much better with the War +Department. My expectation is that this war will resolve itself +into three things, in this order:--ships for food, aeroplanes, big +guns. We must, as you know, do all that we can to keep up the +morale of our own people. There is a considerable percentage of +pacifists, and of the weak-hearted ones, who would like to have a +peace now upon any terms, but the treatment that Russia is +receiving, after she had thrown down her arms, indicates what may +be expected by any nation that quits now. + +... The prospects for democratization of Germany is not as good as +it was a year ago, when we came in, because of their success in +arms due to Russia's debacle. The people will not overthrow a +government which is successful, nor will they be inclined to +desert a system which adds to Germany's glory. It is a fight, a +long fight, a fight of tremendous sacrifice, that we are in for. I +said a year ago that it would be two years. Then I thought that +Russia would put up some kind of front. Now I say two years from +this time and possibly a great deal longer. Lord Northcliffe +thinks four or six or eight years. + +Ned writes me that things are very gloomy and glum in England and +in Ireland, where he has been. He was out in an air raid, in +several of them, in London, not up in the air, but from the ground +could see no trace of the airships that were dropping bombs on the +town. The Germans seem to have discovered some way by which they +can tell where they are without being able to see the lights of +the city, for now they have bombarded Paris when it was protected, +on a dark night, by a blanket of fog, and London also under the +same conditions. The compass is not much good, the deviations are +so great. It may be that the clever Huns have found some way of +piloting themselves surely. We are starting two campaigns through +the Bureau of Education which may interest you. One is for school +gardens. To have the children organized, each one to plant a +garden. The plan is to raise vegetables which will save things +that can be sent over to the armies, and also give the children a +sense of being in the war. Another thing we are trying to do is +educate the foreign born and the native born who cannot read or +write English. If you are interested in either of these two things +we will send you literature, and you can name your own district, +and we will put you at work. ... + +Well, my dear fellow, I long very much for the sun and the +sweetness of California these days, but I could not enjoy myself +if I were there, because I am at such tension that I must be doing +every day. Do write me often, even though I do not answer. +Affectionately yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + +TO ALBERT SHAW + +REVIEW OF REVIEWS + +Washington, March 7, 1918 + +MY DEAR DR. SHAW,--I have your letter of March 4th. The thing that +a democracy is short on is foresight. We do not have enough men +like the General Staff in Germany who can think ten and twenty +years ahead. We are too much embedded and incrusted in the things +that flow around us during the day, and think too little of the +future. + +For five, long, weary years, I have been agitating for the use of +the water powers of the United States. We estimate the unused +power in tens and tens of millions of horse-power. Right in New +York you have in the Erie Canal 150,000 horse-power, and on the +Niagara river you have probably a million unused. If you had a +great dam across the river below the rapids we should have water +power in chains, like fire horses in their stalls, that could be +brought out at the time of need. But we are thinking in large +figures these days, and while we used to be afraid to ask for a +few hundred thousand dollars we now talk in millions, and some day +we may realize that to put the cost of a week's war into power +plants in the United States would be money well invested. ... + +We have no law under which private capital feels justified in +investing a dollar in a water power plant where public lands are +involved, because the permit granted is revokable at the pleasure +of the Secretary of the Interior, and capital does not enjoy the +prospect of making its future returns dependent upon the good +digestion of the Secretary. But if we get this bill, which I +enclose, through, we will be able to handle the powers on all +streams on the public lands and forests and on all navigable +waters, and give assurance to capital that it will be well taken +care of if it makes the investment. ... + +I am greatly pleased at the kind things you say about me. The +longer I am in office the more of an appetite I have for such +food. Hoover [Footnote: Hoover at this time was Food +Administrator.] can only commit one fatal mistake--to declare a +taflfyless day. Cordially yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + +To Edward J. Wheeler on February 1, 1917, he had written:-- + +"It is an outrage that we should have a total of nearly six +million acres of land withdrawn for oil, three million for +phosphates, and one million for water power sites, potash, etc., +and allow session after session of Congress to pass without +producing any legislation that will sensibly open these reserves +to development. The extreme conservationists, who are really for +holding the lands indefinitely in the Federal Government and +unopened, and the extreme anti-conservationists, who are for +turning all the public lands over to the States, have stood for +years against a rational system of national development." + +Although a great part of the energy of the Department of the +Interior was, of necessity, diverted to forward war enterprises +and to supply war necessities--chemical, metallurgical, +statistical--Lane steadily pressed forward the conduct of the +normal activities of the department. In his report for the year +1918, he briefly summarizes this work,--"The distribution, survey, +and classification of our national lands; the care of the Indian +wards of the Nation, their education, and the development of their +vast estate; the carrying forward of our reclamation projects; the +awarding and issuance of patents to inventors; the construction of +the Alaskan railroad and the supervision of the Territorial +affairs of Alaska and Hawaii; the payment of pensions to Army and +Navy veterans and their dependents; the promotion of education; +the custody and management of the national parks; the conservation +of the lives of those who work in mines, and the study and +guidance of the mining and metallurgical industries." + + To Walter H. Page + +Washington, March 16, 1918 + +My dear Mr. Ambassador,--I am the poorest of all living +correspondents, in fact, I am a dead correspondent. I do not +function. If it had not been so I would long since have answered +your notes, which have been in my basket, but I have had no time +for any personal correspondence, much as I delight in it, for I +have a very old-fashioned love for writing from day to day what +pops into my mind, contradicting each day what I said the day +before, and gathering from my friends their impressions and their +spirit the same way. For the first time in three months I have +leisure enough ... to acknowledge a few of the accumulated +personal letters. + +Let me give you a glimpse of my day, just to compare it with your +own and by way of contrasting life in two different spheres and on +different sides of the ocean. I get to my office at nine in the +morning and my day is broken up into fifteen-minute periods, +during which I see either my own people or others. I really write +none of my own letters, [Footnote: This referred to routine +letters.] simply telling my secretaries whether the answer should +be "yes" or "no." I lunch at my own desk and generally with my +wife, who has charge of our war work in the Department. We have +over thirteen hundred men who have gone out of this Department +into the Army. ... My day is broken into by Cabinet meeting twice +a week, meeting of the Council of National Defense twice a week, +and latterly with long sessions every afternoon over the question +of what railroad wages should be. + +My office is a sort of place of last resort for those who are +discouraged elsewhere, for Washington is no longer a city of set +routine and fixed habit. It is at last the center of the nation. +New York is no longer even the financial center. The newspapers +are edited from here. Society centers here. All the industrial +chiefs of the nation spend most of their time here. It is easier +to find a great cattle king or automobile manufacturer or a +railroad president or a banker at the Shoreham or the Willard +Hotel than it is to find him in his own town. The surprising thing +is that these great men who have made our country do not loom so +large when brought to Washington and put to work. ... Every day I +find some man of many millions who has been here for months and +whose movements used to be a matter of newspaper notoriety, but I +did not know, even, that he was here. I leave my office at seven +o'clock, not having been out of it during the day except for a +Cabinet or Council meeting, take a wink of sleep, change my +clothes and go to a dinner, for this, as you will remember, is the +one form of entertainment that Washington has permitted itself in +the war. The dinners are Hooverized,--three courses, little or no +wheat, little or no meat, little or no sugar, a few serve wine. +And round the table will always be found men in foreign uniforms, +or some missionary from some great power who comes begging for +boats or food. These dinners used to be places of great gossip, +and chiefly anti-administration gossip, but the spirit of the +people is one of unequaled loyalty. The Republicans are as glad to +have Wilson as their President as are the Democrats, I think +sometimes a little more glad, because many of the Democrats are +disgruntled over patronage or something else. The women are +ferocious in their hunt for spies, and their criticism is against +what they think is indifference to this danger. Boys appear at +these dinners in the great houses, because of their uniforms, who +would never have been permitted even to come to the front door in +other days, for all are potential heroes. Every woman carries her +knitting, and it is seldom that you hear a croaker even among the +most luxurious class. Well, the dinner is over by half past ten, +and I go home to an hour and a half's work, which has been sent +from the office, and fall at last into a more or less troubled +sleep. This is the daily round. + +I have not been to New York since the war began. I made one trip +across the continent speaking for the Liberty Loan, day and night. +And this life is pretty much the life of all of us here. The +President keeps up his spirits by going to the theatre three or +four times a week. There are no official functions at the White +House, and everybody's teeth are set. The Allies need not doubt +our resolution. England and France will break before we will, and +I do not doubt their steadfast purpose. It is, as you said long +ago, their fault that this war has come, for they did not realize +the kind of an enemy they had, either in spirit, purpose, or +strength. But we will increasingly strengthen that western gate so +that the Huns will not break through. + +We do things fast here, but I never realized before how slow we +are in getting started. It takes a long time for us to get a new +stride. I did not think that this was true industrially. I have +known that it was true politically for a long time, because this +was the most backward and most conservative of all the +democracies. We take up new machinery of government so slowly. But +industrially it is also true. When told to change step we shift +and stumble and halt and hesitate and go through all kinds of +awkward misses. This has been true as to ships and aeroplanes and +guns, big and little, and uniforms. Whatever the government has +done itself has been tied by endless red tape. It is hard for an +army officer to get out of the desk habit, and caution, +conservatism, sureness, seem even in time of crisis to be more +important than a bit of daring. In my Department, I figure that it +takes about seven years for the nerve of initiative and the nerve +of imagination to atrophy, and so, perhaps, it is in other +departments. It took five months for one of our war bureaus to get +out a contract for a building that we were to build for them. +Fifteen men had to sign the contract. And of course we have been +impatient. But things are bettering every day. The men in the +camps are very impatient to get away. But where are the ships to +do all the work? The Republicans cannot chide us with all of the +unpreparedness, for they stood in the way of our getting ships +three years ago. The gods have been against us in the way of +weather so we have not brought down our supplies to the seaboard, +but we have not had the ships to take away that which was there; +or coal, sometimes, for the ships. + +From now, however, you will see a steadier, surer movement of men, +munitions, food, and ships. The whole country is solidly, strongly +with the President. There are men in Congress bitterly against him +but they do not dare to raise their voices, because he has the +people so resolutely with him. The Russian overthrow has been a +good thing for us in one way. It will cost us perhaps a million +lives, but it will prove to us the value of law and order. We are +to have our troubles, and must change our system of life in the +next few years. + +A great oil man was in the office the other day and told me in a +plain, matter-of-fact way, what must be done to win--the +sacrifices that must be made--and he ended by saying, "After all, +what is property?" This is a very pregnant question. It is not +being asked in Russia alone. Who has the right to anything? My +answer is, not the man, necessarily, who has it, but the man who +can use it to good purpose. The way to find the latter man is the +difficulty. + +We will have national woman suffrage, national prohibition, +continuing inheritance tax, continuing income tax, national life +insurance, an increasing grip upon the railroads, their finances +and their operation as well as their rates. Each primary resource, +such as land and coal and iron and copper and oil, we will more +carefully conserve. There will be no longer the opportunity for +the individual along these lines that there has been. Industry +must find some way of profit-sharing or it will be nationalized. +These things, however, must be regarded as incidents now; and the +labor people, those with vision and in authority, are very willing +to postpone the day of accounting until we know what the new order +is to be like. + +Well, I have rambled on, giving you a general look--in on my mind. +Don't let any of those people doubt the President, or doubt the +American people. This is the very darkest day that we have seen. +But we believe in ourselves and we believe in our own kind, and +believe in a something, not ourselves, that makes for +righteousness,--slowly, stumblingly, but, as the centuries go, +surely. + +I have not yet seen the Archbishop of York. He has not been here. +But he has made a most favorable impression where he has been, and +so have the English labor people. + +Poor Spring-Rice did good work here. Washington felt very sad over +his death, and is expecting that England will evidence her +appreciation of the fact that he did nothing to estrange us by the +way in which his widow is treated. + +Reading has been received and fits in perfectly. With warm +regards, as always, Cordially yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + +To John Lyon Machine Gun Company Camp McClennen, Alabama + +Washington, March 15,1918 + +MY DEAR JOHN,--I know how you must feel. Every particle of my own +nature rebels against the horror of this war, or of any war, and +against the dragooning by military men. I had rather die now and +take my chances of Hell, than doom myself and Ned and those who +are to come after, to living under a government which is as this +government is now and as all governments must be now,--autocratic, +governed by orders and commands. But this is the game, and we have +got to play it, play it hard and play it through. Manifestly we +cannot quit as Russia did without getting Russia's ill-fortune. +There was a great empire of a hundred and eighty million people. +They mobilized twenty-five million men. Six million of them are +dead. The Czar was overthrown, a new government was set up, one of +conservative socialism, and that was swept aside and a group of +impractical socialists put in its stead, and where is Russia now? +Broken to bits, its population dying of hunger, its industries +unworked, its soil untilled, and Germany coming on with her great +feet, stamping down the few who are brave enough to interpose +themselves between Germany and her end. If we were to quit, +Germany would do to us, or try to do to us, what she has done to +Russia. + +If there ever was a real defensive war it is the one that we are +engaged in, and we must sacrifice, and sacrifice, and sacrifice, +not merely for the world's sake but for our own sake. Ned is in +France. He went through England. He tells me that everybody is +serious, solemn, purposeful. They would rather all die than live +under Germany's mastery of the world. + +The President is being bitterly criticized because he has taken +every opportunity to talk of terms and of ways out, but I think he +is right. He must make the people of the world feel that we are +not foolishly, and in a headstrong way, fighting to get anything +for ourselves or for anybody else, except the chance to live our +own lives. And we will show these Germans something. Our capacity +to produce aeroplanes is still altogether unrealized, and we will +have great guns a few feet apart along the entire front. We can +bomb German harbors where submarines are, and are made--that's +the work that Ned is going in for,--and we will hold that western +line until every resource is exhausted. And we will go through it +one of these days, perhaps not this year. But we must go through +it or else American ships will live on the sea by consent of +Germany, and Canada will become German territory. This is no +dream. Give Germany Paris and Calais and she can exact terms from +England. Why should she not ask for Canada? And give Germany +Canada and what becomes of the United States? An army of Germans +on our border, 5,000,000 men in arms in the United States always, +the army and navy budget taking thirty or forty per cent of every +man's income. Who wants to live in such a country? We are fighting +the greatest war that history has ever seen, not merely in numbers +but in principle. We are fighting to get rid of the most hateful +survivals from the past. The overlord, the brusque and arrogant +soldier, is the dominating factor in society and the government, +the turning of men's thoughts away from the pursuit of the things +of art and beauty and social beneficence into the one channel of +making everything serve the military arm of the nation. + +This will be a better world for the poor man when all is over. We +must forget our dreams, what our own individual lives would have +been, and with dash, and cheer, and courage, and willingness to +make the ultimate sacrifice, set our jaws and go forward. The +devil is in the saddle and we must pull him down, or else he will +rule the world,--and you are to have a tug at his coat. And I envy +you. I'd take your place in a minute, if I could. Remember that +you are an individualist, not a collectivist naturally, but +individuals are of no use now. The war can be made only by great +groups who conform. The free spirit of man will have its way once +more when this bloody war is done. + +I am glad you wrote me, and I want you to feel that you always can +write me, whatever is in your heart, and I will give you such +answer as my busy days will permit. There is only one way to look +at life and get any satisfaction out of it, and that is to bow to +the inevitable. We all must be fatalists to that extent, and once +a course has been determined upon, accept it and make the best of +it. The life of the old gambler does not consist in holding a big +hand but in playing a poor hand well. You and I are no longer +masters of our own fortunes. All that we can do is to abide by the +set rules of the game that is being played. I would change many +things, but I am powerless, and because I am powerless I must say +to myself each day, "All that God demands of me is that I shall do +my best," and doing that, the responsibility is cast upon that +Spirit which is the Great Commander. I like to feel at these times +that there is a personal God and a personal devil, and there has +been no better philosophy devised than that. God is not supreme, +He is not omnipotent, He has His limitations, His struggles, His +defeats, but there is no life unless you believe that He +ultimately must win, that this world is going upward, not +downward, that the devil is to be beaten,--the devil inside of +ourselves, the devil of wilfulness, of waywardness, of cynicism, +and the devil that is represented by the overbearing, cruel +militarism and ruthless inhumanity of Germany. You are a soldier +of the Lord, just as truly as Christ was. + +I send you my affectionate regards, and with it goes the +confidence that you will, with good cheer and resolution, play +your part. Sincerely yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + +This boy died in France. Lane wrote to his father of him:-- + +To Frank Lyon + +Washington, [November 16, 1918] + +DEAR FRANK,--Have just heard. Dear, dear Boy! I was so fond of +him. He had a brave adventurous spirit. Well, he has gone out +gloriously. There could be no finer way to go and no better time. + +I know your own strength will be equal to this test--and the +wife, poor woman, she too is brave. My heart goes out to you both +very really, wholly. With much affection. + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + +To Miss Genevieve King + +Washington, March 16, 1918 + +MY DEAR MISS KING,--These are times of terrible strain and stress, +and we cannot easily fall back upon those sources of power which +seem so distant and unavailing. I like to think of you as in our +last talk in the Millers' drawing room, where you had a much +better opportunity to express yourself than in the one that we +later had out on the porch. You then seemed to live your thought +and to have the capacity for its expression. I think of you, too, +up on that beautiful mountainside, where things like war and guns +and bandages and hospitals and men without arms and the lack of +ships, the need for saying goodbye, are so remote. + +We still keep up a semblance of social life by going to dinners +every night. It is the one relief I have, and yet each time I go I +feel ashamed at what appears like a waste of time, and yet I know +is not, and the waste of good food which is needed by others so +much more than by us. Still the people have come down to a strict +and modest diet with surprising firmness. There is little evidence +of what you would call luxury or extravagance, excepting in the +way a few people live. The place is filled with soldiers of many +colors, breeds, and uniforms. + +... Anne is busy every day at her work, and I see little of anyone +who does not come to me on business. The country seems strongly +with the President, and while his spirits are not gay, his purpose +is high and his determination is strong. We will do better, and +increasingly better, as time goes on, I believe. With warm +regards, as always sincerely yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + +Lane was a member of the Executive Council of the Red Cross, with +whom his wife was working during the war. He characterized its +symbol as,--"The one flag which binds all nations is that which +speaks of suffering and healing, losses and hopes, a past of +courage and a future of peace--the flag of the Red Cross." + + + +To John McNaught + +Washington, March 16, 1918 + +MY DEAR JOHN,--It is only now after a month's delay, that I have +an opportunity even to acknowledge your letter of the 17th of +February. + +... The whole war situation seems to be so big that it overwhelms +the minds of men. ... But we are grinding on and going surely in +the right way. Not everything has been done that could be done, +but we are getting our step. This thing will be longer than we +thought. But as the President says, it is our job--our job is cut +out for us, and we are going to see it through. Russia has taught +us what happens to a nation that is not self-respecting. We are +hard at work, every one of us, big and little. The nation never +was as united, and while we do not realize just what war is, yet +we will realize it more from day to day and harder will our fibre +grow. + +My boy is in France. He hopes to fly an aeroplane over a German +submarine base, and drop a ton of dynamite on it and put it out of +business. + +How the world has changed since we dreamed together in the Cosmos +Club! How Paris has changed since we wandered through its +boulevards together! The day of the common man is at hand. Our +danger will be in going too fast, and by going too fast do +injustice to him. But your kind of socialism and mine is to have +its fling. + +I was much pleased to meet your wife, very much indeed, and I hope +we may see you here one of these days. With my affectionate +regards, sincerely yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + +On May 31, 1918, Lane sent a long letter to President Wilson in +relation to his plan for providing farms, from the public domain, +for the returning soldiers. The letter is given at some length, +because this plan was so dear to Lane's heart, and was one upon +which he had put much earnest study. In addition to the phases of +the subject printed here, he gave, in his signed letter to +President Wilson, detailed consideration to several other aspects +of the matter; such as, a comparison of his plan with land-tenure +in Denmark, Ireland, New Zealand, and Australia; the need for an +extension of the method whereby land can be "developed in large +areas, sub-divided into individual farms, then sold to actual bona +fide farmers on long-time payment basis"; and also the part Alaska +should be made to play in affording agricultural opportunity to +our returned soldiers. + +To Hon. Woodrow Wilson The White House + +Washington, May 31, 1918 + +MY DEAR MR. PRESIDENT,--I believe the time has come when we should +give thought to the preparations of plans for providing +opportunity for our soldiers returning from the war. Because this +Department has handled similar problems I consider it my duty to +bring this matter to the attention of yourself and Congress. ... + +To the great number of returning soldiers, land will offer the +great and fundamental opportunity. The experience of wars points +out the lesson that our service men, because of army life with its +openness and activity, will largely seek out-of-doors vocations +and occupations. This fact is accepted by the allied European +nations. That is why their programs and policies of re-locating +and readjustment emphasize the opportunities on the land for the +returning soldier. The question then is, "What land can be made +available for farm homes for our soldiers?" + +We do not have the bountiful public domain of the sixties and +seventies. In a literal sense, for the use of it on a generous +scale for soldier farm homes as in the sixties, "the public domain +is gone." The official figures at the end of the fiscal year, June +30, 1917, show this: We have unappropriated land in the +continental United States to the amount of 230,657,755 acres. It +is safe to say that not one-half of this land will ever prove to +be cultivable in any sense. So we have no lands in any way +comparable to that in the public domain when Appomattox came--and +men turned westward with army rifle and "roll blanket," to begin +life anew. + +While we do not have that matchless public domain of '65, we do +have millions of acres of undeveloped lands that can be made +available for our home-coming soldiers. We have arid lands in the +West, cut-over lands in the Northwest, Lake States, and South, and +also swamp lands in the Middle West and South, which can be made +available through the proper development. Much of this land can be +made suitable for farm homes if properly handled. But it will +require that each type of land be dealt with in its own particular +fashion. The arid land will require water; the cut-over land will +require clearing; and the swamp land must be drained. Without any +of these aids, they remain largely "No Man's Land." The solution +of these problems is no new thing. In the admirable achievement of +the Reclamation Service in reclamation and drainage we have +abundant proof of what can be done. + +Looking toward the construction of additional projects, I am glad +to say that plans and investigations have been under way for some +time. A survey and study has been in the course of consummation by +the Reclamation Service on the Great Colorado Basin. That great +project, I believe, will appeal to the new spirit of America. It +would mean the conquest of an empire in the Southwest. It is +believed that more than three millions of acres of arid land could +be reclaimed by the completion of the Upper and Lower Colorado +Basin projects. ... + +What amount of land, in its natural state unfit for farm homes, +can be made suitable for cultivation by drainage, only thorough +surveys and studies can develop. We know that authentic figures +show that more than fifteen million acres have been reclaimed for +profitable farming, most of which lies in the Mississippi River +Valley. + +The amount of cut-over lands in the United States, of course, it +is impossible even in approximation to estimate. ... A rough +estimate of their number is about two hundred million acres--that +is of land suitable for agricultural development. Substantially +all this cut-over or logged-off land is in private ownership. The +failure of this land to be developed is largely due to inadequate +method of approach. Unless a new policy of development is worked +out in cooperation between the Federal Government, the States, and +the individual owners, a greater part of it will remain unsettled +and uncultivated. ... + +Any plan for the development of land for the returned soldier, +will come face to face with the fact that a new policy will have +to meet the new conditions. The era of free or cheap land in the +United States has passed. We must meet the new conditions of +developing lands in advance--security must to a degree displace +speculation. ... + +This is an immediate duty. It will be too late to plan for these +things when the war is over. Our thought now should be given to +the problem. And I therefore desire to bring to your mind the +wisdom of immediately supplying the Interior Department with a +sufficient fund with which to make the necessary surveys and +studies. We should know by the time the war ends, not merely how +much arid land can be irrigated, nor how much swamp land +reclaimed, nor where the grazing land is and how many cattle it +will support, nor how much cut-over land can be cleared, but we +should know with definiteness where it is practicable to begin new +irrigation projects, what the character of the land is, what the +nature of the improvements needed will be, and what the cost will +be. We should know also, not in a general way, but with +particularity, what definite areas of swamp land may be reclaimed, +how they can be drained, what the cost of the drainage will be, +what crops they will raise. We should have in mind specific areas +of grazing lands, with a knowledge of the cattle which are best +adapted to them, and the practicability of supporting a family +upon them. So, too, with our cut-over lands. We should know what +it would cost to pull or "blow-out" stumps and to put the lands +into condition for a farm home. + +And all this should be done upon a definite planning basis. We +should think as carefully of each one of these projects as George +Washington thought of the planning of the City of Washington, We +should know what it will cost to buy these lands if they are in +private hands. In short, at the conclusion of the war the United +States should be able to say to its returned soldiers, "If you +wish to go upon a farm, here are a variety of farms of which you +may take your pick, which the Government has prepared against the +time of your returning." I do not mean by this to carry the +implication that we should do any other work now than the work of +planning. A very small sum of money put into the hands of men of +thought, experience, and vision, will give us a program which will +make us feel entirely confident that we are not to be submerged, +industrially or otherwise, by labor which we will not be able to +absorb, or that we would be in a condition where we would show a +lack of respect for those who return as heroes, but who will be +without means of immediate self-support. + +A million or two dollars, if appropriated now, will put this work +well under way. + +This plan does not contemplate anything like charity to the +soldier. He is not to be given a bounty. He is not to be made to +feel that he is a dependent. On the contrary, he is to continue, +in a sense, in the service of the Government. Instead of +destroying our enemies he is to develop our resources. + +The work that is to be done, other than the planning, should be +done by the soldier himself. The dam or the irrigation project +should be built by him, the canals, the ditches, the breaking of +the land, and the building of the houses, should, under proper +direction, be his occupation. He should be allowed to make his own +home, cared for while he is doing it, and given an interest in the +land for which he can pay through a long period of years, perhaps +thirty or forty years. This same policy can be carried out as to +the other classes of lands. So that the soldier on his return +would have an opportunity to make a home for himself, to build a +home with money which we would advance and which he would repay, +and for the repayment we would have an abundant security. The +farms should not be turned over as the prairies were--unbroken, +unfenced, without accommodations for men and animals. There should +be prepared homes, all of which can be constructed by the men +themselves, and paid for by them, under a system of simple +devising by which modern methods of finance will be applied to +their needs. + +As I have indicated, this is not a mere Utopian vision. It is, +with slight variations, a policy which other countries are +pursuing successfully. The plan is simple. I will undertake to +present to the Congress definite projects for the development of +this country through the use of the returned soldier, by which the +United States, lending its credit, may increase its resources and +its population and the happiness of its people, with a cost to +itself of no more than the few hundred thousand dollars that it +will take to study this problem through competent men. This work +should not be postponed. Cordially and faithfully yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + +The bill, incorporating this plan, was rejected by a Congress +unwilling to accept any solution of any part of the after-war +problem, if the plan came from the Wilson Administration. + + + +In 1918, Colonel Mears, who had been Chief Engineer and later +Chairman of the Alaskan Commission, in charge of the construction +of the Alaskan railroad, went, with many others, to the front, and +Lane was obliged to find new men to carry on the Alaskan work. + +To Allan Pollok + +Washington, July 17, 1918 + +You certainly can have more time, because I want you, and it is +not on my own account altogether, because I feel sure you will +delight in the kind of creative job that it is. I found that +Scotchmen had made Hawaii, and I would like to see some of that +same stuff go into Alaska. You see we have a fine bunch of men +there, practical fellows of experience, but not one of them looms +large as a business man or as a creator. I would personally like +to spend a few years of my life just dreaming dreams about what +could be done in that huge territory, and if I only got by with +one out of five hundred, I would leave a real dent in the history +of the territory. + +That coal must be brought out of Alaska for the Navy, if the Navy +is going to use any coal, and we ought to be able to send a great +many thousands of Americans, as stock raisers and farmers, into +Alaska after this war. The climate is just as good as that of +Montana, and in some places much better. Of course it is not a +swivel-chair job. It is a challenge to everything that a fellow +has in him of ambition, courage, imagination, enterprise, and +tact, and if we can possibly get that road completed by the end of +the war, and know that we have another national domain there for +settlement, it would help out mightily on the returning soldier +problem. You and I cannot fight and that is our bad luck. We were +born about thirty years too early but I have a notion that we can +make Alaska do her bit through that railroad. ... If you want a +great mining expert to go in with you I can get one. ... Come on +into the game. + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + +To E. S. Pillsbury + +Washington, July 30, 1918 + +MY DEAR MR. PILLSBURY,-- ... In these radical times when things +are changing so quickly it does not do to be too conservative or +things will go altogether to the bad. ... + +Pragmatic tests must be applied strictly and the way to beat wild- +eyed schemes is to show that they are impracticable, and to +harness our people to the land. Every man in an industry ought to +be tied up in some way by profit-sharing or stock-owning +arrangements, and we should get as large a proportion of our +people on small farms as possible. If this is not done we are +going to have a reign of lawlessness. + +When a sense of property goes, it becomes more and more apparent +to me, that all other conserving and conservative tendencies go, +and the man who has something is the man who will save this +country. So it is necessary that just as many have something as +possible. ... The one thing which the Bolsheviki do not understand +is that the economic world is not divided between capital and +labor, but that there is a great class unrepresented in these two +divisions--the managing class which furnishes brains and +direction, tact and vision, and no socialistic scheme provides for +the selection and reward of these men ... Cordially yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + +To William Marion Reedy Reedy's Mirror + +Washington, September 13, 1918 + +MY DEAR MR. REEDY,--In the first place ... as to the coal +agreement, when coal was more than six dollars a ton and climbing, +and it was nobody's business to reduce the price, I made an appeal +to the coal operators to fix voluntarily a maximum price of one- +half of what they were then getting. This they did, with the +understanding that it would stand only until the Government fixed +the price, if it chose to do so later. The price was three dollars +in the East, and two dollars and seventy-five cents in the West, +and there is not a coal mine in the country to-day, under +Government operation, that is producing coal for as little as that +price, which the operators themselves upon my appeal, fixed ... + +Some day or another we will meet, ... and I am inclined to believe +that you will think me less of a reactionary than a radical. I am +against a standardized world, an ordered, Prussianized world. I am +for a world in which personal initiative is kept alive and at +work. There are a lot of people here who believe that you can do +things by orders, which I know from my knowledge of the human and +the American spirit can much more effectively be done by appeal. + +Everything goes happily here these days, because we are winning +the war, and the future of the world will soon be in the hands of +a man who not so long ago was a school teacher. A great world +this, isn't it? And the greatest romance is not even the fact that +Woodrow Wilson is its master, but the advance of the Czecho-Slavs +across five thousand miles of Russian Asia,--an army on foreign +territory, without a government, holding not a foot of land, who +are recognized as a nation! This stirs my imagination as I think +nothing in the war has, since Albert of Belgium stood fast at +Liege. Cordially yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + +Notes on Cabinet Meetings Found in Lane's Files + +October 23, 1918 + +Yesterday we had a Cabinet Meeting. All were present. The +President was manifestly disturbed. For some weeks we have spent +our time at Cabinet meetings largely in telling stories. Even at +the meeting of a week ago, the day on which the President sent his +reply to Germany--his second Note of the Peace Series--we were +given no view of the Note which was already in Lansing's hands and +was emitted at four o'clock; and had no talk upon it, other than +some outline given offhand by the President to one of the Cabinet +who referred to it before the meeting; and for three-quarters of +an hour told stories on the war, and took up small departmental +affairs. + +This was the Note which gave greatest joy to the people of any yet +written, because it was virile and vibrant with determination to +put militarism out of the world. As he sat down at the table the +President said that Senator Ashurst had been to see him to +represent the bewildered state of mind existing in the Senate. +They were afraid that he would take Germany's words at their face +value. + +"I said to the Senator," said the President, "do they think I am a +damned fool?" ... Yet Senator Kellogg says that Ashurst told the +Senators that the President talked most pacifically, as if +inclined to peace, and that Ashurst was "afraid that he would +commit the country to peace," so afraid that he wanted all the +pressure possible brought to bear on the President by other +Senators. At any rate, the Note when it came had no pacificism in +it, and the President gained the unanimous approval of the country +and the Allies. + +But all this was a week ago. Germany came back with an acceptance +of the President's terms--a superficial acceptance at least--hence +the appeal to the Cabinet yesterday. This was his opening, "I do +not know what to do. I must ask your advice. I may have made a +mistake in not properly safe-guarding what I said before. What do +you think should be done?" + +This general query was followed by a long silence, which I broke +by saying that Germany would do anything he said. + +"What should I say?" he asked. + +"That we would not treat until Germany was across the Rhine." + +This he thought impossible. + +Then others took a hand. Wilson said the Allies should be +consulted. Houston thought there was no real reform inside +Germany. McAdoo made a long talk favoring an armistice on terms +fixed by the military authorities. Strangely enough, Burleson, who +had voted against all our stiff action over the Lusitania and has +pleaded for the Germans steadily, was most belligerent in his +talk. He was ferocious--so much so that I thought he was trying to +make the President react against any stiff Note--for he knows the +President well, and knows that any kind of strong blood-thirsty +talk drives him into the cellar of pacifism. ... + +One of the things McAdoo said was that we could not financially +sustain the war for two years. He was for an armistice that would +compel Germany to keep the peace, military superiority recognized +by Germany, with Foch, Haig, and Pershing right on top of them all +the time. Secretary Wilson came back with his suggestion that the +Allies be consulted. Then Baker wrote a couple of pages outlining +the form of such a Note suggesting an armistice. I said that this +should be sent to our "partners" in the war, without giving it to +the world, that we were in a confidential relation to France and +England, that they were in danger of troubles at home, possible +revolution, and if the President, with his prestige, were to ask +publicly an armistice which they would not think wise to grant, or +which couldn't be granted, the sending of such a message into the +world would be coercing them. The President said that they needed +to be coerced, that they were getting to a point where they were +reaching out for more than they should have in justice. I pointed +out the position in which the President would be if he proposed an +armistice which they (the Allies) would not grant. He said that +this would be left to their military men, and they would +practically decide the outcome of the war by the terms of the +armistice, which might include leaving all heavy guns behind, and +putting, Metz, Strasburg, etc., in the hands of the Allies, until +peace was declared. + +I suggested that Germany might not know what the President's terms +were as to Courland, etc., that this was not "invaded territory." +He replied that they evidently did, as they now were considering +methods of getting out of the Brest-Litovsk treaty. He said he was +afraid of Bolshevism in Europe, and the Kaiser was needed to keep +it down--to keep some order. He really seemed alarmed that the +time would come soon when there would be no possibility of saving +Germany from the Germans. This was a new note to me. + +He asked Secretary Wilson if the press really represented the +sentiment of the country as to unconditional surrender. Wilson +said it did. He said that the press was brutal in demanding all +kinds of punishment for the Germans, including the hanging of the +Kaiser. At the end of the meeting, which lasted nearly two hours, +he asked to be relieved of Departmental matters as he was unable +to think longer. I wrote a summary of the position he took, and +read it after Cabinet meeting to Houston and Wilson, who agreed. +It follows:-- + +If they (the Allies) ask you (the President), "Are you satisfied +that we can get terms that will be satisfactory to us without +unconditional surrender?" + +You will answer, "Yes--through the terms of the Armistice." + +"By an armistice can you make sure that all the fourteen +propositions will be effectively sustained, so that militarism and +imperialism will end?" + +"Yes, because we will be masters of the situation and will remain +in a position of supremacy until Germany puts into effect the +fourteen propositions." + +"Will that be a lasting peace?" + +"It will do everything that can be done without crushing Germany +and wiping her out--everything except to gratify revenge." + + + +November 1, 1918 + +At last week's Cabinet we talked of Austria--again we talked like +a Cabinet. The President said that he did not know to whom to +reply, as things were breaking up so completely. There was no +Austria-Hungary. Secretary Wilson suggested that, of course, their +army was still under control of the Empire, and that the answer +would have to go to it. + +Theoretically, the President said, German-Austria should go to +Germany, as all were of one language and one race, but this would +mean the establishment of a great central Roman-Catholic nation +which would be under control of the Papacy, and would be +particularly objectionable to Italy. I said that such an +arrangement would mean a Germany on two seas, and would leave the +Germans victors after all. The President read despatches from +Europe on the situation in Germany--the first received in many +months. + +Nothing was said of politics--although things are at a white heat +over the President's appeal to the country to elect a Democratic +Congress. He made a mistake. ... My notion was, and I told him so +at a meeting three or four weeks ago, that the country would give +him a vote of confidence because it wanted to strengthen his hand. +But Burleson said that the party wanted a leader with GUTS--this +was his word and it was a challenge to his (the President's) +virility, that was at once manifest. + +The country thinks that the President lowered himself by his +letter, calling for a partisan victory at this time. ... But he +likes the idea of personal party-leadership--Cabinet +responsibility is still in his mind. Colonel House's book, Philip +Dru, favors it, and all that book has said should be, comes about +slowly, even woman suffrage. The President comes to Philip Dru in +the end. And yet they say that House has no power. ... + + + +Election Day. November 5, [1918] + +At Cabinet some one asked if Germany would accept armistice terms. +The President said he thought so. ... + +The President spoke of the Bolsheviki having decided upon a +revolution in Germany, Hungary, and Switzerland, and that they had +ten million dollars ready in Switzerland, besides more money in +Swedish banks held by the Jews from Russia, ready for the campaign +of propaganda. He read a despatch from the French minister in +Berne, to Jusserand, telling of this conspiracy. Houston suggested +the advisability of stopping it by seizing the money and interning +the agitators. After some discussion, the President directed +Lansing to ask the Governments in Switzerland and Sweden to get +the men and money, and hold them, and then to notify the Allies of +what we had done and suggest that they do likewise. Lansing +suggested a joint Note, but the President vetoed this idea, +wanting us to take the initiative. He spoke of always having been +sympathetic with Japan in her war with Russia, and thought that +the latter would have to work out her own salvation. But he was in +favor of sending food to France, Belgium, Italy, Serbia, Roumania, +and Bulgaria just as soon as possible; and the need was great, +also in Austria. + +He said that the terms had been agreed upon, but he did not say +what they were--further than to say that the Council at Versailles +had agreed to his fourteen points, with two reservations:--(1) as +to the meaning of the freedom of the seas, (2) as to the meaning +of the restoration of Belgium and France. This word he had +directed Lansing to give to the Swiss minister for Germany--and to +notify Germany also that Foch would talk the terms of armistice. +... He is certainly in splendid humor and in good trim--not +worried a bit. And why should he be, for the world is at his feet, +eating out of his hand! No Caesar ever had such a triumph! ... + +November 6, 1918 + +Yesterday we had an election. I had expected we would win because +the President had made a personal appeal for a vote of confidence, +and all other members of the Cabinet had followed suit, except +Baker who said he wanted to keep the Army out of politics. The +President thought it was necessary to make such an appeal. He +liked the idea of personal leadership, and he has received a slap +in the face--for both Houses are in the balance. This is the +culmination of the policy Burleson urged when he got the President +to sign a telegram which he (Burleson) had written opposing +Representative Slayden, his personal enemy, from San Antonio, and, +in effect, nominating Burleson's brother-in-law for Congress. We +heard of it by the President bringing it up at Cabinet. Burleson +worked it through Tumulty. The President said that he did not know +whether to write other letters of a similar nature as to Vardaman, +Hardwick, ET AL. I advised against it, saying that the voters had +sense enough to take care of these people. Burleson said, "The +people like a leader with guts." The word struck the President's +fancy and although Lansing, Houston, and Wilson also protested, in +as strong a manner as any one ever does protest, the letters were +issued. ... Even before the Slayden letter was one endorsing +Davies, in Wisconsin, as against Lenroot. ... Then came the letter +to the people of the whole country, reflecting upon the +Republicans, saying that they were in great part pro-war but not +pro-administration. + +November 11, 1918 + +On Sunday I heard that Germany was flying the red flag, and +postponed my promised visit to the Governors of the South, to be +held at Savannah. At eleven yesterday word came that the President +would speak to Congress at one, and that he would have no +objection if the Departments closed to give opportunity for +rejoicings. I went to a meeting of the Council of National Defence +and spoke, welcoming the members. It was a meeting called by +Baruch to plan reconstruction--but the President had notified him +on Saturday that he could not talk or have talking on that +subject. So all I could do was to give a word of greeting to men +who are bound to be disappointed at being called for nothing. + +The President's speech was, as always, a splendidly done bit of +work. He rose to the occasion fully and it was the greatest +possible occasion. ... Lansing says that they (he and the +President) had the terms of Armistice before election--terms quite +as drastic as unconditional surrender. + + + +TO DANIEL WILLARD PRESIDENT, BALTIMORE AND OHIO RAILROAD + +Washington, November 7, 1918 + +DEAR MR. WILLARD,--I am extremely sorry to receive word that you +are leaving us, but of course you are going into a sphere of +action much larger than the one you are in here, and we must yield +you with every grace, no matter how unwillingly. You will be gone +from us only a short time, I trust, and then I shall have the +opportunity of seeing more of you and continuing a friendship +which has been of very real value to me. + +All that you say about the Advisory Commission is true, and more. +If the history of the Council of National Defence and of the +Advisory Commission is ever written it will be seen that you +gentlemen, who gave your time and experience freely, gave the +first real impulse to war preparation, and we missed out only +because we did not have more authority to vest in you. I am very +proud of the first six months of the Council's work and of the +Commission's work. + +I received your letter telling me of the death of your son and +daughter-in-law, and I did not have the heart to write you another +line. The mystery and the ordering of this world grow altogether +inexplicable when the affections are wrenched. It requires far +more religion or philosophy than I have, to say a real word that +might console one who has lost those who are dear to him. Ten +years ago my mother died, and I have never become reconciled to +her loss. This is a wrong state of mind, and I hope that you are +sustained by that unfaltering trust of which Bryant spoke. +Sincerely yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + +To James H. Hawley + +Washington, November 9, 1918 + +MY DEAR GOVERNOR,--... To my great surprise we have lost both +Houses. We felt sure that we would carry both, and did not +appreciate the extent to which the Republicans would be +consolidated by the President's letter, which, from what I hear +was one of the inducing causes of the result; although not by any +means the only one, for the feeling in the North and West was +strong that the South in some way was being preferred. I am fresh +from a talk with Senator Phelan who, to my surprise, tells me that +these were the factors in the New England States from which he has +just come. ... + +The Wilson administration may be judged by the great things that +it has done--the unparallelled things--and the election of last +Tuesday will get but a line in the history of this period, while +the Versailles conference and the Fourteen Points of Wilson's +message will have books written about them for a century to come. +Cordially yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + +To Samuel G. Blythe London, England + +Washington, November 13, 1918 + +MY DEAR SAM,--I had not seen the review of my little book of +speeches [Footnote: The American Spirit.] made by the Daily Mail +until you sent it to me. I guess we are a nation of idealists and +it won't do any harm to have a little of this leaven thrown into +the European lump. I am amused when I read the reviews on this +book to see myself regarded as the rather imaginative interpreter +of the national attitude, after these twenty years of quiet, stiff +legal opinions on municipal law and rail-road problems. + +Glad to hear of the boy! He is a poor correspondent, as most two- +fisted young chaps are apt to be. I envy you your opportunity now +to see the revolution in Germany, and it? possible spreading +elsewhere. I think you might write an I article on how revolution +comes to a country; a picture of just how the thing happens; what +the first step was; what kind of organization there was and how +they went about their business and got hold of the Government. +There is I a whole book in this, but immediately there is a chance +for a couple of mighty interesting articles. + +Here we have gone wild over the victory and peace, and the fact +that the election went against us means nothing, so far as +international questions are concerned. We had not fixed the price +on cotton while we had fixed the price on wheat, and that made the +North feel that this is a Southern Administration. The Republicans +were united for the first time in ten years. These are the big +reasons for the shift. You see we have no idea here of Cabinet +responsibility or votes of confidence or lack of confidence. I +expect there will be some fun in Congress for the next two years. +As always, cordially yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + +TO GEORGE W. LANE + +Washington, December 16, 1918 + +MY DEAR GEORGE,--I have your long letter, telling me of all your +sad experiences with red tape and how you have settled down at +last to do your bit at home. You have gone through the bitterness +that most fellows have experienced in trying to do anything with +the Government. I really am very sorry that you had to make such a +financial sacrifice and break up your home and then be fooled, but +probably it is all for the best. The war is over, the boys are +coming home soon and this brings me to the main point. + +Ned got home this morning. Nancy, Anne, and I went to Norfolk to +meet him. He had no expectation of seeing us there and at eight +o'clock on a very rainy foggy morning, we came up along side of +his transport and he was taken by surprise. He had a fine lot of +boys with him, but since May he had been at the Naval Aviation +Headquarters as one of the General Staff. + +He had many narrow escapes; had men killed standing beside him, +torn to pieces by shrapnel; was knocked over by the concussion of +shells; was over the lines in the battle of Chateau-Thierry in an +aeroplane, flew across the Austrian-Italian lines and chased the +German on his retreat through Belgium. + +He seems to be in good health, though rather nervous. He very much +admires the men who were his comrades and his superiors, but is +glad to be out of it all. I think he would like to get on a big +farm. My plan for getting farms for the soldier is making slow +progress. I have got to put in all my effort now to get some +decisive answer out of Congress--either yes or no. ... + +[Ned] has seen France very thoroughly, all the north of Italy from +Rome up, England, and Ireland. In the latter spot, he was shot at +three times, notwithstanding a general order that no Irishman is +allowed to have a gun. He was challenged to a duel by a Frenchman +who tried to get away with his seat in a car. He gave the +Frenchman a good licking and then discovered that he was liable to +court martial, but he got the seat and then told the French +lieutenant he would throw him out of the car window if he talked +any more about dueling. The following morning he offered the +Frenchman a cigarette which was taken, and they shook hands and +parted. + +He went up in an aeroplane in Italy at one place and had a hunch, +he said, that something was wrong with the machine and so he +brought it down and landed. Another fellow took it up, an Italian. +He got up about one thousand feet in the air and the gas tank +exploded. The poor fellow came down burnt to a cinder, all within +five minutes. He shot a German from the Belgian trenches and has +been recommended four times for promotion, but hasn't got it yet. +With much love to Frances and yourself, I am, affectionately +yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + +TO EDGAR C. BRADLEY ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR + +Washington, [December 18, 1918] + +MY DEAR BRADLEY,--You wouldn't let me close my sentence yesterday +and I don't propose to close it to-day. Yet I am not going to let +you drive westward toward the land and people we both love so +much, without letting you carry a word of affection and greeting +from me, which you can just throw to the winds when you get there, +throw it out of the window to Tamalpais, it will sweep over those +eucalyptus trees on the right, throw it up to the Berkeley hills, +which now are turning green, I suppose, throw it up the long +stretch of Market Street till it reaches Twin Peaks, and let it +flow down over "south of the slot" that was, and up over Nob Hill, +even to the sacred brownstone of the Pacific-Union. + +Go with a heart that is full of rejoicing that peace has come, +through our sacrifice as well as that of other of the nobler +peoples of earth, and with a heart that is proud that you were +able to help with your strength and sane judgment and great +gentleness of speech and manner, in carrying on this nation's +affairs in the day of its greatest adventure. We shall all miss +you greatly, whether you are gone two weeks or two years! Do just +what you think is right, just what she who is so much to you +thinks you should do. There is no better test of a man's duty. + +If you can't return we shall stagger on. I shan't stop climbing +this ladder because a rung is gone--tho' many a rung is gone--and +a damn hard old ladder this is sometimes. ... + +F.K.L. + + + + + +XI + +AFTER-WAR PROBLEMS--LEAVING WASHINGTON + +1919 + +After-war Problems--Roosevelt Memorials--Americanization--Religion +--Responsibility of Press--Resignation + + +TO E. C. BRADLEY + +Washington, January, 1919 + +MY DEAR BRADLEY,-- ... I am terribly broken up over Roosevelt's +death. He was a great and a good man, a man's man, always playing +his game in the open. ... + +I loved old Roosevelt because he was a hearty, two-fisted fellow. +... The only fault I ever had to find with him was that he took +defeat too hard. He had a sort of "divine right" idea, but he was +a bully fighter. I went to his funeral and have joined in mass +meetings in his memory, which I suppose is all I can do. ... Of +course ... he said a lot of things that were unjust and +unjustifiable, but if a fellow doesn't make a damned fool of +himself once in a while he wouldn't be human. The Republicans +would have nominated him next time undoubtedly. They are without a +leader now, and we are just as much up in the air as ever. ... I +am standing by the President for all I am worth. I talked to the +Merchants' Association the other day and gave him a great send- +off, but they didn't rise to their feet at all, which is the first +time this has happened in two years. ... Sincerely yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + +TO GEORGE W. LANE + +Washington, January 30, 1919 + +MY DEAR GEORGE,-- ... The one thing that bothers us here is the +problem of unemployment. We have not, of course, had time to turn +around and develop any plan for reconstruction. Our whole war +machine went to pieces in a night. Everybody who was doing war +work dropped his job with the thought of Paris in his mind, with +the result that everything has come down with a crash, in the way +of production, but nothing in the way of wages or living costs. +Wages cannot go down until the cost of living does, and production +won't increase while people believe prices will be lower later on. +I to-day proposed to Secretary Glass that he enter upon a campaign +to promote production, (1) by seeing what the Government could +buy, (2) by seeing what the industries would take as a bottom +price, (3) by getting the Food Administration at work to reduce +prices. Perhaps it may do some good. ... + +I have always thought the President was right in going across, and +I believe that he will pull through a League of Nations. When I +get a copy of it I will send you my speech on this subject, which +is rather loose but is a plea for dreams. + +Ned is going West to. work for Doheny in some oil field, starting +at the bottom. I rather think this is right, but of course he +won't stay as a laborer very long. The boy is fine and gay, and +did splendid work, and is anxious to get into the game and make +money. Just where he gets this desire for making money I don't +know. Certainly I never had it. But he was telling me the other +day of his hope that by forty he would have made enough money to +retire. I told him you were the only fellow I ever knew who had +actually retired, and you had only done it half way. He will +report at Los Angeles, but I expect he will get up to see you as +soon as he can. He has a remarkable affection for California, +considering he has seen so little of it, and so has Nancy. They +both regard it as the golden land where all things smile, and +people have hearts. I have not attempted to cure them of their +illusion. + +Do write me a good, long letter, for I am always eager to hear +from you. + +F. K. L. + + + +To George W. Lane + +Washington, May 1, [1919] + +MY DEAR GEORGE,--Well, what do you think of the Italian situation? +I think the President right, that Fiume should not go to Italy. +Certainly she has no moral claim, for by the Pact of London, Fiume +was to go to Croatia. Orlando says that he is answering the call +of the Italians in exile. Let them stay in exile, I say. They went +into a foreign land to make money and now they wish to annex the +land they are visiting, to the home country. How would we like it +if the Chinese swamped San Francisco and then asked to be annexed +to China? This is carrying the Fiume idea to its ultimate, a +ridiculous ultimate, of course, as most ultimates are. + +Whether he [President Wilson] gave out the statement as to the +break too early, and without the consent of England and France, of +course I don't know. Quite like him to do it if he thought the +thing had hung long enough, and that Italy was too damn predatory. +And she does seem to be. The New Idea seems to have less real hold +in Italy--at least among the governing class--than in any other +European country. Her present position will postpone peace. This +will cause us trouble over the extra session of Congress for our +appropriations will run out. And perhaps in England it may give a +chance for labor troubles to rise. It will postpone the return of +good times to this country. But ultimately Italy will have to come +through. If economic pressure were put upon her she would be +compelled to yield at once, for she depends on England and +ourselves for all the coal she uses, and on us chiefly for her +wheat. Of course this form of coercion will not be resorted to. +She might think more kindly if she were given an extended credit, +say of two hundred million dollars. But the people being aroused +now over what they think is a matter of principle--loyalty to +their compatriots in Fiume--they may not be able to compromise. +Lord Reading rather fears that this is the situation and that it +might have been avoided if the President had not issued his +statement when he did. However, I have no doubt that the President +will have his way. He nearly always does. Surely the God that once +was the Kaiser's is now his. + +To be the First President of the League of Nations is to be the +crowning glory of his life. I believe in the League--as an +effort. It will not cure, but it is a serious effort to get at the +disease. It is a hopeful effort, too, for it makes moral +standards, standards of conduct between nations which will bring +conventional pressure to bear on the side of peace, to offset the +old convention of rushing into war to satisfy hurt feelings. +Sooner or later there will come disarmament--the pistol will be +taken away and the streets will be safer. + +The boy is having a tough time in his oil work. It is so dirty! +But I hope he sticks out until he proves himself. I hear that the +Dutch Shell people have bought out Cowdray in Mexico, and now are +trying to get Doheny's lands. They bestride the earth, and as soon +as their activities are known generally, this country will look +upon the Standard Oil as the American champion in a big +international fight. + +... Well, dear old chap, I know that I could add nothing to your +cure if I were there but I am not content to be so far away from +you. ... F. K. L. + + + +TO WILLIAM BOYCE THOMPSON ROOSEVELT PERMANENT MEMORIAL NATIONAL +COMMITTEE + +Washington, May 20, 1919 + +MY DEAR MR. THOMPSON,--I told Mr. Loeb that I would feel greatly +honored to be a member of a Memorial Committee, to do honor to Ex- +President Roosevelt. To-day, I receive an agreement which I am +asked to sign in which the members of the Committee are to pledge +themselves to a memorial for the furtherance of Mr. Roosevelt's +policies. I do not know what such a phrase means. With some of his +policies I know I was in hearty accord but as to others, such as +the tariff, I have my doubts. This might be turned or construed +into a great machine for propaganda of a partisan character, and +it seems to me that the Colonel's memory is altogether too +precious a national possession to have that construction possibly +given to any memorial to him. + +There are hundreds of thousands of Democrats, like myself, who +admired him and who would contribute toward a memorial, who should +not be asked to do this if it was any more than a straight-out +memorial to the man, the soldier, the naturalist, the historian, +the President, the intense, vital American. + +And all of your officers, so far as I am acquainted with them, are +Republicans. This does not seem to convey quite the right +suggestion. + +I have already planned for a lasting Roosevelt memorial in the +creation of a park in California, to bear Colonel Roosevelt's +name. I expect this will have Congressional approval at the +present session of Congress. + +Last night I talked with Senator Frank Kellogg about this matter, +and he agrees with my view. He says that he understood the +memorial was to be something in Washington of a permanent and +artistic character, and perhaps the home at Oyster Bay, and that +the personnel of all committees was to be popular, including if +possible as many Democrats as Republicans. + +Under these circumstances I beg leave to withhold my signature to +the agreement sent me. I would have no objection to asking +Congress to provide for a memorial, though I think this should be +deferred as a matter of policy until the public had subscribed +generously. Cordially yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + +TO BENJAMIN IDE WHEELER PRESIDENT EMERITUS, UNIVERSITY OF +CALIFORNIA + +Washington, June 16, 1919 + +MY DEAR WHEELER,--I have seen your goodbye address at Berkeley, +and I am very glad I did not hear it, for it must have been a sad +day for Berkeley and for you. The address itself was a noble word. +I hear that you have bought Lucy Sprague's home and are to remain +in Berkeley. This is as it should be. You can ripen into the Sage +of Berkeley, and be a center of influence, stimulating the best in +others. A long, long life to you! Always sincerely and devotedly +yours, + +FRANKLIN K, LANE + + + +TO E. S. MARTIN LIFE + +Washington, August 23, 1919 + +MY DEAR MR. MARTIN,-- ... It does not seem to me that this country +will rise to a class war. We have too many farmers and small +householders and women--put the accent on the women. They are the +conservatives. Until a woman is starving, she does not grow Red, +unless she is without a husband or babies and has a lot of money +that she did not earn. ... Cordially yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + +TO GEORGE W. LANE + +Washington, September 11, 1919 + +DEAR GEORGE,--You do not know how much of sympathy I send out to +you and how many words of prayer I send up for you. You need them +all, I expect. ... What a long siege you have had! + +I suppose you will not be able to hear the President speak when he +is there. You will miss much. He is not impassioned nor a great +orator, such as Chatham or Fox, or Webster or Dolliver, or even +Bryan--but he has a keen, quick, cutting mind, the mind of a +really great critic, and his manner is that of the gentleman +scholar. He is first among all men to-day, which is much for +America. + +My Nancy has been having a splendid time, even if she only saw +your ranch for a week--but she is the gayest thing alive--God +grant she may continue so always. ... + +For the first time in twenty-five years we are living in an +apartment, large and in a nice place, but somehow my sense of the +fitness of things will not let me call the place "home"--altho' it +is the most comfortable habitation I have ever lived in, elevator, +whole floor to ourselves. ... and they let me keep my dog. I +wouldn't have come if they hadn't. We turned down a fine place +with a more expansive view because Jack was not wanted. But surely +in these days of doubt and disloyalty one must have some rock to +cling to, why not a trusting-eyed dog? ... But all this does not +recompense me for the absence of a "home"--which is a house, +anywhere. Yet we may have to do our own work. ... The cooks are +all too proud to work--I wish you would tell me just how this +economic problem should be settled. How much do you believe in +socialism or socialization? ... Do you think there can be a +partnership in business? I am inclined to think this can be worked +out, along lines of cooperative ownership, but not until an +enterprise is well standardized. + +I expect bad times soon with labor. We are only postponing the +evil day. The President seems less radical than he was. He is +sobered by conditions, I suspect. The negro is a danger that you +do not have. Turn him loose and he is a wild man. Every Southerner +fears him. + +... I am trying hard to believe something that might be called the +shadow of a religion--a God that has a good purpose, and another +life in which there is a chance for further growth, if not for +glory. But when I bump up against a series of afflictions such as +you have been subjected to, I fall back upon Fred's philosophy of +a purposeless or else a cruel God. ... I simply have a sinking of +the heart, a goneness, a hopelessness--not even the pleasure of a +resignation. Old Sid's cold mind has worked itself through to a +decision that there is no purpose and no future, and finds solace +in the ultimate; having reached the cellar he finds the +satisfaction of rest. I can't get there for my buoyancy, the hold- +over of early teachings or perhaps my naturally sanguine nature +will not permit me to hit bottom, but forever I must be floating, +floating--nowhere. Happy the man who strikes the certainty of a +rock-bottom hell, rather than one who is kept floating midway-- +that is a purgatory worse than hell. I don't seem to have any +capacity for anger, as against God or man, for anything that +befalls me, but I get morbid over the injustices done to others. +Now I shall stop philosophizing on this matter for it is three in +the morning, and too hot to sleep, and such a time is made for +wickedness and not for righteousness. + +I am sorry you will not see the President. He is worth hearing, +better than reading, and he always talks well. He can not pass his +treaty without some kind of reservations and he should have seen +this a month ago. The Republicans will not struggle to pass it in +his absence and think that they have done a smart thing, but in +the end Wilson and not Lodge would win by such a trick. The one +greatest of vices is smart-aleckism. Sometime I shall write an +essay on that subject. The burglar and the confidence operator and +the profiteer and the profligate and the defaulting bank cashier +are all victims of that disease--smart-aleckism. They will do a +trick, to prove how clever they are. I believe that is the way +ninety per cent of the boys and girls go wrong, and instead of +teaching them the Bible, why not try reducing the size of their +conceit and their disposition to boast. I just wonder how far +wrong I am on this? + +... Don't let the family worry you. Call for the police if they +don't let you have your own way. ... What a plague of women! But +how did monks manage to live anyhow? Maybe they chose a hard +death--perhaps that was the secret of the whole monkery game! +Women let us down into the grave with much unction to our ego, I +mean sweet oil of adoration ... poured out upon the way down to +Avernus. ... Don't feel discouraged because you lie there. I feel +much more discontented than you do, right here at the heart of the +world. ... Love to Maude and Frances, and mention me with proper +respect and dignity to Miss Nancy Lane. + +F. K. + +TO VAN H. MANNING DIRECTOR, BUREAU OF MINES + +Washington, September 24, 1919 + +MY DEAR MR. MANNING,--I have been intending for several days to +write you a letter regarding the Petroleum Institute, but the +opportunity has been denied me. Perhaps you will be good enough to +say to the gentlemen, whom I understand you are to meet tomorrow, +that I regard their work, if taken hold of whole-heartedly, as of +the greatest national importance. It is quite manifest now that +private enterprise must stand in the forefront in the development +of this industry, and that what the government can do will be +supplemental and suggestive. It is not an exaggeration to say that +millions of dollars must be spent in experiment before we know the +many services to which a barrel of oil can be put. There is almost +an indefinite opportunity for research work along this line. + +Petroleum is a challenge to the chemists of the world. And now the +world is dependent upon it, as it is upon nothing else excepting +coal and iron, and the foodstuffs and textiles. It has jumped to +this place of eminence within twenty years, and the world is +concerned in knowing how large a supply there is and how every +drop of it can best be used. Practically, I think you should urge +that there be cooperative effort to protect against waste. The oil +men themselves should see the value of this and spend their money +freely to keep their wells from being flooded, to keep their pipe +lines from leaking, and to save their gas. + +We are behind the rest of the world in the use of our oil for fuel +purposes. We are spendthrifts in this as in other of our national +resources. We can get three times as much energy as we do out of +our oil through the use of the Diesel engine, yet we are doing +little to promote development of a satisfactory type of stationary +Diesel, or marine design. Instead of seeing how many hundred +millions of barrels of oil we can produce and use, our effort +should be to see how few millions of barrels will satisfy our +needs. I say this although I am not a pessimist as to the +available supply, which I believe has been underestimated rather +than overestimated. I am satisfied that the man who has a barrel +of oil has something which, if he can save, is better than a +government bond. Throughout the Nation we must make a drive to +increase production--that is the slogan of this time--but that +does not mean that we should make a drive to exhaust resources +which God alone can duplicate. + +Then too, I think that Congress can be largely helped by the sane +presentation of wise policies touching this industry. I have the +belief that whatever the body of oil men would agree upon would be +something that would make for the best use of petroleum, and for +the protection over a long period of this fundamental resource in +our industry. Congress has difficulty often in getting the large +view of practical men who speak without personal interest, and +such an Institute could speak not for the individual but for the +industry and show how it may best be developed in the interest of +the country. + +To do these things, and to do them adequately, will require the +men in the industry to take the attitude of statesmen and not of +selfish exploiters. It means they must tax themselves liberally, +generously. It means that they must think of themselves as +trustees for a Public as wide as the world. + +Please give my regards to the members of the Institute. Cordially +yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + +TO E. C. BRADLEY + +Washington, October 2, 1919 + +MY DEAR BRADLEY,-- ... I have all along said that the treaty could +not be ratified without some interpretive reservations. I think +that the President will see that, although he sees clearly, as I +do, that these interpretations are already in the treaty itself, +but on a question of construction two men may honestly differ. The +whole damn thing has gotten into the maelstrom of politics, of the +nastiest partisanship, when it ought to have been lifted up into +the clearer air of good sense and national dignity. ... + +Hoover can be elected. He came home modestly and made a splendid +speech. We need a man of great administrative ability and of +supreme sanity who can lead us into quiet waters, if there are +any. + +... We have imported, with our labor, their discontent, and the +theories which are founded upon it to obtain the price. But the +American workingman is a sensible fellow, when he can have the +chance to think without being overwhelmed by fear, and he will +realize that his betterment in a material way must come through +his own individual growth and the growth of the conscience of the +people who believe in a square deal. The serious thing in the +whole situation, to my mind, is the fact that so many workingmen +seem to accept the idea that they are of a fixed class; that they +can not move out of their present conditions; that they want +always to remain as employees and have no hope of becoming +superintendents, employers, managers, or capitalists; and +therefore think that their only prospect is in bettering their +condition as a part of a class. Great propaganda should be carried +on to show how false this is and how much demand there is for men +of ability. + +With warm regards, old man, I am cordially yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + +TO MRS. LOUISE HERRICK WALL + +Washington, Friday, [October 10, 1919] + +MY DEAR MRS. WALL,--We heard through Ned of the Commodore's death, +and you can realize how shocked and terribly grieved we were, and +still are. + +Poor dear girl, there is nothing anyone can say that will help +even a little bit. Every word of appreciation makes the loss more +serious. And you need no one to tell you that he was loved by us, +and every single person who really knew him. He was to me +Christlike, beautiful, gentle, wise and noble. Since that first +day, nearly thirty years ago on Grays Harbor, I have known him as +one of the rare spirits of the world, and Anne and I have loved +him deeply. Surely he must live on, and we must all see him again! + +May strength come to you out of the Infinite resources of the +Universe to bear this blow. The world was made better by him! In +deep sympathy, + +FRANK LANE + + + +TO-- + +Wednesday, November, [1919] + +MY DEAR OLD MAN,--I am sitting alone in my den having come down +stairs to write a line on my report, but instead have been lured +into an evening of delight with Robert Louis Stevenson, whose +letters, in four volumes, I advise you to read for the spirit of +the man. Much like your own, my brave fine fellow! He went through +tortures with a smile and a merry imagination which made him +great, and makes all of us, and many more to come, his debtor. I +know how little you read. The birds have been yours and the trees +and the dogs and fishes, but there are men in the world, or have +been, whom one can know through their writings. Did you ever read +Trevelyan's three volumes on GARIBALDI? No,--well get it before +you are a week older and you will thank me for ever and a day. + +All of this, however, I had not intended to write, rather to tell +you ... how emotional I have been all day with the old soldiers +passing by on parade--the last that many of them will ever have. + +Fifty years ago, Andrew Johnson received Grant's returned forces +on the same spot. There were 180,000, or so, then--and 20,000 now +--crippled, lame, one-legged, bent, halting most of them, but +determined to make the long journey from the Capitol to the White +House, and prove that they had lived this long time and were still +good for a longer journey. There was little of gaiety among them, +tho' some were swinging flags, torn, tattered, be-shot ... and +raised their hats to the President as they passed, tho' most of +them, doubtless, were sorry that he was not a Republican. It was a +time to remember. + +... Nancy is back after her tour of glory--larger than ever but +not less tender or playful. She is the brightest spirit I have +ever met--and all her vanities are so dear and human and lie so +frankly exposed. I thank you for your kindness to her, she loves +you very much; yes, really recognizes those qualities which some +cannot see, poor blind things! But I can, and she can, and Frances +can, and many more when you give them a look in. May your grass +grow and soul keep warm and your spirit lift itself in song at +morning and at night. Affectionately always, + +F.L. + + + +TO M. A. MATHEW + +Washington, November 3, 1919 + +MY DEAR MR. MATHEW,--I have your letter of October 27th, and I +appreciate very much its kind words. The Industrial Conference was +not a success because we got into the steel strike at first, and +people talked about their rights instead of talking of their +duties. We will have another conference, however, which I think +will do some real work and lay a foundation for the future. The +coal strike is a bad one, but the people are not in sympathy with +it, and sooner or later, in my judgment, it will come to an +adjustment situation in which the President will be perfectly +willing to participate. He, by the way, is getting along very +well, but I expect it will be many weeks before he is himself +again. ... Cordially yours, + +FRANKLIN K LANE + + + +TO HERBERT C. PELL, JR. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES + +Washington, November 8, 1919 + +MY DEAR MR. PELL,--I wish you success with your Constitutional +League. I have no objection whatever to my name being used in +connection with it, providing the League is not an institution for +denouncing people or denouncing theories of government or economic +panaceas; but is a positive, aggressive institution for the +presentation to our people of the fact that we have in this +Democracy a method of doing whatever we wish done, which avoids +the necessity for anything like revolutionary action. The +objection to Bolshevism is that it is absolutism--as Lenine has +said himself, the absolutism of the proletariat. It is an economic +government by force, while our Democracy is a government by +persuasion. + +I find that no good comes from calling names. The men who are to +be reached are the men who are not committed against us, but are +disposed to be with American institutions. We must show them that +we have a system that it is worth while betting on, and that if +they have another way of doing things economical, machinery by +which it can be instituted is in the people's hands. Our policy is +to look before we leap, and to submit our methods to the judicial +judgment of the people. This permits any doctrine to be preached +that does not subvert our institutions. Where do our institutions +come from? What have they been effective in bringing about? What +is the condition of the United States as a whole compared with +other countries? Can we hope to work out our salvation without +civil war? These are legitimate questions, the answer to which is +found in this other question--is not political Democracy the one +practical way to eventual industrial Democracy? Cordially yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + +TO HENRY P. DAVISON + +Washington, November 23, 1919 + +MY DEAR MR. DAVISON,--I wired you yesterday my conclusion, as to +your very generous and patriotic offer, which was the same that I +had come to before seeing you in New York. Your appeal was so +strong and went so much to my impulse for public service that you +made me feel that, perhaps, I was giving undue weight to the +considerations I had presented to you. So I sought the judgment of +others--all of them men of large distinction whom you know, or at +least have confidence in, and without dissent I found them saying, +voluntarily and unbidden, what I had said to you--that for me to +undertake this work of arousing the best patriotic feeling of +America, on a salary, would make seriously against the success of +the work and against my own value in it, or in anything else I +might undertake. If I were rich I would go into it with my whole +heart. But a poor man can not be charged with making money out of +the exploitation of the good opinion others have of his love of +country. This is not squeamishness, it is a rough standard, +arrived at by instinct rather than by any refined process of +reasoning. + +I say this to you because of my deep confidence in you and my very +real confidence that you are my friend, and sought to do me a +kindness and give me an opportunity. Now let me see if I can be of +any help in this work. ... + +[Here followed a full detailed plan of an Americanization program, +that concluded with the paragraph.] + +These outline some methods of reaching the public with the idea +that this is a land that is lovable, prosperous, good-humored, +great, and noble-spirited. To carry it out will cost a great deal +of money, I should say that not less than five million a year +should be available. With warm regard, cordially yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + +TO GEORGE W. LANE + +Washington, November 28, [1919] + +MY DEAR GEORGE,--Do not be surprised if you hear that I am out of +the Cabinet soon, for I have been offered two fifty thousand a +year places, and another even more. I don't want to leave if it +will embarrass the President, but I do want something with a +little money in it for awhile. ... But I must see the President +before I decide ... and I don't know when that will be, now that +he is sick. + +This life has a great fascination for everyone and I dread to +leave it; for anything else will bore me I am sure. I deal here +only with big questions and not with details--with policies that +affect many, and yet I have but a year and a half more, and then +what? Perhaps it is as well to take time by the forelock, tho' I +do not want to decide selfishly nor for money only. I must go +where I can feel that I am in public work of some kind. ... + +... I have served him [the President] long and faithfully under +very adverse circumstances. It is hard for him to get on with +anyone who has any will or independent judgment. Yet I am not +given to forsaking those to whom I have any duty. However we shall +see, I write you this, that you may not be misled by the thought +that there has been or is any friction. Of course you won't speak +of it to anyone. + +I am so glad you are able to be out a little bit. "Ain't it a +glorious feelin'?" The farm must look mighty good. Well, old man, +goodnight, and God give you your eyes back! With my warmest love, + +FRANK + + + +TO C. S. JACKSON OREGON JOURNAL + +Washington, December 29, 1919 MY DEAR SAM,--I hear from Joe Teal +that your boy has been lost at sea, and I write this word, not in +the hope that I can say anything that will minimize your loss, for +all the kindly words of all men in all the world could not do as +much as one faint smile from that boy's lips could do to bring a +bit of joy into your heart. + +But you are an old, old friend of mine. It is more than thirty +years since we dreamed a dream together which you were able to +realize. We both have had our fortune in good and bad, and on the +whole I think our lives have not added to the misery of men, but +have done something toward making life a bit more kind for many +people. And why should that boy be taken from you? There is the +mystery--if you can solve it you can solve all the other +mysteries. I hope you have some good staunch faith, which I have +never been able to get, that would enable me to look upon these +things in humility, in the confidence that this thing we call a +body is only a temporary envelope for a permanent thing--a +lasting, growing thing called a spirit, the only thing that +counts. If we can get that sense we can have a new world. I do not +believe we will change this world much for the good out of any +materialistic philosophy or by any shifting of economic affairs. +We need a revival--a belief in something bigger than ourselves, +and more lasting than the world. + +With my warmest sympathy, I am, yours as always, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + +TO JOHN CRAWFORD BURNS + +Washington, December 29, [1919] + +MY DEAR JOHN,--The manner in which you write assures me that you +are very happy, notwithstanding your marriage and your new +religion, for which I am glad. An even better assurance is the +picture of the bride. By what wizardry have you been able to lure +and capture so young, good, and intelligent-looking a girl? I +presume she was fascinated by the indirectness of your speech, the +touches of humor and your very stern manner. John, you are a +humbug, you have made that aloofness and high indifference a +winning asset. I shan't give you away. Only you fill me with a +mortifying envy. + +As for your religion, various of your friends think it odd. I +think that you are a subject for real congratulation. A man who +can believe anything is miles ahead of the rest of us. I would +gladly take Christian Science, Mohammedanism, the Holy Rollers or +anything else that promised some answer to the perplexing +problems. But you have been able to go into the Holy of Holies and +sit down on the same bench of belief with most of the saints--this +is miraculous good fortune. I mean it. I am not scoffing or +jeering. I never was more serious. + +This whole damned world is damned because it is standing in a bog, +there is no sure ground under anyone's feet. We are the grossest +materialists because we only know our bellies and our backs. We +worship the great god Comfort. We don't think; we get sensations. +The thrill is the thing. All the newspapers, theatres, prove it. +We resign ourselves to a life that knows no part of man but his +nerves. We study "reactions," in human beings and in chemistry-- +recognizing no difference between the two--and to my great +amazement, the war has made the whole thing worse than ever. John, +if you have a religion that can get hold of people, grip them and +lift them--for God's sake come over and help us. I know you can +understand how people become Bolsheviks just out of a desire for +definiteness and leadership. The world will not move forward by +floating on a sea of experimentation. It gets there by believing +in precise things, even when they are only one-tenth true. I wish +I had your faith--as a living, moving spirit. Some day I pray that +I may get with you where you can tell me more of it and how you +got it. + +I am leaving the Cabinet, tho' the precise date no one knows, for +the President is not yet well enough to talk about it. He seems to +be too done up to stand any strain or worry. But I must have some +money, for my years are not many, Anne is far from well, and Nancy +is a young lady, and a very beautiful one. She has just come out +and is quite the belle of the season, tho' like her father, too +anxious for popularity. + +Great good luck of all kinds to you in 1920, old man--and do give +me a line now and then. + +F. K. L. + + + +TO FRANK I. COBB NEW YORK WORLD + +Washington, [1919] + +MY DEAR FRANK,--I have read your speech on Prussianizing the +Americans, and I concur. Of course repression ... promotes the +growth of error. We are not going to destroy socialism, or prevent +it from coming strong by refusing to answer it. + +But I have a notion that you have not expressed as directly as I +should like:--That the newspaper is not influential enough to stop +it and perhaps does not care to, sometimes. Where are the papers +that are respected for their character? They are few. The most of +them are believed to be the allies of every kind of Satan. "They +are rich; their ads. run them; they pander to circulation, no +matter of what kind, to get ads.", that is the answer of the plain +people. If the papers were things of thought and not of passion, +prejudice and sensation and interest, they could do the work that +police and courts are called upon to do. They could effectively +answer the agitator. But the people do not believe them when they +cry aloud. Maybe I am wrong, but isn't there a grain, or a gram, +of truth in this? + +For a year and a half I have been bombarding Congress with a +demand for a bill that would make a campaign, through the schools, +against illiteracy. I have made dozens of speeches for it, written +a lot, lobbied much, until Congress passed a law stopping my +working up sentiment for it, by a joint resolution. How much +sentiment has the press created? You had one or two editorials. +The Times one. No one else in New York gave a damn. The +Congressmen were not made to feel that those ignorant foreigners +who were fifty-five per cent of the steel workers, must learn to +read papers that were written in American, not in Russian or +Yiddish or Polish or Italian. + +I tell you seriously we are not a serious people except when we +are scared. "Rights of free speech, O yes! they must be preserved. +Democracy has its balancing of forces." All this is forgotten when +the government is at stake--our institutions. These mottoes and +legends and traditions presuppose someone who will enlighten the +people and a people that can be enlightened. Otherwise you will +get the strong arm at work. It is inevitable. Has there been any +meeting of editors to map a course that will truthfully reveal +what Bolshevism is? or how absurd the talk of wage-slavery is? or +why the miners strike? or why this is the best of all lands? + +Tell me why workmen don't believe what you print, unless it is +some slander on a rich man, or some story that falls in with +prejudices and hatreds? + +Answer me that and you will know why the people sit indifferent +while papers are suppressed, speakers harried, and espionage is +king. + +Mind you, I am not saying that you are alone to blame. Congress +is. The States are. The cities are. The people are. They have let +everything drift. What is our passion? What do we love? Do we +think, or do we go to the movies? The socialist takes his +philosophy seriously. The rest of us have no philosophy that is a +passion with us. + +But there, I have scolded enough. You are right, but you are not +fundamental or basic or something or other, which means that you +can't put out a fire unless you have a fire department that is on +the job. Tenderly yours, + +F. K L. + +Lane never outgrew his passionate belief in the moral +responsibility of the press. To Fremont Older, when he took charge +of the SAN FRANCISCO CALL, Lane telegraphed:-- + +"There is no other agency that can serve our national purpose that +is one-half as powerful as a free press, and no other that has +one-half the responsibility. We need a press that will stand for +the right, no matter whether its circulating or advertising is +increased or not by such a position, and that means a press that +includes in its understandings and sympathies the whole of society +and serves no purpose other than the promotion of a happier and +nobler people. Journalism is the greatest of all professions in a +free country, if it is bent upon being right rather than being +successful. I hope that you may be both." + + + +TO MRS. LOUISE HERRICK WATT + +Watkins Glen, New York, [December, 1919] + +MY DEAR MRS. WALL,--I am reminded by your letter to Anne that I +have said no word to you since that first word of attempt at +support, which I threw out on the first day. I meant it all and +more. Wall was always in my mind, as at heart, the truest Democrat +I knew. He really lived up to the standard of the New Testament. +He did love his neighbor as himself. He never did good or kindness +out of policy, but always from principle, from nature--which can +be said of very few in this world. He was without cowardice of any +kind, and without hypocrisy. I believe he had no vanity. He had +the pride of a noble man and lived as generously toward the world +as I have ever known man to live. This might be said of one who +was austere, but the dear, old Commodore was to me, and to us all, +the very symbol of warmth. The one thing I criticised in him was +his unwillingness that people should discover him for the +fanciful, humorous, wise, and exquisitely tender man that he was. +He did not leave an enemy, I know, unless that man was a +scoundrel. And with all his reticence he impressed himself +profoundly on hundreds. I know if there is another world that Wall +and I will find each other, and he will be with the gladdest, +gayest of the spirits. I hope you can look forward to such a +meeting with the confidence that Anne has, which always astonishes +me and makes me envious. He has gone to the one place, if any such +place there is, where the greatest longing of his soul can be +gratified--his love for justice. + +If you have a picture of him, no matter how poor, won't you let me +have it, that I may hang it beside my work desk, and looking at it +find inspiration and be reminded of the sane, loving, lovable, +high-hearted chap whom I held as a brother? + +Dear lonely woman, I wish I could speak one word that would +lighten your sense of loss, in him and in your mother. I know that +you are not lacking in courage, but stoutness of heart does not +bring comfort, I know. How exceptional your loss because how +exceptional your fortune--such a man and such a mother. Very +sincerely yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LANK + + + +TO MRS. M. A. ANDERSEN + +Sunday, [December, 1919] + +... The whole of mankind is searching for affection, tenderness,-- +not physical love but sweet companionship. We could get along with +fewer pianos and victrolas if we had a more harmonious society. We +really don't like each other much better than Alaskan dogs. Now +what is the reason for that? Are we afraid of them stealing from +us--our houses, sweethearts, or dollars? Or are we so stupid that +we don't know each other, never get under the skin to find out +what kind of a fellow this neighbor is? Certainly we are self- +centered and we wonder that people don't like us when we don't try +to find what is likable about them--and keep stressing their +unlikable qualities. + +All of which homily leads up to the Holidays. I hope that you will +enjoy them. Nancy is having no end of a gay time, and knows how +really good a time she is having, I do believe. She is the rarest +combination of old woman and baby I have ever known, cynically +wise, almost, and soft innocence. She has a dozen beaux and is +extravagant about, and to, each. ... + +The President is getting better slowly, but we communicate with +him almost entirely through his doctor (Grayson). I shall be +mighty sorry to leave here, where we have so many friends, but my +hope is to get enough to buy a place in California, one of these +days, and settle down to the normal life of digging a bit in the +soil and then digging a bit in the brain. + +Give my warmest regards to the Captain. You have ripened into a +fine beauty and a great usefulness, and I hope that you will find +serenity of mind and soul, which is all that the great have ever +searched for. With much love, + +FRANK + + + +TO GEORGE W. LANE + +[December, 1919] + +MY DEAR GEORGE,--Things are going well notwithstanding the +President's illness. No one is satisfied that we know the truth, +and every dinner table is filled with speculation. Some say +paralysis, and some say insanity. Grayson tells me it is nervous +breakdown, whatever that means. He is however getting better, and +meantime the Cabinet is running things. ... + +Ned is here and having a good time with all his old girls, some of +whom have married and are already divorced, so he feels an old +man. Nancy is lovely and merry and quite a belle. She took with +the Prince of Belgium, and was quite as happy as you would be with +having caught a six-pound trout--just the same feeling, I guess. + +Politically things do not look interesting. There are no big men +in the line except Hoover. The country wants some manly, two- +fisted administrator and it doesn't care where he comes from. + +I hope your eye is better, dear old man. My love to Frances. + +F. K. L. + +The Dan O'Neill to whom the next letter was written, was a friend +of early days. Lane always liked to recall this episode. O'Neill, +a big elderly Irishman, was in the City employ, while Lane was +City and County Attorney, and had formed for his "Chief"--as he +lustily called him--a most disinterested affection. After Lane's +defeat for Mayor of San Francisco, O'Neill came one day and asked +for an interview. When greetings were over he stood hesitating and +twirling his hat, until Lane said, "Well, Dan, what can I do for +you?" + +"You see, Chief," he answered, "The wife and I were talking it +over last night. We know how these damned campaigns of yours have +been taking the money. You see, we have two lots of land--out +there," with a jerk of the hat toward the great outside, "and a +little house--and we're well and strong, and all the children +doing fine at school--and we can, easy as not, put a mortgage on +the house, for two or three thousand. We'd like it fine if you'd +take it, until you get going again." + +Lane did not have to mortgage his friend's house, but it was these +"sweet uses of adversity," more than anything else, that tempered, +for him, the pain of defeat. This friendship lasted to the end of +his life. In 1915, when going back from California on a hurried +trip, Lane wrote to O'Neill, "I did not see much of you and I am +sorry I didn't. It was my fault, I know. Your dear old Irish face +is a joy to me every time I see it, and whenever I go out you must +not fail to turn up, else I shall be brokenhearted." + +When Lane was very ill in 1921, O'Neill came to pay his respects +to the wife of his Chief. As she went out into the hallway of her +friend's house, in San Francisco, the whole place seemed filled by +O'Neills, for he stood there and all his three great sons--one a +fire captain, and stalwart men all. It was a sad meeting and +parting. + + TO DAN J. O'NEILL + +Washington, December 24, 1919 + +MY DEAR DAN,--I am delighted to get your nice letter. It is as +charming a letter as I ever received, because you tell me of all +the family and that they are doing well, and that you are in good +health, and that you want me back with you--all of which makes me +love you more and more. Give to the whole family my good holiday +greetings. Make them earnest and hearty. + +I haven't got money enough, Dan, to pay my fare back after living +here so long, and I shall have to make some before coming back +there, but I hope to do it some one of these days. ... + +Dan, I know you have been a bad man, and I know you have been a +good man; and there will be a place in Heaven for you, old fellow. +You have been an honest citizen, a credit to your country, and so +have your children, and you will never know anyone who is fonder +of you than I. Cordially yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + +TO EAMLIN GARLAND + +December 3l, 1919 + +MY DEAR GARLAND,--I am going up to New York on the eleventh to +talk to the moving picture people at the Waldorf-Astoria. I had +them down here and had a resolution put through the Committees on +Education of both House and Senate, asking the Moving Picture +Industry to interest itself in Americanization, and I have been +appointed at the head of a committee to take charge of this work. +I have some schemes myself that I want very much to talk to you +about regarding Americanization. + +I do not know how much time I will be able to give to this work +because I have got to make some money, but I am going to use my +spare time that way. Suppose when I get to New York I telephone +you and see if we can not get together. Cordially yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + +To one of the Moving Picture Weeklies, Lane contributed this +paragraph on Americanizing the foreign born:--"The one sure way to +bring the foreign born to love this land of ours is to show our +pride in its present, faith in its future, and interpret America +to all in terms of fair play and square dealing. America gives men +nothing--except a chance," + +TO HUGO K. ASHER + +Rochester, Minnesota, January 3, 1920 + +MY DEAR HUGO,--I have not written you because my own plans must be +determined by circumstances. I think, however, that I shall leave +very soon. I hate to go because the work is so satisfactory. ... + +Bryan has come back. What strength he will develop, no one can +tell. He evidently has determined that he will not be pushed aside +or disregarded. He has been, and will continue to be as long as he +lives, a great force in our politics. People believe that he is +honest and know he is sympathetic with the moral aspirations of +the plain people. They distrust his administrative ability, but on +the moral question, they recognize no one as having greater +authority. + +... I hear there is talk among the business people of setting up a +third party and nominating Hoover. Two things the next President +must know--Europe and America, European conditions and American +conditions. The President of the United States must be his own +Secretary of State. We need administration of our internal affairs +and wise guidance economically. Hoover can give these. He has the +knowledge and he has the faculty. He has the confidence of Europe +and the confidence of America. He is not a Democrat, nor is he a +Republican. He voted for Wilson, for Roosevelt, and McKinley. But +he is sane, progressive, competent. The women are strong for him +and there are fifteen million of them who will vote this year. It +would not surprise me to see him nominated on either ticket, and I +believe I will vote for him now as against anybody else. + +But I must quit talking politics because I am going out of it +entirely, completely, and I really have been out of politics ever +since I left California. I have tried to take a broad non-partisan +view of things which is one of the reasons I have had hard +sledding. But I am going without a grouch, without a complaint or +a criticism--with a great admiration for Wilson and with a +thorough knowledge of his defects; and with a more sympathetic +attitude toward my colleagues than any can have who do not know +the circumstances as well as I do. ... Cordially yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + +TO ADMIRAL CARY GRAYSON + +Washington, January 5, 1920 + +MY DEAR ADMIRAL,--As you know, I am contemplating resigning. It +has been my purpose to wait until such time as the President was +well enough to see me and talk the matter over with him. I +understand from Mr. Tumulty that the President is prepared to name +my successor, and that it would not in any way add to his +embarrassment to fill my place in the immediate future. I would +like to know if this is the fact, for my course will be shaped +accordingly. Two years ago I had an offer of fifty thousand a year +which I put aside because I thought it my duty to stay while the +war was on. When Mr. McAdoo resigned, this offer was renewed but I +then thought that I should await the conclusion of formal peace, +which all expected would come soon. While the President was West, +I promised that I would take the matter up with him on his return, +and since then I have been waiting for his return to strength. I +need not tell you that I am delighted to know that he is in such +condition now as to turn to matters that in the best of health are +vexatious, if this is the fact. + +My sole reason for resigning is that I feel that I am entitled to +have assurance as to the future of my family and myself. I have +been in public life twenty-one years and have less than nothing in +the way of private means. ... And having given the better part of +my life to the public, I feel that I must now regard the interest +of those dependent upon me. I wish you would be perfectly frank +with me, for I would do nothing that with your knowledge you would +think would make against the welfare of our Chief. Cordially, + +FRANKLIN K LANE + + + +TO HERBERT C. PELL, JR. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES + +Washington, January 31, 1920 + +MY DEAR CONGRESSMAN,-- ... It is our boast and our glory that we +have a form of government under which men can make their +conception of society into law, if they can persuade their +neighbors that their dream is one that will benefit all. There is +nothing more absurd than to contend that the last word has been +spoken as to any of our institutions, that all experimenting has +ended and that we have come to a standstill. ... We are growing. +But this does not mean that all change must be growth and that we +can not test by history, especially by our own experiences and +knowledge, the value of whatever is proposed as a substitute for +what is. The dog that dropped the meat to get the shadow of a +bigger piece is the classical warning. We are for what is, not +because it is the absolute best but because it has worked well. It +is sacred only because it has been useful. Until a system of +government, or of economics, or of home life, can be demonstrated +to be an improvement on what we have, we shall not hysterically +and fancifully forsake those which have served us thus far. + +Our Government is not our master but our tool, adaptable to the +uses for which it was designed; our servant, responsive to our +call. This makes revolution an absurdity. But it also makes a +sense of responsibility a necessity. And while we may not have +broken down in this regard we certainly have weakened. We have +proceeded in the belief that automatically all men would come to +see things as we do, have a sense of the value of our traditions +and a consciousness of the deep meanings of our national +experiences. The things we believed in we have not taught. Hence +the need for such institutions as the Constitutional League which, +however, can not do for each of us the duty that is ours of living +the spirit of our Constitution. Cordially yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + +TO HON. WOODROW WILSON THE WHITE HOUSE + +Washington, February 5, 1920 + +MY DEAR MR. PRESIDENT,--It is with deep regret that I feel +compelled to resign the commission with which you saw fit to honor +me, by appointing me to a place in your Cabinet, now almost seven +years ago. If it will meet your convenience I would suggest that I +be permitted to retire on the first of March. + +With the conditions which make this step necessary you are +familiar. I have served the public for twenty-one years, and that +service appeals to me as none other can, but I must now think of +other duties. + +The program of administration and legislation looking to the +development of our resources, which I have suggested from time to +time, is now in large part in effect, or soon will come into +effect through the action of Congress. + +I return this Department into your hands with very real gratitude +that you have given me the opportunity to know well a working +force holding so many men and women of singular ability and rare +spirit. + +I trust that you may soon be so completely restored to health that +the country and the world may have the benefit of the full measure +of your strength in the leadership of their affairs. The +discouragements of the present are, I believe, only temporary. The +country knows that for America to stand outside the League of +Nations will bring neither pride to us nor confidence to the +world. + +Believe me, my dear Mr. President, always, cordially and +faithfully yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + +TO FRANK W. MONDELL + +Washington, February 13, 1920 + +MY DEAR MR. MONDELL,--I wish to acknowledge, with the warmest +appreciation, your letter of yesterday, and to say that I am +literally forced out of public life by my lack of resources. The +little property that I have been able to save is all gone in an +effort to make both ends meet, and I find myself at fifty-five +without a dollar, in debt, and with no assurance as to the future. +I assure you that it is with the deepest regret that I leave +public life for I like it, and the public have treated me +handsomely, especially the men in Congress with whom I have had to +deal, and not the least of these, yourself. + +I should like to stay, especially so, that we could put into +effect some of the legislation for which we have been fighting, +such as the oil bill, the power bill, and the farms-for-soldiers +bill. I shall leave a set of regulations as to the oil leases +ready for operation. The power bill will come into effect soon, I +hope. I am responsible for the three-headed commission, but it was +the only chance I saw of getting any unity as between the +different branches of the government. + +Letters are still coming in from the boys who want to go on farms, +and I hope that we will be able to lead Congress to see that this +is a farsighted measure. + +I thank you very much for your many courtesies to me. I trust that +your career may be one of still greater usefulness and expanding +opportunity. With the warmest regards, cordially yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + +Late in the year 1919, Lane wrote to James E. Gregg:--"... The +soldier-farms bill has been reported favorably by the Committee on +Public Lands to the House, but has not yet been taken up for +consideration on the floor. ... Of course, some of the opposition +has been by those who say the plan does not do something for all +of the soldiers, but this is hardly a good objection, as no other +constructive suggestion seems to have been made by any one that +would do anything for any of the soldiers, except the cash bonus, +which I believe is altogether impossible, improvident, and not in +the interest either of the country or the soldier." + + + +TO ROBERT W. DE FOREST + +Washington, February, 1920 + +MY DEAR MR. DE FOREST,--I do not know that I have received another +letter which has made me feel as conscious of the gravity of the +step I have taken as has yours. I have accumulated much in twenty +years of public life that ought to be forever at the service of +the public, and if I were alone in the world I would not think of +going out. But I must think now for a time in a narrower field. +Your own career shows that without holding office a man may do a +great good and give wide public service. Perhaps this opportunity +may be mine. + +I shall be in New York soon and I hope very much to see you and +see you often. Cordially yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + + + +XII + +POLITICAL COUNSEL-LINCOLN'S EYES 1920 + +Suggestions to Democratic Nominee for President--On Election of +Senators--Lost Leaders--Lincoln's Eyes--William James's Letters + + +TO WILLIAM PHELPS ENO + +Saugatuck, July 5, [1920] + +Here I am at your desk looking out of your window into your trees, +up the gentle rise of your formal garden into the brilliant crown +of rambler roses above the stone gateway. + +This is a very delightful picture. The sun is just beginning to +pour into the garden. He is looking through the apple trees and +having hard work to make even a splash of golden green upon the +lawn, but the silver spruce and the tiara of roses get the full +measure of his morning smile and are doing their best to show that +they understand, appreciate, and are glad. Oh, it is a great +morning! + +And on the water side it has been even more stimulating, I have +walked along the stone wall, the water is down, very low, the boat +is stranded, like some sleeping animal, with its tether lying +loose along the pebbly strand. The gulls are crying to each other +that there is promise of a gulletfull. Nearer shore the fish are +leaping--only one or two I think but they make just enough noise +to make one realize that there is life in the smooth water, that +it is more than a splendid silver mirror for the sun which streams +across it. I disturbed a solitary king-fisher as I went out to the +wharf. He rose from his perch upon the rope, circled about for a +minute and then settled back, on his watch for breakfast. + +It is altogether lovely, a quiet, gentle, kindly morning, such as +you have often seen, no doubt, when Judah Rock is making its giant +fight to rise triumphant from the sea. + +But this is not a bit of geologic prophecy nor a Chapter I. to a +love story, that I am writing. This is a bread-and-butter letter. +I have been your guest and I am telling you that I have enjoyed +myself. But you, of course, wish something more than the bald +statement that I like your place and that your bread was good and +your butter sweet. Yes, you deserve more, for this place is an +expression of yourself. No one can be here and not see you at +every turn, even though you may be right now in Paris "making the +way straight." You have put your love of beauty, your restrained +love for color, and your exceptional sense of balance into the +whole establishment. It is a man's house--things are made for +use; the chairs will stand weight; the couches are not fluff; one +can lean with safety on the tables. But everywhere the eye is +satisfied. My bed is beautiful, French I fancy, yet it is comfort +itself. The lamp beside my bed is a dull bit of bronze which does +not poke itself into your sleepy eye, yet you know that it fits +the need, not only for light but for satisfaction to the eyes +after the light comes. And the bath tub--may I speak of a bath tub +in a bread-and-butter letter?--the bath tub is not too long--do +you ever suffer from the long, long stretch into the cold water at +your back and the imperfect support to the head which imperils +your entire submergence?--your bath tub is not too long, and I +grab it on both sides to get out. And as I dry myself I look down +into that garden of precise, trimmed and varied green upon which +the rambler roses smile. + +It is well to have had money. No Bolshevism comes out of such a +place as this. It makes no challenge to the envy of the submerged +tenth. It has not ostentation. It gives off no glare, and it is +all used. For men who can put money to such use, who do not over- +indulge their own love for things of beauty, nor build for +luxurious living, but mould a bit of seashore, some trees and a +rambling house into an expression of their own dignified and +balanced natures, for such men I am quite sure there is or will +be, no social peril from the Red. + +And may I close with a word, an inadequate and most feeble word, +as to the Lady of the House who so perfectly complements the +beauty and the refinement of her setting. She would make livable +and lovable a shack, and she would draw to it those who think high +thoughts. She has an aura of sympathy and companionability which +makes her one with the healing earth and the warming, encompassing +sunshine; May you and she give many more sojourners as much of the +right stimulus as you have given yours affectionately, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + +TO ROLAND COTTON SMITH + +New York, July 9, [1920] + +MY DEAR PADRE,--Oh, that I could reply to you in kind, but alas +and alack! the gift divine has been denied me. My Nancy comes to +me tomorrow--Praise be to Allah! and I shall duly, and in +appropriate and prideful language, I trust, present her with your +mellifluous lines. + +When the spirits Good and Bad will permit me to visit Ipswich I +cannot say. Are Doctors of the carnal or the spiritual? They hold +me. So soon as I was given a few ducats these banditti rose to rob +me. Polite, they are, these modern sons of Dick Turpin, and clever +indeed, for they contrive that you shall be helpless, that you may +not in good form resist their calculated, schemed, coordinated +blood-drawing. And I had as lief have a Sioux Medicine man dance +a one-step round my camp fire, and chant his silly incantation for +my curing, as any of these blood pressure, electro-chemical, pill, +powder specialists. Give me an Ipswich witch instead. Let her lay +hands on me. Soft hands that turn away wrath. Have you such or did +your ancestors, out of fear of their wives, burn them all? + +Well, this is no way for a sober, sick, sedate citizen to be +talking to a Man of the Cloth, even tho' he be on vacation. Have +you read any of Leonard Merrick's novels? CONRAD IN QUEST OF HIS +YOUTH, for instance? If not, do so now. They are what you literati +would designate as G. S.--great stuff. + +Give me another cheering line, do! For I live in a world that is +not altogether lovely. + +F. K. L. + + + +TO JAMES M. COX DEMOCRATIC NOMINEE FOR PRESIDENT + +New York City, July 25, 1920 + +MY DEAR GOVERNOR,--I shall presume upon your flattering invitation +to speak frankly, not in the hope that I may in any way enlighten +a man of such experience and success, but that I may possibly +accentuate some point that you may recognize as important, which +in the rush of things, might be overlooked. If I should appear in +the least didactic, I beg that you charge it to my desire for +definiteness, and my inability to give the atmosphere of a +personal conversation. + +A WORD AS TO GENEROSITY + +The unforgivable sin in our politics is a lack of generosity. +Smallness, meanness, extreme partisanship, littleness of any kind +--these are not in accord with the American conception of an +American leader. A clever thing may gratify a man's own immediate +partisan following, but the impression on the country at large is +not good. We want a FULL, adequate appreciation of the fact that +there is hardly more than a film that divides Republican from +Democrat; indeed, in that fact lies our hope of success. We must +win FIRST VOTERS and Independents. + +Let me be concrete;--The war was won by Republicans as well as +Democrats. ... Therefore, I would say, give generously of +appreciation to the Republicans, who raised Liberty Loans, who +administered food affairs, who put their plants at the Nation's +service, who directed the various activities, such as aeroplane +making, and transporting and financing during the war. ... + +A day has come when partisanship with its personalities and +bitterness does not satisfy the public. We have seen things on too +large a scale now to believe in the importance of trifles, or in +the adequacy of trifling men. We must have men who are large +enough to be international and national at the same time, to be +politicians and yet American statesmen, to subordinate always the +individual ambition and the party advantage to the national good. + +THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS + +I feel that we have not tried to interpret the League of Nations +to our people in terms of America's advantage. We Democrats are +looked upon as International visionaries because we have not been +willing to deal practically with a practical situation. + +The League is not anti-national, it is anti-war; its aim is to +defer war and reduce the chances of war between nations. This is +to be effected, not by creating a super-nation, or by binding us +to abide by the decisions of a super-national tribunal, but by +establishing the method and machinery by which the opinion of the +world may become effective as against those inclined toward war. + +By adopting the League, we do not pledge ourselves to any war +under any circumstances, without the consent of Congress. And +because we have not been willing to say this, we are now in danger +of losing the one chance the world has had to get the nations +together. + +Loyalty to the President's principles does not mean loyalty to his +methods. They have been wrong as to the League, in my opinion. You +could deal with Congress, even a Republican Congress, on this +matter, I believe, and come out with the essentials. ... + +Don't let Bryan get away from you, if you can help it, because he +really represents a great body of moral force and opinion. But +don't pay the price to Bryan or Wilson or Hearst or Murphy or any +one else, of being untrue to your own belief as to the wise and +practicable national policy, that you may gain their support. + +There couldn't be a better year in which to lose, for something +real. You can not win as a Wilson man, nor as a Murphy man, nor as +a Hearst man. The nation is crying out for leadership, not pussy- +footing nor pandering. Be wrong strongly if you must be wrong, +rather than be right weakly. You can only win as a Cox man, one +who owns himself, has his own policies, is willing to go along, +not with a bunch of bosses, but with any reasonable man, asks for +counsel from all classes of men and women, does not fear defeat, +and expects a victory that will be more a party victory than a +personal one, and more a people's victory than a partisan one. + +YOUR ENEMIES + +Pick a few enemies and pick them with discretion. Chiefly be FOR +things. But be against things and persons, too, so that the nation +can visualize you as leading in a contest between the constructive +forces and the destructive critical forces. + +And the thing to be against is the man who is looking backward, +who talks of the "good old days," meaning (a) money in politics, +buying votes in blocks of five; (b) human beings as commodities, +Homestead strikes, and instructions how to vote in the pay +envelop; (c) privately controlled national finances as against the +Federal Reserve System; (d) taxation of the poor through indirect +taxes on pretext of protecting industry; (e) seventy-five cent +wheat; (f) dollar a day labor; (g) the saloon-bossed city; (h) no +American Merchant Marine; all goods carried abroad under foreign +flags--those were the "good old days," for which the Standpat +Republican is sighing. + +But the world has moved in the past twenty-five years, and America +not only has moved it, but has kept in the lead. ... + +WHAT WE WANT + +A greater America--that is our objective. + +We want our unused lands put to use. + +We want the farm made more attractive through better rural +schools, better roads everywhere, more frequent connection between +town and farm, better means of distribution of products. + +We want more men with garden homes instead of tenement houses. + +We want our waters, that flow idly to the sea, put to use; more +stored water for irrigation, more hydroelectric plants to supply +industries, railroads and home and farming activities. There +should be electric lights upon the farm, and power for the sewing +machine and the churn. It can be done because it is being done on +the best farms of the far West. + +We want our streams controlled so that they do not wash away our +cities, farms, and railroads, and so as to redeem the submerged +bottom lands for the next generation. ... + +We want fewer boys and girls, men and women, who can not read or +write the language of our laws, newspapers, and literature, ... +that those who live with us may really be of us. ... + +We should dignify the profession of teaching as the foundation +profession of modern democratic life. ... + +We want definite and continuing studies made of our great +industrial fiscal and social problems. The framing of our policies +should not be left to emotional caprice, or the opportunism of any +group of men, but should be the result of sympathetic and deep +study by the wisest men we have, irrespective of their politics. +There should be industrial conferences, such as those recently +inaugurated, to arrive at the ways by which those who furnish the +financial arm of industry and those who furnish the working arm of +industry may most profitably and productively be brought into +cooperation. ... Through the study of what has been done we can +give direction to our national thought and work with a will toward +a condition in which labor will have recognition and be more +certainly insured against the perils of non-occupation and old +age, and capital become entitled to a sure return, because more +constantly and productively USED. + +Then, too, we need a study made of the health conditions of our +children,--of the reason for the large percentage of undeveloped +and subnormal children who are brought to our schools, and the +larger number who do not reach maturity. ... Underfed boys and +ignorant boys are the ones who turn to Bolshevism. We can not +stand pat and let things drift without their drifting not to the +"good old days" but to bad new days. + +Why should not our system of taxation be subject for the +profoundest study? ... We must find ways by which the individual +may have tools for production which his skill and foresight and +thrift have created and yet take for society in taxes what society +itself gives. ... There must come to society an increasingly large +portion of the wealth created by each generation through +inheritance taxes. Thus all our boys and girls will start the race +of life more nearly at the scratch. This will be for the making of +the race and for the enriching of the whole of society. Yet there +must be saved, surely, the call upon the man of talent for every +ounce of energy that he has and every spark of imagination. + +We want our soldiers and sailors to be more certain of our +gratitude and to have an opportunity to realize their own ambition +for themselves. We must not be driven into any foolish or +impossible course by the pressure of a desire to win their votes. +On the contrary, the pressure should come from us who had not the +opportunity to risk our lives, that those who did take such risk +shall be highly honored. For those who will identify themselves +with the tilling of the soil, there should be farms, small yet +complete, for which they can gradually pay on long time. For +others there should be such education for professional or +industrial life as they desire. For others, a home, not a +speculation in real estate, but a piece of that American soil for +which they fought. For these things we can pay without extra +financial strain, if we dedicate to this purpose merely the +interest upon the monies which other nations owe us. The extent of +our willingness to help these men is not to be measured by their +request but rather by our ability and their lasting welfare. ... + +We are to extend our activities into all parts of the world. Our +trade is to grow as never before. Our people are to resume their +old place as traders on the seven seas. We are to know other +peoples better and make them all more and more our friends, +working with them as mutually dependent factors in the growth of +the world's life. For this day a definite foreign policy must be +made, one that is fair; to which none can take exception. Our +people shall go abroad for their good and the good of other lands, +with their skilled hands and their resourceful minds, and their +energetic capital, and they must be assured of support abroad, as +at home, in every honest venture. + +TRUE AMERICANISM + +AMERICA's ambition is to lead the world in showing what Democracy +can effect. This would be my conception of the large idea of the +campaign. It involves much more than the League of Nations. This +is our hour of test. We must not be little in our conception of +ourselves, nor yet have a conceit that is self-destructive. + +America must prove herself a living thing, with policies that are +adequate to new conditions. ... We wish an international +settlement that will enable us to be more supremely great as +nationalists. This is the significance of the League of Nations. +It is a plan of hope. It is the only plan which the mind of man +has evolved which any number of nations has ever been willing to +accept as a buffer against devil-made war. ... It is a monumental +experiment which this century and other centuries will talk of and +think of and write of because it involves the lives of men and +women under it, and there is the possibility of giving our full +thought and energy and wealth to making life more enjoyable and +finer instead of more horrible and cruel. While other nations are +in the mood, we should agree with them, that we may spend our +lives and money in a rivalry of progress rather than in a +competition in the art of scientific boy-murder. There are times +when war is the ultimate and necessary appeal, but those times +should be made fewer by American genius and sacrifice. + +And our prestige and power should not be wasted at this critical +time, because out of some fecund mind may come an abstract and +legalistic plan for some other kind of League. Let us be +practical. Let us go to the fullest limit with other nations who +are now willing to join hands with us, yet never yielding the +Constitutional Congressional control over our war making. ... Let +us take thought to-day of our opportunities else these may not +exist tomorrow. ... Cordially yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + +TO TIMOTHY SPELLACY + +August 2, 1920 + +MY DEAR TIM,--Here you are, when you are sick yourself, worrying +about me. Now, don't give any concern to any matter excepting +getting thoroughly well, just as soon as possible. You are doing +too much. You are not resting enough, and you are worrying. You +have got enough to take care of yourself and your family for the +rest of your lives, you have the respect of every one who knows +you, and the affection of every one who knows you well; in fact, +you have nothing to work for, and every reason to be contented. So +I suggest that you learn, in your later years, how to bum. I have +no doubt that Mike will come across something very good in +Colombia, if he doesn't get the fever, or break his blooming neck. +I have never seen so aggressive a group of old men as you fellows +are. You will not admit that you are more than twenty-one. ... + +With my warmest regards, as always cordially yours, FRANKLIN K. +LANK + +With the presentation of an Irish flag, August 10, 1920. + + + +To Edward L. Doheny, with the cordial esteem of Franklin K. Lane. + +This flag is a symbol. It stands for the finest thing in a human +being--aspiration--the seed of the Divine. It represents the +noblest hope of a thwarted and untiring people. It makes a call to +the heart of every generous-minded man, and gives vivifying +impulse to the home-loving of all faces. It is a symbol of a +people to whom most of the arts were known when England and +America were forest wastes, whose women have made the world +beautiful by their virtue, and whose men have made the world free +by their courage. + + + +To Franklin D. Roosevelt New York, August, [1920] + +DEAR OLD MAN,--This is hard work--to say that I can't be with you +on this great day in your life. [Footnote: Notification ceremonies +following Franklin D. Roosevelt's nomination as Vice-president by +the Democratic party.] You know that only the mandate of the +medical autocrats would keep me away, not that I could do you any +good by being there, but that you might know that many men like +myself take pride in you, rejoice in your opportunity, and keep +our faith in Democracy because out of it can come men of ideals +like yourself. I know/that you will not allow yourself to become +cheap, undignified, or demagogical. Remember, that East and West +alike, we want gentlemen to represent us, and we ask no man to be +a panderer or a hypocrite to get our votes. Frankness, and +largeness, and simplicity, and a fine fervor for the right, are +virtues that some must preserve, and where can we look for them if +not from the Roosevelts and the Delanos? + +It is a great day for you and for all of us. Be wise! Don't be +brilliant. Get plenty of sleep. Do not give yourself to the +handshakers. For now your word carries far, and it must be a word +worthy of all you stand for. I honestly, earnestly ask God's +blessing on you. As always, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + +Our love to your dear Mother,--proud happy Mother,--and to +Eleanor. + + + +To Mrs. George Ehle + +Katonah, September, 1920 + +TO THE EHLE,--Now this is a pleasure to have a minute's talk with +you in the cool under an apple tree. You are gay, with Grouitches, +and other festive creatures, while I am glum, gloomy and +lugubrious. You know this is a novel experience for me to be in +care of two nurses and a doctor, not to speak of a wife; but I am +obedient, docile, humble, tractable, and otherwise dehumanized. +The plan here is to follow my boy's statement of the modern +prescription for women, "Catch 'em young; treat 'em rough; tell +'em nothing." Well, they don't catch me young, but otherwise the +prescription is filled. They reduced me to weakness, dependence, +and a sort of sour-mash, and now they say that on this foundation +they will build me up. Tho' I am still to lose some weight, being +only twenty-four pounds under my average for twenty years. I will +emerge from this spot, if I emerge at all, a regular Apollo, and +will do Russian dances for you on that lovely lawn under the +mulberry tree. And what happy memories of that spot I do have, and +they cluster about you, with your soft hand and your understanding +eye and your sympathetic mouth. You don't mind my making love to +you in this distant fashion do you? Well, this is a charming jail, +but jail it is after all, for I can't flee, though all the leisure +in the world were mine--and it irks an American eagle or eaglet. + +Dear Anne has been improving here. She now is jolly, tho' it has +been hot. Responsibility kills her, and I thrive on it. + +I believe I will take that place we went to see on the Shepaug. +Ryan, my friend, is to manage it. Well, we have a place of refuge, +eh? where the wicked and the boring and the ununderstanding cannot +pursue. + +But oh! my dreams do not come true these days, the magic touch is +lost, the Fairies have been hurt in their feelings, my Daemon has +deserted, and instead of beauty and joy and power, sweet content +and warm friendship, I am struggling merely to live--and to what +end? + +Please go into my room some morning early and look out to the +gate, the cobwebs must be diamond-sprinkled on the circle at the +doorway, the catalpa trees must stand like stiff, prim, proper, +knickerbockered footmen, on either side of the hedge, the ground +must rise in a very gradual swell and culminate in the rose- +covered gate. Throw it a kiss for me--(I wonder if there could be +any roses left?). All of it is a lovely bit of man's handiwork, +and Mr. Eno should have been born poor so that his planning mind, +conceiving things of beauty in regular and balanced form, could +have been used by many. + +Tell him I got his nice letter and will drop him a line one day. +With much love, + +FRANK LANE + + + +TO ISADORE B. DOCKWEILER + +Washington, September 25, 1920 + +MY DEAR DOCKWEILER,--It is a great disappointment that I am not +able to speak in California this year, I wished so much to say a +word that might be helpful to Senator Phelan. I helped in his +election six years ago, and I wanted to be able to say to those +whom I then addressed, that Phelan had thoroughly made good in +Washington. He has been strong, honest, courageous, loyal to +California and the country, and at every minute he has been at the +service of his constituents. That is much to say, isn't it? Well, +every word is true. ... + +These things I know, for I have watched him through the past six +years and for many years before. Indeed, it is more than thirty +years now since we first joined with boyish enthusiasm in the +activities of the Young Men's Democratic League, and always I have +wondered at his willingness to make himself the target of so much +criticism because of his loyalty to convictions that have not +pleased those in political or social power. He thinks; he does not +take orders. And you can rely on his being superior to the +partisan phase of any real issue. This self-respecting, or self- +owned individual is the sort of man we need to promote in our +political life, or else we will soon find ourselves back in the +pre-Roosevelt days of political invertebrates. I found in +Washington the secret of the exceeding great authority which the +older states carry in Congress, they return their Senators and +Congressmen, term after term, and give them opportunity to rise to +positions of eminence in the national legislature. The usefulness +of a Senator is not to be measured by the roundness of his +periods, nor even by the soundness of his ideas. He must pass +through a period of impatient waiting before his status is such +that he can really have the opportunity to have his ideas +considered seriously. By returning men who have been faithful, the +State strengthens itself in Washington and eventually gains +greatly in prestige, as in the case of Julius Kahn. Senator Phelan +has now passed through this initial period of gaining status, and +his future will be one of an assured and much strengthened +position among his colleagues. Not to return Phelan will mean a +loss at Washington that California can ill afford at this critical +time, for in the national mind he is identified with her prime +concerns. + +... These are to be most momentous times ... Just where we are +going no one knows, but clearly the people here, as elsewhere, are +bent upon testing the value of Democracy as a cooperative +organization of men and women, and are determined to make of it a +fuller expression of human capacities and hopes. We must feel our +way carefully at such a time, but we must act constructively, else +there will surely come a dangerous radical reaction. Sympathy must +be checked by wisdom, a wise knowledge of man's limitations and +tendencies, that we do not take on burdens we cannot safely carry. +Yet we must dare, and dare purposefully. What can this Democracy +do for men and women--that is the super-question which rises like +Shasta and follows one throughout the day, dominating every +prospect. And the answer must be wrought out of the sober thought +and the proved experience of our statesmen. ... Cordially yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + +In September, 1920, he wrote,--"Things look dark to me +politically. The little Wilson (as distinguished from the Great +Wilson) is now having his day. Cox is making a manly fight on +behalf of the President's League, but the administration is +sullen, is doing nothing. Cox will be defeated not by those who +dislike him but by those who dislike Wilson and his group. This +seems mighty unjust." + +To Hall McAllister + +Katonah, September 25 [?], 1920 + +MY DEAR HALL,--This paper is a concession to my love for color, it +is not yellow, but golden, and to make the touch truly Californian +I should write with a blue pencil. + +I cannot write as gaily or as bravely as you did, for I have been +pretty well beaten down to my knees. My nights are so unforgivably +bad--wakened up two or three times, always with this Monster +squeezing my heart in his Mammoth hand--By God, it is something +Dante overlooked ... + +Take my advice, dear Hall, and avoid doing any of the things which +the 3793 Doctors I have paid tell me cause this thing--among them +are;--smoking, eating, drinking, swearing, working. + +You can recover partially--not wholly under any circumstances--if +you arrive at a state of Nirvana before death. ... Gay life this, +my boy! I've been so wicked and fast and devilish and hoggish and +gluttonous and always rotten and riotous that I needs must spend a +few months in this agony by way of preliminary atonement before I +may get even a chance at purgatory. + +You know that sometimes in the most terrific crushing pain, I +laugh, at the thought that my steady years of drive and struggle +to help a lot of people to get justice, or a chance, should be +gloriously crowned by an ironical God with an end that would make +a sainted Christian, in Nero's time, regret his premature taking- +off. ... + +Tell that most charming of all women, who is your sister, that her +noble man was in great good fortune; and I envy him because the +Gods showed their love for him even up to the last. The wicked, +torturing devils respected his gay spirit as he passed along and +forgot to fill him full of arrows, poisoned arrows, as he ran the +gauntlet down to the River. Her letters are beauteous reflections +of her thoroughbred soul, and they give delight to Anne and +myself. ... Yours as always, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + +TO MRS. GEORGE EHLE + +Bethel, October [3], 1920 + +That is so charming and gracious a letter that it must be answered +within the day, not that any word in kind can be returned, but the +spirit may be echoed. We may be short in words but not in feeling. +Let me tell you, Lady Ehle, about this place. It is Nirvana-in- +the-Wilderness, the Sacred, Serene Spot. Beautiful, for it is a +ridge surrounded by mountains--or "mountings"--of gold and green, +russet and silver. Noiseless, no dogs bark or cats mew or autos +honk. Peaceful--no business. Nothing offends. Isn't that Nirvana? +No poverty. People independent but polite. Children smile back +when you talk to them, and you do. And the sky has clouds that +color and that cast shadows on purpling mountains and stretches of +meadow. Yes, this is one lovely spot over which a man named +Gehring presides, unofficially, modestly, gently; he has given it +purpose for being, for here he does good by healing, and some of +his wealthy patients have put up a handsome inn in his honor--and +they have said so in a bronze tablet over the mantel. + +How much good he can do me I cannot say, but he is trying, Oh, +ever so hard to touch my trouble-centre, and I shall give him a +full chance yet awhile. + +Wouldn't it be splendid if Shepaug were assured, or any other +place of simple beauty to which we could retire to commune with +the things that, alas, one only discovers to be the really great +things, the worth while things, late in life. Daily would we +foregather beside that stream to build some kind of altar to the +God of Things as we Hope they may sometime Be. ... + +Give my regards to the Duke of Saugatuck and tell him that his +picture on horseback is good enough to enlarge--and then I want +one. + +And to you, The Ehle, may the peace that gay souls need and seldom +get, and the joy that good souls long for, be with you always. And +do write some more! + +F. K. L. + + + +TO BENJAMIN IDE WHEELER + +Bethel, [October 28, 1920] + +MY DEAR B. I.,--It has been along time since your letter came, but +until now I have not felt that I could write. Most of the time I +have been in pain and I have also been much discouraged over the +condition of my health. No one wants to hear a man talk of his +aches and I haven't much else on my mind. I am beginning to crawl +a bit health-wards, I think; at any rate I am moving on that +assumption. + +[Illustration with caption: FRANKLIN K. LANE IN 1917. TAKEN IN +LAFAYETTE NATIONAL PARK] + +What a hell of a condition the land is in politically. Cowardice +and hypocrisy are slated to win, and makeshift and the cheapest +politics are to take possession of national affairs. Better even +obstinacy and ego-mania! Cox, I think, has made a gallant fight. +He is to be beaten because Wilson is as unpopular as he once was +popular. Oh! if he had been frank as to his illness, the people +would have forgotten everything, his going to Paris, his refusal +to deal with the mild Reservationists--everything would have been +swept away in a great wave of sympathy. But he could not be frank, +he who talked so high of faith in the people distrusted them; and +they will not be mastered by mystery. So he is so much less than a +hero that he bears down his party to defeat. + +And after election will come revolt in the Republican party, for +it is too many-sided for a long popularity. + +I am sorry to be out of it all, but the Gods so willed. I did want +to help Phelan. The country will think that what he has stood for, +as to California matters, especially oil and Japan, has been +repudiated if he is not returned. He was California incarnate in +Washington. + +Remember me to the Lady and the Soldier. Always your friend, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + +To John W. Hallowell + +Bethel, November 3, 1920 + +MY DEAR JACK,--You have so much idle time hanging, dragging, +festooning on round and about your hands that I want to give you a +job, something to do. Eh, what! + +I have taken it into my head, caput, cranium, that I will read +Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, and as the only +copy here is too poorly printed to read, and furthermore as I wish +to own said work myself, I would that you make purchase of same +and send it to me. Now, I do not wish an expensive copy, nor a +large copy, nor a heavy copy. Therefore I think it would be best +to buy a good second-hand set, say in half-leather--perhaps you +can get it in six or eight volumes--and it must not be heavy, +because I read in bed. About the size of an ordinary novel would +be very good, and pretty good sized type--leaded not solid. Yes, +the more I think of a second-hand set, the better I like the idea +--old binding but strong, old paper but light, old type but clear. +Twelve dollars I enclose for a second-hand set. By devoting twenty +dollars worth of time to the search I know you can get a second +hand set for twelve dollars. That is uneconomical, but think of +the fun you will have. I suggest to you that this was the very +thing you needed to do to bring perfect contentment into your +life. Search for Gibbon, pretty backs, good type, light in weight +for twelve dollars. Oh what joy you will have! Really I should be +selfish enough to do it myself but now that I have said so much +about it I can't withdraw this boon. ... + +Well, get Gibbon and "with all thy getting get understanding." + +F. K. L. + + + +TO JOHN W. HALLOWETT + +Bethel, November 12, [1920] + +MY DEAR JACK,--I said nothing of the kind to myself. This is what +I said, "Now I want a Gibbon. Not a show-off set but a useful +one--light and small and well bound. How can I get it? Cotter in +New York? What does Cotter know of learning and books of learning? +What interest does New York take in such things anyway? There are +second-hand stores there but they must be filled with novels and +such trumpery. No one in New York ever read Gibbon--ninety-nine +percent never heard of him. So why should I send to New York? No, +Boston is the place. There is the city of the Erudite, the Home of +Lodge, and incidentally of Parkman, Bancroft, Thayer, Morse, +Fiske, and all others who have minds to throw back into the other +days, and make pictures of what has been. Every house there has +its Gibbon, of course, and some must, in the course of nature, +fall into the hands of the dealers. So to Boston,--and who else +but Jack Hallowell who knows what a book is, how in respectability +it should be bound, and what size book is a pleasure and what a +burden. A man of learning, identified with scholarship, through +his athletic course in Harvard, and withal a man of business who +will not pay more than a thing is worth. Ideal! Hence the letter +and consequent trouble to good Jack Hallowell, who as per usual +"done his damnedest for a friend," as Bret Harte says, in writing +a perfect epitaph. ... + +The reason I sent twelve dollars needs explanation. I put that +limit because a very handsome edition of eleven volumes sold for +that price to a friend of mine. It was red morocco, tooled, etc., +and I thought surely twelve dollars would buy something as good as +I needed. + +Now you have the whole mysterious story. Make the most of it as +Patrick Henry suggested to George III. + +I have your dear Mother's book and will write her when I have read +it. I also have a letter saying that Hoover has named me as +treasurer of his twenty-three million or billion fund. ... + +Thank you for your kindness and write me as often as you can. ... + +F. K. L. + + + +TO ROBERT LANSING + +Bethel, Maine, November 10, [1920] + +MY DEAR LANSING,--It is good to see that letter-head, but aren't +you afraid to enter into competition with Mr. Tumulty, who has +now, I see, bought the old Shepard mansion and will settle in +Washington. How do they do it with the high cost of living what it +is? ... The transmutation of brass into gold is becoming a +commonplace. + +To-night's paper speaks of Knox as probable Secretary of State. +... Tell me where the opposition is to come from--who are to lead +us? ... All possible leaders have been submerged, squelched, +drowned out, in the past eight years. I wish the whole country had +gone unanimously for Harding. Then we might have started on a +fresh, clean footing to create two parties that represent liberal +and conservative thought. As it is, I think you will see Hearst +and Johnson and La Follette try to capture the radicals of both +parties and make a new party of their own. Then I shall be with +all the rascals I have been fighting since boyhood--the Wall +Street rascals--as against the other group. But maybe the Lord +cares a bit for us after all. + +I mend very slowly, but I delight in your recovery and wonder at +it. ... I do beg you will give me all the gossip of Washington +that you can, for I am here in a wilderness, beautiful but not +exciting. As always, + +F. K. L. + +To Carl Snyder + +Bethel, November 13, [1920] + +Dear Carl,--This is extremely disagreeable business, this of +repairs and restoration. I suppose I am doing fairly well +considering that I have been more than half a century getting my +gearings askew and awry. But I am taking orders now and say "Thank +you," when I get them. Just when I shall be well enough to take +hold again is not yet discoverable. + +Strange how little news there is when you are above the clouds. +One must be local to be interested in ninety percent of what the +papers print. Make me a hermit for a year and I could see things +in the large I believe, and ignore the trifles which obscure real +vision. But a monk must be checked by a butcher. The ideal must be +translated into the possible. "Man cannot live on bread alone"-- +nor on manna. + +Outside it is snowing beautifully, across an insistent sun, the +fire is crackling and I do not know that I am ill but for the +staring bottles before me. + +Give me a line when you have a free minute--and take to your +Beautiful Lady my warm regards. + +F. K. L. + + To William R. Wheeler + +Bethel, 17 [November], 1920 + +My dear Bill,--...I am mighty sorry to hear about the Lady Alice +Isabel. Funny that these women are like some damn fools, like +myself, and do things too strenuously, and then go bang. Damn that +Irish temperament, anyway! O God, that I had been made a stolid, +phlegmatic, non-nervous, self-satisfied Britisher, instead of a +wild cross between a crazy Irishman, with dreams, desires, +fancies, and a dour Scot, with his conscience and his logical +bitterness against himself,--and his eternal drive! + +I can't tell you anything new about myself. I hope it is not a +delusion that I am growing slowly better. I cultivate that idea +anyway. ... + +It was a slaughter, the election, and properly did it come to us. +Now be wise and you can have this land for many years. But foolish +conceit will put you out in four. ...I wish you Republicans had +carried all the South. I am glad for Lenroot--very! ... But +Phelan's defeat has about broken my heart and for Henderson and +Chamberlain and Thomas I am especially grieved. Well, it will be a +changed world in Washington, and I'm sorry I can't be in it and of +it. + +Anne has gone to Washington to see Nancy who has not been well, so +I am alone but not for long. I get on all right. God bless you, my +dear old chap, and do rest awhile beneath your own fig tree. My +love to Alice. Affectionately as always, + +F. K. L. + + To George Otis Smith + +Bethel, [November] 18, [1920] + +Dear George Otis,--I love this Maine of yours. It is beautiful, +and its people are good stuff--strong, wholesome, intelligent +young men. I like them greatly. I'd be content to sit right down +here and wait for whatever is to come. It is a place of serenity. +There is no rush, yet people live and the necessary things get +done. It doesn't have any Ford factories, but I rather fancy it +makes the men who go West and make the factories. + +The autumn has been one long procession of gay banners on the +hillsides, and now that the snow has come the pines are blue and +the mountains purple; and mountains five thousand feet high are +just as good, more companionable, than mountains fifteen thousand +feet high. What is more lovely, stately and of finer color than a +line of these receding hills which walk away from you, as if they +continued clear across the continent? + +I must get out against my wish, to have a lot more testing done-- +for this doctor differs with the others--and I rather think he is +right. But I hope to get back here and enjoy this air. No wonder +this stock was for prohibition, the air itself is an intoxicant, +especially when the snow is on the ground and it comes to you +gently; it is as bracing as a cocktail, not a sensuous wine like +the Santa Barbara air--tell Vogelsang this--but I presume more +like the High Sierras, where the fishing is good. + +I shall read your speeches with the deepest interest. Keep up the +publicity. It affects Congress and it justifies the good doctrine +we have preached. Cordially, + +F. K. Lane + +Have read the speeches and they are everything they should be. +Right theory, clear statement, conclusive facts. A few too many +figures perhaps, you should keep your prime figures in the air +longer so they can be visualized. This may be called juggling +figures in the right sense. + +Lane + + To George W. Wickersham + +Bethel, Maine, 18 [November, 1920] + +My dear G. W.,--I have your good letter. By 'good' I mean many +things--well done as a bit of sketchy composition, a welcome +letter, kindly also in spirit, cheering, timely, telling of things +that interest the receiver, one, too, having the flavor of the +household whence it comes, altogether a good letter. I had one +also from Her; which I brutally answered with a preachment--in +pencil, too, for I can't write with comfort at a desk and, after +all, what have white paper and ink in common with these woods? I +am for harmony--a reconciler, like Harding. ... + +Root, as you say, would give a good smack to the meal. The country +would at once say Harding knows how to set a good table. But tell +me--will he be a Taft? a McKinley? a Hayes? or a Grant? Pshaw! why +should I ask such a question? Who knows what a man will turn out +to be! Events may make him greater than any, or less. A war, a +bullet, a timely word of warning to a foreign power, a fierce +fight with some unliked home group, the right sort of a deal on +postal rates with newspapers and magazines--any one of these might +lift him into a national hero; while a sneaking act revealed, a +little too much caution, a period of business depression, would +send him tumbling out of the skies. + +These be indeed no days for prophesying--Wilson gone, Clemenceau +gone, Venizelos gone,--Lloyd George alone left! The wise boy had +his election at the right moment, didn't he? Surely statesmanship +is four-fifths politics. Harding's danger, as I see it, will lie +in his timidity. He fears; and fear is the poison gas which comes +from the Devil's factory. Courage is oxygen, and Fear is carbon +monoxide. One comes from Heaven--so you find Wells says,--and the +other would turn the universe back into primeval chaos. Wilson, be +it said to his eternal glory, did not fear. They send word to me +from the inside that he believed in Cox's election up to the last +minute, although the whole Cabinet told him defeat was sure. He +"was right, and right would prevail"--surely such faith, even in +oneself, is almost genius! + +I am glad you put Lincoln first in your list of great Americans. I +decided that question for myself when I came to hang some pictures +in my library. Washington or Lincoln on top? And Lincoln got it. I +have recently read all his speeches and papers, and the man is +true from the first day to the last. The same philosophy and the +same reasoning were good in 1861 as in 1841. He was large enough +for a great day--could any more be said of any one? + +Lincoln made Seward and Chase and Stanton and Blair his mates. He +did not fear them. He wished to walk with the greatest, not with +trucklers and fawners, court satellites and panderers. His great +soul was not warm enough to fuse them--they were rebellious ore-- +but his simplicities were not to be mastered by their elaborate +cogencies. + +McKinley was simple in his nature, at bottom a dear boy of kind +heart, who put his hand into the big fist of Mark Hanna and was +led to glory. + +Is Harding great and masterful in his simplicity, or trustful and +yielding? and if the latter where is the Hanna? Well, I don't want +to die in these next few months, anyway, till some questions are +answered. This would be a part of my Cabinet if I were Harding:-- +Root, State; Hoover, Treasury; Warren of Michigan, Attorney- +General; Wood, War; Willard (of Baltimore) + +You enviously write of my opportunity to read and contemplate. I +have done some of both. But that's a monk's life, and even a monk +has a cell of his own, and a bit of garden to play with; and he +can think upon a God that is his very own, an Israelitish +Providence; and, in his egotism, be content. Yes, with a cell and +a book and a garden and an intimate God, one should be satisfied +to forego even health. But I hold with old Cicero that the "whole +glory of virtue is in activity," and therefore I call my +discontent divine. + +You speak of great Americans, and have named all four from +political life. I concur in your selection. Now what writers would +you say were most distinctly American in thought and most +influential upon our thought, men who a hundred years hence will +be regarded not great as literary men but as American social, +spiritual, and economic philosophers? It occurs to me that this +singular trio might be selected--Emerson, Henry George, and +William James. What say you? + +Say "Hello" to the young Colonel for me. + +F. K. L. + +Lincoln haunted Lane's imagination, the humor, friendliness, +loneliness, and greatness of the man. This--written for no formal +occasion but to express part of his feeling--has found its way to +others who, too, reverence the great American. + + + +Lincoln's Eyes + +I never pass through Chicago without visiting the statue of +Lincoln by St. Gaudens and standing before it for a moment +uncovered. It is to me all that America is, physically and +spiritually. I look at those long arms and long legs, large hands +and feet, and I think that they represent the physical strength of +this country, its power and its youthful awkwardness. Then I look +up at the head and see qualities which have made the American--the +strong chin, the noble brow, those sober and steadfast eyes. They +were the eyes of one who saw with sympathy and interpreted with +common sense. They were the eyes of earnest idealism limited and +checked by the possible and the practicable. They were the eyes of +a truly humble spirit, whose ambition was not a love for power but +a desire to be supremely useful. They were eyes of compassion and +mercy and a deep understanding. They saw far more than they looked +at. They believed in far more than they saw. They loved men not +for what they were but for what they might become. They were +patient eyes, eyes that could wait and wait and live on in the +faith that right would win. They were eyes which challenged the +nobler things in men and brought out the hidden largeness. They +were humorous eyes that saw things in their true proportions and +in their real relationships. They looked through cant and pretense +and the great and little vanities of great and little men. They +were the eyes of an unflinching courage and an unfaltering faith +rising out of a sincere dependence upon the Master of the +Universe. To believe in Lincoln is to learn to look through +Lincoln's eyes. + + + +To Benjamin Ide Wheeler + +Bethel, 18 [November, 1920] + +MY DEAR B. I.,--From both ends of this continent we talk to each +other. We have both retired from active things and can with some +degree of removal, and from some altitude, look upon the affairs +of men. Frankly, it challenges all my transcendental philosophy to +convince me that "deep love lieth under these pictures of time." +And yet I must so believe or die. It is a disheartening time-- +Wilson, a wreck and beaten. Clemenceau, beaten and out. And now +Venizelos gone. Only Lloyd George, the crafty, quick-turning, +sometimes-lying, never-wholly-frank politician left, because he +called his election when spirits had not fallen. + +And little men take their places, while Bolshevism drives Wrangel +into the sea, possesses all Russia and Siberia, and is a success +politically and militarily, tho' a failure economically and +socially. We have passed the danger of red anarchy in America, I +think, tho' no one should prophesy as to any event of to-morrow. +Communism, and socialism with it, have been made to pause. Yet +nothing constructive is opened by the world for men to think upon, +as a means of bettering their lot and answering the questions +flung to them by Russia, Germany, England, and our own home +conditions. + +I can see no evidence of constructive statesmanship on this side +the water, excepting in Hoover. The best man in Congress is +Lenroot, and he writes me that unless the Republicans do something +more than fail to make mistakes that the Democrats will take the +power from them in another four years. But I am nothing for +parties. I cannot wait for an opposition to come in. I would like +to see the Republicans now address themselves to the problems of +the world at large and of this land. If Knox is to be Secretary of +State, as the rumor is, we will have Steel Trust Diplomacy,--which +will give us safety abroad, which is more than we have had for +some years--but it will be without vision, without love for +mankind. Root would give the Republicans great assurance and +confidence. He would make them smack their lips and feel that +Harding was not afraid of the best near him. Hoover may or may not +have a Cabinet place, but his brain is the best thing working in +America to-day, on our questions. If Penrose and Co. beat him they +will regret it, + +If I were Harding I'd put Root, Lowden, Wood, Hoover, and Johnson +if he wanted it, into my Cabinet and I'd gather all the men of +mind in the country and put them at work on specific questions as +advisors to me, under Cabinet officers. One group on Taxes and +Finance, one on Labor and Capital, one on Internal Improvements, +one on Education and Health. And have a program agreeable to +Congress, which is sterile because it is a messenger-boy force for +constituents. + +The Democrats could do this if they had the men,--but look over +the nation and see how short we are of talent of any kind. It may +be an opposition party but it has no force, no will, no self- +confidence. It hopes for a miracle, vainly hopes. It cannot gather +twenty first-rate minds in the nation to make a program for the +party. I tried it the other day--men interested in political +affairs, outside Congress--try it yourself. Get twenty big enough +to draft a national program of legislation for the party. I sent +the suggestion to George White, chairman of the National +Committee, and gave him a list, and at the head I put you and +President Eliot, classing you both as Democrats, which probably +neither of you call yourselves now, tho' both voted for Cox. ... + +If I get to California I must see you. But I shall play my string +out here before trying the Western land. My best regards to the +Lady. Yours always, LANE + +To Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt + +Bethel, Maine, [November, 1920] + +To THE DEAR ROOSEVELTS,--... You realized what was coming, but I +fear Cox did not; could not believe that his star would not pull +through. I wish Georgia and Alabama had gone, too. The American +born did not like Wilson because he was not frank, was too selfish +and opinionated. The foreign born did not like his foreign +settlements. So they voted "no confidence" in his party. What we +will do in this land of mixed peoples is a problem. Our policies +now are to be determined by Fiume and Ireland--not by real home +concerns. This is dangerous in the extreme. Demagogues can win to +power by playing to the prejudices of those not yet fully +American. ... As always, + +F. K. L. + + + +To Lathrop Brown + +Bethel, [November] 20, [1920] + +MY DEAR LATHROP,--You are wrong, dead wrong, viciously, wilfully +wrong. I do like this exact science business. I worked at it and +in it on the railroad problems for seven years. There is only one +thing that beats it, puts it on the blink, and that is inexact +human nature which does wicked things to figures and facts and +theories and plans and hopes. Prove, if you will, that there is no +margin at all over wages, and a nominal return on capital, and you +do not kill the desire of someone to run the shop. ... Talking of +business men, what about the Shipping Board? O, my boy, they have +something to explain--these Hurleys and Schwabs! ... How does this +sound to you? They let their own tanks lie idle, commandeered +those of Doheny and rented them to the Standard Oil--so that they +could bid when Doheny couldn't--eh, what? ... + +F. K. L. + +To Timothy Spellacy + +Bethel, [November] 22, [1920] + +MY DEAR TIM,--I hear from Mike that you are not in New York, and +so I am writing you out of "love and affection," as I hope to see +Mike but won't see you when I go to New York for Thanksgiving. It +was my hope that we three could have a good talk over Mike's +Colombia plans, but do not trouble yourself with these business +concerns. Get well--that's the job for both you and me. We have +been too extravagant of ourselves, and especially you, you big- +hearted, energetic, unselfish son of Erin! Eighteen years I have +known you and never a word or an act have I heard of or seen that +did not make me feel that the campaign for Governor was worth +while, because it gave me your acquaintance, friendship, +affection. And Ned and George love you as I do. When I get mad, as +I do sometimes, over something that the Irish do, I always am +tempted to a hard generalization that I am compelled to modify, +because of you and Mike and Dan O'Neill, in San Francisco--and a +few more of the Great Irish--. ... + +Well, my dear fellow, drop me a line when you feel like it and be +sustained in your weakness by the unfaltering affection of +thousands who know you, among them-- + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + +To Frank I, Cobb New York World + +New York, December 6, [1920] + +DEAR FRANK,--You are right, but too far ahead. We must come to +Cabinet responsibility, and I am with you as an agitator. Twenty +years may see it. + +This morning you chide the Republicans for not having a program. +Good God, man, why so partisan? What program have we? Will we just +oppose; vote "Nay," to all they propose? That way insures twenty +years as "outs"--and we won't deserve to be in. What we lack is +just plain brains. We have a slushy, sentimental Democracy, but +don't have men who can concrete-ize feeling into policy, if you +know what that means. A program--a practicable, constructive +program--quietly drawn, agreeable to the leaders in both Houses, +pushed for, advocated loudly! That's our one hope--Agree? Yours +cordially, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + +To John G. Gehring + +New York, December 9, [1920] + +Well, my dear Doctor, here I am at another cross-roads. ... I +leave ... in a day or two with a new dietary and some good advice. +The latter in tabloid form being:--"Drop business for a time, go +into it again slowly, and gradually creep into your job." All of +which is wise, and commends itself greatly to my erstwhile mind, +but is much like saying, "Jump off the Brooklyn bridge, "slowly." +... I am not resigned, of course. Because I cannot see the end. +Definiteness is so imperative to some natures. However, I think +that I have done all that an exacting Deity would demand, and +cannot be accused of suicide, if things go badly. + +Our plan is to go to Washington to see some old friends thence +south and so to California, for a couple of months. Delightful +program if one had health, but in exchange I would gladly take a +sentence to three months in a chain-gang on the roads. + +One of my friends has suggestively sent me Burton's Anatomy of +Melancholy. To offset it I went out at once and bought a new suit +of bright homespun clothes and a red overcoat--pretty red. In +addition I have a New Thought doctor giving me absent treatment. I +am experimenting with Hindu deep breathing, rhythmical breathing, +in which the lady who runs this hospital is an adept. And what +with an osteopath and a regular and a nurse and predigested food, +I am not shirking. If melancholy gets the better of me now-- +Kismet! + +Tell your dear Lady that it was infinitely good of her to write, +(and she has, I may say, quite as brilliant a pen-style as +speech.) And one day I shall write her when the world looks +better. My best reading has been William James' Letters; and that +which amused me most a new novel, entitled Potterism, by Rose +Macauley, which cuts into the cant and humbug of the world right +cruelly. I see your beautiful serene landscape and envy you. And I +envy those who hear your hearty chuckle each morning in the Inn. +As always, + +F. K. L. + + + +To John W. Hallowell + +New York, December 9, [1920] + +DEAR JACK,--I have tried out New York again and find it lacking as +before. No help! They do not know. ... So I am going to +Californi...A. I wish I were to be near you--you really have a +special old corner in all that is left of my heart. And one of +these days well indulge ourselves in a good time--a long pull +together again. + +I have been reading William James' Letters--and real literature +they are--far better than all your novels. What a great Man--a +mind, plus a man. Not to have known James in the last generation +is to have missed its greatest intellect; Roosevelt and James and +Henry George were the three greatest forces of the last thirty +years. Sometime when you come across a good photo or engraving or +wood-cut, or something, of James, will you buy it and send it to +me? I want a human one--not a professional one. I guess he +couldn't be the pedantic kind anyway. + +Billy Phillips has a new baby-boy born Monday. + +My plan is to leave here in a week, go to Washington and see +Nancy, and get a glimpse of some of my old people in the +Department, thence to South Carolina and then probably California +for two or three months. Ah me--most people would think this +luxury--I think it hell! But it may be for my great spiritual +good. Certainly if I could have you to walk with for these months, +and more of William James to read, I could take a step or two +forward. + +Have also been reading a bit of Buddhism lately. It is too +negative--that is almost its chief if not its only defect, as an +attitude toward life. It won't make things move but it will make +souls content. And I can't get away from the thought that we are +here as conquerors, not as pacifists. I can't be the latter, save +in the desire. + +Peabody dropped in yesterday from Chicago. (I have forgotten +whether you knew him well or not.) Able chap, fond of me, as I of +him. My boy works for him. He sent me a gorgeous edition of +Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy which I have always wanted, largely +because it is one of the curiosities of the world. ... + +Write me as often as your Quaker spirit moves you to utterance. +Your dinner got quite a send-off in these papers, which is +something, for New York to recognize Boston! Terribly tough job +though. Poor babies! Hard to believe in a good God and a kind God, +isn't it? + +I hear talk of shoving Hoover outside the breastworks. Fools! +Fools! Best for him but worse for the country. Whole question of +Republican success turns on the largeness of Harding. I don't ask +a Lincoln--much less will do. If he is only a smooth-footed +politician he will fail. So far he has been the gentleman. ... + +My love to your whole circle, from Grandmother down. +Affectionately, + +F. K. L. + + + +To John G. Gehring + +Rochester, Minnesota, December 31, [1920] + +MY DEAR PADRE,--It is the last night of an unhappy year. Never do +I wish for such another. No joy--defeat, dreary waiting. These +words describe not merely my personal history and attitude but +fairly picture those of the world. It took guts to live through +such an unillumined, non-productive, soul-depressing year. Did +any good come out of it? Yes, to me just one thing good--I came to +know you, your Lady and the beauteousness of Bethel. And after all +a man does not do any better in any year than make a friend. No +man makes seventy friends in a life-time, does he? So I must not +repine nor let the year go out in bitterness. On the credit side +of my account book I have something that can be carried over into +1921, whereas most people can only carry over Hope. + +I hope there is something significant and more than suggestive in +my turning up here on the last day of the year for examination-- +"Getting a ready on" for a New Year--that's what you would +optimistically shout if you were here, I know. And that is my +Goodbye word to 1920--"You haven't beaten me, and I have lived to +take your brush." + +I am being ground and wound and twisted and fed into and out of +the Mayo mill, and a great mill it is. Of course they are giving +me a private view, so to speak. Distinguished consideration is a +modest word for the way in which I am treated--not because of my +worth but because of my friends--. Those men are greater as +organizers, I believe, than as workmen, which is saying much +indeed, for they are the surgeons supreme. ... Two to three +hundred people, new people, a day pass through [their shop]. Sixty +to seventy thousand a year received, examined, diagnosed, treated +perhaps, operated on (fifty per cent), and cared for. The +machinery for this is colossal and superbly arranged. + +Dr. Mayo told me to come over at two o'clock and register. ... I +stood in line and was duly registered, telling name, and other +such facts, non-medical. Then a special guide took me to Dr. Mayo, +who had already heard my story at the hotel but who, wished it in +writing. Accordingly, I was presented to a group of the staff and +one man assigned as my escort. I answered him a thousand +questions, touching my physical life for fifty-six years. Then to +the tonsil man, who saw a distinct "focus," now there, a focus in +the tonsils! Nose and ears without focus or focii or focuses. Down +an elevator, through a labyrinth of halls, down an inclined plane, +up a flight of steps, two turns to the left and then a group of +the grumpiest girls I ever saw or heard or felt. They were good +looking, too, but they didn't care to win favor with mere males. +They had a higher purpose, no doubt. They openly sneered at my +doctor escort. They lifted their eyebrows at my good-looking young +son, and they told me precisely where to sit down. I was not +spoken to further. My ear was punched and blood was taken in tubes +and on slides by young ladies who did not care how much of my +blood they spilled or extracted. They were so business-like, so +mechanical, so dehumanized, these young ladies with microscopes! +One said cryptically "57," another said "53." I was full of +curiosity but I did not ask a question. They tapped me as if I +were a spring--a fountain filled with blood--and gave me neither +information, gaiety or entertainment in exchange. Each one I am +convinced has by this life of near-crime, which she pursues for a +living, become capable of actual murder. + +Thus has my first day gone. It is cold here--slushy underfoot, +snow dirty, sky dark. How different from a place we know! + +There are one hundred and fifty physicians and surgeons in the +clinic, and Heaven knows how many hundred employees. No hospitals +are owned and run by the Mayos; all these are private, outside +affairs. The side tracks are filled with private cars of the +wealthy. Scores of residences, large, small, fine, and shabby are +little hospitals. The town has grown 5,000 in five years, all on +account of the Mayos, these two sons of a great country doctor who +without a college education have gathered the world's talent to +them. + +I am tomorrow to be medically examined further, to the revealing +of my terrible past, my perturbed present, and pacific future. The +result of which necromancy I shall duly report. I am afraid that +they will not find that an operation will do good, if so I shall +truly despair. And if they decide for the knife, I shall go to the +guillotine like the gayest Marquis of the ancient regime. Yes, I +should do better for I have my chance, and he, poor chap, had +none. + +I received your Christmas present in the spirit that sent it. I +can't say "No! No!"--for I preach mixing pleasure with business. +Things are all wrong when we don't. I will never repay you. If I +could, or did, you would receive none of the blessings that come +from giving gifts. The truth is, we knew each other years ago, +perhaps centuries ago, and you have done a good turn to an old +friend for which the old friend is glad, because it makes the tie +more binding. + +I told you I would send Wells' history to you, and to it I have +added one of the greatest of human documents, William James' +Letters. I hope you love the largeness of the man, to be large and +playful and useful, I say, man, can you beat that combination? I +believe I know another beside James who meets the specifications. +And strangely enough he, too, evolved from physician to +psychologist, to philosopher. + +Well, here's hoping that he and his High-Souled Partner meet with +many joys and few sorrows in 1921. + +F. K. L. + + + + + +XIII + +LETTERS TO ELIZABETH 1919-1920 + + +To Mrs. Ralph Ellis + +[Camden, North Carolina, March, 1919] + +MY DEAR ELIZABETH,--And so they call you a Bolshevik! a parlor +Bolshevik! Well, I am not surprised for your talk gives +justification for calling you almost anything, except a dull +person. When one is adventurous in mind and in speech--perfectly +willing to pioneer into all sorts of mountains and morasses--the +stay-at-homes always furnish them with purposes that they never +had and throw them into all kinds of loose company. I have +forgotten whether or no there was a Mrs. Columbus, but if the Old +Man on his return spoke an admiring word of the Indian girls he +saw on Santo Domingo you may be sure that he was at once regarded +as having outdone that Biblical hero who exclaimed, "Vanity of +Vanities, all is Vanity!," after having run his personal attachees +up into the thousand. + +Yes, the very solemn truth is that adventuring is dangerous +business, and mental adventuring most dangerous of all. We forgive +those who do things that are strange, really more readily than +those who talk of doing them. People are really afraid of talk, +and rightly so, I believe. The mind that goes reaching out and up +and around and through is a disturber, it bumps into every kind of +fixed notion and takes off a chip here and there, it probes into +all sorts of mysteries and opens them to find that they are hollow +wind-bag affairs, tho' always held as holy of holies heretofore. +To think, to speculate, to wonder, to query--these imply +imagination, and the Devil has just one function in this Universe +--to destroy, to kill, or suppress or to divert or prevent the +imagination. Imagination is the Divine Spark, and old Beelzebub +has had his hands full ever since that spark was born. "As you +were," is his one military command. His diabolical energy is +challenged to its utmost when he hears the words "Forward March!" +There is not much--ANYTHING--of beauty or nobility or achievement +in the world that he has not fought, and all of it has been the +fruit of imagination, the working of the creative mind. You see I +come very near to believing in that old personal Devil which my +Presbyterian father saw so vividly, and which our friend Wells has +recently discovered, Satan is smart, and that is a very dreadful +thing to be, I never like to hear the Yankee called smart, it is a +term of reproach. I don't like to think of a Smart Set. And my +refuge is in the knowledge that there is just one thing that +destroys smartness and that is, to put it in a very high-sounding +word, Nobility. There is the test we can all put to ourselves--and +it really is conscience and ethics and religion all in one--is the +idea smart or is it noble? I'd take my chances of going to Heaven +on the conformity of conduct to that criterion. + +But all this seems a far way from Parlor Bolshevism--yet it is +not so far. For it all comes down to this. The Lord he prompts us +to think and to advance, and the Devil he urges us to be smart, to +switch our thinkings, our very right thinkings, our progressive +impulses, to side tracks that will serve his ends. + +And that is just what is happening to a lot of the finest minds. +Men and women who see clearly that things are wrong, who have +enough insight and knowledge to get a glimpse into the unnecessary +suffering of the world and who mentally come down with a slap-bang +declaration that this must stop, are allowing themselves to be +called by a name that history will execrate, and to smooth over +and palliate and defend things that are bad, out of which good +will not come. + +You have no love for Czarism any more than you have for Kaiserism. +You do not care to make the world righteous by dictatorship, +because you know that it is not growth or the basis of growth, but +the foundation of hate. Now the very cornerstone of Bolshevism is +smartness--the get-even spirit. Because the Czars and the Dukes +have oppressed the poor, because when this land was divided among +the serfs the division was not what it pretended to be, and +because the German business managers of Russian industry made +wages and conditions that were brutal and brutalizing, the +peasants and workmen have said, "Let us have done with the whole +crew, and take all land and industry into our own hands, killing +those who were our masters under the old economic system. Let us +turn the whole world topsy-turvy in a night, and bring all down to +where we are. In our aspiration for Beauty, let us kill what has +been created. In our hunt for Justice, let us disregard fair +dealing. In our purpose to level down, let us do it with the knife +ruthlessly and logically," Thus disregarding the teachings of +time, that men are not the creatures of logic, of passionless or +passionate theses, but are the expression of an unfaltering +Spirit. Whenever men have been the victims of logicalness they +have been wrong. For instance, read the story of the Inquisition. +They saw what they wanted clearly, those old Fathers of the +Church. They knew their objective, which was to save men's souls. +And they thought they knew the way. Logic told them that those who +preached heresies were bringing men's eternal souls to everlasting +hell fire. And they set about to stop the preaching. Had I +believed as they did, I doubtless would have done as they did. But +to be infallibly right is to be hopelessly smart. Thus it is with +all who take a paper system and apply it to that strange thing +called Life. + +This is the defect of the Intellectuals, the "parlor" Bolsheviks. +(Better by far be an outdoor Bolshevik, a Red Guard, if you +please, one who is in and of the fighting, who acts, who lives the +theory!) They do not think in terms of human nature, of natural +progress, of real facts. They say, "all men are born free and +equal," and at once conclude that the stable boy can step from the +stable door to the management of a factory or into the +legislature. Now experience teaches that this is a most dangerous +experiment, both for stable boy and society. The true philosophy +of Democracy teaches that the stable boy shall have, through +school and the step-ladder of free institutions, the chance to +rise to the management of industry or the leadership of the +Senate. That is why the foundation of Democracy is political. For +out of political freedom will come social and economic freedom. +That is why I favor woman suffrage, it gives women a chance to +grow, to think along new lines and grow into new capacities. + +To feel acutely that things are badly ordered, and to feel that +you know what opportunities men and women and boys and girls +should have, is not a program of salvation, it is only the impulse +toward finding one. Why then, because we do feel so, should we +harness ourselves to a word that implies methods that we would not +countenance, and give character to a movement that is at absolute +defiance with America's spirit and purpose? There is danger, grave +danger, in doing this. For we can upset our own apple-cart very +easily these days. I have no more of this world's goods than the +humblest workingman. No man is poorer than I am, measured by bank +account standards. The education that I have, I fought for. +Therefore I do not speak for a class. To defend the methods by +which some men have made their money is not at all to my fancy. I +see as clearly, I think, as one can, the necessity for the strong +arm of society asserting itself, thrusting itself in where it has +not been supposed to have any business. Yet I know that a +Bolshevik movement, a capturing of what others have gained under +the system which has obtained, and the brutal satisfaction of +"getting even with the wage-masters" and making them feel to the +depths of their souls and in the pain of their flesh every +humiliation and torture, will permanently set nothing right. +America is fair play. Is it a failure? Have you tried it long +enough to know that it will not serve the world, as you think the +world should be served? Is there any experiment that we cannot +make? Are our hands tied? True, our feet may lag, our eyes may not +see far ahead, but who should say that for this reason man should +throw aside all the firmness and strength and solidity of order, +forget all that he has passed through, and start afresh from the +bottom rung of the ladder--from the muck of the primitive brute? + +There are things that we would not hold, that we think unworthy of +our philosophy, that must be changed or else our sympathies and +abiding hopes will be forever offended. And this would be to live +right on under the pointing finger of shame. So we know it cannot +last, this thing that offends, the badness and brutality of +injustice, of unfairness to the weak, their inability to get a +squarer chance. + +Yet this does not compel us to forsake the hopeful thing we have, +for which all men have striven, these centuries through. Must we +confess that revolution is still necessary? Are we no further +ahead for all that Pym and Hampden and Sam Adams and Washington +and all the rest of the glorified ones have done? This land is +truly a land of promise because it may be a land of fulfilment. It +shows the way by which without murder and robbery and class hatred +and the burning up of what has been, men may go right on making +experiments, and failing, making others and failing, and learning +something all the time. + +So, I'm for America, because, if nationalization of land and +industry are wise experiments to make, no one can stop us from +making them, if partial nationalization of either, or both, +appeals to us as something that will right manifest wrongs, we can +try that solution. And to cry quits on the best that civilization +has done, because all that is wished for may not be realized or +realizable today, is to lose perspective and balance, and jump out +the window because the stairs go round and round. + +There is really no use, and therefore no sanity, in being too gay +or too grave over this old world of ours. That smart Devil, who is +for the static life, is just now particularly active in his +favorite old line of propaganda. He knows that the fruit of the +tree will bring the millennium. Eat it and you will be happy. He +knows the short cuts to freedom and justice. He knows that the +curses that are promised for the breaking of the laws of the hunt +will be turned into songs. So he is urging and urging, telling +you, with your imagination and sensitiveness, that all is so bad +that it is best to take the great risk, telling the poor sightless +ones that their very primitive feelings and powers are the only +safe guides, their last ultimate reliance and hope. And out of +despair comes the bitter fruit we find in Russia, where they have +wrought what they call an economic revolution, but have in fact +produced nothing, for chaos is nothing. The wise Tinker who wrote +of the Pilgrim's Progress was too true a Christian Scientist, a +Christian and a Scientist, if you please, to picture his hero +reaching the gate of gold by adopting Despair as his guide. + +Progress means the discovery of the capable. They are our natural +masters. They lead because they have the right. And everything +done to keep them from rising is a blow to what we call +civilization. Bolshevism is the supremacy of the least capable who +have the most power, most physical power. The thing Democracy will +do is to breed capacity, give capacity its "show." The premiums, +the distinctions, must go to capacity to promote it, to bring it +forth, to make it grow, to be its sunshine. A chance at the +sunshine, that's the motto. Sincerely yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + +Washington, 20 [March, 1919] + +You said, you will remember, that you did not mind such +unconventional things as penciled letters--so here goes, Mrs. +Radium. + +This is to be a conventional letter, too, one of the bread and +butter variety, the quail and dove, pigeon pie, creamed macaroni +variety, for all of which much thanks, likewise for much +stimulating talk, your help in planting my garden, many motor +flights through brown woods, and some most charming company, +including a man named Ellis and his celebrated son, the pigeon +shooter. + +We left you in the best possible hands, a lion and lioness +[Footnote: Mr. and Mrs. John Galsworthy.] who through long years +of civilized captivity came tamely to your bars to be tickled and +patted, and, no doubt, when properly fed, purred back. If I were +you, I would loot their typewriter. Therein are the secrets of the +British government, copies of all unknown treaties, plans for the +extermination of Bolsheviki generally and the female kind in +particular; likewise, therein you will find, narrated with +particularity, the details of all loose conversations had with +hotel clerks, commercial travelers, teachers, chauffeurs, and +others of the illuminati, in which "impressions" are given to +foreign authors hunting for "copy." Mr. George Creel has these +aforesaid gents of the illuminati staked out, so to speak, for +this very purpose. Your dear friend Vera, the political Vamp, is +no doubt conducting these sweet Innocents abroad, tho' not in +person of course, being much too crafty and cunning for that. She +has directed them by the wireless magic of her mind to Horsebranch +on the Hill, there to discover a radiating and luminous Lady, +hidden in the pine woods, who will reveal among other things the +following: (1) The nature of Woodrow Wilson's personal character; +(2) The full reasons for his conduct; (3) His occult international +designs; (4) How he purposes to free Ireland; (5) The value of +being House-broken; (6) The real name of the Man in the Iron Mask. + +And much, much more--for she is a well, a fountain, a geyser, a +Niagara, reversed, of information, misinformation, knowledge, +ignorance, modesty, audacity, in captivating breeches or in modest +demure caps or in flowing evening robe. Wise Vera, wise Creel-- +they know their business! The English snooper, with typewriter in +hand, will have a generous swig of the Scotch whiskey of the +vintage of '56, and his tied tongue will loosen, a confiding and +tender and sympathetic hand will softly clasp his, and the Dark +Flower will open to the world--rather mixed that figure! eh, what? + +Now, of course, this is not what I took my pen in hand to write, +not at all. I had intended after the formalities had been duly +observed to tell you a few words about my wife. Excellent woman, +that! But very jealous! very! No sense of her own place! Unwilling +to subordinate herself. Since she "came into my life" she has +walked around in it and otherwise behaved familiarly and at home. +Never, never I beg of you, permit anyone to come into your life. +It decidedly makes for clutter and disturbance. However, as I was +saying, she is an excellent woman and has been to the Doctor who +says that she has suffered much. (Charge for same $10.) As he +wishes to make the same charge for many days the excellent wife +will not go to Charleston but remain here, that the charge may +lawfully be imposed. (This is where the Christian Scientists are +more Scientific for they could make the charge in absentia.) + +However and notwithstanding, the Peace Conference still lives. By +wireless I have the news that Lloyd George is still doing +politics, that Orlando is Fiuming (give that one to the +Englisher), that Colonel House has not told all he knows to +Lansing, and that Henry White dined last night with a Duchess who +held his hand four minutes while telling him terrible things. + +But this is too frivolous altogether for a statesman to be writing +to one whose mind is interested only in serious things! I can see +her steady, cold, stern eye of reproach. "And this to me," she +says, "And 'twere not for thy hoary beard, etc., etc." + +I tell you frankly, tho' you may not believe it, that I am not +entirely in a sober mood. Yesterday I planted bulbs with a lady +who was not bulbous. The day before I shot pigeons for a lark. And +I am boastful! fair boastful, my Lady! My secretary and my +confidential clerk and my many dark-hued messengers are solemnly +impressed with my prowess with gun and spade. The truth shall not +be heard in the land. I am my own talebearer and my own censor. I +know more about agriculture than the Secretary of Agriculture, and +I know more of Labor than the Secretary of the same. And for this, +this glorious bursting into fruitfulness at so advanced an age-- +you and your good man are responsible and to be credited in the +Golden Book in which is written, What the Plain People Do for Each +Other. + +Thanking you for the Bread and Butter, believe me yours for Life, +Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. + +F. K L. + + + +Washington, Saturday, [January 19, 1980] + +I am clothed in sackcloth and sitting in ashes. My head is bowed +in humility and I am beating my breast in contrition. There is no +joy in my face and my eyes look downward. Truly I am full of +regret. Did she not write long, joyous, inquiring, curious, +inviting pages to me? and I have not answered! And now will she +ever make her face to shine upon me and give me peace? + +I would fly to her--yes, fly to her in monoplane, biplane, or +triplane--but many things deter me. A wife, who is busy with the +Gods of the Elder Days; a daughter, who is busy with the God of +the present day--to wit, a young man named Philip, surnamed +Kauffmann, son of "The Star" six feet two in stockings or +otherwise, late of His Majesty's Navy, Princeton, Football, etc., +etc. The marriage is to be tied in April, God willing, Nancy +ordering, Philip consenting, Father paying. + +As if this were not enough to hinder, the desk must be cleared for +exit--the office desk; for the place that knew me through seven +long years of trouble, anxiety, insult, joy, humiliation, +satisfaction, achievement, companionship, hope, shall soon know me +no more, forever. + +Verily, I say unto you, that if ever mortal man or mortal mind +needed rest, recreation, recuperation, and other alliterative +things, that same man is now writing to the Lady Elizabeth Ellis, +of Terraced Garden, in Camden, by the Wateree. And he is writing +without hope that he will see the Lady and her Lord and the +Princeling, for moons and moons. This is a sad, sad word for him +to write. But the whole world is skew-jee, awry, distorted and +altogether perverse. The President is broken in body, and +obstinate in spirit. Clemenceau is beaten for an office he did not +want. Einstein has declared the law of gravitation outgrown and +decadent. Drink, consoling friend of a Perturbed World, is shut +off; and all goes merry as a dance in hell! + +Oh God, I pray, give me peace and a quiet chop. I do not ask for +power, nor for fame, nor yet for wealth. Lift me on the magic +carpet of the Infinite Wish and lay me down on a grassy slope, +looking out on a quiet sunny sea, and make me to dream that men +are gentle and women reasonable. And forgive us our trespasses, +Amen! + +And again I pray--Give me patience. Let me not ask for today what +may not come until tomorrow. Let mine eyes not be filled with +visions of things as they would be in a world wherein men were +Gods. Let mine ears be closed to Siren calls which lure to the +rocks. Stiffen my soul to make the climb. Keep from my heart +cynical despair. Make my mouth to speak slow words, and curb my +tongue that it may not outrun the Wisdom taught by the years. Give +surety to my steps, O Lord, and lead me by the hand for I know not +the way. + +Your telegram lures as your letter did. But such pleasures are not +for us, because of our sins. "And those that are GOOD shall be +happy!" + +Work. Work. Work. It is the order of the One Supreme. It keeps us +from being foolish, and doing as fools do. It is needed for the +mastery of a world that has its Destiny written, as surely as +we have ours. It is a chain and a pair of wings; it binds and it +releases. It is the master of the creature and the tool of the +Creator. It is hell, and it lifts us out of hell into heaven. It +was not known in Paradise, but there could be no Paradise without +it. A curse and a Savior! Our life-term sentence and the one plan +of salvation! Work for the weary, the wasted, and the worn. Work-- +for the joyous, the hopeful, the serene. Work--for the benevolent +and the malevolent, the just and the cruel, the thoughtful and the +unheeding. Work--for things that life needs, for things that are +illusions, for dead-sea fruit, for ashes; and work for a look at +the stars, for the sense of things made happier for many men, for +the lifting of loads from tired backs, for the smile of a tender +girl, for the soft touch of a grateful mother, for the promise it +brings to the boy of one's hopes. + +Work! Why work? It is the order of the One Supreme. + +So saying, at one o'clock of Sunday morning, he lifted up his hand +and waved three times to the Southward--once for the Lady of the +Troubled Heart, who flirts with the Angel of Destruction, thinking +he may turn out to be a God, and once for the Lord of the Lady, +serenely fatalistic, and the third, and this a very big one, for +the Princeling who is making a manly battle, cheerfully, +confidently. The Friend of the Three. + +F. K L. + +Washington, [February 5, 1920] + +And so, again the Boy has been attacked by a strange enemy, and +you are fighting. That is what you have been doing for years, +fighting for that bit of life you love more than your own self. +You did not think you could do it when you were a girl, did you? +You have wondered at yourself many, many times. And wondered at +the Fate which brought this long challenge to you. But it has been +a splendid fight, hasn't it? A glorious fight against odds. There +has been no justice in it. No justice, and our souls do so want +justice, an even chance, something in front of us that we can see +and know and fight. God knows why such tortures come to some, +while others sail on such smooth seas. Can it be that there is no +soul excepting the one we make for ourselves by fighting? Are +those really blest who have such challenges given to their +spirits? Or is this all by way of excusing God, or Nature, for the +unexplainable? + +There is no way to make the fight excepting to believe that the +fight is the thing--the one, only, greatest thing. (To deny this +is to leave all in a welter, and drift into purposeless cynicism, +--blackness.) To determine that this is the way, the truth, and the +life, is to get serenity. Then the winds may howl and the seas +roll, but there can be no wreck. + +I know you don't like to be coddled. You are not of the cotton- +batting school. You can take and give. But "may I not" say a word +of appreciation and perhaps of stimulation--give you a good +masculine thump on the shoulder by way of saying that for one who +lives in a mist you have lots of gimp. To love something better +than oneself is the first step, I guess, toward making that soul. + +Please read the note, in special envelop, to Ralphie, when he will +be interested. By Jove, how fortunate that we could not leave. All +my force is sick. Three of my assistants are laid up. Six hundred +and eighty people in my Department are in bed. And I am struggling +to get out and leave my job up to date. Good fortune! + +F. K. L. + + + +[Katonah, August, 1920] + +... You know that I love you--yes, just as much as Ralph Ellis, +who is a tough sailor man, and Anne Lane, who is a citizen of two +worlds, will let me. But I would love you more, much more, if you +did not have to be induced by my wife to write to me. Your love +letter was all right, but it was procured. Do you get that word-- +procured--and my wife was the procuress. This may be de rigueur +and comme il faut and umslopogass on Long Island, but it does not +go in Katonah--peaceful, pure Katonah! + +Here, in this sweet centre, if a lady wishes "for to make eyes" at +a man, by way of a letter, she does it without being told to do it +by the said man's wife. And then to open, "Dear Mr. Lane,"--Gosh +Lizzie! isn't that pretty warm! + +My anger is so great that I am now sitting up in bed at the weary +hour of two to relieve myself--for otherwise I cannot sleep. + +Your remarks upon the distraught condition of the public mind, the +unfortunate fix into which the Polacks have fixed themselves, the +heart-breaking cry that you send out for men to get together and +be sensible, before they are sadder,--these things have no +lodgement in my soul-center. For I am loved by a lady who speaks +much of free speech and courage and candor and other virtues of +prehistoric existence, but who talks of herself all through her +letter and never of me at all. How can the fire be kept burning +with a cold back-log like that? Talk about me! That's the first +principle of all conversation--even not amorous. Well, you are a +good woman, Mrs. Ellis, and I hope Mr. Ellis is well, and that you +are not having trouble with the help. Goodbye, Mrs. Ellis! + +Come, sweet Elizabeth, let us join hands and go for a gay climb +over the piney hills--you can sing your minor note of sad +distress--your miserere, if you can, in the face of the puffy +clouds, and I will laugh at you for having too much of world +concern in your heart. The blessings do not come to those who are +"troubled about many things." The soul is an individual, you know. +We are saved by units not en masse. Every individual is a species +--isn't that what splendid Bergson says? So come away from +responsibilities and let your poor heart, which is so unselfish +that it cannot rest, indulge itself in the luxury of a peaceful +forgetting, for a few days. + +Practically, this seems like a good place--the process is to +reduce you to a pulp and then gradually restore you to form. I am +just emerging from the mash. + +Do give my greetings--graduated calorically as your judgment +suggests--to the many friends in your neighborhood who have +forgotten me. + +Devotedly, yet very sore, + +F. K. L. + + + +[September] + +This is a sentimental letter from a sentimentalist to a sent--, +for a sent--. It is by way of atonement, chiefly. I want to be +forgiven for all the hard things I have said to you. I feel that I +owe you much, at least a good word, for all the bad ones I have +given you. + +You are a health-giver. That's not such a bad name, is it? In fact +I don't know a better. It doesn't sound sentimental, no husband +would be alarmed by it, and yet it carries in it implications of +gaiety and tenderness and rompishness with a touch of mysterious +adoration. Altogether it is a very real large word that does not +signify virtues but rather attractivenesses. Mind, I don't say +that you have not the virtues--all of them, offensive and +defensive, but the attractivenesses make life, don't they? And to +be a health-giver is not merely to have charm. That is the spell- +casting power, to be filled with witchery, to be a witch. Yes, I +believe it is something like that--very much in fact, but the +witchery must be balsamic, it must be radiant, it must go out in +rays or circles or waves, because it can't help going out, not +purposefully and selfishly, like the casting of a net--it must be +balsamic and radiant, the outbreathing of pines. + +Now this is a very nice name I have called you--you can put it +into Latin or Greek or French and make it sound much better to the +unimaginative. But you deserve it, and I hope my little girl will +become one. + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + +Katonah, Sunday, [September 25, 1920] + +... We leave here on Wednesday (D. V.) for Bethel because you said +to. Now how soon will you follow--a day--a week? Not more! + +You made up your mind that you would go there, and there is now to +be proof given whether your mind is weak or riding strong. + +Anne is to have H. Beale there, and they move in circles barred to +me. So I shall sorely need someone who knows my language. And I am +not frivolous when I say that you and I need nothing more than a +religious faith of some kind. Mohammedan, Christian Science, or +what you will. We are both religious--deeply. We pray--we do +things for the good of men and women,--but we do not relate +ourselves properly to the Great Enveloping, Permeating Spirit. I +have sought to, vainly, for many years, and yet I have not been +persistent. "Seek and ye shall find!" I want to believe that the +God of Things as They Are is not wilfully cruel. Is He +indifferent? + +Are we mastering something? Tell me! Do you know? What philosophy +have you come to? + +Well, all this we can talk over when we reach Bethel. Say, do you +ever answer letters or is it your Queenly prerogative to drop your +sweethearts down the public oubliette? + +F. K. L. + + + +Washington, 27 [December, 1920] + +My wife won't let me call on you, "not now, anyhow," she says. Oh, +you have so many enemies! Adolph and Mary, Senator and Mrs. +Kellogg, Chief Justice and Mrs. White, Dr. and Mrs. Gehring. All +are against you, and against me--all plotting, planning, and +conspiring with my wife to keep us apart. They know the hold you +have on me, that I had rather have you as my doctor than any one +else in the whole vasty Universe--but why sigh? I am to be torn +away on Wednesday and rushed to Rochester, where the Mayos will +take me in hand, and do their worst. I have great hope that they +may cut me into happiness, and carve me into health, and slice me +into strength. + +So, as Anne wired, we shall not see you in Camden, nor Ralph nor +the Junior nor anything that is Ellis--not for some moons anyway. + +... The reason for going to Mayos? To see if it is true that my +stomach and my gall bladder have become too intimate. Rochester is +the Reno where such divorces are granted. + +I'd like to say I love you and the whole kit and caboodle, but my +wife won't let me. + +F. K. L. + + + + + +XIV + +FRIENDS AND THE GREAT HOPE + +1921 + +Need for Democratic Program--Religious Faith--Men who have Influenced +Thought--A Sounder Industrial Life --A Super-University for Ideas +--"I Accept"--Fragment + + +To Mrs. Philip C. Kaujfmann + +Rochester, Minnesota, January 1,1921 + +To that little Fairy with whom a young fellow named Frank Lane +used to wander in the woods, hunting the homes of the Fairies,-- +Greetings on her birthday! Has she found where they live? I +believe she has. They live where eyes are bright with love, and +hands are gentle and kind, where feelings are not hurt and there +is song hummed, and Play, a very real God, still lives, + +... I think that we have got to see each other some how, +somewhere, because life is passing awfully fast and there is one +best thing in it--supremely, overwhelmingly best--and that is +affection. I've chased around after fame and work for others, but +I just wish I had spent pretty much all my time loving you and +Mother and Ned, and let everything else come way down on the list. +The people who really love us are so few, aren't they? Lots of +them like us, lots of them are glad to be with us, but few can be +counted on "world without end, Amen." + +... This is surely a very uncertain and unsatisfactory world for +me right now. How much we all do like definiteness and how few are +willing to trust the future to the Great Spirit. We fuss and fume +as if it would do good rather than ill. Happiness is the thing we +all desire and it is to be had easily through a most simple +philosophy; do your best and then have faith that things will come +right. Happy people are those who live with happy thoughts; those +who see good in people and by brave and cheerful thinking are +superior to depression and bitterness. + +The longer I live the more I am convinced that it is our duty to +be gay; not reckless, never that; not boisterous, but light- +hearted. It saves doctor's bills, brings success, and is the one +method, the natural method, by which we become really big, and by +that I mean superior to the evil forces that try to break us down. +... To be gay one must see how very little some things are, and +how very big other things are. And the big things are things like +love and goodness and unselfishness; and the little things are the +selfish mean things, self-indulgent things, things generally that +come out of one's vanity, one's love of one's self. Get rid of +that and life becomes a pretty good place. Envy, vanity, self- +indulgence--these are devils. + +... I wish you would really sink yourself into some religion. To +start right is so important. You will miss much joy in life, I am +convinced, by not having a faith; something to live by, something +that explains the questions that rise each hour. Buddhism does not +claim to be supernatural, is not founded on miracles, and yet +Buddha taught the philosophy of Christ five hundred years before +He came. The central note is getting above self--real self- +mastery. Possessing, mastering your body and mind so that you do +not allow envy or hatred to possess you, and do not hanker after +"things," possessions, or fame or popularity, and keep strong hold +on wilfulness and anger and your passions. Its fundamental maxim +is that unhappiness and sorrow come from ignorance of Truth--and +Truth is found by submerging self. The body is not bad, the lusts +of the body and the mind are not bad, but the body is no more than +an envelop for the soul, its master. + +Good-night to you both, you are fast asleep by now. ... In my long +days and nights I think so much about you, wondering what the Gods +have in store for her who has been so much to me. Much, much love +little one. + +DAD + + + +To Benjamin Ide Wheeler + +Rochester, Minnesota, January I, 19L1 + +To the Wheelers with the warmest greetings of the Lanes! A bonny +year be this to you--a year of sunny faces--may you live +surrounded by those whom you love and damned indifferent to all +the rest! + +I, Franklin K. Lane, am trying to find out if the last doctor in +New York was right. He said my trouble came from an improper +alliance between my gall-bladder and my pyloric orifice, and that +here in Rochester they could be summarily divorced. (If you don't +know where the pylorus is you may locate it as the N. W. 1/4 of +the N. W. 1/4 of the stomach. Until you reach fame you never have +a pylorus--and then it is most costly.) So here I am in a real +Reno, hoping that a knife will be able to "put me to work anew," +... and writing this as a proof of "love and affection," whatever +the legally great may mean by the distinction. ... + +And talking of language, have you read what Wells has to say in +his Outline of History on this subject? I found it very +interesting; probably all old stuff to you, however. Can there be +a science of language, or of anything that a human creates? I am +rather Bergsonian in my idea of the individual man--each is a +species. + +Miller is very unhappy because [Governor] Harding may leave the +Board. He [Miller] will go if the new man is not satisfactory. But +I think he will be. For Harding will be conservative and a great +respecter of wealth. And Miller while a radical in many things is +a classicist as to Finance. + +If Harding leaves out Hoover he will do himself and the country +harm, and Hoover good. At last the sun shines! + +F. K. L. + + + +To Lathrop Brown + +Rochester, Minnesota, January 3, [1921] + +Well, my dear young Spirit of the Renaissance, I am not yet dead, +not even dying. Slowly I am doing the stations of the Cross in +this most thorough institution. I am delighted with my experience. +Here is concentrated every form of torture and annoyance to which +one can be legally subjected. Cruel and unusual punishments are +forbidden by the Constitution, but I take it that one may yet take +torture and punishment, if he pays for it. All that I have ever +done, been or thought has been revealed--probed for, and found +out. ... + +Truly, this is the most scientifically organized organization of +scientists that ever was. Henry Ford could not improve upon it. +Combine him with M. Pasteur, add a touch of one Edison, and a dose +of your friend, Charlie Schwab, and you have the Mayo Clinic, big, +systematized, modernized, machinized, doctorial plant, run by a +couple of master workmen. I am seeing it all, and am prepared for +any fate. Thus far I am no more than twenty-one years of age. My +organs seem to be working union hours and to react with proper +promptitude, self-respect and authority. Tomorrow I am to be +photographed and fluoroscoped--and then will come the verdict. If +it is the guillotine I shall go gaily, like one of your ancestors +in those tumbril days of France. What I fear is an order to +"rest," on a new diet. But I guess whatever is said will be the +last word--the Supreme Court decision. Fine reputation, that, for +two young chaps who never went to Harvard, eh, what? + +Well, tell me the news. You have been silent too long. I long to +know of your further adventures in politics with one G. White. ... + +And now, my dear Lathrop, may I extend to you the greetings of the +New Year. May you have a continuous and abiding and keen sense +that you are doing good, likewise doing well. + +F. K. L. + + + +To Mrs. George Ehle + +Rochester, Minnesota, January, [1921] + +It is only a little below freezing. The sky is grey. Snow, hard +and frozen over, covers the ground, sleighs go through the +streets, jingling their merry way. Boys throw each other down upon +the encrusted snow. Girls in red woolen caps pick their way +cautiously. Farm horses drawing sleds make their heavy way. And in +these sleds, families sitting on the heaped straw in the bed of +the wooden box, smiling mothers and happy babies, lined up +together, warm, protected from the wind. Trees outlined against +the sky, looking like dark coral rising out of a sea of snow into +the dull light. An old man, gaunt, bewhiskered, trudges along +confidently although he looks over eighty. A younger man, +evidently a stranger, feels his cautious way over the slippery +walk, covered with furs, hands, head, and body. After him a still +younger man, without an overcoat--a postman. + +Can you see it all? Do you recognize the picture? Was it once part +of your life? This world is not so very bad when nature challenges +every one to fight for life. Nothing doing for me now! That's the +word. Too much risk. ... + +Bless you, Lady Dear of the Understanding Eye. May we yet meet +upon the gentle banks of the Shepaug and there make medicine for +our poetic souls. + +Anne has been a trump through these ten days of anxiety. Yours +affectionately, + +F. K. L. + + + +To Mrs. William Phillips + +Rochester, Minnesota, January 11, [1921] + +The black cat, yellow-eyes, came, dear Lady Caroline--came to me +here in a hospital and I put him on my table alongside my tiny +bust of Lincoln, which is the sacred place. I wish indeed those +eyes could see within this shell of mine and tell what it is that +twists my heart, physically turns it on its axis, so that its +polarity is changed. From mystery to mystery we have traveled the +past year, Anne, with her unfaltering trust, and I, a doubting +Thomas. We came here for an operation, but the doctors somewhat +doubt its wisdom at all, certainly not now, when pneumonia might +befall. So after ten hard days of closest examination I go forth +from this, the Supreme Court of Surgery in the Land, with no +decision. "Wait and see what good it has done to live without +tonsils, and in the California sunshine until spring." ... But +they live in the Land of Guess! + +And so another baby has come to bless you and William! Truly you +are a confident couple! Age would hesitate to bring into a world, +so filled with shadow, an increasing number of our species. What a +supreme act of faith the continuance of the race is. ... Oh, the +cunning of Nature--how empty the heart of man or woman who has +not felt the clutch of a baby's hand, or drunk deep of the heaven- +made perfume of a baby's breath. And the impulse that babies give +to life, the challenge that they make to the father is always a +noble one. It is not so as to women; less, as to ourselves. We are +urged to courses that are petty, unworthy, selfish, debasing, +supine, and brutal by our own natures or those of our mates. But +for the child we act nobly, its call to us is always to our finer +side, and so gradually we are lifted higher. Did any man in +history ever do a cruel or wicked thing because of the appeal made +to him by the smile of his child? He may have accredited his +action to the prompting of love for his baby, but I believe it +would be found that there was another motive, generally an +overwhelming personal vanity; so great a lust for power, perhaps, +that it would carry across the gulf of death. + +I hardly believe that you need fear immediate expulsion from your +new-found Eden. My expectation is that you will be treated with +kindness by the new Administration, which will act most cautiously +on all things. I shall know how to get a word, any word you wish, +to the new President, I think, and my services as you know are at +your order at any time. But if you are sent into the Limbo of +private life you will be welcomed by a host who have preceded you +and who will selfishly rejoice. + +My gayest greetings to Sir William and, in cloudy Holland, may the +sun shine in your hearts always. + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + +To James H. Barry + +San Francisco Star + +Rochester, Minnesota, January 12, [1921] + +DEAR JIM,--The Star has set--it goes the way of Nature--the +circle must be completed. The only question one may ask is, "Was +it useful?" I think it was, Jim, it held many to the true course, +it was an honest guide in a bewildering world. + +Do let us meet when I am West, and talk of Henry George and John +Marble and Arthur McEwen, who have gone on, and left not their +like. ... + +F. K. L. + + + +To Michael A. Spellacy + +Rochester, Minnesota, January 12, [1921] + +MY DEAR MIKE,-- ... I shall await your re-coming with great +interest. Truly you should write up what you see. Get good +pictures and I will get it all in the National Geographic +Magazine, and then we'll see what the Cosmos Club will say! I am +in earnest about this--keep a diary in which you write, in your +own gay style, what you see, and you will soon have fame as well +as fortune. + +The news from Mexico is not very encouraging. Obregon is sick so +much, and without policy, without dependable friends. Cardinal +Gibbons came near dying, but, thank God, pulled through! A very +wonderful man. I am very fond of him and he likes me I know, for I +handled the Indians for seven years and had no trouble, because he +and I had a flat understanding that I should take my church +troubles, if any arose, to him. + +The old Chief Justice called on us in Washington. He is seventy- +five and almost totally blind. And the greatest Chief since John +Marshall. + +De Valera has landed and I expect things to be doing pretty soon. +The British are greatly mystified as to how he got over and back. +You see you are not the only adventurer on the face of the globe. +We used to think that these were prosey, stoggy, flat-footed days, +but there is any amount of adventure--from the fields of Flanders +to the mountains of Colombia--even the Spanish main has had its +rebirth. + +Mrs. Lane wants me to thank you for your thought of her. As you +know no one holds a deeper, surer place in her heart than you and +Tim. + +Well, old chap, I am sitting in bed--four in the morning--with a +devilish sore throat and without anything to eat or much sleep for +thirty-six hours, so if this screed is not one of great +illumination or information you will know that it was only a +message of cheer and good-will from one who is fond of you, but +who warns you to be careful for all of our sakes. As always, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + +To William R. Wheeler + +Rochester, Minnesota, January 13, [1921] + +DEAR BILL,--Off to see you eventually, I trust, tomorrow. Had my +tonsils out, won't do anything else till Spring. Meantime I want +to see no doctors. Having tried twenty, and come "out by that same +door wherein I went." An osteopath, yes. Faith cure--Indian +Medicine men--anything else, but no doctors! I turn from +Esculapius to Zoroaster, from medicine to the sun. I want to "lie +down for an aeon or two." (Alice knows where that comes from.) +With much love to you both. + +FRANK + + + +To V. C. Scott O'Connor + +[Rochester, Minnesota], January 13, [1921] + +MY DEAR SCOTT O'CONNOR,--It is a joy to get your letter and to +know of your new book which I have not seen, for the very good +reason that for five months I have been in hospitals. Angina +pectoris they call it, but where it comes from they don't say, +they don't know. Am off to California for a couple of months, then +probably back to New York. + +I have read Wells' History, which seems to me the most remarkable +thing of the historical essay kind ever hit off; and therein I +discovered your friend Asoka, but I have been able to learn little +else about him. + +Buddhism attracts me greatly, as perhaps the most perfect attitude +on the negative side that has ever been developed and largely +lived. It is not complete for a temperate zone people, who are and +must be aggressive. Nor does it reveal, so far as I know, the +spiritual possibilities that Christianity does. The constructive +seems to be lacking. But it is so far ahead of the purely +opportunist attitude that Christianity takes that I should like to +be a Buddhist, I verily believe. + +I see that Lord Reading goes to India. He is the greatest of +diplomats, an oriental by nature, and will do good, if good can be +done in that unhappy situation. I admire the cheerful way Lloyd +George keeps. He is a great man. Each six months I have looked to +see him fall, but he keeps up, even with Ireland, India, Egypt, +South Africa on his back. + +Tell me what you are doing now, anything beside writing, and +writing what next? I wish that I had the literary endowment-- +ideas, plus style, plus energy. Good fortune to you always. +Cordially yours, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + +Letter sent to several friends + +Rochester, Minnesota, January 10, 1921 + +"And when they came upon the Snark, they found it was a Boojum--or +words to that effect--and so, my dear Jack, they couldn't operate +now. + +There is the whole story. Details there are, of course. But +Meissonier's style never did appeal to me. After peering into, and +probing, all known and unknown parts of the Mortal Man, they found +that the heart in one part changed its polarity,--turned over, by +George, or tried to,--hence the Devil's clutch. But why did it do +this vaudevillian act? Bugs, bugs, of course. But where? So they +chased them to their lair in that wicked, nasty-named and most +vulgar organ known as the gall-bladder. Damn the gall-bladder! Out +it must come! On with the knifing! But soft, not so swift. Suppose +the heart should try to play its funny stunt in the midst of the +operation? Or suppose again in this icy weather, pneumonia should +ensue and the naughty heart should take to turning? Eh, what then, +my brave Bucko? "No," they said, "We are experts in eliminating +this same appropriately named organ from the system--eight +thousand times have we done it. It is a twenty-five minute job, A +mere turn of the wrist and out the viper comes. And it never comes +back! This is positively its last appearance, save as a memento +for the morbid-minded in a bottle of alcohol. But hearts that do +somersaults and lungs that choke up, fill us with fear. So out +with the tonsils where bugs accumulate and men decay, and then off +with you to California where bugs degenerate and men rejuvenate. +Then come back when the sun shines and the trees begin to burgeon +and the trick will be done. Hold yourself where you are, grow +better if you can, and we'll have to take the risk of the tumbling +heart, but the pneumonia risk will be gone." + +Thus saith the Prophets! And this day, therefore, will be spent +with the Master of the mysterious fluoroscope, who reverses Edward +Everett Hale and looks "in and not out," and with the dentist who +must fill a pesky tooth, and then with the surgeon who tears out +tonsils. Rather a full day, eh? And after two days in hospital, or +three, over the hills to 8 Chester Place, Los Angeles,--by no +means a poor-house,--but alas! carrying the malevolent bugs and +their nesting place with me. Then I shall rest, "and faith I shall +need it, lie down for an aeon or two, till the Master of all good +workmen shall put me to work anew." + +I am disappointed. I would take the risk if it were left to me. +But I shall go West--why did those soldier boys ever use that +phrase with such sinister meaning, or did it signify a better land +to them? I shall go West in good hope that I shall return, and +meantime will try to develop a strong propaganda in favor of race +suicide in the land of the bothering bacteria, Adios. + +F. K. L. + + + +To John G. Gehring + +Rochester, Minnesota, January 13, [1921] + +MY DEAR PADRE,--I wrote you an impressionistic sketch of what the +politicians call the "local situation," a couple of days since. +... It is subject to attack on every possible ground as to +details, for no man can know from it what these doctors found. But +it is a perfect picture from the artist's standpoint, because it +produces the result on the viewer or reader that is truth, and +that result is a large, purple befuddlement. I am whole, but I +have a pain. ... + +After I had practically been declared one hundred per cent +pluperfect I gave the electric cardiograph man a picture or +exhibition performance under an attack. This revealed to him a +change in polarity in the current passing through, which signified +something, but what that something was, other than that I was +having a spasm, I don't know. ... + +The smug, mysterious gentleman who made this picture was much +pleased, apparently at nothing more than that he had proved that I +had a clutch of the heart, which I had announced, by wire, before +arriving here. + +Am I impatient or am I a damn fool? + +Well, with my tonsils out I am in Royal Baking Powder condition +and tomorrow we start for California. I cannot hope to be out +there till May or June, when you would come. But Heaven knows I'd +like to introduce you to the Yosemite! ... + +Do you know I am beginning to admire myself. Now many have thought +that that was my favorite sport. But I can assure you that no one +ever felt more humble than I have, any appearance to the contrary +being a bluff for success--effect. But now that I have been wisely +and scrupulously and unscrupulously examined by the most exalted +rulers of the Inner Temple, and they pronounce me all that man +should be, why shouldn't I strut some? But, damn it, strutting +brings that Devil's clutch--and a man cannot be anything more +strutty than a dish-rag then. In William James you will find a +questionnaire, "Why do I believe in immortality? 'Because I think +I'm just about ready to begin to live.'" There speaks self- +justifying age--I'm there, too. + +I'd love to look on Bethel this morning, and see what your poet- +partner calls the hills in their wine bath. Good luck. + +LANE + + + +To Lathrop Brown + +Los Angeles, [January] 15, [1921] + +MY DEAR LATHROP,--I have yours of the eleventh. First question, as +to men and women for the Executive Committee, + +Answer: Get men who can make a program, something that the party +can push, outside Congress, if too cowardly in. People who don't +want anything, if possible. + +Think of these! (I don't say they will do, but they stand for +something.) + +Charles W. Eliot. Benjamin Ide Wheeler. (Ex-President of the +University of California. Ex-Chairman, Democratic Committee, +Elmira, New York.) E. M. House. Frank L Cobb. John W. Davis. +Robert Lansing. R. Walton Moore. (Congressman from Virginia, big +fellow.) Gavin McNab. Governor Parker, of Louisiana. James D. +Phelan. Van-Lear Black. + +For solid thought I'd choose out of that bunch--Eliot and Moore. +For cleverness--Black and McNab. For diplomacy--House and Davis. +For progressiveness--House and Parker. For Conservative Democracy +--Wheeler and Lansing. For writing ability--Cobb and Eliot. + +I know no women who think, particularly. ... + +The kind of publicity we need is the advocacy by the National +Committee, and by Democrats in Congress of first class measures, +known to be Democratic measures, part of a program. + +I'll tell you how to get all the publicity you want when I see +you--or White--a new kind, cheap, but requiring brains. ... + +F. K L. + + + +To Lathrop Brown + +Los Angeles, January, [1921] + +DEAR LATHROP,--(1) You are right as to standardization. The Devil +devised it as a highway to socialism. It is the Bible of the great +Tribe of Flatfoot, not for artists like you and myself. And +speaking of programs, please read what Wells says in his first +volume of Outline of History, on David, Solomon, Moses. It will +delight your anti-semitic soul. ... + +Yes, standardization is like all else, good--for a distance. The +whole bally outfit of life is a matter of balance, maintained by +war among the unintelligent bacilli and other primitives, and by +will among men (goat feed for men, eh?) But do you get my point? +Something to it! + +(2) George White will be eaten up first thing he knows, unless he +moves. Your friend McAdoo is here declining the next nomination +daily, speaking much, and, I understand, well. ... Why doesn't G. +W. get Frank Cobb and Hooker, of the Springfield Republican, and +Van-Lear Black, and Senator Walsh, and Phelan, and Congressman +Walton Moore together, or any other group, and put up his plan and +ask them what they think of it tentatively,--just a quiet chat, +but start. + +He doesn't need to resign, if he can get someone as a quiet +organizer "who will give all his time" to take up that job under +him, with sub-organizers. Who is this genius who can organize +inorganic matter, and give it life? Thought He was dead sometime! + +"Wanted--A Miracle Man who can overcome a majority of seven +million votes with a hearty handshake and a warm brown eye. Need +have no program, no money. Must be a hypnotist who can make the +people forget a few things and believe a few things that are not +true. Must be able by reciting poetry to make the cunning +capitalist see that he is safer in the hands of the Democrats than +elsewhere, and at the same time educate the worker by a pass of +the hand to know that it is decent to stay bought. Must have +received the Gift of Tongues on the Day of Pentecost, so as to +talk Yiddish, in New York; Portuguese and Gaelic, in +Massachusetts; Russian and German, in Chicago; Scandinavian, in +the Northwest; Cotton and Calhoun, in the South; John Brown and +wheat, in Kansas; gold and Murphy, on 14th Street; and translate +Jesus Christ into Bolshevism, Individualism, Capitalism, Lodgeism, +Wilsonism! Must be as honest as old Cleveland and as clear of +purpose as Abraham Lincoln." + +Put this want ad. in the papers and send me, by freight car, the +replies. With my warmest, + +F. K. L. + + + +To Adolph C. Miller + +Los Angeles, January 26, [1921] + +DEAR ADOLPH,--I see that Harding [Footnote: Governor Harding of +the Federal Reserve Board--a rumor of resignation.] is to leave +you, and this is a note of sympathy. What will you do? Poor chap! +I know the satisfaction you have had out of working with him and +now he follows Warburg, Delano, and Strauss. By Jove, that's why +we can't make things go as other countries do--because we can't +give our people enough to live on. This is at once the meanest and +most generous of Republics. Mean collectively, generous +individually. + +He will wait until after March 4th. "Right oh!" I expect you to +have some say as to his successor, especially as to the new +Governor. And if you can't work with the new man you can lift your +skirts and skip! Freedom of movement, assured as to all by Adam +Smith, is exclusively the prerogative of the fortunate few. Don't +be downhearted! You can't be as badly off as you were for several +years. Just think how unlucky I am as compared with you, and pat +yourself on the back and take one of the old time struts. Good +belly! Good brains! Good pocket-book! Good friends near you! Good +dog to walk with in the woods--and woods in which you can walk! +Good house, with your own books to look at you friendly-like. Oh +boy, rejoice and be glad! + + + +February 17, [1921] + +We are most terribly disappointed. Your promised visit was a +bright spot,--a sunshiny place--to which we have looked forward as +to nothing else since we came here. Well, life is a series of such +jars, and child-like I submit, but am not reconciled. + +... Are you coming later? How is Mary? We really seem far away +from our friends. The land is beautiful, but friends convert a +shack into a palace, a desert into a heaven. + +F. K. L. + + + +To John G. Gehring + +Pasadena, near Paradise, February 18 + +Before breakfast this morning, indeed before dressing, I sent you +a message which was a combined confession, apologia, report, and +appeal. I said, "I have done wrong, I apologize, I am slightly +better, and I hope and pray you will not become downhearted." I +also promised to write and here I am at it. But you would have had +this letter just as early anyway, for this morning was to be yours +and mine. All other mornings for two weeks and more have belonged +to someone else. I have been pretending to work, by going to the +office each day. And last night I said good-bye to the Napoleon of +our institution, who took his private car and rolled away to +Mexico, to Galyeston first, thence by private yacht to Tampico, +there to see his properties and spend two or three weeks. + +... They desired us to go greatly, and ours would have been every +possible comfort that one can have while traveling, ... but the +tyrant Anne thought that as I was picking up a bit it was wrong to +change conditions, and I yielded, hardly against my judgment, but +strongly against my desire. + +So here I am, the first hour after release, sitting on the porch +of a villa, looking across a valley at amethyst mountains, crowned +with a sprinkling of blue and white snow. The noises that come to +me are not raucous;--the twitter of birds, a rooster crowing, a +well-pump throbbing its heart out, the shouts of some children at +play, a distant school bell, with no silver in its alloy, however, +the swish of a wood-sawing machine in some back-yard. So my ears +are not lonesome. Immediately before me is the gray-lavender bole +of a tall eucalyptus, not a leaf or branch for fifty feet, and +then a drooping cascade of blue-green feathers. Beyond it a few +feet a red-blue eucalyptus, sturdy, branching almost at the ground +and in blossom. These stand near the border of a drive which is +marked by a cypress hedge, trimmed and proper, and beyond the +drive, on the front of the terrace are magnolia and iron-wood and +avocado and palm and spruce, rising up out of beds of carnations +and geraniums, jasmine and pansies (all violet), and cherokee +roses, five-petaled, white with golden centers, and rose colored-- +(the wild rose with a university education, a year or two in +Italy, and the care of a good maid). While beyond this terrace are +orange, and tangerine, and lemon, and grapefruit with their green, +yellow, and deep red-golden fruit pendant; and still further on, a +fringe of blossoming pear trees tell you that this is not the +tropics after all. The breeze is a gentle woman's hand, a soft +touch, kindly, tender, emotional, but not disturbing. It is not +lotus-eating time. I don't know that that time ever comes here. +Autos whisk through the woods, buildings are going up, the air is +dry and has tang; it has challenge in it, but it does not give off +the heady champagne of the air that the snow breathes out on your +Millbrook hillside. + +I remember as I looked from my window at the sunset at Bethel +saying to myself, "Can there be any fairer spot than this?" And +this morning as I saw the sun rise into the pink and blue of the +sky, empurpling the shadowed hills and splashing rose leaves on +the snowy mountains, I again said "Is there anything lovelier, +anywhere?" Great blessing, these catholic eyes! Should the heart +be equally catholic? There is a real problem in philosophy and +sociology for you! + +And now that you know how happily circumstanced I am as to +environment your doctorial demand is for something as to the +behavior of the organs and nerves which we call the physical man. +Well, I can't tell you much. I do not rise and walk half a block +without that trigger being pulled, but the explosion is not +dynamite, rather poor black powder, I should say. If I walk half a +dozen blocks I stop a half a dozen times, and once or twice nibble +at a precious pellet of nitro. At night I am wakened as of yore, +but the agonizing, crushing pains do not come every night. ... I +eat prunes and bran biscuit and coffee for breakfast; a bit of +cooked fruit (and that in this land of oranges and alligator pears +and ripe raspberries!), chicken and green peas, and bran biscuit +and tea for lunch; a couple of green vegetables and bran biscuit +and a small black, for dinner. And all this I write with a supreme +sense of virtue, which Simon Stylites or St. Benedict could not +more than parallel. As to smoking--a pipe, generous in size but of +the mildest possible tobacco, after breakfast. A mild, large cigar +after lunch, and pause here and worship--no cigar after dinner. +(But this latter is a Lenten innovation. I would not have you +think I am preparing for immediate ascension.) + +As to treatment, an osteopath and a Christian Scientist are my +present complement. Each morning the former, and each evening the +latter. The former to gratify myself, the latter to gratify a dear +friend who "believed and was saved." The osteo is rational, the C. +S., with limitations and reservations. ... + +The C. S. is a woman, the sister of an artist I used to know. If +she did not ask or expect that I believe certain things, we would +get on better. I can believe in God as the Principle of Life, that +seems scientific. I am willing to call Him Spirit, that is +Christian. That He is Supreme in the Universe, I admit. That sin +and sickness may with further light be overmastered I do not deny; +physical death, of course, seems to me a thing not worth bothering +about. But that God is all good, I cannot asseverate in the living +presence of a few Devils whom I know, unless I deny that He is +omnipresent and omnipotent, or unless I say that Bad is Good. God +cannot be good and all powerful without being also responsible for +Bad, and therefore be both Good and Bad. This I can believe, and +it brings me to Emerson's transcendentalism, which is set forth in +the Sphinx--"Deep Love lieth under these pictures of Time, which +fade in the light of their meaning sublime." In a word we are +growing into the Good. The Bad is not the ultimate, but is none +the less real. This is better than Manicheism, the Miltonian +contest between the Good Spirit and the Bad, which Wells also in +his Invisible King presents; a simple theory, understandable but +not to my mind subject to careful scrutiny. There is but one God, +one Force, one Principle, one Spirit, and it is working its way +through, expressing itself as best it can. And Evil is a partial +view, one phase of undevelopment, the muck through which, by God's +own law, we must come; and indeed He could not have sent us any +other way. This means that He is bound, too. Is this supposable? +Omnipresent? Yes! All pervading! In all! But Omnipotent? No, not +in the sense that He could change the Order of Things, for He is +the Order of Things Himself. Is there even in Him complete Freedom +of Will, freedom to make a world other than this? One wishes, in a +sense, to say so, but the horror of it! for then He is responsible +for the cruelty of the ant-heap, the feeding of the carnivorous +upon the vegetable eaters, the preying and persecution of the +malevolent upon the kindly--and He could have made it all +otherwise! With a Free Will He could have brought growth without +pain, being omnipotent. Here we see God as a monster,--responsible +for sweat shops and the Marne, in the sense that His will could +have averted these things. So I say God is not Good, save in the +sense that He is that sunrise this morning. But night cometh, when +thieves break through and steal. More sunlight--that is the +meaning of the phrase "God is Good"--a belief in a tendency, in +the temporality of darkness, of night, a sureness that the day +will come and "There will be no night there." + +This is a long disquisition, but I just had to get it out of my +system; yet I can't, it bothers, and confuses, and perplexes, and +hinders, I believe. Better brush it away for practical purposes +and have the Will to Believe, for thence cometh strength. +Pragmatically C. S. works out with certain people; and to them it +is Truth. I wish it were so with my doubting mind, that I could +believe. I am willing to be cured tho' I do not understand and +cannot believe, and this they say they can do. But it has not been +done with me. + +Lunch broke into this discourse, and then a walk. This time on the +other side of the house, the other side of the hill. There I found +a new world. Palms, huge ones, thirty feet across, with their dead +branches strewing the ground, making a coarse woven carpet; and +pines, large ones, yet not so gigantic as yours on the road beyond +the creek; and acacia in full golden bloom, glorious, yet modest +tree, a very rare, non-self-assertive tree, a truly Christian +tree, beautiful but not prideful. Bamboo in great clumps, erect, +yielding but not to be broken--wise, tenacious orientals! And I +walked on the off-cast seed of the pepper, and beside cacti higher +than my head with spears of crimson, and across a sweep of lawn +over which oranges had been dropped, by the generosity of an up- +hill row of trees that were saying, "We must make room for the +next generation." The flowers (oxalis) and leaves I enclose made a +mat, close clinging to the earth, a mat of white, red, and +lavender resting on these clover-like leaves that rested in turn +directly on the ground. And all about, a hundred plants I did not +know, into which my footsteps sent quail and rabbit, that did not +fear me really but could not quite say that Man is Love. + +I have written you a long line, may it serve for a time as a word +also to your dear Lady, whose letter and rare bit of verse I have +also received. I do hope that you soon master whatever ails you. +Don't lose faith in yourself, above all things. Believe that you +are all that your friends believe you to be--a Civilized Medicine +Man. Be as deluded as we are. Affectionately, + +LANE + + + +To John W. Hallowell + +Los Angeles, February 21, 1921 MY DEAR JACK,--It is Sunday +morning, very early; the sun is trying to get out of bed, a +mocking bird is hailing its effort with great gurgling. I am +sitting near an open window looking down into orange trees, which +are a very dark shadow, and I am just as happy in my heart as I +can be with a bum heart, and no home, and a scattered family. But +--! Bad word that "but." + +Roots we all have and we must not be torn up from them and flung +about as if we were young things that could take hold in any soil. +I have been, all America has been, too indifferent to roots--home +roots, school roots, work roots. ... We should love stability and +tradition as well as love adventure and advancement. + +Your new job interests me, but I wonder if you will go with the +Secretary of Commerce [Hoover], ... I guess he did right. But +unless he gets to be the leading adviser he'll have to get out. +For I'm afraid we are to see too much politics--Republican +Burlesonism in the saddle. Government by unanimous consent is not +practicable, and it looked as if this were Harding's motto until +Hoover's appointment. Hoover will be the man to whom the country +will look for some guidance along progressive lines, and the +country will expect too much, more than any man can deliver. + +Please tell your dear Mother that I have her book, and last night +read two chapters. I know Bok and did not think him capable of +such a literary work, or that he had such character as his book +reveals. ... My love to the Troop, and write just as often as you +can. + +F. K. L. + + + +To Curt G. Pfeiffer + +Pasadena, 22 [February, 1921] + +MY DEAR OLD PFEIFFER,--I have treated you shamefully. Yes, I have, +don't protest! But I have been pretending to be busy. Mr. Doheny +wanted me to go to Mexico, and Anne did not want me to go, and I +have had a hard time. They have gone and we have come out here +with Mrs. Severance, in the loveliest hillside spot you ever saw. +Flowers and trees all about and mountains in the distance. +Wonderful land! + +To-day I celebrated G. W.'s birthday by taking on a new doctor. +... Thought I had escaped from doctors but it is not so to be. ... + +This is all my news. I do wish I were there to talk politics with +you. Poor Harding! He will suffer the politicians, I fear, till +they undo him. ... + +The Germans seem to have recovered their audacity. They should +have been driven into their own land and then some. I am not for +revenge nor for their paralyzing, but just reparation they should +pay. Perhaps things have been botched, I do not trust Briand. I'd +trust Hoover to get all they could pay, and he's the only one I +know who could be just and at the same time sensible in method, +but he can't be used where he should be used. ... + +March 31 + +... You are a delight and joy to a thirsty man, a true water +carrier, you give of the water of life. For you know that men +shall not live by bread alone. Not only words of wisdom, sage +counsel, come from you, but there is a heart behind which does not +wane with the years, but on the contrary grows stronger and more +generous. I look forward to returning to New York to be able once +again to feel with you the pleasure of an intellectual +companionship, wherein the mind is so refined as to be emotionally +sympathetic. You would take the greatest joy out of the beauty in +which I am living. ... The night is fragrant (Do you remember +telling me of that Japanese criterion?) with orange, wisteria, and +jasmine. Oh, this is exquisite country, if I only had health! But +there is little beauty where pain is, and my pain holds on even +when I was with my brother on his farm, eighty acres, south of San +Jose, tucked in the foothills--raises nothing but kindliness and +a few vegetables and some hay. It is the sweetest place in its +spirit I have ever felt, and lovely physically, too. I wish I +could get you to go out there with me. Put up a comfortable adobe +on the knob of a hill with a wide prospect and then make things +grow, including our own souls. ... + +I'm going back there in a week or two, then East, I hope, to Ned's +wedding. ... The girl is all a girl should be, I believe. Smaller +than he is, a tiny thing in fact, very gentle in voice and manner, +sweet natured, musical, wholesome. + +... I still dream of that place on the Shepaug river, in +Connecticut, where you think I would be lonesome. A winter here +with George and a summer there with you, would quite suit me. ... +Well, write me, for books are not old friends after all, are they? +Forever and ever yours, + +F. K. L. + +Writing of the days of their youth Pfeiffer said later, +"Friendships are inexplicable, they defy analysis, but whatever it +was that we might be doing, we were usually in harmony about it. I +can only explain it by saying that we liked each other. We liked +each other just as we were, and we knew each other with intimacy +that deepened with the years, and never disappointed us. The magic +circle came later to include others, and they were accepted and +appreciated with the same affection and trust. ... It is a +singular and beautiful thing that such a multiple and intimate +relationship should have survived throughout all of our lives. +Perhaps it was because we were friends without capitulation. ... + +"Some of us did not meet again, after that first period, for +years, but whenever we did meet, it was always in the spirit of +the early days. A few words would tell us what we knew of the +latest doings of the rest, and we would then 'carry on' just as if +there had never been a break in our intercourse. The strength of +our joint memories, based on our youthful experiences in common +and added to from time to time, grew with the years." + + + +To John G. Gehring + +Pasadena, February 24, [1921] + +MY DEAR DOCTOR-AND-MORE,--This is a note of cheer written by a +somewhat dolorous duffer who spent last night in pain, but this +morning is rather comfortable. ... + +Am reading William James' Varieties of Religious Experience, and +it is really the most helpful religious or philosophical work I +have ever read. Nothing else anywhere near as good for the groping +mind that wants to be led cautiously, reasonably, suggestively to +the "Water of Life," but shown that there is water there. (Pretty +poor figure, but perhaps understandable.) I must re-read his +answer to the questionnaire in his Letters, and compare it with +his conclusions in this book. You remember my thought that +probably Emerson, William James, and Henry George had been the +greatest writing minds we had produced. Probably you can improve +on this. + +Have been interested myself in thinking of a list of books that +have made great movements in the world, Darwin's Descent of Man, +for illustration. Books that have provoked the minds of men into +action of one kind or another:--The Bible, Koran, in religions, of +course! What started modern medicine? I mean in the way of a book? + +What are, or have been, the great movements in history, anyway? +Wars, of course, don't count, when merely predatory. + + Man's relation to God. + Man's relation to the World. + Man's relation to Man. + Man's relation to the Good. + Man's relation to the True. + Man's relation to the Beautiful. + +These ought to cover Art, Science, Philosophy, Religion, Progress. +Civilization of every kind. And this progress has come in waves, +hasn't it? Did any book start, or give evidence of the starting of +these waves? That's the question. Outside religion and philosophy +books were the results not the causes of movements. How true is +that? As always and always, + +F. K. L. + + + +To D. M. Reynolds + +Pasadena, [February, 1921] + +I'm writing this late at night and will mail it in the morning, +for I'm going to Santa Barbara for a couple of days. Do with it +what you will. Judge for me what it is wise to say. And be as +condensed as possible. + +What I've written is to be dropped in at the right places, it is +not conservative. Will see you next week, I hope, perhaps +Saturday. + +F. K. LANE + +Cooperation is the word of this century and we don't know what it +means yet. We work together most imperfectly in things political, +and we are just beginning to feel our way into the worlds of +social and industrial life. I'm not afraid of socialism. I really +don't know anyone who is. We're all afraid of blundering attempts +at getting a thing called by that name, which is a mechanical +method of bringing the Kingdom of Heaven on earth, without +changing the human spirit. + +The call for socialism or communism is generally a call for more +of justice and of honesty and of fair dealing between men, rather +than a demand for any particular and organized method of carrying +on industrial life. If business is squarely conducted we won't try +experiments in mechanicalizing and sterilizing business. But a few +more years of profiteering, and Conservatives would have become +Reds. + +Now we should be studying and planning for a safer industrial +life, one in which there will be fewer waves, a safer and more +even sea. That we can have, if we are willing to be less greedy +now, less venturesome and predatory. + +The only people who have done much in the way of substantial +thinking as to cooperative action, collective action, are those +who think in terms of immediate and large fortunes for themselves, +through plans of capitalizing combined brains and money. Their +example is a good one to follow in lesser things, where the object +is not great wealth but a more even measure of good living. +Insurance is the right word for it, business life insurance +through honest cooperation. You mark my word, that is the next big +move in business affairs. Nationalization of things is not their +socialization. Not at all. It may mean their deserialization, +their withdrawal from the use of society altogether, or their more +imperfect use. Calling things by nice names, popular alluring +names, does not solve problems. Nevertheless such names evidence +our social dreams. We all feel that there must be more of justice +in the economic world. But we don't want it at the expense of +society, that is at our own expense, for that means Bolshevism and +Bolshevism is paralysis. ... + +Oil is one of the fine forms of Power that we know, for many +purposes the handiest. Industrially it is as indispensable and +staple as the soil itself. To lose faith in the future of oil-- +why, that's as unthinkable as to lose faith in your hands. Oil, +coal, electricity, what are these but multiplied and more +adaptable, super-serviceable hands? They may temporarily be +unemployed but the world can't go round without them. + +A slack time is always one of fear, never of confidence. And no +policies should be adopted in such an atmosphere. For the man who +can afford to take the long view these are great days. He can take +up what others cannot carry. Better still he can prepare for the +demand of to-morrow, or the day after to-morrow--find more oil, if +you please, plan for its fuller use, as we are talking of oil, but +the principle applies to everything. Take the railroads. Their car +shortage is mounting and their out-of-order equipment is way up. +This has always been so in hard times. But this is the very time +when they should have plenty of money, to get road bed and +equipment in perfect shape for to-morrow's rush. No, the nation +would do no better if it had the roads. Congress doesn't think +ahead two years. It is a reflector, not a generator. The fault is +ours. + +Right now the call in national affairs of every kind is for the +long view; we have use for the men who can see this nation in its +relation to other nations, next year and next generation, and for +men in business who can think in terms of 1922, and 1925, and +1945. That's what really big business can do--hold its breath +under water and watch the waves. + + + +To Mrs. Cordenio Severance + +[Pasadena, March, 1921] + +DEAR MAIDIE,--It is six in the morning. The sun is a long streak +of salmon pink in a gray skirt of fog. Chanticleer is very loud +and conquering. The little birds are twittering all about, in +wisteria, in oranges; and over on the hillside, by the cherokee +roses, there was a mocking bird that hailed the dawn, or its +promise, an hour ago. + +And for all this beauty, this gay cheer, this soul-lifting day- +breaking I have you to thank. It is the one most exquisite spot in +which I have ever laid my head. And pity is that I have been so +down-cast that I could not feel fully what was here, nor show what +I did feel. + +Forgive me for my many ungraciousnesses and credit yourself, I +beg, with having done all and everything that human hands and +heart could do to make me "come back." + +You have spent a lifetime doing good, giving out of your heart, +and the only reward you can get is the evidence of understanding +in paltry words like these. + +F. K. L. + +To Alexander Vogelsang Assistant Secretary of the Interior + +Los Angeles, March 4, [1921] + +DEAR ALECK,--The end has come. We were identified with an historic +period, one of the great days of the world. And none can say that +our part, of relatively slight importance maybe, was not well +played. We did not strut and call the world to witness how well we +did. We did not voice indignation at injustice, and make heroes of +ourselves at the price of unity. And some things we did, and more +we tried to do, and all were good. So I look back over the eight +years with some personal satisfaction, for not a thing was done or +attempted ... that was unworthy, ignoble, unpatriotic or little. + +I am glad to get news of the force, and sorry that I cannot have +them all round about me for the rest of my days. Had I been well I +would have been with you this morning, to bid you all good cheer. +It was my hope when I saw you in December that this might be. + +I like your plans for the future and, by the starry belt of Orion, +I'd like to join you. ... I am stronger and look very well, but my +damn pains are about as frequent and crunching as ever. ... No one +can say that I have not fought a good fight and stood a lot of +punishment. Good luck, dear Aleck. + +F. K. L. + + + +To James S. Harlan + +Pasadena, March 5, [1921] + +MY DEAR JIM,--That was a fine long letter in your old-time style, +and I am doing the unprecedented thing of answering it promptly. +To this I am prompted by the near-by presence of a very handsome +young woman formerly named Wyncoop, now Mays, who knows Mrs. +Harlan well, having been much at the Crater Club. ... Who would +have thought such a thing possible--that here as I lie on a couch +in a doctor's office with a rubber tube in my mouth, I should +attract the curiosity of a baby who came to see the "funny tube," +and that she should be followed by a nice-looking, blue-eyed, +bright-cheeked girl who says, "I believe I saw you once at Lake +Champlain. You know Mrs. Harlan." + +Well now, as George Harvey might say--"One day After!" I want to +help in any way I can to make this administration a success. ... +If Hoover can work with Harding, or the latter with him, all will +be well. But I fear the politicians--especially ... [those] +ambitious for a great political machine. The country will be +generous for a time to Harding. ... But it will turn against him +with anger unbounded if he turns the country over to the men who +want office and the men who want privilege and favor. The +politicians and the profiteers may be his undoing. I hope not! + +... I cannot close without a special word to that most gracious, +tender, and charming Lady who is your "sweet-heart." As I wander +and see many, I find no limitation, no reservation, or +modification to put to that declaration of admiration and +devotion, which I made to Her now some fifteen years ago, nearly. +Tell her that this old, sick troubled man thinks nice things about +her often. My affectionate regards to you, dear Jim. + +LANE + + + +To Adolph C. Miller + +Morgan Hill, March 9, [1921] + +When my eyes opened this morning they looked out upon a hillside +of vivid green, like the tops of Monterey cypress, flecked with +bits of darker green embroiderings, and behind this was green, +too, but very dark, and it had great splashes of a green so dark +that they looked black--and my heart was glad. It was a common +scene, nothing rarely beautiful about it. Fog enclosed the earth. +There was no sky. But I had known it as a boy, this same kind of a +picture, and it went to this poor tired heart of mine and was like +balsam to a wound. By Jove, it is balsam! These hills are for the +healing of men. I have been here three days and have taken more +exercise than in three months--walking and climbing; beside the +creek lined with great sycamores--alluvial soil, crumbles in your +hand, and with our friend the gopher in it; and climbed up through +a bit of manzanita--big fellows, twenty feet high some of them-- +and such a rich brown, near-burgundy red! I barked a bit of the +bole to get that green beneath, spring green, great contrast! + +And above the grove of manzanita was a flat top to the hill, from +which I could see three ways, and all ending in cloud-wrapped +mountains, that had shape and were blue of some kind, as far as +you could see. Ah man, this is a glorious land--even the people! +Along the road I talked to Lundgren, who used to be a ship- +carpenter, but he had a prune orchard here "since the fire." I +must "see his horses," great snuzzling monsters that he had raised +himself (sold one of them once, and sneaked off and bought it +back) and his calves, twins out of a three-year-old--and she had +had one before. Oh shades of Teddy Roosevelt, there's your ideal! +(Do you remember Kipling's line in the Mary Gloster, "And she +carried her freight each trip"?) + +And next to Lungren was the Frenchman--far up on the hill +cultivating his grapes, for which he got $110 per ton last year-- +and this year he puts out five acres more. The Frenchman has +indigestion and lives alone ... that hillside of vines gives him +something to love. + +When we come to the turn in the road, where you cross the creek to +climb the hill, there the "Portugee" lives. He always has lived +there. He was found just there when the Padres came. And his name +was Silva. John Silva, of Stevenson's Treasure Island--born in the +Azores, of course--there are no other Portuguese in America. + +And John has--how many children? Give you three guesses. All by +one wife, too, and she is in evidence, and a native daughter. I +saw her with my own eyes, black hair, dark skin, slight figure, +voluble, smiling, large-knuckled hands and a flashy eye, oh! a +long way from being uninteresting to John yet, or a merely "good +woman." Well, how many children did they have, right there by the +road?--eleven. Eight boys and three girls--and four dead, too. +Fine boys and girls, one I saw plowing or cultivating straight up +and down the vineyard, a sixty degree hill, I should say. I was +struggling with a cane to get one foot before another on the +sloping road and he was outdoing a horse, that he drove with his +neck and shoulders, while with his hands he guided the little plow +straight up toward the sky. I am not envious of such youth. I +never had it. I was always lazy. But it is a real joy for me to be +near such youth--just to know that such things can be done--by +angels from the Azores. You remember Anne's story, "In future it +is prohibited to refer to our beloved Allies as 'the God-damned +Portuguese'"? Well, I feel the same way. + +Yes, this land of yours is good. (All land is good, I believe.) +And the stillness, and the birds, and the flowers! The simplicity +of these two dear hearts--George and his wife--the little they +need! A paper once a day for five minutes, a song to break day +with, and a round of songs and piano pieces to end the day, every +act one of consideration, and each word spoken with a tender look, +a gay lilt to the voice, even in asking to pass the salt. "Better +a dinner of herbs where love is," etc. Well, they have it, herbs +and all,--beet tops and mustard leaves. ... Good luck to you. + +F. K. L. + +P. S. You don't deserve this--you stingy, skimpy mollusk! + + + +To Lathrop Brown + +Morgan Hill, [March] 16, [1921] + +MY DEAR LATHROP,--I wish I could be with you just to laugh away +that cynical mood. I know that I do not see the world undressed, +naked, in the raw, as you youngsters do. Illusions and delusions, +let them be! I shall cherish them. For whatever it is inside of me +that I call soul seems to grow on these things that seem so +contrary to the results of experience. "If a lie works, it's the +truth," says Dooley. So say I, in my pragmatism. I have "become" +in the eyes of men and I want to "become" in the eyes of my better +self, that ego must be gratified at least by an effort. And to +"become" requires that there shall be some faith. We don't +accomplish by disbelieving. That is your Mother's religion. It is +my philosophy. She has capacity for faith which I have not, +because she climbs, while I stand still. + +Of course the inauguration business was commonplace. That is Ohio +statesmanship, somehow. But good may come of it, and you and I +want to help it, so far as it wants national food, to bear fruit. +Damn all your politics and partisanship! Humbug--twaddle--fiddle- +dee-dee, made for lazy louts who want jobs and bosses who want +power. Well, we are out now for a long time, and we might as well +forget bitterness, or rather submerge it in the bigger call of the +nation. All of which you characterize as sentimentalism--so says +Burleson, too. + +I am beginning to despair of doctors and to say to myself, "Better +get back to work, and go it as long as you can, then quit and live +on rolled oats and buttermilk until the light goes out." ... Well, +goodnight, dear chap. + +F. K. L. + + + +To John G. Gekring + +[March] 21, [1921] + +And how are you, Padre? Do you find that there are those who can +probe into the secrets within you and tell more than you as +patient can tell yourself? Has a physician who follows the +biblical advice, "Heal thyself," a Fool for a Doctor? What has +been taught you in the ill-smelling center of darkness, dreariness +and torture, where there is more need for beauty than in any other +place, and less of it, more need for gaiety, and less of it, more +need for wholesome suggestion and less of it? ... All hospitals +should have bright paper on the walls, or bright pictures. To hell +with the microbe theory! There are worse things than microbes. All +nurses should be good-looking. They should paint and pad, if +necessary, to give an imitation of good looks. Now, honestly, do +you not agree? And they should not have doors open, nor ask +perfunctory silly questions, such as "Well, how are we today?" + +On examination nurses should be rated largely for things that +don't count--looks, cheerfulness, silliness, sympathy, softness of +hand, willingness to listen to the victim-patient! ... + +I am going to Rochester, ... my brother is going with me. Bless +him! He'd be glad to take you back, and he can give you wood to +chop, and a black-headed grosbeak to sing for you. Ever hear one? +Better than Caruso. + +May the Lord make his light to shine upon you and give you peace. + +F. K. L. + + + +To John H. Wigmore + +Los Angeles, March 25, 1921 + +MY DEAR JOHN,--Hail to you brave leader of the Moral Forces! Isn't +that an offensive title? You see I have been asked to join you in +"Potentia." Isn't that word out of the Middle Ages? + +I would like to join against crooks, thieves, and liars. But the +American people don't like anyone to assume that he represents the +Moral Forces. And "Potentia" sounds too mystic for any land this +side of Egypt. Am I not right? Answer in one of your sane moments. +You cannot go against ridicule in America. Bishops here are not +the same as Lords in England. They cannot save from ridicule +pretentious good things. Now Ross and you are wise things. How do +you stand for "Moral Forces" and "Potentia"? No, no, dear John!-- +less hifalutism! + +I write for information. Tell me--do you think good will come of +it? My immediate judgment is against it, strongly. In purpose-- +good, in method, name,--impossible. It is as if one were to say, +"Come let us gather together the Good and the Wise, and say who +shall be called honest men." Cicero, I believe, formed government +by the "boni." No one likes the good who advertise. I don't. Am I +all wrong? ... + +LANE + +To Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt + +[Pasadena], March 25, [1921] + +Your letters, my dear Mrs. Franklin, are refreshing breezes. They +are quite what breezes should be--warm, kindly, stimulating; not +hard, stiff, compelling things, off a granite Northern shore. Anne +rejoices in them, without words. + +I have been lately with my one brother on his ranch--a large name +implying vast herds quietly grazing over infinite valleys and +mountains. But all farms here are ranches, as you doubtless know, +as all weather is fine. My brother's ranchita is eighty acres of +beauty; a stream below, running up to manzanita crowns on good- +sized hills, and oaks and sycamores and bays, and many other trees +between. He has a house, all of which he planned in fullest detail +himself, with as lovely a site as anywhere, and a pretty and +artistic wife; a good saddle horse, a noble dog, a loyal and most +excellent cook, many books--and what more could he have in heaven? +Outside his dining-room window he has built a dining-table for the +birds, and so as we dined within, they dined without. Each morning +I saw the sun rise, and I whistled as I dressed. One morning I +climbed the hills and found the cow and drove it in for the man to +milk. But my only morning duty was to pick a golden poppy or a +cherokee rose or a handful of wild forget-me-nots for my button- +hole. All day I sat in the sun, or drove a bit or walked a little +--talking, talking, talking; of law, and Plato, and Epictetus, and +Harry Lauder, (whom we imitated, at a distance; for my brother +sings Scotch songs); and we talked too of our old girls and the +early days of good hunting in this semi-civilized land, and of +Woodrow Wilson and H. G. Wells and Emerson and Henry George, and +of Billy Emerson, the negro minstrel, and William Keith our great +artist. And we planned houses, adobe houses, that should be built +up above, over the manzanita bushes, and the swimming-pool that +should just naturally lie between the two live-oaks hidden behind +the natural screen of mountain laurel, but open clear up to the +sun. Each night we closed with a round of songs, and maybe a hymn. +And bed was early. Now wasn't that a good place to be? + +Not so very different in atmosphere from Hyde Park! But what would +Broadway say of such a life! Oh, the serenity of it all, the +dignity, the independence, the superiority over so much that we +think important. There one could get a sense of proportion, and +see things more nearly in their natural color and size. Truly, I +could have been religious if I lived in the country--and not been +too hard driven for a living! (For one can't be anything good or +great when pressed and bullied by necessity of any kind.) + +So I grew in strength on the little ranch and unwillingly came +back for treatment here, which was not half so good for soul or +body as to sit in the sun and see the birds daintily pick their +crumbs and know that the dog at my knee understood what I did not +tell him. + +Give to the Ducal lady at Hyde Park my spring greetings, and to +the "young lord lover" who bears your name my respectful regards. +I expect to go to Rochester, or elsewhere, in May, and in the +meantime think me not silly because I like you and have written of +what I like. + +F. K L. + + + +To John W. Hallowell + +Los Angeles, March 31, 1921 + +DEAR JACK,--I went to your Church on Sunday. Now there! Real +Friends. I wondered, "Why the two doors?" as I went up the steps, +but I said, "I'll take the nearest." Someone was talking, so I +plumped down in the backmost seat. Then I looked about and found +that I was faced by three rows of sisters, in poke bonnets on a +raised platform, at the end of the room. Around me were women, +women, women, and children. Not a man! + +My wits at last came to me. I discovered there were two rooms +really, divided by pillars. And there were the men, the blessed, +homely men. So up I lifted hat and coat and piled over on the +man's side and breathed again. + +The speaker looked like the late Senator Hoar and was intoning or +chanting his speech or address or sermon. I had never heard it +done and the cadence was charming. It adds to the emotionalism of +what is said. When he sat down, there was a long pause, and then a +sister, on the opposite side now, quoted, modestly, a psalm. Two +more, a man and woman, spoke. Then a prayer and at twelve, with +one accord, we all rose and went out. + +It is the essence of Democracy and I fear the forward there, and +not the most worthy of being heard, come to the front. Please tell +your mother how good I was! And write me, you scoundrel! + +F. K. L. + + Postcard to John G. Gehring + +April 20, [1921] + +On the eastbound train, traveling toward a little man who carries +a little knife in his hand and beckons me toward the north. I do +not go gladly, because I am feeling so much better. Have had whole +days and nights without pain, by the exercise of all kinds of +care. Still that is living "on condition." Is there never again to +be freedom? You see I am a natural Protestant. Good luck to you, +dear man. + +LANE + +To Hall McAllister + +R.R. Train, Minnesota, April 22 + +DEAR HALL,--I am now on the St. Paul road going to Lake City, +where, it is said my son is to be married to a charming, little +Irish girl, one generation away from Ireland. + +Right now, I am sitting opposite Mrs. Franklin K. Lane who is, in +turn, sitting beside my brother who has come East with me as +secretary, nurse, doctor, mentor, spiritual advisor, valet, and +companion. On my right is the Mississippi river, of which you may +have heard. On Sunday I hope to go to Rochester again and then be +cut in two, tho' I am not sure they will do it. + +I left California last Tuesday. It was quite pleased with itself +and full of pity for all the rest of the world. It surely has much +to say for itself, and says it with frequency and normalcy. The +only disappointment in dying will be the unfortunate contrast--eh, +you Californian? But then you and I are not like those +transplanted Iowans who fill Southern California, most of whom +have never seen Mt. Tamalpais nor the Golden Gate and yet think +they know California! + +I look at the paper and see "Harding" at the top of every column. +Then I think of W. W. looking at the paper and seeing the same +headlines. Oh, what unhappiness! Not all the devices of Tumulty +for keeping alive illusions of grandeur could offset those +headlines. Ungrateful world! Un-understanding world! + +I hope you like your new boss. He will be a good western +Secretary, and is quite likely to get into a row with our eastern +conservation friends. I am glad he is from the Senate, they care +for their own. + +I don't like Harrison jumping on Harvey after confirmation. Looks +little, weakens his influence as "our" man, and is not +sportsmanlike. We must take our medicine and let Harding have his +own way, and it won't be such a bad way, but surely very +different. + +... I should like to get back to Washington and loaf for a time +around Sheridan Circle. I know a woman there who intrigued me (as +you writers say) long, long ago with various fascinations of +spirit and mind and eye and voice. But I fear she would not know +me any more. + +Now do not be discouraged because you have a bit of sickness. You +are youth, you can beat old whiskered Time. Life has many a laugh +in it yet for you. Why you look forty years younger than Joe +Redding--but don't tell him I told you. + +LANE + + + +To Mrs. Frederic Peterson + +Rochester, Minnesota, April 26, [1921] + +MY DEAR MRS. PETERSON,--... Once more I am going through the +grinding of the Mayo mill, and this time I hope to some concrete +purpose, and have an end to this coming out "by that same door +wherein I went" The dear old meditative, contemplative Orientals +threw up their hands in despair long years ago and found the +figure of the unending wheel to symbolize all processes and +procedures: a world, a universe, without termini. Sometimes I +think them right, but then again my western mind will not have it +that the riddle of the Sphinx may not be solved. Our assurance +meets every challenge; mystery may make us humble; we may be +baffled; but we do not despair because we know we are Gods to whom +all doors must open eventually. That seems to be the real +underlying strength of our position. Why men go on with research +excepting out of some such philosophy I cannot see--nor why they +go on with life. + +Tell your good man that I long to look once more into the sweet +face of the Shepaug, and that while I have been wandering in the +delicious and rare places, I have not forgotten the fresh +wholesomeness of the Hoosatonic. My first visit shall be to the +meeting place of the Three Rivers. Why might not fortune lead us +to have a summer in Connecticut and a winter in California? "I +know a place where the wild thyme grows," many such places indeed, +and high hillsides of wild lilac and a wee mountain crowned with +the flowering manzanita. Oh, this world is a place to make souls +grow if one can get an apple tree, a pine and an oak, a few +lilies, a circle of crimson phlox, a stretch of moving water and a +sweep of sky, that can be called one's own. + +We saw Cordy Severance's place on Sunday--went there from the +wedding of my boy to Catherine McCahill--and found a volume of the +Chinese Lyrics [Footnote: By Dr. Frederic Peterson.] in the big +room. Great chap Cordy, and a great room he has to play the organ +in, and more people love him than anyone else I know, for he loves +them with an aggressiveness that few men dare to show, that gives +him distinction and is a glory. + +How far away the war seems--way back yonder with the fight for +Independence and the French Revolution, almost back to Caesar. +Well, I must quit mental meanderings. With all good will, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + +To Roland Cotton Smith + +Rochester, Minnesota, [April] 30 + +And you know that I cannot even write Spoon River! Vain man! +Strutting cock o' the walk! Knight of the Knickerbocker Club! +Gazer upon Fifth Avenue and the Foibles and Frivolities! Reveller +in things of life and Enjoyer of Gaiety! + +Look thou upon me. To Minnesota driven. In a hospital-hotel. +Punched and tapped by every stray Knight of the Golden Fleecers. +Awaiting a verdict from puzzled doctors. ... Bless you, I have +been through years of watchful waiting but not of this kind, and a +few weeks of this is enough. But I am a patient, long-suffering, +Christian martyr upon whom the Pagans work their will. + +And you, poor man. Tied to a woman's foot! Now that is what I call +humiliating. Worse than being tied to her apron strings or to her +chariot, (in the latter, they say, there is often much joy.) Why +should people have feet anyway in these days of autos? A mere +transportation convenience! Well, all our transportation +facilities seem to be out of order these days. Fallen arches, in +sooth! Reminds one of Rome. Very much more aristocratic than +infected gall-bladder after all. And I do hope they can be +restored, those arches, and the world once more put on its +peripatetic way. + +But you do not tell me of yourself. Can you chop wood or saw wood +or play golf or do aught else that doth become a man of muscle, +energy, life, vim, go, pep? Take a trip to the South Seas, a +knock-about trip, casting off clerical garb and living in the +open, mixing with the primitive peoples, seeing beauteous nature, +climbing mountains, swimming in soft waters, not seeing newspaper +or book. They tell me that in Burmah live a happy people who love +beauty, are always smiling and follow the Golden Rule far nearer +than those who live by trade and are blest by civilization. Ah, +that I might see such a people! The nearest I ever came was at +Honolulu, and there was the taint of the Christian, alack-a-day! +The White Man's Burden is the weight of the load of sin, disease, +death, and misfortune he has dropped on the happy ones who never +knew a Christian creed. We have given them bath tubs in exchange +for cheerful living! + +I am as much in the air as to the future as I was in the russet +days of Bethel. But one of these days, let us hope we may gather +over a bottle of something sound and mellow, and laugh together +over our adventure into the land of the woebegone. I do not take +to it, tho' they say some people live in it by choice, for they +find something to talk of there, and feel saintly because they +suffer. Well, we will have more knowledge in that happy future and +more of sympathy. What a lot one must endure to gain a wee bit of +wisdom. And then to have it die with us. Maybe it does not, eh? +Maybe it somehow, somewhere finds a corner into which it drops and +carries someone over a hard place. I don't know what kind of +theology this is that I am dripping from my pen, but I cannot yet +be beaten to the point where I say it is all purposeless. And that +is the faith that may not save a soul but does save souls, I +guess. + +I wish you the joy and elevation of spirit that you have many +times given to my sick soul and to others. Did I tell you my boy +is married--to a Catholic girl too, of much charm? They were +married on the ancestral farm with the ancestor of ninety years +present and in high spirits. A Dios, Padre mio, + +F. K. L. + + + +To John G. Gehring + +Rochester, Minnesota, [April] 30, [1921] + +Tomorrow will be May day--once, before the world became +industrial, a day of gladness, now a day of dread, another result +of mal-adjustment. + +What ever would these doctors do if they had no cheeks in which to +hold their tongues while telling sick folk what ails them, and the +cure? You are learning, Sir, how much of wisdom some men lack who +have certain knowledge. And wisdom is what we are after, we +Knights of the Mystic Sign. Wisdom--the essence of lives lived; +knocks, blows, pains, tortures reduced to fears, and these +incorporated into a string or queue of people who have eyes, +nerves, and powers of inference, and the initiative to experiment +and the impulse to try, and try again. Result--a nugget no larger +than a mustard seed of intellectual or spiritual radium, y-clept +wisdom. It does not grow on ancestral trees or on college +campuses, nor does it come out of laboratories or hospitals, tho' +it is sometimes found in all these places. A Carpenter is known to +have possessed more of it than any other man; tho' most of us +don't possess enough wisdom to know that He did possess so much of +it. An Indian Prince is also celebrated for the richness of his +supply. These men have been followed by others who sometimes +carried mirrors, but some had tiny grains of the real thing also. +And those are called Optimists and Transcendentalists and +Idealists and Fools who think that more and more of these grains +will come into the hearts and minds of men; while those are called +sensible, and shrewd, and sane, who assert that the supply is +uniform, stationary in quantity but moved about from time to time, +producing nothing but the illusion that something is worth while. + +But you and I say, "Suffer the Illusion to come into me, for of +such is the Kingdom of Heaven." Emerson says each man is an +"inlet" of the Divine Spirit--just a bit on the side, out of the +infinite ocean. Thus all of us are connected up, and thus there is +hope that some day doctors will be wiser than today. ... + +I should like to hold your hand for a time. It's the best service +one man can give another. We are great hand-holders, we men, +natural dependents, transfusers of sympathy and understanding and +heartening stuff. They tell me here that your blood for purposes +of transfusion is 1, 2, 3 or 4. The last is common denominator +blood and will go into anyone safely, but is uncommon. All the +other three will kill if not put into those of corresponding +quality of blood. Well, you and I like each other because we have +the same wave-length to our nerve current, perhaps, and we could +hold hands without danger to the other fellow, and possibly with +some benefit to the world,--for human sympathy makes good +medicine. + +Good fortune betide you! My brother, who is sitting by, wishes his +affectionate regards to go with mine, and he hopes you will some +day see him in that vale of Paradise where he lives. + +F. K. L. + +To Adolph C. Miller Federal Reserve Board + +Rochester, Minnesota, May 1, [1921] + +May Day, Glad Day, Day of Festival and Frolic,--once. Now Day of +Portent, of Threats and the Evil Eye. Such is the miracle worked +by Steam Engine, Mechanics, Quick Exchanges, Industry! + +With this happy opening let me to your letter in which you love me +a little, which I very much like, calling me baby,--child, +anyway. And so I am. I laugh at myself. I cannot think of myself +as Grandad or possible Grandad. In fact, I should not be Grandad +or Dad, notwithstanding the beauty and noblemindedness and +capacity of my dear kids. But I have always been a priest, married +to things undomestic, and without the time which every father +should have to train and educe the mind of his offspring; +especially to give sound and substantial bread and meat to their +subconscious mind when they are young. Then, too, a father should +have a religion, a sense of relation between himself and the +Master, and be able to instill this by gentle and non-didactive +method into his bairns, so that they may steer by the North Star +and not by shiftier, flashier stars. + +Yes, altho' I am now tottering, bruised, battered, down on the +floor like a prostrate prize-fighter "taking the count" and hoping +for strength enough to rise, altho' an "aged man" as I was once +described in my hearing, I am the youngest thing inside that I +know; in my curiosity and my trustfulness and my imagination, and +my desire to help and my belief in goodness and justice. I want to +strike right out now and see the world, and having found the good +bring it back and distribute it. And I see every day things that +should be done which make me long to live, even tho' I only tell +others that they should be done. And one thing that bothers me +right now is our money scheme. I know I am far off from your +standpoint, but there is something wrong when there is so great a +variation in the purchasing power of things produced. Why is not +Irving Fisher on the right road? I should like to lay a quieting +hand upon the feverish desire for things which so possesses our +people. So few things will do, rich, beautiful, solid things, but +not many; and then to live with them, proud of them, revelling in +them, and making them to shine like well-handled bronze--not +glossily but deeply. The great luxury we will not allow ourselves +is repose; that is because we are not essentially dignified. The +soul is not respected sufficiently; it is not given that food on +which it grows. Curious, the turn of my mind now, too. Having been +thinking, and while I still am thinking, in large terms,--the +city, the state, the nation, all peoples (I have grown through +them all, never really thinking of the family unit)--I am now +thinking of a nest, a roof of my own, a bit of garden, a tree of +my planting--little things, indeed, on which the mind can rest, +after casting an eye over the world and talking in terms of +continents. (And I wonder if the gardens of the British--their +week-ends at home with flowers and birds, may not bring them down +to those little things which make for good sense, sanity, wisdom!) +But I fear me I may never so indulge myself, and that is wrong-- +that a man should live for fifty-seven years and never thrust his +hand into his own bit of his country's soil--such condition makes +against loyalties that are essential. + +Now I have talked with you for a long time, but not long enough. +How I should like to sit in the big re-upholstered chair beside +the lamp, beyond the fire, and throw a match into your brain stuff +that would start it blazing. Yes, and I would like to gather +around that fire a few whom I love. You and Aleck and Sid. and +Pfeiffer and Jack Hallo well and John Burns and Brydon Lamb and +Lathrop Brown and Cotton Smith and John Finley and Dr. Gehring and +John Wigmore--the real world is very small, isn't it? + +It just may be that the verdict here will be one of exile to +California, to my brother George's farm; ah, yes he should be with +the few great, and I say 'exile' for I wonder if I should ever see +any of you then? My doctor in Pasadena said that I should live as +a country gentleman, and I answered, "But that takes money." Yet I +would not know where the farm should be, for climate is not all. +So long, old man. + +F.K. + +Many months later, writing to Mrs. Lane this friend of many years +says, "I want also to recall the remark Frank made when you and +Mary, and he and I, were rain-bound in the little chalet at St. +Mary's in Glacier Park, nine years ago. That was an outstanding +experience in my long friendship with Frank. We had many hours to +discuss things, and no matter on what road we started, we always +came back to a discussion of life; what it was all for, and what +it was about, and what principle a chivalrous man should take in +adjusting himself usefully to the going world. I remember late one +night we sat in the dimly lighted room after a long discussion, he +arose, and turning to me said: 'Doesn't it, after all, just come +to this,--To spend and to be spent--isn't that what life is?' +Every subsequent experience with Frank confirmed me in the belief +that that was his personal philosophy. That is why he lived +greatly while he lived, and died nobly when his life was spent." + + To Robert Lansing + +Rochester, Minnesota, May 2, [1921] + +MY DEAR LANSING,--I am to be operated on on Friday and so send you +this line that you may know that I have yours of April sixteenth, +and have rejoiced very much at its good news, that you were +better, and that you were not bitter because of the come-back +campaign. + +Really, I think Harding is doing well, or rather that the whole +administration is being supported well by the country. Oh, these +Republicans have the art of governing, and we do so much better at +talking! No one knows just what his foreign policy is, but +something will work through that will satisfy a very tired people. +There seem to be comparatively few out of work now. We are not out +of the woods yet. But the Lord will take care of them. He may even +keep Johnson from bolting Harding. They will temporize through; +that's my guess. + +Good English the people don't know. Ideality they have had enough +of for a time. They just want to get down to brass tacks and make +some money, so that the Mrs. can have more new dresses. I do +earnestly wish them luck. God gave us the great day, and you and +I, anyway, are not ashamed of the parts we played. In fact, the +party loomed pretty large those days--the whole country breathed +lung-fuls and felt heroic. We shall not look upon such another +time nor act for a people so nobly inspired. + +Please give to Mrs. Lansing my very best regards--fine spirit, +that she is--and to you, as always, dear Lansing, my affection and +esteem. + +LANE + + + +To James D. Pkelan + +Rochester, Minnesota, May 2, 1921 + +MY DEAR JIM,--Glad to hear from you and to get so cheerful a word, +for surely you are justified in looking upon the world as very +much of a friend of yours. You have a rare home, in which to +gather your many friends, and you have had honors in abundance, +and now may rest and write and speak and adjust yourself to +things--terrestrial and celestial--and other service will call +you. There must be some Democrats appointed to adjust European or +other difficulties, even by a Republican, and you will be the +prominent one. So I can look across the mountains to Montalvo and +find you ripening into a fine old mellow age, conscious of +usefulness, in health and in happiness. May it be so! + +Just as soon as my boy gets here, I shall be operated on. ... Ned +is now on his honeymoon with his darling little bride, a Catholic +Irish girl named Catherine McCahill, whose grey-whiskered +grandfather of ninety quite took the shine off the bride at the +wedding. He is a Democrat (State Senator for thirty years) a Sinn +Feiner of the most robust sort, and a fanner of many acres. + +Poor Anne, she is in for a bad time, with Nancy sick, but she has +a good stout heart and a most adequate and comfortable religious +faith, which throws things that are personal into a very minor +place. The theory of relativity has more than one expression +indeed, and things are small when looked at from a height. And it +is good to find one who can be both religious and large. + +The country seems to be liking Harding and his cabinet more and +more. They do have a faculty for getting things done, those +Republicans, and they are subjected to so little criticism. It is +really good to see them do their work and get away with things so +neatly. ... As always, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + +To Mr. and Mrs. Louis Hertle Gunston Hall on the Potomac + +Rochester, Minnesota, May 2 + +DEAR PEOPLE,--What good angel ever put it into your heart to wire +us--and such a warm electric message! + +I tell you this is not Gunston Hall--so few birds, flowers, trees +--but I like the great sweep of the sky out here. There is nothing +mean about this land of ours. It gives you something, and gives it +to you generously, something lovable wherever you are. + +The Doctors have not decided what to do with me. ... But we'll be +out of suspense this week, I expect. + +I can see your garden now--fountain, hedge, roses, bird-boxes, +pergola, box and all--with the dignified, stately Potomac way out +yonder, beyond the cleared fields and the timber. Lucky people, +and you deserve it all. No one, not even the Bolsheviks, would +take it from you. Cordially yours always, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + + + +To Alexander Vogelsang + +Rochester, Minnesota, May 4, 1921 + +DEAR ALECK,--I must pass under the knife, that is the verdict. On +Friday morning the act takes place. And out will come gall- +bladder, adhesions, appendix and all things appertaining thereto, +including hereditaments, reversions, lives in posse, and +sinecures. So that's that! + +They say that my heart has grown much worse in the last three +months, but that I probably have four chances out of five of +pulling through, which is more chance than I ever had in politics +in California. I believe I am to be operated on while conscious, +as they fear to give ether. I trust my curiosity will not +interfere with the surgeon's facility. + +Ah well, this old shell is not myself, and I have never felt that +the world's axis was located with reference to my habitat. But +this is so interesting an old world that I don't want to leave it +prematurely, because one does run the risk of not coming upon one +equally interesting. So I shall think of you and try to see you +later, in the new offices in the Mills Building. May clients come +thick as dogwood in Rock Creek Park; and trout streams in hidden +places be revealed unto you, within an hour's flight by aero. +Affectionately, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + +P. S. Give my regards to the boys with you and in the office, when +you see them--and to Wade Ellis and Ira Bennett and others who may +be interested. Love to your dear Lady! + +To John Finley New York Times + +Rochester, Minnesota, May 4, [1921] + +MY DEAR FINLEY,--I have your postal from London and it cheereth +me--Yea, thou hast done a kindly act to one who is sore beset. ... + +When you and I can talk together I want to urge a new field upon +your great paper. Perhaps you can take it up with Mr. Ochs and +perhaps he can see how he can add to his usefulness and to the +glory of his paper's name. + +My thought is that there should be somewhere--and why not in New +York?--a Place of Exchange for the New Ideas that the world +evolves each year, a central spot where all that is new in +science, philosophy, practical political machinery, and all else +of the world's mind-products shall be placed on exhibition where +those interested may see. Why should not the Times do this? + +It would cost very little. All the plant needs would be a building +which would contain one or two fine halls for public speaking, and +a few properly appointed apartments. No faculty--but a super- +university with all the searchers and researchers, inventors, +experimenters, thinkers of the world for faculty. No students--but +every man the world round interested in the theme under +consideration, welcome, as student without pay. The only executive +officer a Director, whose business would be to see that the great +minds were tapped,--a high class impresario, who would know who +had thought thoughts, developed a theory, found a new problem, or +a new method of solving an old one, and [would] bring the thinker +on the stage and present him to those who knew of what he talked; +and could intelligently, quickly, distribute it to the ends of the +earth. + +Money? The lecturer would get his expenses from his home and back +again, and be cared for appropriately in one of the apartments. +Otherwise the incidental expenses of administration. Aside from +the single and simple building the whole thing should not cost +more than $100,000 a year. + +To illustrate--it took years for the world to know what Rutherford +was doing with radium. Why should he not have been brought to some +central place and there, before all the students who might choose +to come, tell his story? Pasteur, Einstein, Bergson, Wright +Brothers, Wells (theory of Education). These names are suggestive. +The great of the world could walk, as it were, in the groves with +their pupils and critics, and we could have a new Athens. Whatever +progress the world had made, in whatever line, would be reported +at that time. And the world would know in advance that this was to +be so. Germany has been the world thought center for forty years. +England is now planning to take Germany's place. Why not America? +But the government has not the imagination, and this must be done +quickly. + +Why not the Times? And why shouldn't you start it for the Times-- +be the first Director? + +Then I want someone to take over another of my ideas--a sort of +Federal Reserve Board on the good of the nation, an unofficial +group of men with foresight, who would be a spur to government and +suggest direction. Somebody whose business it would be to attend +to that which is nobody's business and so waits, and waits, until +sometimes too late. Why should we have had no plans for caring for +our soldiers as to employment and giving them the right bent on +their return? + +There was no one to concentrate attention--the attention of +Congress and the public--on any definite plan. I tried it with my +scheme for making farms for soldiers, but Congress, as soon as it +found that I was really agitating, passed laws making it +impossible for me to use a sheet of paper or the frank for the +purpose. I do not say my plan was the best possible. Then someone +should have come forward with another, and pushed it against a +Congress made up of Republicans who feared that Democrats would +get the credit, and Democrats who feared Republicans would. Hence, +deadlock, and a great opportunity lost! ... + +Seers, or see-ers, that's what these men should be. Elder +Statesmen, if you please, independent, away above politics. + +Doesn't it seem to you that we are coming to be altogether too +dependent on the President? That office will be ruined. Every one +with a sore thumb has come into the habit of running to the +President. This is all wrong, all wrong. He cannot do his job well +now. And he is only nominally doing it, and only nominally has +been doing it for years. But each month seems to add to his duties +as arbiter of everything from clothes to strikes, from baseball to +disarmament. + +I see a tremendous field for a body of a few ripe minds who would +talk so little, and so wisely, and so collectively, that they +could get and hold the ear of the country, governmental and +otherwise. + +I outlined for Mezes, in your old job, a series of lectures by +Americans who have done things on Why America is Worth While--and +he has expanded it into a whole course on America, so that I +believe he will have something new and great--teaching history, +geology, art, everything, by the history of that thing in America, +and how it came to come here, or be here, or what it means here. + +Well, I have written you a book and must stop--I don't know where +to address you but will send this to the Times. Please remember me +to Mr. Ochs--who can see things, and here's hoping it won't be +long before we meet. Yours always, + +FRANKLIN K. LANE + +To James H. Barry San Francisco Star + +Rochester, Minnesota, May 5, [1921] + +MY DEAR JIM,--I have nothing of importance to say, except that I +am to be operated on tomorrow and hope for the best, for Dr. Will +Mayo is to do the operating, and I am not in a very run-down +condition. + +I find myself quite serene, for I can look forward even to the +very worst result with the feeling that there is no one to meet me +over there to whom I've done any wrong. And while I haven't done +my best, my score hasn't been blank. I honestly believe I've added +a farthing or two to the talent that was given me. + +My brother George is here, with his splendid philosophy and his +Scotch songs; and Ned, my boy, and his bride have just come back, +so that Anne and I are very well content that things are just as +they should be. I go to St. Mary's Hospital where they have nuns +for nurses, and when time comes for recuperation I shall go to the +near-by estate of my old friend, Severance, the big St. Paul +lawyer, whom I have known these thirty years. + +I hope, my dear old man, that you will find new occupation soon +that will give you use for your pen, and sterling love of justice. +My regards, sincere and hearty to your family, and my other +friends. + +F. K. LANE + + + +To Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt + +Rochester, Minnesota, May 5, [1921] + +Just because I like you very much, and being a very old man dare +to say so, I am sending this line, which has no excuse in its +news, philosophy or advice; has no excuse, in fact, except what +might be called affection, but of course this being way past the +Victorian era, no one admits to affections! I will not belittle my +own feeling by saying that I have a wife who thinks you the best +Eastern product--and probably she'd move to strike out the word +"Eastern." At any rate, I think I should tell you myself that I am +to be operated on tomorrow, by Dr. Will Mayo, and am glad of it. +We shall see what we shall see. + +I find myself quite serene about the matter, altho' I believe my +heart is so bad that they fear giving ether and will keep me +conscious if they can, applying only a local anesthetic. + +I'd like to have Anne's perfect sureness as to the future, but +lacking it, I do not look forward with fear, even if the worst +should happen. I've never done a wrong to any man or woman or +child that I can now recall--but maybe my memory is failing. + +My boy and his bride came back this morning--happy! Oh, so happy! +And my "best beloved" brother who sings Scotch songs is here--a +great philosopher whom you would deeply admire--and our friends +the Severances of St. Paul, thirty year-old friends, they come +over tonight. So we will be a merry, merry company. I'd love to +see you and the gay Cavalier, but let us hope it won't be long +till we meet! Au revoir! + +F. K. L. + + + +To friends who had telegraphed and written urgently for news + +May 11, 1921 + +It is Wednesday afternoon and I am now sitting up in bed talking +to my good friend, Cotter. Until yesterday I did not clearly +visualize any one thing in this room and did not know that it had +a window, except that there was a place that noise came through, +but I did know that it had a yellow oak door that stared at me +with its great, big, square eye, all day and all night. + +Last Friday, you see, about ten in the morning, I took the step +that I should have taken months, yes, years ago. I was stretched +on a stiff, hard table, my arms were clamped down and in three- +quarters of an hour I had my appendix and my gall bladder removed, +which latter was a stone quarry and the former a cesspool. Today, +most tentatively, I crawled on to a chair and ate my first +mouthful of solid food. But four days ago I managed to shave +myself, and I am regarded as pretty spry. + +I have seen death come to men in various ways, some rather novel +and western. I once saw a man hanged. And I have seen several men +shot, and came very near going out that way myself two or three +times, but always the other fellow aimed poorly. I was being shot +at because I was a newspaper man, and I should have been shot at. +There must be public concern in what is printed, as well as its +truth, to justify it. That is something that newspapers should get +to know in this country. After the earthquake in San Francisco, I +saw walls topple out upon a man. And I have had more intimate +glimpses still of the picturesque and of the prosaic ways by which +men come to their taking off. + +But never before have I been called upon deliberately to walk into +the Valley of the Shadow and, say what you will, it is a great +act. I have said, during the past months of endless examination, +that a man with little curiosity and little humor and a little +money who was not in too great pain could enjoy himself studying +the ways of doctors and nurses, as he journeyed the invalid's +path. It was indeed made a flowery path for me, as much as any +path could be in which a man suffered more humiliation and +distress and thwarting and frustration, on the whole, than he did +pain. + +But here was a path, the end of which I could not see. I was not +compelled to take it. My very latest doctor advised me against +taking it. I could live some time without taking it. It was a bet +on the high card with a chance to win, and I took it. + +I undressed myself with my boy's help, in one of the hospital +rooms, and then arraying myself in my best suit of pajamas and an +antique samurai robe which I use as a dressing gown, submitted +myself to being given a dose of dazing opiate, which was to do its +work in about fifteen minutes. I then mounted a chair and was +wheeled along the corridor to the elevator, stopping meantime to +say "adieu" to my dear ones, who would somehow or other insist +upon saying "good-bye," which is a different word. I was not to be +given the usual anesthetic, because my heart had been cutting up +some didos, so I must take a local anesthetic which Was to be +administered by a very celebrated Frenchman. I need not tell you +that this whole performance was managed with considerable eclat, +and Doctor Will Mayo, probably the first surgeon of the world, was +to use the knife; and in the gallery looking on were Doctor +Finney, of Johns Hopkins, Doctor Billings, of Chicago, Doctor +Vaughan of the Michigan University, and others. On the whole, it +was what the society reporter would call a recherche affair. The +local anesthetic consists of morphine and scopolamin. It is +administered directly by needle to the nerves that lead to those +particular parts which are to be affected by the operation. This I +watched myself with the profoundest interest. It was painful, +somewhat, but it was done with the niceness and precision that +make this new method of anesthesia a real work of art. I should +think that the Japanese, with their very rare power at embroidery, +might come to be past masters in this work. There were some +insertions very superficial and some extremely deep. Over the +operator's head, there were a half dozen heads peering intently at +each move he made, while the patient himself was free to lift his +head and look down and see just what was being done. I did not +test myself, as I should have, to see whether I was paralyzed in +any part. + +Just when this performance came to a head, Doctor Mayo came in and +said, "Well, I am going in for something." I said, "That's right, +and I hope you will get it." + +His statement did not conclusively prove confidence that he would +find the cause of my trouble by going in. ... I knew there could +be no such definiteness, but I said to myself, "He will get it, if +it's there." + +For two days I had had knowledge that this operation was to take +place at this time, and my nerves had not been just as good as +they should have been. Those men who sleep twelve hours perfectly +before being electrocuted have evidently led more tranquil lives +than I have, or have less concern as to the future. Ah, now I was +to know the great secret! For forty years I had been wondering, +wondering. Often I had said to myself that I should summon to my +mind when this moment came, some words that would be somewhat a +synthesis of my philosophy. Socrates said to those who stood by, +after he had drunk the hemlock, "No evil can befall a good man, +whether he be alive or dead." I don't know how far from that we +have gone in these twenty-four hundred years. The apothegm, +however, was not apposite to me, because it involved a declaration +that I was a good man, and I don't know anyone who has the right +so to appreciate himself. And I had come to the conclusion that +perhaps the best statement of my creed could be fitted into the +words, "I accept," which to me meant that if in the law of nature +my individual spirit was to go back into the great Ocean of +Spirits, my one duty was to conform. "Lead Kindly Light" was all +the gospel I had. I accepted. I made pretense to put out my hand +in submission and lay there. + +"All through, doctor?" + +"Yes, doctor." + +"Very well, we will proceed." + +And I was gradually pushed through the hall into the operating +room. The process there was lightning-like. I was in torture. + +"Lift me up, lift me up." + +"What for?" + +"I have one of those angina pains and I must ease it by getting up +and taking some nitro." + +That had been my practice, but I did not reason that never before +had the pain come on my right side. + +"Give him a whiff of ether." The tenderest arms stole around my +head and the softest possible voice--Ulysses must have heard it +long ago--"Now do take a deep breath." I resisted. I had been told +that I would see the performance. + +"Please do, breathe very deeply--just one good deep breath." That +pain was burning the side out of me. I tried to get my hand up to +my side. Of course it was tied down. I swore. + +"Oh Christ! This is terrible." + +"It will stop if you will reach for a big breath,"--and I resigned +myself. Men who are given the third degree have no stronger will +than mine. I knew I was helpless. I must go through. I must +surrender to that Circean voice. + +I heard the doctor in a commonplace monotone say, "This is an +unusual case--"--the rest of this sentence I never heard. + +There was a long ray of gray light leading from my bed to my door. +I had opened my eyes. "I had not died." I had come through the +Valley. + +"I wonder what he got." + +In the broad part of the ray was my wife smiling, and stretching +out to that unreachable door were others whom I recognized, all +smiling. Things were dim, but my mind seemed definite. + +"What did he get?" I had expected eternal mysteries to be +unraveled. Either I would know, or not know, and I would not know +that I would not know. + +"He got a gall-bladder filled with stones and a bad appendix, and +now you are to lie still." + +Then to this the drama had come, the drama beyond all dramas--a +handful of brownish secretions and a couple of pieces of morbid +flesh!! Ah me! + +I am doing well, cared for well, as happy as can be; have had none +of my angina pains since the operation. And as I lie here, I +contemplate [making] a frieze--a procession of doctors and nurses +and internes, of diagnosticians and technicians and experts and +mechanics and servitors and cooks--all, the great and the small, +in profile. They are to look like those who have made their +pretenses before me during the past year;--the solemn and the +stupid; the kindly, the reckless; the offhand; the erudite, the +practical; the many men with tubes and the many men with +electrical machines. Old Esculapius must begin the procession but +the Man with the Knife, regnant, heroic size, must end it. + +What a great thing, what a pride, to have the two men of greatest +constructive imagination and courage in surgery in the world as +Americans, Dr. Charles and Dr. Will Mayo. + + + +To Alexander Vogelsang + +Rochester, Minnesota, May 14, [1921] + +This is a line by my own hand, dear Aleck, just to show you that I +am still this much master of myself. ... + +I am going through much pain. Inside I am a great boil. But Nature +is doing all she can, and I am helping. They think me a right +model sort of patient, for I made a showing of exceptional +recovery. When T.R. shaved the day after, I said, "Hip Hip!" Well, +I done it too! I guess as how I haven't been so very bad a boy all +these fifty-seven years or I couldn't play as good as "par" at +this game, and they say they have no better record than mine on +the books. + +The National Geographic Society did a nice thing. Today I got a +resolution of the most sympathetic kind from them. Some gentlemen +still alive, eh? + +I dictated a bit of a thing about my experience the other day to +Cotter--something to send off to the chaps who wrote or wired--and +sent you one. I hope it wasn't soft or slobby. Did you think it +was all right to come from a sick bed? + +It will be three weeks or more yet of hospital, and then much of +recuperation. But I have no complaint. I feel a faith growing in +me, and I may yet draw my sword in some good fight. +Affectionately, + +FRANK + + + +To John W. Hallowell + +Rochester, Minnesota, May 14, 1921 + +DEAR JACK,--I've been down into the Valley since I heard from you, +but I'm up once more and with new light in my eye, new faith in my +heart, more sense of the things that count and those that don't. +And affection, love for the good thing of any kind; loyalty, even +mistaken loyalty, these are the things that the Gods treasure. +They live longest. So I turn to give you my hand, dear boy, + +[Illustration with caption: LANE PEAK IN RAINIER NATIONAL PARK] + +I was most badly infected, but I really never felt better than +when I stepped out of the auto on to the hospital steps. And it +took some nerve for me to say, "Go to it," under such +circumstances. (I am patting myself on the back a bit now.) + +Well, Glory be!--that step is taken and now I must fight to get +fit. They say I am making as good a record as a boy, as to +recovery, so all my Scotch whiskies, and big cigars and late +nights with you politicians have not ruined me. + +Say dear things to your Mother for me, Jack, and give greetings to +all your family. + +F. K. L. + + + +To Robert Lansing + +Rochester, 14 [May, 1921] + +MY DEAR LANSING,--I am disturbed because you may be disturbed. As +I lie in bed I read and am read to, and some of the papers do not +treat you decently. The very ones that were loudest in their +declarations against W. W. at every stage, now suggest that you +might have quit his service if you didn't like it. I hope it will +not get under your skin ... + +What comfort you would have given the enemy if you had resigned! +Have they thought of that? I came to the brink when the President +blew up my coal agreement to save three or four hundred million +dollars for the people, But I was stopped by the thought, "Give no +comfort to Berlin." ... Good night and good luck. + +F.K.L. + +Manuscript fragment written May 17, 1921, and found in his room. +Franklin K. Lane died May 18, 1921. + +And if I had passed into that other land, whom would I have +sought--and what should I have done? + +No doubt, first of all I would have sought the few loved ones +whose common life with me had given us matter for talk, and whom I +had known so well that I had loved dearly. Then perhaps there +might have [been] some gratifying of a cheap curiosity, some +searching and craning after the names that had been sierras along +my skyline. But I know now there would have been little of that. +It would not have been in me to have gone about asking Alexander +and Cromwell little questions. For what would signify the trifle +which made a personal fortune, that put a new name up upon some +pilaster men bowed to as they passed? Were Aristotle there, +holding in his hand the strings and cables that tied together all +the swinging and surging and lagging movements of the whole +earth's life--an informed, pregnant Aristotle,--Ah! there would be +the man to talk with! What satisfaction to see him take, like +reins from between his fingers the long ribbons of man's life and +trace it through the mystifying maze of all the wonderful +adventure of his coming up. The crooked made straight. The +'Daedalian plan' simplified by a look from above--smeared out as +it were by the splotch of some master thumb that made the whole +involuted, boggling thing one beautiful, straight line. And one +could see, as on a map of ocean currents, the swing and movements +of a thousand million years. I think that I would not expect that +he could tell the reason why the way began, nor where it would +end. That's divine business, yet for the free-going of the mind it +would lend such impulse, to see clearly. Thus much for curiosity! +The way up which we've stumbled. + +But for my heart's content in that new land, I think I'd rather +loaf with Lincoln along a river bank. I know I could understand +him. I would not have to learn who were his friends and who his +enemies, what theories he was committed to, and what against. We +could just talk and open out our minds, and tell our doubts and +swap the longings of our hearts that others never heard of. He +wouldn't try to master me nor to make me feel how small I was. I'd +dare to ask him things and know that he felt awkward about them, +too. And I would find, I know I would, that he had hit his shin +just on those very stumps that had hit me. We'd talk of men a lot, +the kind they call the great. I would not find him scornful. Yet +boys that he knew in New Salem would somehow appear larger in +their souls, than some of these that I had called the great. His +wise eyes saw qualities that weighed more than smartness. Yes, we +would sit down where the bank sloped gently to the quiet stream +and glance at the picture of our people, the negroes being +lynched, the miners' civil war, labor's hold ups, employers' +ruthlessness, the subordination of humanity to industry,-- + + + +THE END + + +End of the Project Gutenberg Etext of The Letters of Franklin K. 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