The Letters of Franklin K. Lane, Personal and Political
L. Sterne once said, "These things are ordered in France."
F. K L.
TO EDWARD F. ADAMS
SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
Washington, January 11, 1916
MY DEAR ADAMS,--I have yours of the 2nd. Of course, you can not
sue the United States to get possession of its property without
the consent of the United States; but I will forgive you for all
your peculiar and archaic notions regarding government lands and
schools and sich, because I love you for what you are and not
because of your inheritance of old-fashioned ideas.
As I am dictating this letter I look up at the wall and discover
there the head of a bull moose, and that bull moose makes me think
of all the things you said four years ago about Roosevelt. And now
he is to be again the master of your party--perhaps not a
candidate, because he may be guilty of an act of self-abnegation
and put away the crown, or take it in his own hands and place it
upon some one else's brow.
I remember the manner--the scornful, satirical, sometimes pitiful
and sometimes abusive manner--in which you treated the Bull Moose;
and so we are going to have a great spectacle, the Bull Moose and
the Elephant kissing each other at Chicago; and seated on the
Elephant's shoulders will be the crowned mahout with the big
barbed stick in his hand, telling you which way to turn and when
to kneel!
Of course, you will abuse us all for our land policies, but
overlook the fact that the brutalities of these policies were
committed in other days--those good, old Republican days. It
really is a wonder that you are not cynical and that you still
have enthusiasm. I should not be surprised if you said your
prayers and had belief in another world, where all the bad
Democrats would sizzle to the eternal joy of the good Republicans.
In those days I shall look up to you and I know that you will not
deny me the drop of cold water.
I shall be very much interested in seeing what kind of a fist our
man Claxton makes out of your school system, and I hope you can
use him as a means of arousing interest in the schools. That is
one trouble with the public school system, because we get our
education for nothing we treat it as if it was worth nothing--I
mean those of us who are parents. We never know that the school
exists except to make some complaint about discipline or taxes.
May you live long and be happy. Always yours,
FRANKLIN K. LANE
From time to time as vacancies occurred on the Supreme Bench,
letters and telegrams came to Lane from friends that begged him to
allow them to urge his appointment to this office. In 1912, 1914,
and 1916 the newspapers in different parts of the country
mentioned him as a probable appointee. While, as a young lawyer,
this office had seemed to him to be one greatly to be desired,
after he came to Washington and knew more of the nature of the
cases that necessarily formed the greater part of the work passed
upon by the Supreme Court, his interest waned. As early as 1913 he
wrote of the decisions of the Interstate Commerce Commission, "If
we are wise, we are not to be terrorized by our own precedents."
An office in which there was little opportunity for constructive
or executive work grew to have less and less attraction for him.
To Carl Snyder
Washington, January 22, 1916
MY DEAR CARL,--I am your most dutiful and obedient servant; the
aforesaid modest declaration being induced by your letter of
January fifth, offering to place me on the Bench. I regret greatly
that you are not the President of the United States, but he seems
to have a notion that it would be a shame to spoil an excellent
Secretary of the Interior.
Talking of robes, there is an idea in Chesterton that is not bad,
that all those who exercise power in the world wear skirts--the
judge, who can officially kill a man; the woman, who can
unofficially do the same thing; and the King, who is the State;
likewise the Pope, who can save the souls of all.
Garrett was in to-day, and if you haven't seen him since his
return, edge up next to him. He is full of facts, some of which
are new to us.
I guess I am to credit you with that little editorial in
Collier's, eh? Cordially yours,
FRANKLIN K. LANE
To Mrs. Franklin K. Lane
Atlantic City
Washington, February 5, 1916
MOST RESPECTED LADY,--Having just returned from luncheon and being
in the enjoyment of a cigar of fine aroma I sit me down for a
quiet talk. I am visualizing you as by my side and addressing you
in person.
First, no doubt, you will care to hear of the reception given at
the White House last evening. According to your directions, I
first dined with the Secretary of Agriculture, his wife, and a
lady from Providence. ... Going then to the White House we
socialized for a few minutes before proceeding down stairs. The
President expressed himself as regretting your absence, and the
President's lady, having heard from you, expressed solicitude as
to your health. I loitered for a few minutes behind the line and
then betook me to the President's library, where I spent most of
the evening hearing the Postmaster General tell of the great
burden that it was to have a Congress on his hands. Bernard Shaw
writes of the Superman, and so does, I believe, the crazy
philosopher of Germany. I was convinced last night that I had met
one in the flesh. ...
The President is cheerful, regarding his Western tour as one of
triumph. His lady still wears the smile which has given her such
pre-eminence. Mrs. Marshall was in line, looking like a girl of
twenty. Those absent were the Wife of the Secretary of War, the
wife of the Secretary of the Interior, and the wife of the
Secretary of Labor. ...
You have two most excellent children, dear madam--a youth of some
eighteen years who has a frisky wit and a more frisky pair of
feet. Your daughter is a most charming witch. I mean by this not
to refer to her age ... but to that combination of poise,
directness, tenderness, fire, hypocrisy, and other feminine
virtues which go to make up the most charming, because the most
elusive, of your sex. I am inclined to believe that Mr. Ruggles,
of Red Gap, would not regard either your son or your daughter as
fitted for those high social circles in which they move by reason
of the precision of their vocabulary or their extreme reserve in
manner, both being of very distinct personality. One is flint and
the other steel, I find, so that fire is struck when they come
together. While engaged, however, in the game of draw poker, these
antipathetic qualities do not reveal themselves in such a manner
as to seriously affect domestic peace. I have spent two entire
evenings with your children, much to my entertainment. That I will
not be able to enjoy this evening with them is a matter of regret,
but I am committed to a dinner with the Honorable Kirke Porter,
and tomorrow evening I believe that I am to dine with the lady on
R. Street, the name of the aforesaid lady being now out of my
mind, but you will recall her as having a brilliant mind and very
slight eyebrows.
Neither the President nor myself alluded to the late lamented
oversight on his part, and on meeting the members of the Supreme
Court I did not find that by the omission to appoint me on said
Court the members thereof felt that a great national loss had been
suffered. No one, in fact, throughout the evening alluded to this
miscarriage of wisdom. ...
... Much solicitude was expressed by many of those present
regarding your health. I told them in my off-hand manner that I
was enjoying your absence greatly. ...
Having now had this most enjoyable talk with you, I shall delight
myself with an hour's discussion of oil leases upon the Osage
Reservation with one Cato Sells.
Believe me, my dear madam, your most respectful obedient, humble,
meek, modest, mild, loyal, loving, and disconsolate servant,
FRANKLIN K. LANE
TO WILL IRWIN
Washington, February 11, 1916
DEAR WILL,--So you are off for the happiest voyage you have ever
made, with the girl of your heart, to see the whole world being
changed and a new world made. What a joy! Don't put off returning
too long. Remember that books must be timely now, and after you
have a gizzard full of good chapter headings, come back and grind.
Nancy entirely approves of your wife and her books. As always
yours,
FRANKLIN K. LANE
TO--
Washington, February 29, 1916
... It is none of my business, but I have just seen an article
coming out over your name respecting Pinchot, the wisdom of which
I doubt. I have never found any good to come by blurring an issue
by personal contest or antagonisms. You asked me when you left if
you might not come in once in a while and talk with me, and I am
taking the liberty in this way of dropping in on you, for I am
deeply interested in water power development and want to see
something result this Session.
I have no time to waste in fighting people, and I have found that
by pursuing this policy I can promote measures that I favor. To
fight for a thing, the best way is to show its advantages and the
need for it, and ignore those who do not take the same view,
because there is an umpire in Congress that must balance the two
positions, and therefore I can rely upon the strength of my
position as against the weakness of the other man's position. If
those who are in favor of water power development get to fighting
each other, nothing will result.
I am giving you the benefit of this attitude of mine for your own
guidance. It may be entirely contrary to the policy that you, or
your people, wish to pursue and my only solicitude is that the
things I am for, should not be held back any longer by personal
disputes. Cordially yours,
FRANKLIN K. LANE
TO HON. WOODROW WILSON
THE WHITE HOUSE
Washington, March 13, 1916
MY DEAR MR. PRESIDENT,--I shall be pleased to go to the San Diego
Exposition, on my way to San Francisco, and say a word as your
representative at its opening.
I hope that you may find your way made less difficult than now
appears possible, as to entering Mexico, My judgment is that to
fail in getting Villa would ruin us in the eyes of all Latin-
Americans. I do not say that they respect only force, but like
children they pile insult upon insult if they are not stopped when
the first insult is given. If I can be of any service to you by
observation or by carrying any message for you to anybody, while I
am West, I trust that you will command me. I can return by way of
Arizona and New Mexico. ... Faithfully yours,
FRANKLIN K. LANE
Lane re-opened the California International Exposition at San
Diego, where, voicing the President's regret that he could not
himself be present, Lane said,--"He had intended to make this trip
himself; but circumstances, some to the east of him and some to
the south of him, made that impossible. ... Pitted against him are
the trained and cunning intellects of the whole world, ... and no
one can be more conscious than is he that it is difficult to
reconcile pride and patience. I give you his greeting therefore,
not out of a heart that is joyous and buoyant, but out of a heart
that is grave and firm in its resolution that the future of our
Republic and all republics shall not be put in peril."
From San Diego he went north to San Francisco, to see his brother
Frederic J. Lane, who had been ill for some months. After a few
days with him Lane returned to his desk, in Washington.
TO FREDERIC J. LANE
Washington, April 26, 1916
MY DEAR FRITZ,-- ... I certainly will not despair of your being
cured until every possible resource has been exhausted. The odds,
it seems to me, are in your favor. Whenever Abrams and Vecchi say