The Letters of Franklin K. Lane, Personal and Political
liberal and fair and will bring millions of dollars into the West
for development of water power. There seems to be no real
opposition to the western development bill, generally called the
leasing bill, excepting from those who believe that all of our
public lands should be turned over to the States.
These are non-partisan measures. They have been drafted in
Consultation with Republicans and Progressives, as well as
Democrats, and I regard them as the ultimate word of generosity on
the part of the Federal Government, because all of the money
produced is to go into western development. If these bills are
killed, I fear that the West will never get another opportunity to
have its withdrawn lands thrown open for development upon terms as
satisfactory to it.
It is easy to understand why men who already have great power
plants on public land should be opposing such a bill as our power
bill, and equally easy to understand why the coal monopolists
should be fighting off all opportunity for any competitor to get
into the field. The oil men are anxious for such legislation. Of
course this legislation is not ideal, because it is the result of
compromise between minds, as to methods. The power bill is vitally
right in one thing; that the rights granted revert at the end of
fifty years to the Government, if the Government wishes to take
the plant over. The development bill is right, because it sets
aside a group of archaic laws under which monopoly and litigation
and illegal practices have thrived. Both of these bills have
passed the House, and are before the Senate. I trust that the
fixed determination of those who are hostile to them will not
prevail.
Cordially yours,
FRANKLIN K. LANE
This letter, duplicated, was sent to several editors of
magazines, to inform the public as to pending legislation.
VII
EUROPEAN WAR AND PERSONAL CONCERNS
1914-1915
Endorsement of Hoover--German Audacity--LL.D. from Alma Mater
--England's Sea Policy--Christmas letters
TO WILLIAM JENNINGS BRYAN
Washington, November 17, 1914
MY DEAR MR. SECRETARY,--If it is true that the State Department is
not informed regarding Mr. Hoover and his entire responsibility, I
can send to you to-day his attorney, Judge Curtis H. Lindley, of
San Francisco, who stands at the head of our bar.
I know of Mr. Hoover very well. He is probably the greatest mining
engineer that the world holds to-day, and is yet a very young man.
He is a graduate of Stanford University.
I suppose that you do not wish to make any statement regarding Mr.
Hoover, but I should fancy that there is no objection to Mr.
Fletcher making any statement that he desires. There are hundreds
of thousands of people in the United States to-day who are anxious
to know how the things that they are preparing for the different
European countries, especially for the Belgians, can be sent to
them. Some information along this line might be very helpful.
Cordially yours,
FRANKLIN K. LANE
TO JOHN CRAWFORD BURNS
ROME, ITALY
Washington, January 22, 1915
MY DEAR JOHN,--I have often thought of you during these last few
months, and wished for a good long talk so some of the kinks in my
own brain might be straightened out. It looks to me very much as
if the war were a stalemate. Even if England throws another
million men into the field in May I can't see how she can get
through Belgium and over the Rhine. Germany is practically self-
supported, excepting for gasoline and copper, and no doubt a
considerable amount of these are being smuggled in, one way or
another. The Christians are having a hard time reconciling
themselves to existing conditions. ... England is making a fool of
herself by antagonizing American opinion, insisting upon rights of
search which she never has acknowledged as to herself. If she
persists she will be successful in driving from her the opinion of
this country, which is ninety per cent in her favor, although
practically all of the German-Americans are loyal to their home
country. We have some ambition to have a shipping of our own, and
England's claim to own the seas, as Germany puts it, does not
strike the American mind favorably. No doubt this will be regarded
by you as quite an absurdity, that we should have any such dream,
but I find myself from day to day feeling a twinge or two of
bitterness over England's stubbornness, which seems to be as
irremovable a quality as it was in some past days. ...
Your little Nancy is no longer little. She is up to my ear, has
gone out to several evening parties, is at last going to school
like other girls, keeps up her violin, and is very much of a
joy. ...
I knew that you would like our Ambassador. Cultivate him every
chance you get.
Affectionately yours,
FRANKLIN K. LANE
On February 20, 1915, Lane went to San Francisco and formally
opened the Panama Pacific Exposition, as the personal
representative of the President. He spoke on "That slender,
dauntless, plodding, modest figure, the American pioneer, ...
whose long journey ... beside the oxen is at an end."
TO ALEXANDER VOGELSANG
En route, near Ogden, Utah, February 22, 1915
MY DEAR ALECK.--You are the best of good fellows, and I don't see
any reason why I should not tell you so, and of my affection for
you. Don't mind the slaps and raps that you get, regarding the
high duty you perform. The people respect you as an entirely
honest and efficient public servant. It did my heart good to hear
the men I talked with speak so appreciatively of you. I enjoyed my
two days with you as I have not enjoyed any two days for many
years. The best thing in all this blooming world is the friendship
that one fellow has for another. I would truly love to have the
President know our Amaurot crowd, but I can't quite plan out a way
by which it could be done. ... As always, affectionately yours,
FRANKLIN K. LANE
TO JOHN H. WIGMORE
En route to Chicago, February 25, 1915
MY DEAR JOHN,--I have read your preface with great satisfaction.
It will, no doubt, renew your self-confidence to know that it has
my approval. You make some profound suggestions which would never
in the world have occurred to me. The American believes that the
doctrine of equality necessarily implies unlimited appeal. This is
my psychological explanation for the unwillingness to give our
judges more power. Another explanation is that the American people
are governed by sets of words, one formula being that this is a
government by law, hence the judge must have no discretion and
rules must be arbitrary and fixed.
I had a roaring good time in San Francisco. Spoke to fifty
thousand people, and more, who could not hear me. Made a rotten
speech and met those I loved best, so I am not altogether
displeased with having taken the trip after all.
Hope your arm is doing finely. Give my love to your dear wife.
Affectionately yours,
F. K. L.
TO JOHN CRAWFORD BURNS
ROME, ITALY
Washington, March 3, 1915
MY DEAR JOHN,--All things are so large these days that I can not
compress them within the confines of a letter. I mean, don't you
know, that there is no small talk. We are dealing with life and
death propositions, life or death to somebody all the time.
I suppose if you were a few years younger you would be over in the
trenches, or up in England getting ready. From all we hear, the
Scotchmen are the only fellows that the Germans really are afraid
of or entirely respect. The position of a neutral is a hard one.
We are being generously damned by the Germans and the aggressive
Irish for being pro-British, and the English press people and
sympathizers in this country are generously damning us as the
grossest of commercialists who are willing to sell them into the
eternal slavery of Germany for the sake of selling a few bushels
of wheat. Neither side being pleased, the inference is reasonable
that we are being loyal to our central position. ...
I went out recently and opened the San Francisco Fair, parading at
the head of a procession of a hundred thousand people. The Fair is
truly most exquisitely beautiful. There are many buildings that
would even, no doubt, please your most fastidious eye.
We have tried to get a Shipping Bill through which would allow us
to get into South American and other trade, but the Republicans
have blocked us, not because they feared we would get mixed up
with the war but because they don't want us to do a thing that
would further Government ownership of anything.
The Administration is weak, east of the Alleghanies; and strong,
west of the Alleghanies. Bryan is a very much larger man and more
competent than the papers credit him with being. The President is
growing daily in the admiration of the people. He has little of
the quality that develops affection, but this, I think, comes from
his long life of isolation.
We regard ourselves as very lucky in the men we have in the
foreign posts, notwithstanding the attacks made upon us by your
press. ...
I wish you would convey my hearty respects to His Excellency, the
Ambassador, and to your wife, of whose return to health I am
delighted to hear. Cordially yours,
LANE
TO EDWARD J. WHEELER
CURRENT OPINION
Washington, March 4, 1915
DEAR MR. WHEELER,--I am extremely obliged to you for your
appreciative letter regarding my speech, [Footnote: On the
American Pioneer.] but don't publish it in the Poetry Department
or you will absolutely ruin my reputation as a hard working
official. No man in American politics can survive the reputation
of being a poet. It is as bad as having a fine tenor voice, or
knowing the difference between a Murillo and a Turner. The only
reason I am forgiven for being occasionally flowery of speech is
that I have been put down as having been one of those literary
fellows in the past. Cordially yours,
FRANKLIN K. LANE
TO JOHN CRAWFORD BURNS
ROME, ITALY
Washington, March 13, 1915
MY DEAR JOHN,--I have received three letters from you within the
last two weeks, greatly to my joy. Your first and longest letter,
but not a word too long, I thought so very good that I had it
duplicated on the typewriter and sent a copy to each member of the
Cabinet, excepting Bryan, whom you refer to in not too
complimentary a manner. On the same day that I received this
letter I received one from Pfeiffer, presenting the American
merchants' point of view, who desire to get goods from Germany, a
copy of which I inclose. So I put your letter and his together,
and told them all who you both are. Thus, old man, you have become
a factor in the determination of international policy. Several
members of the Cabinet have spoken with the warmest admiration of
your letter, one scurrilous individual remarking that he was
astonished to learn that I had such a learned literary gent as an
intimate friend.
We are just at present amused over the coming into port of the
German converted cruiser Eitel, with the captain and the crew of
the American bark, William P. Frye, on board. The calm gall of the
thing really appeals to the American sense of humor. Here is a
German captain, who captured a becalmed sailing ship, loaded with
wheat, and blows her up; sails through fifteen thousand miles of
sea, in danger every day of being sunk by an English cruiser, and
then calmly comes in to an American port for coal and repairs. The
cheek of the thing is so monumental as to fairly captivate the
American mind. What we shall do with him, of course, is a very
considerable question. He can not be treated as a pirate, I
suppose, because there can not be such a thing as a pirate ship
commanded by an officer of a foreign navy and flying a foreign
flag. But he plainly pursued the policy of a pirate, and I am