Rome up, England, and Ireland. In the latter spot, he was shot at
three times, notwithstanding a general order that no Irishman is
allowed to have a gun. He was challenged to a duel by a Frenchman
who tried to get away with his seat in a car. He gave the
Frenchman a good licking and then discovered that he was liable to
court martial, but he got the seat and then told the French
lieutenant he would throw him out of the car window if he talked
any more about dueling. The following morning he offered the
Frenchman a cigarette which was taken, and they shook hands and
parted.
He went up in an aeroplane in Italy at one place and had a hunch,
he said, that something was wrong with the machine and so he
brought it down and landed. Another fellow took it up, an Italian.
He got up about one thousand feet in the air and the gas tank
exploded. The poor fellow came down burnt to a cinder, all within
five minutes. He shot a German from the Belgian trenches and has
been recommended four times for promotion, but hasn't got it yet.
With much love to Frances and yourself, I am, affectionately
yours,
FRANKLIN K. LANE
TO EDGAR C. BRADLEY ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR
Washington, [December 18, 1918]
MY DEAR BRADLEY,--You wouldn't let me close my sentence yesterday
and I don't propose to close it to-day. Yet I am not going to let
you drive westward toward the land and people we both love so
much, without letting you carry a word of affection and greeting
from me, which you can just throw to the winds when you get there,
throw it out of the window to Tamalpais, it will sweep over those
eucalyptus trees on the right, throw it up to the Berkeley hills,
which now are turning green, I suppose, throw it up the long
stretch of Market Street till it reaches Twin Peaks, and let it
flow down over "south of the slot" that was, and up over Nob Hill,
even to the sacred brownstone of the Pacific-Union.
Go with a heart that is full of rejoicing that peace has come,
through our sacrifice as well as that of other of the nobler
peoples of earth, and with a heart that is proud that you were
able to help with your strength and sane judgment and great
gentleness of speech and manner, in carrying on this nation's
affairs in the day of its greatest adventure. We shall all miss
you greatly, whether you are gone two weeks or two years! Do just
what you think is right, just what she who is so much to you
thinks you should do. There is no better test of a man's duty.
If you can't return we shall stagger on. I shan't stop climbing
this ladder because a rung is gone--tho' many a rung is gone--and
a damn hard old ladder this is sometimes. ...
F.K.L.
XI
AFTER-WAR PROBLEMS--LEAVING WASHINGTON
1919
After-war Problems--Roosevelt Memorials--Americanization--Religion
--Responsibility of Press--Resignation
TO E. C. BRADLEY
Washington, January, 1919
MY DEAR BRADLEY,-- ... I am terribly broken up over Roosevelt's
death. He was a great and a good man, a man's man, always playing
his game in the open. ...
I loved old Roosevelt because he was a hearty, two-fisted fellow.
... The only fault I ever had to find with him was that he took
defeat too hard. He had a sort of "divine right" idea, but he was
a bully fighter. I went to his funeral and have joined in mass
meetings in his memory, which I suppose is all I can do. ... Of
course ... he said a lot of things that were unjust and
unjustifiable, but if a fellow doesn't make a damned fool of
himself once in a while he wouldn't be human. The Republicans
would have nominated him next time undoubtedly. They are without a
leader now, and we are just as much up in the air as ever. ... I
am standing by the President for all I am worth. I talked to the
Merchants' Association the other day and gave him a great send-
off, but they didn't rise to their feet at all, which is the first
time this has happened in two years. ... Sincerely yours,
FRANKLIN K. LANE
TO GEORGE W. LANE
Washington, January 30, 1919
MY DEAR GEORGE,-- ... The one thing that bothers us here is the
problem of unemployment. We have not, of course, had time to turn
around and develop any plan for reconstruction. Our whole war
machine went to pieces in a night. Everybody who was doing war
work dropped his job with the thought of Paris in his mind, with
the result that everything has come down with a crash, in the way
of production, but nothing in the way of wages or living costs.
Wages cannot go down until the cost of living does, and production
won't increase while people believe prices will be lower later on.
I to-day proposed to Secretary Glass that he enter upon a campaign
to promote production, (1) by seeing what the Government could
buy, (2) by seeing what the industries would take as a bottom
price, (3) by getting the Food Administration at work to reduce
prices. Perhaps it may do some good. ...
I have always thought the President was right in going across, and
I believe that he will pull through a League of Nations. When I
get a copy of it I will send you my speech on this subject, which
is rather loose but is a plea for dreams.
Ned is going West to. work for Doheny in some oil field, starting
at the bottom. I rather think this is right, but of course he
won't stay as a laborer very long. The boy is fine and gay, and
did splendid work, and is anxious to get into the game and make
money. Just where he gets this desire for making money I don't
know. Certainly I never had it. But he was telling me the other
day of his hope that by forty he would have made enough money to
retire. I told him you were the only fellow I ever knew who had
actually retired, and you had only done it half way. He will
report at Los Angeles, but I expect he will get up to see you as
soon as he can. He has a remarkable affection for California,
considering he has seen so little of it, and so has Nancy. They
both regard it as the golden land where all things smile, and
people have hearts. I have not attempted to cure them of their
illusion.
Do write me a good, long letter, for I am always eager to hear
from you.
F. K. L.
To George W. Lane
Washington, May 1, [1919]
MY DEAR GEORGE,--Well, what do you think of the Italian situation?
I think the President right, that Fiume should not go to Italy.
Certainly she has no moral claim, for by the Pact of London, Fiume
was to go to Croatia. Orlando says that he is answering the call
of the Italians in exile. Let them stay in exile, I say. They went
into a foreign land to make money and now they wish to annex the
land they are visiting, to the home country. How would we like it
if the Chinese swamped San Francisco and then asked to be annexed
to China? This is carrying the Fiume idea to its ultimate, a
ridiculous ultimate, of course, as most ultimates are.
Whether he [President Wilson] gave out the statement as to the
break too early, and without the consent of England and France, of
course I don't know. Quite like him to do it if he thought the
thing had hung long enough, and that Italy was too damn predatory.
And she does seem to be. The New Idea seems to have less real hold
in Italy--at least among the governing class--than in any other
European country. Her present position will postpone peace. This
will cause us trouble over the extra session of Congress for our
appropriations will run out. And perhaps in England it may give a
chance for labor troubles to rise. It will postpone the return of
good times to this country. But ultimately Italy will have to come
through. If economic pressure were put upon her she would be
compelled to yield at once, for she depends on England and
ourselves for all the coal she uses, and on us chiefly for her
wheat. Of course this form of coercion will not be resorted to.
She might think more kindly if she were given an extended credit,
say of two hundred million dollars. But the people being aroused
now over what they think is a matter of principle--loyalty to
their compatriots in Fiume--they may not be able to compromise.
Lord Reading rather fears that this is the situation and that it
might have been avoided if the President had not issued his
statement when he did. However, I have no doubt that the President
will have his way. He nearly always does. Surely the God that once
was the Kaiser's is now his.
To be the First President of the League of Nations is to be the
crowning glory of his life. I believe in the League--as an
effort. It will not cure, but it is a serious effort to get at the
disease. It is a hopeful effort, too, for it makes moral
standards, standards of conduct between nations which will bring
conventional pressure to bear on the side of peace, to offset the
old convention of rushing into war to satisfy hurt feelings.
Sooner or later there will come disarmament--the pistol will be
taken away and the streets will be safer.
The boy is having a tough time in his oil work. It is so dirty!
But I hope he sticks out until he proves himself. I hear that the
Dutch Shell people have bought out Cowdray in Mexico, and now are
trying to get Doheny's lands. They bestride the earth, and as soon
as their activities are known generally, this country will look
upon the Standard Oil as the American champion in a big
international fight.
... Well, dear old chap, I know that I could add nothing to your
cure if I were there but I am not content to be so far away from
you. ... F. K. L.
TO WILLIAM BOYCE THOMPSON ROOSEVELT PERMANENT MEMORIAL NATIONAL
COMMITTEE
Washington, May 20, 1919
MY DEAR MR. THOMPSON,--I told Mr. Loeb that I would feel greatly
honored to be a member of a Memorial Committee, to do honor to Ex-
President Roosevelt. To-day, I receive an agreement which I am
asked to sign in which the members of the Committee are to pledge
themselves to a memorial for the furtherance of Mr. Roosevelt's
policies. I do not know what such a phrase means. With some of his
policies I know I was in hearty accord but as to others, such as
the tariff, I have my doubts. This might be turned or construed
into a great machine for propaganda of a partisan character, and
it seems to me that the Colonel's memory is altogether too
precious a national possession to have that construction possibly
given to any memorial to him.
There are hundreds of thousands of Democrats, like myself, who
admired him and who would contribute toward a memorial, who should
not be asked to do this if it was any more than a straight-out
memorial to the man, the soldier, the naturalist, the historian,
the President, the intense, vital American.
And all of your officers, so far as I am acquainted with them, are
Republicans. This does not seem to convey quite the right
suggestion.
I have already planned for a lasting Roosevelt memorial in the
creation of a park in California, to bear Colonel Roosevelt's
name. I expect this will have Congressional approval at the
present session of Congress.
Last night I talked with Senator Frank Kellogg about this matter,
and he agrees with my view. He says that he understood the
memorial was to be something in Washington of a permanent and
artistic character, and perhaps the home at Oyster Bay, and that
the personnel of all committees was to be popular, including if
possible as many Democrats as Republicans.
Under these circumstances I beg leave to withhold my signature to
the agreement sent me. I would have no objection to asking
Congress to provide for a memorial, though I think this should be
deferred as a matter of policy until the public had subscribed
generously. Cordially yours,
FRANKLIN K. LANE
TO BENJAMIN IDE WHEELER PRESIDENT EMERITUS, UNIVERSITY OF
CALIFORNIA
Washington, June 16, 1919
MY DEAR WHEELER,--I have seen your goodbye address at Berkeley,
and I am very glad I did not hear it, for it must have been a sad
day for Berkeley and for you. The address itself was a noble word.
I hear that you have bought Lucy Sprague's home and are to remain
in Berkeley. This is as it should be. You can ripen into the Sage
of Berkeley, and be a center of influence, stimulating the best in
others. A long, long life to you! Always sincerely and devotedly
yours,
FRANKLIN K, LANE
TO E. S. MARTIN LIFE
Washington, August 23, 1919
MY DEAR MR. MARTIN,-- ... It does not seem to me that this country
will rise to a class war. We have too many farmers and small
householders and women--put the accent on the women. They are the
conservatives. Until a woman is starving, she does not grow Red,
unless she is without a husband or babies and has a lot of money
that she did not earn. ... Cordially yours,
FRANKLIN K. LANE
TO GEORGE W. LANE
Washington, September 11, 1919
DEAR GEORGE,--You do not know how much of sympathy I send out to
you and how many words of prayer I send up for you. You need them
all, I expect. ... What a long siege you have had!
I suppose you will not be able to hear the President speak when he
is there. You will miss much. He is not impassioned nor a great
orator, such as Chatham or Fox, or Webster or Dolliver, or even
Bryan--but he has a keen, quick, cutting mind, the mind of a
really great critic, and his manner is that of the gentleman
scholar. He is first among all men to-day, which is much for
America.
My Nancy has been having a splendid time, even if she only saw
your ranch for a week--but she is the gayest thing alive--God
grant she may continue so always. ...
For the first time in twenty-five years we are living in an
apartment, large and in a nice place, but somehow my sense of the
fitness of things will not let me call the place "home"--altho' it
is the most comfortable habitation I have ever lived in, elevator,
whole floor to ourselves. ... and they let me keep my dog. I
wouldn't have come if they hadn't. We turned down a fine place
with a more expansive view because Jack was not wanted. But surely
in these days of doubt and disloyalty one must have some rock to
cling to, why not a trusting-eyed dog? ... But all this does not
recompense me for the absence of a "home"--which is a house,
anywhere. Yet we may have to do our own work. ... The cooks are
all too proud to work--I wish you would tell me just how this
economic problem should be settled. How much do you believe in
socialism or socialization? ... Do you think there can be a
partnership in business? I am inclined to think this can be worked
out, along lines of cooperative ownership, but not until an
enterprise is well standardized.
I expect bad times soon with labor. We are only postponing the
evil day. The President seems less radical than he was. He is
sobered by conditions, I suspect. The negro is a danger that you
do not have. Turn him loose and he is a wild man. Every Southerner
fears him.
... I am trying hard to believe something that might be called the
shadow of a religion--a God that has a good purpose, and another
life in which there is a chance for further growth, if not for
glory. But when I bump up against a series of afflictions such as
you have been subjected to, I fall back upon Fred's philosophy of
a purposeless or else a cruel God. ... I simply have a sinking of
the heart, a goneness, a hopelessness--not even the pleasure of a
resignation. Old Sid's cold mind has worked itself through to a
decision that there is no purpose and no future, and finds solace
in the ultimate; having reached the cellar he finds the
satisfaction of rest. I can't get there for my buoyancy, the hold-
over of early teachings or perhaps my naturally sanguine nature
will not permit me to hit bottom, but forever I must be floating,
floating--nowhere. Happy the man who strikes the certainty of a
rock-bottom hell, rather than one who is kept floating midway--
that is a purgatory worse than hell. I don't seem to have any
capacity for anger, as against God or man, for anything that
befalls me, but I get morbid over the injustices done to others.
Now I shall stop philosophizing on this matter for it is three in
the morning, and too hot to sleep, and such a time is made for
wickedness and not for righteousness.
I am sorry you will not see the President. He is worth hearing,
better than reading, and he always talks well. He can not pass his
treaty without some kind of reservations and he should have seen
this a month ago. The Republicans will not struggle to pass it in
his absence and think that they have done a smart thing, but in
the end Wilson and not Lodge would win by such a trick. The one
greatest of vices is smart-aleckism. Sometime I shall write an
essay on that subject. The burglar and the confidence operator and
the profiteer and the profligate and the defaulting bank cashier
are all victims of that disease--smart-aleckism. They will do a
trick, to prove how clever they are. I believe that is the way
ninety per cent of the boys and girls go wrong, and instead of
teaching them the Bible, why not try reducing the size of their
conceit and their disposition to boast. I just wonder how far
wrong I am on this?
... Don't let the family worry you. Call for the police if they
don't let you have your own way. ... What a plague of women! But
how did monks manage to live anyhow? Maybe they chose a hard
death--perhaps that was the secret of the whole monkery game!
Women let us down into the grave with much unction to our ego, I
mean sweet oil of adoration ... poured out upon the way down to
Avernus. ... Don't feel discouraged because you lie there. I feel
much more discontented than you do, right here at the heart of the
world. ... Love to Maude and Frances, and mention me with proper
respect and dignity to Miss Nancy Lane.
F. K.
TO VAN H. MANNING DIRECTOR, BUREAU OF MINES
Washington, September 24, 1919
MY DEAR MR. MANNING,--I have been intending for several days to
write you a letter regarding the Petroleum Institute, but the
opportunity has been denied me. Perhaps you will be good enough to
say to the gentlemen, whom I understand you are to meet tomorrow,
that I regard their work, if taken hold of whole-heartedly, as of
the greatest national importance. It is quite manifest now that
private enterprise must stand in the forefront in the development
of this industry, and that what the government can do will be
supplemental and suggestive. It is not an exaggeration to say that
millions of dollars must be spent in experiment before we know the
many services to which a barrel of oil can be put. There is almost
an indefinite opportunity for research work along this line.
Petroleum is a challenge to the chemists of the world. And now the
world is dependent upon it, as it is upon nothing else excepting
coal and iron, and the foodstuffs and textiles. It has jumped to
this place of eminence within twenty years, and the world is
concerned in knowing how large a supply there is and how every
drop of it can best be used. Practically, I think you should urge
that there be cooperative effort to protect against waste. The oil
men themselves should see the value of this and spend their money
freely to keep their wells from being flooded, to keep their pipe
lines from leaking, and to save their gas.
We are behind the rest of the world in the use of our oil for fuel
purposes. We are spendthrifts in this as in other of our national
resources. We can get three times as much energy as we do out of
our oil through the use of the Diesel engine, yet we are doing
little to promote development of a satisfactory type of stationary
Diesel, or marine design. Instead of seeing how many hundred
millions of barrels of oil we can produce and use, our effort
should be to see how few millions of barrels will satisfy our
needs. I say this although I am not a pessimist as to the
available supply, which I believe has been underestimated rather
than overestimated. I am satisfied that the man who has a barrel
of oil has something which, if he can save, is better than a
government bond. Throughout the Nation we must make a drive to
increase production--that is the slogan of this time--but that
does not mean that we should make a drive to exhaust resources
which God alone can duplicate.
Then too, I think that Congress can be largely helped by the sane
presentation of wise policies touching this industry. I have the
belief that whatever the body of oil men would agree upon would be
something that would make for the best use of petroleum, and for
the protection over a long period of this fundamental resource in
our industry. Congress has difficulty often in getting the large
view of practical men who speak without personal interest, and
such an Institute could speak not for the individual but for the
industry and show how it may best be developed in the interest of
the country.
To do these things, and to do them adequately, will require the
men in the industry to take the attitude of statesmen and not of
selfish exploiters. It means they must tax themselves liberally,
generously. It means that they must think of themselves as
trustees for a Public as wide as the world.
Please give my regards to the members of the Institute. Cordially
yours,
FRANKLIN K. LANE
TO E. C. BRADLEY
Washington, October 2, 1919
MY DEAR BRADLEY,-- ... I have all along said that the treaty could
not be ratified without some interpretive reservations. I think
that the President will see that, although he sees clearly, as I
do, that these interpretations are already in the treaty itself,
but on a question of construction two men may honestly differ. The
whole damn thing has gotten into the maelstrom of politics, of the
nastiest partisanship, when it ought to have been lifted up into
the clearer air of good sense and national dignity. ...
Hoover can be elected. He came home modestly and made a splendid
speech. We need a man of great administrative ability and of
supreme sanity who can lead us into quiet waters, if there are
any.
... We have imported, with our labor, their discontent, and the
theories which are founded upon it to obtain the price. But the
American workingman is a sensible fellow, when he can have the
chance to think without being overwhelmed by fear, and he will
realize that his betterment in a material way must come through
his own individual growth and the growth of the conscience of the
people who believe in a square deal. The serious thing in the
whole situation, to my mind, is the fact that so many workingmen
seem to accept the idea that they are of a fixed class; that they
can not move out of their present conditions; that they want
always to remain as employees and have no hope of becoming
superintendents, employers, managers, or capitalists; and
therefore think that their only prospect is in bettering their
condition as a part of a class. Great propaganda should be carried
on to show how false this is and how much demand there is for men
of ability.
With warm regards, old man, I am cordially yours,
FRANKLIN K. LANE
TO MRS. LOUISE HERRICK WALL
Washington, Friday, [October 10, 1919]
MY DEAR MRS. WALL,--We heard through Ned of the Commodore's death,
and you can realize how shocked and terribly grieved we were, and
still are.
Poor dear girl, there is nothing anyone can say that will help
even a little bit. Every word of appreciation makes the loss more
serious. And you need no one to tell you that he was loved by us,
and every single person who really knew him. He was to me
Christlike, beautiful, gentle, wise and noble. Since that first
day, nearly thirty years ago on Grays Harbor, I have known him as
one of the rare spirits of the world, and Anne and I have loved
him deeply. Surely he must live on, and we must all see him again!
May strength come to you out of the Infinite resources of the
Universe to bear this blow. The world was made better by him! In
deep sympathy,
FRANK LANE
TO--
Wednesday, November, [1919]
MY DEAR OLD MAN,--I am sitting alone in my den having come down
stairs to write a line on my report, but instead have been lured
into an evening of delight with Robert Louis Stevenson, whose
letters, in four volumes, I advise you to read for the spirit of
the man. Much like your own, my brave fine fellow! He went through
tortures with a smile and a merry imagination which made him
great, and makes all of us, and many more to come, his debtor. I
know how little you read. The birds have been yours and the trees
and the dogs and fishes, but there are men in the world, or have
been, whom one can know through their writings. Did you ever read
Trevelyan's three volumes on GARIBALDI? No,--well get it before
you are a week older and you will thank me for ever and a day.