The Letters of Franklin K. Lane, Personal and Political
to confer, and I had written pleading letters and made my prayers
in person that my bills should be included in the program. On
Thursday, the War Department refused the use of an engineer for
the Alaskan railroad. In one day I drafted and secured the passage
of a joint resolution giving me the man I wanted. The war scare
had subsided and I had seen the Mediators who said that nothing
would be doing for two weeks. So I went to the Cabinet meeting
prepared to say goodbye. Then came a bomb--two European powers
served notice that they would hold us responsible for what was
likely to happen in Mexico City upon the incoming of Zapata and
Villa, and wanted to know how prepared we were. We left the
Cabinet divided as to what should be done. A group of us met in
the afternoon and decided to ask for another meeting. I carried
the message. The reply was that the matter must be held over till
the next meeting, and meanwhile we were asked to suggest a
program. Then I sent my message to you. I have told this to no one
but Anne. You deserve no less than the fullest statement from me.
Please treat it as the most sacred of secrets. Always gratefully
yours,
FRANKLIN K. LANE
The following letter, written about a year after Lane's entry into
the Cabinet, shows what, in the course of a year, he had been able
to accomplish in building the men of his heterogeneous department
into a cooperative social unit by means of what he called his
"Land Cabinet" and the Home Club.
To Albert Shaw Review of Reviews
Washington, April 8,1914
MY DEAR MR. SHAW,--Of course I saw the Review for April before
your copies arrived, for somebody was good enough to tell me that
there was a good word in it for me, and no matter how busy I am I
always manage to read a boost ...
You ask what I am doing to bring about team-work in the
Department. Many things. As you probably don't know, this has been
a rather disjointed Department. It was intended originally that it
should be called the Home Department, and its Secretary the
Secretary for Home Affairs. How we come to have some of the
bureaus I don't know. Patents and Pensions, for instance, would
not seem to have a very intimate connection with Indians and
Irrigation. Education and Public Lands, the hot springs of
Arkansas, and the asylum for the insane for the District of
Columbia do not appear to have any natural affiliation. The result
has been that the bureaus have stood up as independent entities,
and I have sought to bring them together, centering in this
office.
One of the first things I did was to form what is called a Land
Cabinet, made up of the Assistant Secretaries, the Commissioner of
the Land Office, and the Director of the Geological Survey. We
meet every Monday afternoon and go over our problems together. The
Reclamation Commission is another organization of a similar sort,
and we have constant conferences between the heads of bureaus
which have to do with different branches of Indian work, lands,
irrigation, and pensions.
Some time ago in order to develop greater good feeling between the
heads of the bureaus we organized a noonday mess, at which all the
chiefs of bureaus and most of their assistants take their luncheon
...
But the largest work, I think, in the way of promoting the right
kind of spirit within the Department was the organization of the
Home Club. This is a purely social institution, which the members
themselves maintain. We have now some seventeen hundred members,
all pay the same initiation fee and the same dues, and all meet
upon a common ground in the club. Our club house is one of the
finest old mansions in this city, formerly the residence of
Schuyler Colfax ... It is a four-story building in LaFayette
Square, within a half a block of the White House. This house we
have furnished ourselves in very comfortable shape without the
help of a dollar from the outside, and we maintain it upon dues of
fifty cents a month. Each night during the week we have some form
of entertainment in the club--moving pictures, or a lecture, or a
dance, or a musicale.
I organized this club for the purpose of showing to these people
of moderate salaries what could be done by cooperation. It is
managed entirely by the members of the Department. There is no
caste line or snobbery in the institution, and for the first time
the people in the different bureaus are becoming acquainted with
each other, and enjoy the opportunities of club life. The idea
should be extended. We should have in the city of Washington a
great service club, covering a block of land, containing fifteen
or twenty thousand members, in which for a trifle per month we
could get all of the advantages of the finest social and athletic
club that New York contains. In the Home Club we have a billiard
room, card rooms, a library, and a suite of rooms especially set
aside for the ladies. We are fitting up one of the larger rooms as
a gymnasium for the young men and boys, and expect to have bowling
alleys, and possible tennis courts on a near-by lot. In this way I
meet many of those who work with me, whom I never would see
otherwise, and from the amount of work that the Department is
doing, which is increasing, I am quite satisfied that it has
helped to make the Department more efficient. Cordially yours,
FRANKLIN K. LANE
To Charles K. Field Sunset Magazine
Washington, April 18, 1914
MY BEAR CHARLES,-- ... My picture on the cover of the May Sunset
is altogether the best one I have had taken for some time, and the
Democratic donkey is encouragingly fat.
I wish in some way it were possible to impress upon our Western
Senators and Congressmen the advisability of putting through the
bills that I have before Congress in line with my report--a
general leasing bill, under which coal, oil, and phosphate lands
could be developed by lease, and a water power bill. As it is now,
a man runs the risk of going to jail to get a piece of coal land
that is big enough to work; and the very bad situation in the oil
field in California is entirely due to the inapplicability of our
oil land laws. We have a couple of million acres of good phosphate
lands withdrawn, totally undeveloped because no one can get hold
of them, and no capital will go into our Western power sites
because we can give at present only a revocable permit, whereas
capital wants the certainty of a fixed term.
I have tried to draft laws, copies of which I inclose, that are
the best possible under the circumstances. I mean by that, that
they are reasonable and will be passed by Congress if the West can
only show a little interest in them, but so far the men who have
been fighting them are Westerners. Why? For no better reason than
that these gentlemen are in favor of having all of the public
lands turned over to the states. It is useless to argue this
question as to whether it is right or wrong, because Congress
would never do it, so that opposition to these bills is simply
opposition to further development of the West.
Now if you can punch these people up a bit in some way and make
them understand that the West should want to go ahead, rather than
block development for all time, ... you will be rendering a public
service.
With these few remarks I submit the matter to your prayerful
consideration. As always, cordially yours,
FRANKLIN K. LANE
To Frederic J. Lane
Washington, April 27, 1914
MY DEAR FRITZ,--I have just received your letter in relation to
Stuart. I sent you a letter on Saturday saying that Daniels was
going to recommend him. Of course, if he can't pass the physical
examination that is the end of it, but I would let him try ...
Ned is a great deal like Stuart--smart and lazy, but you know that
all boys can't be expected to come up to the ideal conduct of
their fathers at sixteen and eighteen. They go through life a damn
sight more human. I don't see any reason why a fellow should work
if he can get along without it, and the trouble is that your boy
is spoiled by you, and my boy is spoiled by his mother! You have
raised Stuart on the theory that he was a millionaire's son and,
as such, he can't take life very seriously.
I am figuring now on getting Ned off to some boarding-school where
he will have more discipline than I can give him. The truth is
that both of us, having had rather a prosaic Christian bringing
up, have cultivated the idea in our youngsters that it is a good
thing to be a sport, and the aforesaid youngsters are living up to
it. If there was a school in the country where they taught boys
the different kinds of trees, and the different rocks and flowers,
birds, and fish, with some good sense, and American history, I
would like to send Ned to it ... Affectionately yours,
FRANKLIN K. LANE
To Edward E. Leake
Treasury Department
San Francisco, California
Washington, May 26, 1914.
MY DEAR ED,--I have yours of the 21st. I know that you are
sincere, old man, when you tempt me with the governorship, and you
write in such a winning manner that my blood quickens, but really
it is quite out of the question. I want to see California lined up
strongly on the Democratic side. I also want to see Phelan come to
the Senate and I am ready to do all that I can to help out the old
State, but my work is cut out for me here and until I have put
over some of the things that I believe will benefit the West as a
whole, I do not believe I should relinquish the reins of this
particular portfolio. It is an honor to me, a big one, to be
considered by my friends for the governorship and I know that they
would stand gallantly behind me, and when I send this negative
answer, you must believe me when I say that I send it with
considerable regret.
I shall be very glad to see you at this end, when you are here,
and you need no excuse to camp on my doorstep.
Cordially yours,
FRANKLIN K. LANE
To William R. Wheeler
Washington, June 6, 1914
MY DEAR BILL,--I am extremely sorry to hear of your being robbed.
That comes from being wealthy. Poor Lady Alice Isabel! How
outraged and disconsolate she must be! If that diamond tiara I
gave her is gone tell her I will replace it the first time I visit
Tiffany's. Of course this only holds good as to the one I gave
her. ... You know, I have often wondered if a burglar should get
into our house what he would find worth taking away. I have some
small burglary insurance on my house, but this was so I could turn
over and sleep without coming down stairs with a shotgun. What
were you doing, going to Sacramento, anyway? Any fellow who goes
to Sacramento gets into trouble. That is the home of Diggs,
Caminetti, and Hiram Johnson. I see that Johnson is going to be
re-elected Governor, and that the other two are going to jail. I
hope that all three will lead better lives in the future.
Well, old man, if you need a new suit of clothes or anything in
the line of underwear, let me know. I have gotten to the point
where I have been wearing what Ned does not take, and I will pass
some of them along to you. ...
There is nothing new here. I fear that I shall not get up to
Alaska, as I promised myself, for Congress will be in session for
some time, and I am striving desperately to get my conservation
bills through. Moreover, just what phase the Mexican situation
will take cannot be foreseen, from day to day. I was broken-
hearted at not being able to get out to California, but just at
that particular time--while I was about to go, tickets and
everything purchased--the President called upon me to do something
which held me back. The toll bills will probably pass next week,
by a majority of nine. Then the trust bills will come up in the
Senate and every man will have to make a speech. ...
Cordially yours,
F. K. L.