The Letters of Franklin K. Lane, Personal and Political
conferences with the leading men in each industry, fundamentally
necessary to the defense of the country in the event of war.' The
resolutions also proposed that the Council at once proceed to
confer with those familiar with the manner by which foreign
governments in the war enlisted their industries and, further,
that the Council should establish a committee to investigate and
report upon such regulations as to hours and safety of labor as
should apply to all war labor.
"Secretary Lane's resolution was referred to the Advisory
Commission, and on February 13, at a joint meeting of the Council
and Commission, the matter was thoroughly discussed. Out of this
resolution grew the famous cooperative committees of the Advisory
Commission. Here was the inception of the dollar-a-year man.
"This organization, set up by the Advisory Commission, furnished
for the first eight or ten months of our participation in the war,
almost the only thing in the way of a war machine under the
government on the civilian or industrial side.
"In the first week of May, 1917, the Council of National Defense
called to Washington representatives of each state in the Union,
to confer with the federal government as to the common prosecution
of the war. The state delegates, consisting of many Governors and
in each case of leading citizens of the respective commonwealths,
were received by the six Cabinet officers, forming the Council, in
the office of Secretary Baker in April.
"Secretary Lane thought that the most effective way to wake the
country up out of its dream of security was to tell the truth
about the submarine losses, the country up to that time not having
really appreciated what the losses amounted to. He said, 'The
President is going to address the State representatives at the
White House, and I am going to urge him to cut loose on the
submarine losses,' and he asked me to prepare a memorandum for him
to give to the President. This I did. The President, however,
apparently decided not to go into the subject, and Secretary Lane,
with a courage that can only be appreciated by those who knew the
atmosphere of official Washington at that time, decided to take
the bull by the horns himself, and at the next meeting with the
representatives with the Council in Secretary Baker's office,
Secretary Lane ... cut loose and told the actual truth about
submarine losses at that time. ... The next morning it was the
story of the day in the newspapers and it did as much to arouse
the country as a whole as to what we were up against as any one
thing that occurred during this period, save only the President's
war message itself.
"Secretary Lane became chairman of the field division of the
Council of National Defense toward the end of the war. This was
the body that guided and coordinated the work of the 184,000 units
of the state, county, community, and municipal Councils of
Defense, and of those of the Woman's Committee of the Council--no
doubt the greatest organization of the kind that the world has
ever known."
To George W. Lane
Washington, May 3, 1917
These are great days. Their significance will not be realized for
many years. We are forming a close union with France and England.
The most impressive sight I have ever seen was that at
Washington's tomb last Sunday. We went down on the Mayflower--the
French and the English commissions and the members of the Cabinet.
Viviani and Balfour spoke. Joffre laid a bronze palm upon
Washington's tomb, then stood up in his soldierly way and stood at
salute for a minute, Balfour laid a wreath of lilies upon the
tomb, and leaned over as if in prayer. Above the tomb, for the
first time, flew the flag of another country than our own, the
Stars and Stripes, and on either side, the British Jack and the
French Tricolor. This is a combination of the Democracies of the
world against feudalism and autocracy.
I heard a story from one of Joffre's aides. Joffre, by the way, is
the quietest, sweetest, most naive, and babylike individual I ever
met. All of the women, as well as the men, are in love with him.
When he met Nancy, at a garden party, he kissed her on both
cheeks. Nancy, as you may imagine, was ecstatically delighted.
This simple, grave, kindly soldier sat in his room while the
Germans came marching upon Paris, saying nothing. Every few
minutes an aide would come in and move the French markers back
upon the map, and the German markers forward, toward Paris. Day
after day he saw this advance, but said nothing. At last when they
came to the valley of the Marne, an aide came in and marked the
map, showing that the Germans were within thirty miles of Paris.
Then Joffre quietly said, "This thing has gone far enough," and
taking up a pad of paper he called to his troops to stand fast and
die upon the Marne, if necessary, to save France. There is nothing
finer than this in history.
Joffre has a skin like a baby. He has the utmost frankness and
simplicity of speech. When McAdoo asked him at the White House if
the present drive was satisfactory, he said in the most innocent
way, "I am not there." Viviani, who is the head of the French
Commission, is as jealous as a prima donna, terribly jealous of
Joffre, (which makes Joffre feel most uncomfortable) because, of
course, Joffre is the hero of the Marne.
I spoke at the Belasco Theatre the other day for the benefit of
the French war relief fund, introducing Ambassador Herrick and the
lecturer, a young Frenchman. Joffre and Viviani were in a box.
Every mention of the name of Joffre brought the people to their
feet. Yesterday I spoke again at a meeting of the State Councils
of Defense and I enclose you what the New York Post had to say.
Last night I dined with Balfour. I have seen quite a little of
him. He is sixty-nine years old and stands about six feet two. He
is a perfect type of the aristocratic Englishman, with a charming
smile. His real heart is in the study of philosophy. Anne sat next
to him at dinner and he told her that he believed in a personal
God, personal identity after death, and answer to prayer, which is
a remarkable statement of faith for one who has lived through our
scientific age. I think at bottom he is a mystic.
On all sides they are frank in telling of their distress. We did
not come in a minute too soon. England and France, I believe, were
gone if we had not come in. It delights me to see how much
sympathy there is with England as well as with France. The Irish
alone seem to be unreconciled with England as our ally.
Ned got your letter, and I suppose in time will answer it, I had
the question put to me by Baker yesterday as to whether I wished
him to go to the other side, and I had to say frankly that I did.
It was to me the most momentous decision that I have made in the
war. He has passed his final test, and I hope that he will get his
commission in a few days.
To-night we give a dinner to the Canadians, Sir George Foster, the
acting Premier, and Sir Joseph Polk, the Under Secretary of
External Affairs, who, by the way, was born in Charlottetown,
Prince Edward Island, and says he heard our father preach.
The country's crops are going to be short, I fear, and we have had
little rain. Ships and grain--these are the two things that we
must get. Ships, to carry our grain and our locomotives and rails,
and grain to keep the fighters alive. The U-boats are destroying
twice as much as the producing tonnage of the world. We need every
bushel that California can produce. With much love, affectionately
yours,
F.K.L.
To Frank I. Cobb New York World
Washington, May 5, 1917
MY DEAR COBB,--I had a long talk with Hoover yesterday. He tells
me that the U-boat situation is really worse than I stated it.
There is no question but that the actual sinkings amounted to more
than 300,000 tons in a week, and if we add those put out of
business by mines, they will exceed 400,000 tons. The French are
absolutely desperate. One of the French ministers told Hoover that
they had fixed on the first of November as their last day, if the
United States had not come in. Admiral Chocheprat told me, with
tears in his eyes, three nights ago, that they felt themselves
helpless. They were absolutely at the mercy of the submarines
because of their lack of destroyers, and they had feared we were
preparing to defend our own shores rather than fight across the
water. I know that the latter has been the policy of the heads of
the Navy Department.
Do not, I beg of you, minimize the immediate danger. This is the
time to defend the United States; and the United States is
woefully indifferent to its dangers and to the needs of the
situation. We have been carrying on a ship-building program with
reference to conditions after the war. It is only within ten days
that we have realized that the end of the war will be one of
defeat unless we build twice as fast as we proposed to build. You
know that I am not pessimistic. It is not my habit to look upon
the gloomy side of things. It is no kindness to the American
people or to France or England to give them words of good cheer
now. This war is right at this minute a challenge to every
particle of brains and inventive skill that we have got.
Please treat this as entirely confidential. Cordially yours,
FRANKLIN K. LANE
May 8
The only dissension in the Council is over the use that will be
made of Hoover. Houston, I think, is rather making a mistake,
though it may work out all right. I hope it will.
Don't "bat" us; we are a nervous lot right now. ...
"Lane was among the first to grasp the bigness of the danger to
the allied cause," James S. Harlan says, "in Germany's underwater
attack on the merchant marine of the world. He also realized the
magnitude of the task of frustrating the new peril and the need of
prompt measures to save the situation. Lane had no anxieties or
hesitations in his personal contact with big men; but he had a
genuine fear of small men when big things were doing. And so in
this great emergency he naturally thought of Schwab. How well I
recall the fine force and vigor in his expression when, rising
from his chair and standing with clenched fist pointed at me, he
said in substance:--'The President ought to send for Schwab and
hand him a treasury warrant for a billion dollars and set him to
work building ships, with no government inspectors or supervisors
or accountants or auditors or other red tape to bother him. Let
the President just put it up to Schwab's patriotism and put Schwab
on his honor. Nothing more is needed. Schwab will do the job.'
"This was a full year before Schwab was called down to Washington
to talk over the question of building ships."
To Will Irwin Paris, France
Washington, July 21, 1917
MY DEAR WILL,--I have just received your letter. Thank you very
much for what you say of my speech. I am doing my damndest to keep
things going here but it is awfully hard work, because the minute
my head raises above the water some neighboring ship plugs it.
I think you are dead right in staying with the Post. The feeling
here is that we are not getting real facts regarding the
desperateness of the U-boat situation. We need to be told facts in
order to have our minds challenged. We are not cowards, and I hope
you will give us realistic pictures of just what is happening if
you can. ...
My boy is the youngest lieutenant in the Army--nine-teen. He goes
next week to Illinois as an instructor in aviation, and I suppose
in a little while when he gets the machines, he will be crossing
over.
With warm affection, my dear Will. Always yours,
FRANKLIN K. LANE
To Robert Lansing Secretary of State
Beverly, Massachusetts. [August, 1917]
MY DEAR LANSING,--I had lunch yesterday with Colonel House who