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. ...