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.