The Letters of Franklin K. Lane, Personal and Political
expecting any day to find Germany apologizing and offering amends.
But there may be some audacious logic by which Germany can justify
such conduct. Talking of Belgium, I was referred the other day to
the report of the debates in the House of Commons found in the
10th volume of Cobbett's Parliamentary Reports, touching the
attack on Copenhagen by England in 1808, in which the Ministry
justified its ruthless attack upon a neutral power in almost
precisely the same language that Von Bethmann Hollweg used in
justifying the attack on Belgium, and Lord Ponsonby used the sort
of reasoning then, in answer to the Government, that England is
now using in answer to Germany. I was distrustful of the
quotations that were given to me and looked the volume up, and
found that England was governed by much the same idea that Germany
was--just sheer necessity. Of course, your answer is that we have
traveled a long way since 1808.
Doesn't it look to you an impossible task for England and France
to get beyond the Rhine, or even get there? England, of course,
has hardly tried her hand in the game yet and if the Turk is
cleaned up she will have a lot of Australians and others to help
out in Belgium. Sir George Paish told me they expect to have a
million and a half men in the field by the end of this summer.
Pfeiffer comes here to-day to spend a couple of days trying to do
something for the State Department; I don't know just what, but I
shall be mighty glad to see the old chap. I haven't seen anything
of Lamb since his return.
Do write me again. Affectionately yours,
FRANKLIN K. LANE
On the sixteenth of March Lane again started for San Francisco,
crossing the continent for the third time within a month. Vice-
President Marshall, Adolph C. Miller, now of the Federal Reserve
Board, and Franklin D. Roosevelt, assistant Secretary of the Navy,
who were going out to visit officially the Exposition, were the
principal members of the party. In Berkeley, on March twenty-
third, 1915, Lane received his degree from the University of
California. In conferring this degree President Wheeler said:--
"Franklin K. Lane,--Your Alma Mater gladly writes to-day your name
upon her list of honour,--in recognition not so much of your
brilliant and unsparing service to state and nation, as of your
sympathetic insight into the institutions of popular government as
the people intended them. An instinctive faith in the righteous
intentions of the average man has endowed you with a singular
power to discern the best intent of the public will. Men follow
gladly in your lead, and are not deceived.
"By direction of the Regents of the University of California I
confer upon you the degree of Doctor of Laws:--
"Creative statesman in a democracy; big-hearted American." On
December 7, 1915, upon receiving a copy of the diploma Lane wrote
in acknowledgement to Dr. Wheeler,--"I have the diploma which it
has taken all the talent of the office to translate. I had one man
from Columbia, another from the University of Virginia, one from
Nebraska, and one at large at work on it. Thank you. It takes the
place of honor over my mantel."
TO WILLIAM P. LAWLOR
JUSTICE, SUPREME COURT OF CALIFORNIA
Washington, April 13, 1915
MY DEAR JUDGE,--I have read Eddy O'Day's poem with great delight.
Along toward the end it carries a sentiment that our dear old
friend John Boyle O'Reilly expressed in his poem Bohemia, in which
he speaks of those,
"Who deal out a charity, scrimped and iced, In the name of a
cautious, statistical Christ."
I have never been able to write a line of verse myself, although I
have tried once in a while, but long ago my incapacity was proved.
Pegasus always bucks me off.
I am sorry you took so seriously what I had to say of the wedding
invitation, but you know I am one of those very sentimental chaps,
who loves his friends with a great devotion, and when anything
good comes to them I want to know of it first, and no better
fortune can come to any man than to marry a devoted, high-minded
woman.
Your rise has been a joy to me, because neither you nor I came to
the bar nor to our positions by conventional methods. The union
spirit is very strong among lawyers, and if a man has ideas
outside of law, or wishes to humanize the law, he is regarded with
suspicion by his fellows at the bar. You have proved yourself and
arrived against great odds. No man that I know has ever had such a
testimonial of public confidence as you received in the last
election. I hope that with the hard work much joy will come to
you.
Mrs. Lane has just dropped in and wishes me to send you her warm
regards. Always sincerely yours,
FRANKLIN K. LANE
TO WILLIAM G. MCADOO
SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY
Washington, April 27, 1915
MY DEAR MAC,--Here is a man for us to get next to. He is a
Harriman, a Morgan, a Huntington, a Hill, a Bismarck, a Kuhn Loeb,
and a damn Yankee all rolled into one! Can you beat it? His
daughter also looks like a peach. I do not know the purpose of
this financial congress in which these geniuses from the hot belt
are to gather; but unless I am mistaken you are looking around for
some convenient retreat to go to when this Riggs litigation is
over and you are turned out scalpless upon a cruel world. Here is
your chance! Tie up with Pearson. He has banks, railroads, cows,
horses, mules, land, girls, alfalfa, clubs, and is connected with
every distinguished family in North and South America.
This man, Dr. Hoover, is a genius. When I knew him he was giving
lessons in physical training; but, now, like myself, he is an
LL.D., and, of course, as a fellow LL.D. I have got to treat his
friend properly. So I pass him along to you. Please see that he
has the front bench and is called upon to open the congress with
prayer, which, being a Yankee and a pirate, he undoubtedly can do
in fine fashion.
When he comes, if you will let me know, I shall go out to meet him
in my private yacht; take him for a drive in my tally-ho; give him
a dinner at Childs', and take him to the movies at the Home Club.
I shall also ask Redfield to invite him to the much-heralded shad
luncheon, to which I have received the fourth invitation. Do you
think he would like to meet my friend, Jess Willard?
Cordially yours,
FRANKLIN K. LANE
A letter from John Burns, from Rome, spoke sarcastically of the
American attitude of neutrality toward the European war, and of
what he called the "new American motto--'Trust the President.'"
TO JOHN CRAWFORD BURNS
ROME, ITALY
Washington, May 29, 1915
MY DEAR JOHN,--I saw Pfeiffer, Lamb, and Mezes the other day up in
New York. Mezes lives among Hebrews, Lamb is broken-hearted that
he can not get into the war, and Pfeiffer is trying to get England
to let his German goods through Holland. Lamb and Pfeiffer do not
agree as to England's duty to allow non-contraband on neutral
ships to pass unmolested.
England is playing a rather high game, violating international law
every day. ... England's attempt to starve Germany has been a
fizzle. Germany will be better off this summer than she was two
years ago, have more food on hand. There are no more men in
Germany outside of the Army. Practically every one has been called
out who could carry a gun, but the women are running the mills and
the prisoners are tilling the farms. Von Hindenburg will come down
upon Italy, when he has lured the Italians up into some pass and
given them a sample of what the Russians got in East Prussia.
You see I am in quite a prophetic mood this afternoon.
Tell me if you understand Italy's position--just how she justifies
herself in entering the war? I have seen no authoritative
justification that I thought would hold water.
The Coalition ministry in England is weaker than the Liberal
ministry. Lord Northcliffe, who is the Hearst of England, has
become its boss. Inasmuch as you object to our new motto, "Trust
the President," I offer as a substitute, "Trust Lord Northcliffe,
Bonar Law, and the Philosopher of Negation." The dear bishops
won't give up their toddy, so England must go without ammunition.
Germany is standing off Belgium, England and France, with her
right hand; Russia with her left, and is about to step on Italy.
Germany has not yet answered our protest in the Lusitania matter.
Neither has England answered our protest, sent some three months
ago, against the invasion of our rights upon the seas. I was very
glad to read the other day that while only eighty per cent of
English-made shells explode, over ninety per cent of American-made
shells explode.
Cordially yours,
FRANKLIN K. LANE
TO E. W. SCRIPPS
SCRIPPS MCRAE SYNDICATE
Washington, June 1, 1915
MY DEAR MR. SCRIPPS,--I am extremely glad to get your letter--and
such a hearty, noble-spirited letter. It came this morning, and
was so extraordinary in its patriotic spirit that I took it to the
White House and left it with the President.
I am sure that great good will come of the effort you are making
to gather the people in support of the President. The poor man has
been so worried by the great responsibilities put upon him that he
has not had time to think or deal with matters of internal
concern. ... He is extremely appreciative of the spirit you have
shown. I have a large number of matters in my own Department--
Alaskan railroad affairs and proposed legislation--that I ought to
take up with him; but I can not worry him with them while
international concerns are so pressing.
I feel that at last the country has come to a consciousness of the
President's magnitude. They see him as we do who are in close
touch with him. ... My own ability to help him is very limited,
for he is one of those men made by nature to tread the wine-press
alone. The opportunity comes now and then to give a suggestion or
to utter a word of warning, but on the whole I feel that he
probably is less dependent upon others than any President of our
time. He is conscious of public sentiment--surprisingly so--for a
man who sees comparatively few people, and yet he never takes
public sentiment as offering a solution for a difficulty; if he
can think the thing through and arrive at the point where public
sentiment supports him, so much the better. He will loom very
large in the historian's mind two or three decades from now.
In the fall I am going to ask you to lend a hand in support of my
conservation bills, which look like piffling affairs now in
contrast with the big events of the day.
Once more I thank you heartily for your letter. Cordially yours,
FRANKLIN K. LANE
TO GEORGE W. WICKERSHAM
Washington, July 18, 1915
MY DEAR AND DISTINGUISHED SIR,--I once knew a vainglorious chap
who wrote a poem on the Crucifixion of Christ. The refrain was,--
"Had I been there with three score men, Christ Jesus had not
died."
All of us feel "that-a-way" once in a while when we think of
Germany, Mexico, and such. I shall have a few words to say upon
the German note next Tuesday. [Footnote: Day of Cabinet meeting.]
They will be short and somewhat ugly Anglo-Saxon words, utterly
undiplomatic, and I hope that some of them will be used.
There is no man who has a greater capacity for indignation than
the gentleman who has to write that note, and no man who has a
sincerer feeling of dignity, and no man who dislikes more to have
a damned army officer, filled with struttitudinousness, spit upon
the American Flag--a damned goose-stepping army officer!
This morning comes word that they tried to torpedo the Orduna, but
failed by a hair. This does not look like a reversal of policy. Of
course those chaps think we are bluffing because we have been too
polite. We have talked Princetonian English to a water-front