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.