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