The Letters of Franklin K. Lane, Personal and Political
intended for you. Your criticism of T. R.'s literary style is
appreciated, and no doubt he lacks in precision of thought.
Now we shall have a chance to see what a college president can do
as President of the United States. I believe Wilson will be
elected. What a splendid jump in three years that man has made!
They tell me he is very cold-blooded. We need a cold-blooded
fellow these days ...
September 21, 1912
... You will by this time have picked up all the politics of the
time. Wilson is strong, but not stronger than he was when
nominated. T. R. is gaining strength daily, that is my best guess.
He has the laboring man with him most enthusiastically but not
unanimously, of course. The far West--Pacific Coast--is his. All
the railroad men and the miners ...
I am not sure of Wilson. He is not "wise" to modern conditions, I
fear. Tearing up the tariff won't change many prices. Doesn't he
seem to talk too much like a professor and too little like a
statesman? Hearst is knifing him for all he is worth. He has fixed
in the workingmen's minds that Wilson favors Chinese immigration.
Well, when am I to see you again? And how is Mrs. John? How I do
wish you were here! As always,
F. K. L.
To Timothy Spellacy
Washington, September 30, 1912
MY DEAR TIM,--I have your fine, long letter of September 23, and
this is no more than just an acknowledgment. I am glad to know
that you are taking so hearty an interest in the campaign. It is
really too bad that you did not stay longer in Baltimore and see
Bryan win out all along the line.
I don't want a position in the Cabinet. I am not looking for any
further honors, but I want to help Wilson make a success of his
administration, for I think he will be elected. I am afraid that
he will become surrounded by Southern reactionaries--men of his
own blood and feeling, who are not of the Northern and more
progressive type. We have got to cut some sharp corners in doing
the things that are right. By this I don't mean that we will do
anything that is wrong; but from the standpoint of the Southern
Democrat it is illegal to have a strong central government--one
that is effective--and we have got to have such a government if we
are going to hold possession of the Nation. The people want things
done. Wilson is a bit too conservative for me, but maybe when he
realizes the necessity for strength he will be for it.
I am sorry for B--. Poor chap! His alliance with Hearst undid
years of good work ... As always yours,
FRANKLIN K. LANE
To Adolph C. Miller
Washington, October 18, 1912
MY DEAR ADOLPH,--I have postponed until the last minute writing
you regarding my proposed visit in California. I see now clearly
that it is impossible for me to get out there this fall. The
Express Case ... is still on my hands, and with all of my energy I
shall not be able to get rid of it until the first of the year at
least ... Moreover (and this is a personal matter that I wish you
would not say anything about) ... I am doing my work in a great
deal of pain, and have been for the last three or four weeks ... I
cannot work as hard as I did some time ago ...
I rebel at sickness as much as I do at death. The scheme of
existence does not appeal to me, at the moment, as the most
perfect which a highly imaginative Creator could have invented. My
transcendental philosophy seems a pretty good working article when
things are going smoothly, but it is not quite equal to hard
practical strain, I fear.
Politically things look like Wilson, though I suppose T. R. will
get California and a lot of other states. I think he will beat
Taft badly. The new party has come to stay, and it will be a
tremendous influence for good. I don't take any stock in the talk
about T. R's personal ambition being his controlling motive. I
think that he has found a religious purpose in life to which he
can devote himself the rest of his days, not to get himself into
office but to keep things moving along right lines.
Remember me most kindly to your wife and President Wheeler. As
always yours,
FRANKLIN K. LANE
To William F. McCombs Chairman, Democratic National Committee
Washington, October 19,1912
Dear Mr. McCombs,--I cannot go to California and make speeches for
Governor Wilson without resigning from the Commission. Four years
ago two Republican members of the Commission were strongly urged
at a critical time in the campaign to get into Mr. Taft's fight so
as to help with the labor vote. I insisted that they should not do
it, and the matter was brought before the Commission, and we then
decided that no member of the Commission should take part in
politics. So you see when the telegrams began to come in this
year, urging that I go out to California and the other Pacific
Coast states, I was compelled to say that I was stopped by my
position of four years ago.
I have never wanted to get into a campaign as much as I have this
one. Governor Wilson represents all that I have been fighting for,
for the last twenty years in my State; but I think that it would
be almost fatal to the independence and high repute of this
Commission for its members to take part in a national campaign. We
have so much power that we can exercise upon the railroads and
upon railroad men that any announcement made by a member of this
Commission could properly be construed as a threat or a suggestion
that should be heeded by the wise. I know that this view of the
matter will appeal to you as entirely sensible when you reflect
upon it, and to my impatient friends in California, to whom it has
been very hard to say no.
I am glad to see that you are holding the fight up so hard at the
tail end of the campaign. That is when Democratic campaigns have
so often been lost. Governor Wilson is maintaining himself
splendidly, and our one danger has been over-confidence. Sincerely
yours,
FRANKLIN K. LANE
About the political situation he wrote to one of his former
Assistants in the City and County Attorney's office in San
Francisco
To Hugo K. Asher
Washington, October 22,1912
MY DEAR HUGO,--I have your long letter which you promised in your
telegram. Now, old man, I want to have a perfectly open talk with
you. I understand your attitude of affectionate ambition for me,
and I am mighty proud of it, that after the years we were
associated together, the ups and downs we had, you feel the way
you do.
Wilson is going to be elected unless some miracle happens, and I
would tremendously like to get out to California and speak to the
people once more. You do not know just how the old lust for battle
has come over me. Following your telegram came a letter from
McCombs, the Chairman of the National Committee, saying that he
had received a lot of telegrams urging him to have me go and that
Governor Wilson would like me to. But I wrote him precisely as I
have you. If the members of this Commission once get into
politics, the institution is gone to hell, for we can make or
unmake any candidate we wish. This is the most powerful body in
the United States, and we must act with a full sense of the
responsibility that is on us ...
As for being a member of Wilson's Cabinet, I don't want to be. In
the first place I can't afford it. There is no Cabinet man here
who lives on his salary, and as you know, I have got nothing else.
I save nothing now out of the salary that I get, and if the social
obligations of a Cabinet position were placed upon me I would have
to run in debt ...
Furthermore, I am doing just as big work and as satisfactory work
as any member of the Cabinet. The work that a Cabinet officer
chiefly does is to sign his name to letters or papers that other
people write. There is very little constructive work done in any
Cabinet office. While the glamour of intimate association with the
President--the honor that comes from such a position--appeals to
me, for I still have all my old-time vanity and love of dignity
and appreciation; yet the position that I occupy is one of so much
power, and I am conscious so thoroughly of its usefulness, that I
do not want to change it. I should be more or less close to the
President anyway, I presume. His friends are my friends, and I
shall have an opportunity to help make his administration a
success by advising with him, if he desires my advice.
Now, old man, I have talked to you very frankly, and I know that
you will understand just what I mean. If I were out of office I
would have been in Wilson's campaign a year ago. If I wanted a
Cabinet position now I would resign from the Commission and go out
to help him. I think probably if I felt that California's vote was
necessary to Wilson's success and that I could help to get it, I
would take the latter course, although it is not clear that that
would be my duty, in view of conditions in the Commission.
With warmest regards, believe me, as always, faithfully yours,
FRANKLIN K. LANE
To Francis G. Newlands Reno, Nevada
Washington, October 28, 1912
MY DEAR SENATOR,--I am delighted at the receipt of your long
letter, for I have been very anxious to know how you felt about
your own State. Of course it has been a foregone conclusion for
some time that Wilson would carry the United States, but I was
desirous that you should carry Nevada for your own sake ...
In my judgment the Interstate Trades Commission needs all of your
concentrated energy for the next year. The bill should be your
bill, and you should be the leading authority upon the matter.
Wilson should look to you for advice along this line of dealing
with the trust problem. He will, if you have the greater body of
information upon the subject. Of course Roosevelt did not know
where he was going as to his Trades Commission, and he would not
have had any opportunity were he elected to go any farther, ...
because that Commission has got to feel its way along. Wilson, you
can see from his speeches, has swallowed Brandeis' theory without
knowing much about the problem, but he certainly has handled
himself well during the campaign ... What he does will very
largely depend, I think, upon those who surround him. He must have
access to sources of information outside of the formal
administrative officers who make up his Cabinet. This is a very
delicate way of saying that he must have a sort of "kitchen
cabinet" made up of men like you and myself who will be willing to
talk frankly to him, and whom he will listen to with confidence
and respect. If he can get the Southerners into line with the
Northern Democrats he can make over the Democratic Party and give
it a long lease of life. If he cannot do this, and his party
splits, Roosevelt's party will come into possession of the country
in four years, and hold it for a long time ...
I am glad to see that you have been able to take so personal and
direct an interest in the campaign. Faithfully yours,
FRANKLIN K. LANE
Following the news of the Democratic victory, in the election of
Woodrow Wilson to the Presidency, Lane sent these letters:--
To Woodrow Wilson Trenton, N. J.
Washington, November 6, 1912
MY DEAR GOVERNOR,--The door of opportunity has opened to the
Progressive Democracy. I know that you will enter courageously.
The struggle of the next four years will be to persuade our timid
brethren to follow your leadership, "gentlemen unafraid." I am
persuaded from my experience here that no President can be a
success unless he takes the position of a real party leader--the
premier in Parliament as well as a chief executive. The
theoretical idea of the President's aloofness from Congress--of a
President dealing with the National Legislature as if he were an
independent government dealing with another--is wrong, because it
has been demonstrated to be ineffective and ruinous. We need