you ... how emotional I have been all day with the old soldiers
passing by on parade--the last that many of them will ever have.
Fifty years ago, Andrew Johnson received Grant's returned forces
on the same spot. There were 180,000, or so, then--and 20,000 now
--crippled, lame, one-legged, bent, halting most of them, but
determined to make the long journey from the Capitol to the White
House, and prove that they had lived this long time and were still
good for a longer journey. There was little of gaiety among them,
tho' some were swinging flags, torn, tattered, be-shot ... and
raised their hats to the President as they passed, tho' most of
them, doubtless, were sorry that he was not a Republican. It was a
time to remember.
... Nancy is back after her tour of glory--larger than ever but
not less tender or playful. She is the brightest spirit I have
ever met--and all her vanities are so dear and human and lie so
frankly exposed. I thank you for your kindness to her, she loves
you very much; yes, really recognizes those qualities which some
cannot see, poor blind things! But I can, and she can, and Frances
can, and many more when you give them a look in. May your grass
grow and soul keep warm and your spirit lift itself in song at
morning and at night. Affectionately always,
F.L.
TO M. A. MATHEW
Washington, November 3, 1919
MY DEAR MR. MATHEW,--I have your letter of October 27th, and I
appreciate very much its kind words. The Industrial Conference was
not a success because we got into the steel strike at first, and
people talked about their rights instead of talking of their
duties. We will have another conference, however, which I think
will do some real work and lay a foundation for the future. The
coal strike is a bad one, but the people are not in sympathy with
it, and sooner or later, in my judgment, it will come to an
adjustment situation in which the President will be perfectly
willing to participate. He, by the way, is getting along very
well, but I expect it will be many weeks before he is himself
again. ... Cordially yours,
FRANKLIN K LANE
TO HERBERT C. PELL, JR. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Washington, November 8, 1919
MY DEAR MR. PELL,--I wish you success with your Constitutional
League. I have no objection whatever to my name being used in
connection with it, providing the League is not an institution for
denouncing people or denouncing theories of government or economic
panaceas; but is a positive, aggressive institution for the
presentation to our people of the fact that we have in this
Democracy a method of doing whatever we wish done, which avoids
the necessity for anything like revolutionary action. The
objection to Bolshevism is that it is absolutism--as Lenine has
said himself, the absolutism of the proletariat. It is an economic
government by force, while our Democracy is a government by
persuasion.
I find that no good comes from calling names. The men who are to
be reached are the men who are not committed against us, but are
disposed to be with American institutions. We must show them that
we have a system that it is worth while betting on, and that if
they have another way of doing things economical, machinery by
which it can be instituted is in the people's hands. Our policy is
to look before we leap, and to submit our methods to the judicial
judgment of the people. This permits any doctrine to be preached
that does not subvert our institutions. Where do our institutions
come from? What have they been effective in bringing about? What
is the condition of the United States as a whole compared with
other countries? Can we hope to work out our salvation without
civil war? These are legitimate questions, the answer to which is
found in this other question--is not political Democracy the one
practical way to eventual industrial Democracy? Cordially yours,
FRANKLIN K. LANE
TO HENRY P. DAVISON
Washington, November 23, 1919
MY DEAR MR. DAVISON,--I wired you yesterday my conclusion, as to
your very generous and patriotic offer, which was the same that I
had come to before seeing you in New York. Your appeal was so
strong and went so much to my impulse for public service that you
made me feel that, perhaps, I was giving undue weight to the
considerations I had presented to you. So I sought the judgment of
others--all of them men of large distinction whom you know, or at
least have confidence in, and without dissent I found them saying,
voluntarily and unbidden, what I had said to you--that for me to
undertake this work of arousing the best patriotic feeling of
America, on a salary, would make seriously against the success of
the work and against my own value in it, or in anything else I
might undertake. If I were rich I would go into it with my whole
heart. But a poor man can not be charged with making money out of
the exploitation of the good opinion others have of his love of
country. This is not squeamishness, it is a rough standard,
arrived at by instinct rather than by any refined process of
reasoning.
I say this to you because of my deep confidence in you and my very
real confidence that you are my friend, and sought to do me a
kindness and give me an opportunity. Now let me see if I can be of
any help in this work. ...
[Here followed a full detailed plan of an Americanization program,
that concluded with the paragraph.]
These outline some methods of reaching the public with the idea
that this is a land that is lovable, prosperous, good-humored,
great, and noble-spirited. To carry it out will cost a great deal
of money, I should say that not less than five million a year
should be available. With warm regard, cordially yours,
FRANKLIN K. LANE
TO GEORGE W. LANE
Washington, November 28, [1919]
MY DEAR GEORGE,--Do not be surprised if you hear that I am out of
the Cabinet soon, for I have been offered two fifty thousand a
year places, and another even more. I don't want to leave if it
will embarrass the President, but I do want something with a
little money in it for awhile. ... But I must see the President
before I decide ... and I don't know when that will be, now that
he is sick.
This life has a great fascination for everyone and I dread to
leave it; for anything else will bore me I am sure. I deal here
only with big questions and not with details--with policies that
affect many, and yet I have but a year and a half more, and then
what? Perhaps it is as well to take time by the forelock, tho' I
do not want to decide selfishly nor for money only. I must go
where I can feel that I am in public work of some kind. ...
... I have served him [the President] long and faithfully under
very adverse circumstances. It is hard for him to get on with
anyone who has any will or independent judgment. Yet I am not
given to forsaking those to whom I have any duty. However we shall
see, I write you this, that you may not be misled by the thought
that there has been or is any friction. Of course you won't speak
of it to anyone.
I am so glad you are able to be out a little bit. "Ain't it a
glorious feelin'?" The farm must look mighty good. Well, old man,
goodnight, and God give you your eyes back! With my warmest love,
FRANK
TO C. S. JACKSON OREGON JOURNAL
Washington, December 29, 1919 MY DEAR SAM,--I hear from Joe Teal
that your boy has been lost at sea, and I write this word, not in
the hope that I can say anything that will minimize your loss, for
all the kindly words of all men in all the world could not do as
much as one faint smile from that boy's lips could do to bring a
bit of joy into your heart.
But you are an old, old friend of mine. It is more than thirty
years since we dreamed a dream together which you were able to
realize. We both have had our fortune in good and bad, and on the
whole I think our lives have not added to the misery of men, but
have done something toward making life a bit more kind for many
people. And why should that boy be taken from you? There is the
mystery--if you can solve it you can solve all the other
mysteries. I hope you have some good staunch faith, which I have
never been able to get, that would enable me to look upon these
things in humility, in the confidence that this thing we call a
body is only a temporary envelope for a permanent thing--a
lasting, growing thing called a spirit, the only thing that
counts. If we can get that sense we can have a new world. I do not
believe we will change this world much for the good out of any
materialistic philosophy or by any shifting of economic affairs.
We need a revival--a belief in something bigger than ourselves,
and more lasting than the world.
With my warmest sympathy, I am, yours as always,
FRANKLIN K. LANE
TO JOHN CRAWFORD BURNS
Washington, December 29, [1919]
MY DEAR JOHN,--The manner in which you write assures me that you
are very happy, notwithstanding your marriage and your new
religion, for which I am glad. An even better assurance is the
picture of the bride. By what wizardry have you been able to lure
and capture so young, good, and intelligent-looking a girl? I
presume she was fascinated by the indirectness of your speech, the
touches of humor and your very stern manner. John, you are a
humbug, you have made that aloofness and high indifference a
winning asset. I shan't give you away. Only you fill me with a
mortifying envy.
As for your religion, various of your friends think it odd. I
think that you are a subject for real congratulation. A man who
can believe anything is miles ahead of the rest of us. I would
gladly take Christian Science, Mohammedanism, the Holy Rollers or
anything else that promised some answer to the perplexing
problems. But you have been able to go into the Holy of Holies and
sit down on the same bench of belief with most of the saints--this
is miraculous good fortune. I mean it. I am not scoffing or
jeering. I never was more serious.
This whole damned world is damned because it is standing in a bog,
there is no sure ground under anyone's feet. We are the grossest
materialists because we only know our bellies and our backs. We
worship the great god Comfort. We don't think; we get sensations.
The thrill is the thing. All the newspapers, theatres, prove it.
We resign ourselves to a life that knows no part of man but his
nerves. We study "reactions," in human beings and in chemistry--
recognizing no difference between the two--and to my great
amazement, the war has made the whole thing worse than ever. John,
if you have a religion that can get hold of people, grip them and
lift them--for God's sake come over and help us. I know you can
understand how people become Bolsheviks just out of a desire for
definiteness and leadership. The world will not move forward by
floating on a sea of experimentation. It gets there by believing
in precise things, even when they are only one-tenth true. I wish
I had your faith--as a living, moving spirit. Some day I pray that
I may get with you where you can tell me more of it and how you
got it.
I am leaving the Cabinet, tho' the precise date no one knows, for
the President is not yet well enough to talk about it. He seems to
be too done up to stand any strain or worry. But I must have some
money, for my years are not many, Anne is far from well, and Nancy
is a young lady, and a very beautiful one. She has just come out
and is quite the belle of the season, tho' like her father, too
anxious for popularity.
Great good luck of all kinds to you in 1920, old man--and do give
me a line now and then.
F. K. L.
TO FRANK I. COBB NEW YORK WORLD
Washington, [1919]
MY DEAR FRANK,--I have read your speech on Prussianizing the
Americans, and I concur. Of course repression ... promotes the
growth of error. We are not going to destroy socialism, or prevent
it from coming strong by refusing to answer it.
But I have a notion that you have not expressed as directly as I
should like:--That the newspaper is not influential enough to stop
it and perhaps does not care to, sometimes. Where are the papers
that are respected for their character? They are few. The most of
them are believed to be the allies of every kind of Satan. "They
are rich; their ads. run them; they pander to circulation, no
matter of what kind, to get ads.", that is the answer of the plain
people. If the papers were things of thought and not of passion,
prejudice and sensation and interest, they could do the work that
police and courts are called upon to do. They could effectively
answer the agitator. But the people do not believe them when they
cry aloud. Maybe I am wrong, but isn't there a grain, or a gram,
of truth in this?
For a year and a half I have been bombarding Congress with a
demand for a bill that would make a campaign, through the schools,
against illiteracy. I have made dozens of speeches for it, written
a lot, lobbied much, until Congress passed a law stopping my
working up sentiment for it, by a joint resolution. How much
sentiment has the press created? You had one or two editorials.
The Times one. No one else in New York gave a damn. The
Congressmen were not made to feel that those ignorant foreigners
who were fifty-five per cent of the steel workers, must learn to
read papers that were written in American, not in Russian or
Yiddish or Polish or Italian.
I tell you seriously we are not a serious people except when we
are scared. "Rights of free speech, O yes! they must be preserved.
Democracy has its balancing of forces." All this is forgotten when
the government is at stake--our institutions. These mottoes and
legends and traditions presuppose someone who will enlighten the
people and a people that can be enlightened. Otherwise you will
get the strong arm at work. It is inevitable. Has there been any
meeting of editors to map a course that will truthfully reveal
what Bolshevism is? or how absurd the talk of wage-slavery is? or
why the miners strike? or why this is the best of all lands?
Tell me why workmen don't believe what you print, unless it is
some slander on a rich man, or some story that falls in with
prejudices and hatreds?
Answer me that and you will know why the people sit indifferent
while papers are suppressed, speakers harried, and espionage is
king.
Mind you, I am not saying that you are alone to blame. Congress
is. The States are. The cities are. The people are. They have let
everything drift. What is our passion? What do we love? Do we
think, or do we go to the movies? The socialist takes his
philosophy seriously. The rest of us have no philosophy that is a
passion with us.
But there, I have scolded enough. You are right, but you are not
fundamental or basic or something or other, which means that you
can't put out a fire unless you have a fire department that is on
the job. Tenderly yours,
F. K L.
Lane never outgrew his passionate belief in the moral
responsibility of the press. To Fremont Older, when he took charge
of the SAN FRANCISCO CALL, Lane telegraphed:--
"There is no other agency that can serve our national purpose that
is one-half as powerful as a free press, and no other that has
one-half the responsibility. We need a press that will stand for
the right, no matter whether its circulating or advertising is
increased or not by such a position, and that means a press that
includes in its understandings and sympathies the whole of society
and serves no purpose other than the promotion of a happier and
nobler people. Journalism is the greatest of all professions in a
free country, if it is bent upon being right rather than being
successful. I hope that you may be both."
TO MRS. LOUISE HERRICK WATT
Watkins Glen, New York, [December, 1919]
MY DEAR MRS. WALL,--I am reminded by your letter to Anne that I
have said no word to you since that first word of attempt at
support, which I threw out on the first day. I meant it all and
more. Wall was always in my mind, as at heart, the truest Democrat
I knew. He really lived up to the standard of the New Testament.
He did love his neighbor as himself. He never did good or kindness
out of policy, but always from principle, from nature--which can
be said of very few in this world. He was without cowardice of any
kind, and without hypocrisy. I believe he had no vanity. He had
the pride of a noble man and lived as generously toward the world
as I have ever known man to live. This might be said of one who
was austere, but the dear, old Commodore was to me, and to us all,
the very symbol of warmth. The one thing I criticised in him was
his unwillingness that people should discover him for the
fanciful, humorous, wise, and exquisitely tender man that he was.
He did not leave an enemy, I know, unless that man was a
scoundrel. And with all his reticence he impressed himself
profoundly on hundreds. I know if there is another world that Wall
and I will find each other, and he will be with the gladdest,
gayest of the spirits. I hope you can look forward to such a
meeting with the confidence that Anne has, which always astonishes
me and makes me envious. He has gone to the one place, if any such
place there is, where the greatest longing of his soul can be
gratified--his love for justice.
If you have a picture of him, no matter how poor, won't you let me
have it, that I may hang it beside my work desk, and looking at it
find inspiration and be reminded of the sane, loving, lovable,
high-hearted chap whom I held as a brother?
Dear lonely woman, I wish I could speak one word that would
lighten your sense of loss, in him and in your mother. I know that
you are not lacking in courage, but stoutness of heart does not
bring comfort, I know. How exceptional your loss because how
exceptional your fortune--such a man and such a mother. Very
sincerely yours,
FRANKLIN K. LANK
TO MRS. M. A. ANDERSEN
Sunday, [December, 1919]
... The whole of mankind is searching for affection, tenderness,--
not physical love but sweet companionship. We could get along with
fewer pianos and victrolas if we had a more harmonious society. We
really don't like each other much better than Alaskan dogs. Now
what is the reason for that? Are we afraid of them stealing from
us--our houses, sweethearts, or dollars? Or are we so stupid that
we don't know each other, never get under the skin to find out
what kind of a fellow this neighbor is? Certainly we are self-
centered and we wonder that people don't like us when we don't try
to find what is likable about them--and keep stressing their
unlikable qualities.
All of which homily leads up to the Holidays. I hope that you will
enjoy them. Nancy is having no end of a gay time, and knows how
really good a time she is having, I do believe. She is the rarest
combination of old woman and baby I have ever known, cynically
wise, almost, and soft innocence. She has a dozen beaux and is
extravagant about, and to, each. ...
The President is getting better slowly, but we communicate with
him almost entirely through his doctor (Grayson). I shall be
mighty sorry to leave here, where we have so many friends, but my
hope is to get enough to buy a place in California, one of these
days, and settle down to the normal life of digging a bit in the
soil and then digging a bit in the brain.
Give my warmest regards to the Captain. You have ripened into a
fine beauty and a great usefulness, and I hope that you will find
serenity of mind and soul, which is all that the great have ever
searched for. With much love,
FRANK
TO GEORGE W. LANE
[December, 1919]
MY DEAR GEORGE,--Things are going well notwithstanding the
President's illness. No one is satisfied that we know the truth,
and every dinner table is filled with speculation. Some say
paralysis, and some say insanity. Grayson tells me it is nervous
breakdown, whatever that means. He is however getting better, and
meantime the Cabinet is running things. ...
Ned is here and having a good time with all his old girls, some of
whom have married and are already divorced, so he feels an old
man. Nancy is lovely and merry and quite a belle. She took with
the Prince of Belgium, and was quite as happy as you would be with
having caught a six-pound trout--just the same feeling, I guess.
Politically things do not look interesting. There are no big men
in the line except Hoover. The country wants some manly, two-
fisted administrator and it doesn't care where he comes from.
I hope your eye is better, dear old man. My love to Frances.
F. K. L.
The Dan O'Neill to whom the next letter was written, was a friend
of early days. Lane always liked to recall this episode. O'Neill,
a big elderly Irishman, was in the City employ, while Lane was
City and County Attorney, and had formed for his "Chief"--as he
lustily called him--a most disinterested affection. After Lane's
defeat for Mayor of San Francisco, O'Neill came one day and asked
for an interview. When greetings were over he stood hesitating and
twirling his hat, until Lane said, "Well, Dan, what can I do for
you?"
"You see, Chief," he answered, "The wife and I were talking it
over last night. We know how these damned campaigns of yours have
been taking the money. You see, we have two lots of land--out
there," with a jerk of the hat toward the great outside, "and a
little house--and we're well and strong, and all the children
doing fine at school--and we can, easy as not, put a mortgage on
the house, for two or three thousand. We'd like it fine if you'd
take it, until you get going again."
Lane did not have to mortgage his friend's house, but it was these
"sweet uses of adversity," more than anything else, that tempered,
for him, the pain of defeat. This friendship lasted to the end of
his life. In 1915, when going back from California on a hurried
trip, Lane wrote to O'Neill, "I did not see much of you and I am
sorry I didn't. It was my fault, I know. Your dear old Irish face
is a joy to me every time I see it, and whenever I go out you must
not fail to turn up, else I shall be brokenhearted."
When Lane was very ill in 1921, O'Neill came to pay his respects
to the wife of his Chief. As she went out into the hallway of her
friend's house, in San Francisco, the whole place seemed filled by
O'Neills, for he stood there and all his three great sons--one a
fire captain, and stalwart men all. It was a sad meeting and
parting.
TO DAN J. O'NEILL
Washington, December 24, 1919
MY DEAR DAN,--I am delighted to get your nice letter. It is as
charming a letter as I ever received, because you tell me of all
the family and that they are doing well, and that you are in good
health, and that you want me back with you--all of which makes me
love you more and more. Give to the whole family my good holiday
greetings. Make them earnest and hearty.
I haven't got money enough, Dan, to pay my fare back after living
here so long, and I shall have to make some before coming back
there, but I hope to do it some one of these days. ...
Dan, I know you have been a bad man, and I know you have been a
good man; and there will be a place in Heaven for you, old fellow.
You have been an honest citizen, a credit to your country, and so
have your children, and you will never know anyone who is fonder
of you than I. Cordially yours,
FRANKLIN K. LANE
TO EAMLIN GARLAND
December 3l, 1919
MY DEAR GARLAND,--I am going up to New York on the eleventh to
talk to the moving picture people at the Waldorf-Astoria. I had
them down here and had a resolution put through the Committees on
Education of both House and Senate, asking the Moving Picture
Industry to interest itself in Americanization, and I have been
appointed at the head of a committee to take charge of this work.
I have some schemes myself that I want very much to talk to you
about regarding Americanization.
I do not know how much time I will be able to give to this work
because I have got to make some money, but I am going to use my
spare time that way. Suppose when I get to New York I telephone
you and see if we can not get together. Cordially yours,
FRANKLIN K. LANE
To one of the Moving Picture Weeklies, Lane contributed this
paragraph on Americanizing the foreign born:--"The one sure way to
bring the foreign born to love this land of ours is to show our
pride in its present, faith in its future, and interpret America
to all in terms of fair play and square dealing. America gives men
nothing--except a chance,"
TO HUGO K. ASHER
Rochester, Minnesota, January 3, 1920
MY DEAR HUGO,--I have not written you because my own plans must be
determined by circumstances. I think, however, that I shall leave
very soon. I hate to go because the work is so satisfactory. ...