The Letters of Franklin K. Lane, Personal and Political
as they know that I could not be held up. In the various campaigns
that I have made, it has never been suggested that the railroads
had any more influence with me than they ought to have, or that
anybody else had, and in my fight for the Governorship they did
not contribute so much as a single postcard, nor did an individual
railroad man contribute a dollar to the campaign fund. I
say this because I heard yesterday that word had gone to the
President that I was something of a railroad man, which is about
the most amusing thing that I have heard for sometime. The charge
never was made in any of my five campaigns, and certainly is made
only for foreign consumption, end not for home consumption.
Do not in any way put yourself out regarding this matter. I am
satisfied that the President will do just what he wants to do and
just what he thinks right, without much respect to what anybody
says to him, and I don't want to bring pressure to bear upon him;
but, of course, I want him to know that I have friends who think
well of me. I am very appreciative of your offer and efforts, and
hope that, whether I am given this position or not, I shall before
very long have the opportunity of seeing you in New York. Very
sincerely,
FRANKLIN K. LANE
TO HON. THEODORE ROOSEVELT THE WHITE HOUSE
San Francisco, December 9, [1905]
MY DEAR MR. PRESIDENT,--I have not written you before because of
my expectation that I would see you soon, but as there now seems
some doubt as to immediate confirmation I will not longer delay
expressing the deep gratification which the nomination gave me.
You gave the one answer I could have wished to the whispered
charge that I was bound by obligation of some sort to the
railroads--a charge never made in any form here, not even in the
hottest of my five campaigns. My honor stood pledged to you--by
the very fact of my willingness to accept the post--that I was
free, independent, self-owned, capable of unbiased action. And
that pledge remains.
As to my confirmation, it has been suggested that it was the
customary and expected thing for me to go to Washington and help
in the fight. This I feel I should not do and have so written to
Senator Perkins and others. I do not wish to appear indifferent in
the slightest degree to the honor you have done me, or to the
office itself, but I feel that you will appreciate without my
setting them forth on paper the many reasons which hold me here.
This is no time for an Interstate Commerce Commissioner to be on
his knees before a United States Senator or to be thought to be in
that position. Very respectfully yours,
FRANKLIN K. LANE
To Benjamin Ide Wheeler President, University of California
San Francisco, December 15, 1905
MY DEAR MR. WHEELER,--I enclose copy of a letter sent this morning
to Mr. Smythe of San Diego, who is temporarily with Senator
Newlands in Washington.
I wanted to tell you last night that I had written to the
President thanking him for the confidence he had shown in me, and
telling him that I did not think it was the right thing for me to
go to Washington under present circumstances. He may have a
different notion in this respect, and of course I should be guided
by his judgment ... I have no doubt that many of the Senators
would be quite willing to let the President have the law if they
could have the Commission ...
Personally I should be most pleased to meet these critical
gentlemen of the Senate and give them a very full account of my
eventful career. But the fact that I am a Democrat could not be
disproved by my presence in Washington, and I am not likely to
apologize for what one of my kindly Republican critics calls "this
error of his boyhood." I am concerned in this matter because I do
not wish to cause the President any embarrassment. He is fighting
for far larger things than this appointment represents. He knows
his own game, and I am quite willing to stand on a side line and
see him play it to a finish, or get in and buck the center if I am
needed. I must apologize for troubling you with this matter, but I
do not wish you to regard me as indifferent or unappreciative. And
if you think that I am too far up in the clouds I want you frankly
to tell me so. Sincerely yours,
FRANKLIN K. LANE
To William E. Smythe
San Francisco, December 15,1905
MY DEAR MR. SMYTHE,--I have been out of town for a few days, else
I would have acknowledged your kind letter of congratulation
sooner. I sent a note the other day to our friend Senator Newlands
in recognition of the effort he has been making to secure action
upon my appointment, and I certainly regard myself as very
fortunate in having one who knows me upon that Committee.
[Footnote: The Interstate Commerce Committee.]
According to the press despatches here I am regarded as something
of a monster by the more conservative Senators, a sort of cross
between Dennis Kearney and Eugene Debs with a little of Herr Most
thrown in ... I wish for confirmation, but not at the price of
having it thought that I in any way compromised myself to obtain
the Senate's favorable action. I know that you are not alone in
this view as to the wisdom of my going on, for I have received
other messages to the same effect. But, as you know, the President
made this appointment upon grounds quite superior to those of
political expediency and upon recommendations not at all political
in their nature ... Very truly yours,
FRANKLIN K. LANE
To John H. Wigmore
San Francisco, December 21, [1905]
MY DEAR WIGMORE,--Your letter bore good fruit ... As for
confirmation it is not as likely as I could wish. However, I am
enjoying the situation hugely, and if the fight is kept up I may
enlarge into a national issue.
The Press of California (notice the respectful capital) is
practically a unit for me ... My information is that the President
will stand pat. But the fight with the Senate is growing so large
that no one can tell what will happen. I have been urged to go to
Washington and meet the Senators, but I have refused. ... Am I not
right?
Remember me very kindly to your wife, and to you both a Merry
Christmas. As always yours,
FRANKLIN K. LANE
To Benjamin Ide Wheeler President, University of California
San Francisco, December 22, [1905]
MY DEAR MR. WHEELER,--It was mighty good of you to bring me that
message of good cheer last night. I have not told you, and cannot
now tell you the very great pleasure and gratification you have
given me by the many evidences of your personal friendship. To me
it is better to have that kind of friendship than any office.
I have just received a letter from the President [Roosevelt] that
is so fine I want you to know of it at once--but the original I
keep for home use. Here it is:--
"... I thank you for your frank and manly letter. It is just the
kind of a letter I should have expected from you. You are
absolutely right in refraining from coming here. I shall make and
am making as stiff a fight as I know how for you. I think I shall
carry you through; but of course nothing of this kind is ever
certain. ..."
Please remember me most kindly to Mrs. Wheeler and believe me
always, faithfully yours,
FRANKLIN K. LANE
The California earthquake, of April 18, 1906, occurred at about
five o'clock in the morning. Lane was living in North Berkeley,
across the bay from San Francisco. His house built of light wood
and shingles, rocked, and his chimneys flung down bricks, in the
successive shocks, but with no serious damage. Meanwhile San
Francisco sprang into flames from hundreds of broken gas mains.
Lane reached the city early in the morning, and was at once put,
by the Mayor, upon the Committee of Fifty to look to the safety of
the City.
Will Irwin wrote this picturesque story of the episode after
having heard his friend describe this adventure:--
"Lane has said since that, although he was brought up in the old
West, his was a city life after all. He had never tested himself
against primitive physical force, tried himself out in an
emergency, and he had always longed for such a test before he
died. When the test came it was a supreme one: the San Francisco
disaster. ...
"On the last day but one of this visitation the fire, smoldering
slowly in the redwood houses, had taken virtually all the district
east of Van Ness Avenue, a broad street which bisects the
residence quarter. ... By this time the authorities had given up
dynamiting. Chief Sullivan, the one man among them who understood
the use of explosives in fire fighting, was dead. The work had
been done by soldiers from the Presidio, who blew up buildings too
close to the flames and so only scattered them. Lane stood on the
slope of Russian Hill, watching the fire approach Van Ness Avenue,
when a contractor named Anderson came along. 'That fire always
catches at the eaves, not the foundations,' said Lane. 'It could
be stopped right here if some one would dynamite all the block
beyond Van Ness Avenue. It could never jump across a strip so
broad.' 'But they've forbidden any more dynamiting,' said
Anderson. 'Never mind; I'd take the chance myself if we could get
any explosive,' replied Lane. 'Well, there's a launch full of
dynamite from Contra Costa County lying right now at Meigs's
Wharf,' said Anderson. Just then Mr. and Mrs. Tom Magee arrived,
driving an automobile on the wheel rims. Lane despatched them to
Meigs's Wharf for the dynamite. He and Anderson found an electric
battery, and cut some dangling wires from a telephone pole. By
this time the Magees were back, the machine loaded with dynamite;
Mrs. Magee carrying a box of detonators on her lap. Lane,
Anderson, and a corps of volunteers laid the battery and strung
the wires. 'How do you want this house to fall?' asked Anderson,
who understands explosives. 'Send her straight up,' replied Lane.
"'And I've never forgotten the picture which followed,' Lane has
told me since. 'Anderson disappeared inside, came out, and said:
"All ready." I joined the two ends of wire which I held in my
hands. The house rose twenty feet in the air--intact, mind you! It
looked like a scene in a fairy book. At that point I rolled over
on my back, and when I got up the house was nothing but dust and
splinters.'
"They went down the line, blowing up houses, schools, churches.
Then came bad news. To the south sparks were catching on the eaves
of the houses. Down there was a little water in cisterns.
Volunteers under Lane's direction made the householders stretch
wet blankets over the roofs and eaves. Then again bad news from
the north. There the fire had really crossed the avenue. It
threatened the Western Addition, the best residence district. The
cause seemed lost. Lane ran up and looked over the situation. Only
a few houses were afire, and the slow-burning redwood was
smoldering but feebly. 'Just a little water would stop this!' he
thought. The whole water system of San Francisco was gone, or
supposedly so, through the breaking of the mains. 'But I had a
hunch, just a hunch,' said Lane, 'that there was water somewhere
in the pipes.' He had learned that a fire company which had given
up the fight was asleep on a haystack somewhere in the Western
Addition. He went out and found them. They had been working for
thirty-six hours; they lay like dead men. Lane kicked the soles of
the nearest fireman. He returned only a grunt. The next fireman,
however, woke up; Lane managed to get him enthusiastic. He found a
wrench, and together he and Lane went from hydrant to hydrant,
turning on the cocks. The first five or six gave only a faint
spurt and ceased to flow. Then, and just when the fireman was
getting ready to go on strike, they turned a cock no more
promising than the others, and out spurted a full head of water.