The Letters of Franklin K. Lane, Personal and Political
opportunity to adjust controversies before strikes occur.
At this conference it could safely be made plain that for the war,
employers would agree not to object to the peaceable extension of
trade unionism; that they would make no efforts to "open" a
"closed shop"; that they would submit all controversies concerning
standards, including wages and lockouts, to any official body on
which they have equal representation with labor, and would abide
by its decisions; that they would adhere strictly to health and
safety laws, and laws concerning woman and child labor; that they
would not lower prices now in force for piece work, except by
Government direction; that if a union in a "closed" shop after due
notice was unable to furnish sufficient workers, any non-union
employees taken on would be the first to be dismissed on the
contraction of business, and the shop restored to its previous
"closed" status; that the only barrier in the way of steady
production is the unwillingness of the unions to uphold the
proposition of settlement before a strike, instead of after a
strike.
The imminence of this convention seems to me to make some step
necessary at this time. I would take the matter up with Secretary
Wilson were he here, and have sent a copy of this letter to him.
You undoubtedly can put an end to this most serious situation by
calling on the international labor leaders to take a stand that
will not be so radical as that taken in England, and yet will
insure to the men good wages and good conditions, and make sure
that our industry will not be paralyzed. Cordially yours,
FRANKLIN K. LANE
TO J. O'H. COSGRAVE NEW YORK WORLD
Washington, December 21, 1917
MY DEAR JACK,--My spirit does not permit me to give you an
interview on the moral benefits of the war. This would be sheer
camouflage. Of course, we will get some good out of it, and we
will learn some efficiency--if that is a moral benefit--and a
purer sense of nationalism. But the war will degrade us. That is
the plain fact, make sheer brutes out of us, because we will have
to descend to the methods that the Germans employ.
So you must go somewhere else for your uplift stuff. Cordially
yours,
FRANKLIN E. LANE
X
CABINET NOTES IN WAR-TIME
1918
Notes on Cabinet Meetings--School Gardens--A Democracy Lacks
Foresight--Use of National Resources--Washington in War-time--The
Sacrifice of War--Farms for Soldiers
NOTES ON CABINET MEETINGS
FOUND IN LANE'S FILES
February 25, 1918
As I entered the building this morning Dr. Parsons [Footnote: Of
the Department of the Interior, Bureau of Mines.] met me. I asked
how the cyanide plant was getting on. His reply was to ask if he
might request the War Department to allow us to make the contract
--that he could have the whole thing done in two days. This is
where we are at the end of more than six months of effort. It is
hopeless! We find the process, everything!--but cannot get the
contract, through the intricate, infinite fault-findings and
negligence of the War Department.
Manning [Footnote: Of the Department of the Interior, Bureau of
Mines.] came to see me to say that he expected, after the Overman
bill was passed, that the President would take over the gas work--
order it into the War Department. He had been asked twice if he
could be tempted by a uniform into that Department, and had said
that he was freer as a civilian,--had planned the work and
gathered the force as a civilian, and would not leave the
Department. He felt damned sore and indignant, that a work so well
done should be the subject of envy, and possibly be made less
effective and useful. ...
Everit Macy lunched with me and told me the sad story of the
mishandling of labor affairs by the Shipping Board. He had gone to
the Pacific Coast and with his colleagues, Coolidge and others,
made an agreement with the shipbuilding trades. Five dollars and
twenty-five cents for machinists, etc. In Seattle, however,
because of one firm's bidding for labor, he felt that there would
have to come a strike before this schedule would be accepted.
Before he got back the threatened strike came, and then the demand
of the men for a ten per cent bonus was acceded to, upsetting all
other settlements in San Francisco, Portland, Los Angeles, etc.
Result, ten per cent gain everywhere. And now the Eastern and
Southern men ask the Pacific scale, and he can't see how it can be
avoided, nor can I. They will have to standardize all wages.
Poor chap, his advice was scorned, for he protested against the
bonus being given to Seattle, and as he said, "If it had not been
war-time I would have resigned." To increase the men in the South,
to this unprecedented scale, will not get more ships, he fears,
but less, for they will not work if they have wages in four days,
equal to seven days' needs. I advised for standardization. He said
the Navy wouldn't hear of it, as it would demoralize their yards.
...
Politics, politics, curse of the country! It has gotten into the
whole war program. Hoover and McAdoo are at swords drawn. Hoover
had a cable signed by the three Premiers, George, Clemenceau, and
Orlando, crying for wheat and charging us with not keeping our
word--and starvation threatening all three countries--in fact,
almost sure, because we have not been able to get the wheat to the
ships; and with starvation will come revolution, if it gets bad
enough. ... I asked Hoover about this on Sunday night, ... and he
said that a list of eight hundred cars had been on McAdoo's desk
FOR A WEEK. ...
(McChord said on the bench [Footnote: The Interstate Commerce
Commission.] to-day that he thought Hoover seventy-five per cent
right.)
March 1, [1918]
Yesterday, at Cabinet meeting, we had the first real talk on the
war in weeks, yes, in months! Burleson brought up the matter of
Russia, ... would we support Japan in taking Siberia, or even
Vladivostock? Should we join Japan actively--in force?
The President said "No," for the very practical reason that we had
no ships. We had difficulty in providing for our men in France and
for our Allies, (the President never uses this word, saying that
we are not "allies"). How hopeless it would be to carry everything
seven or eight thousand miles--not only men and munitions, but
food!--for Japan has none to spare, and none we could eat. Her men
feed on rice and smoked fish, and she raises nothing we would
want. Nor could the country support us. So there was an end of
talking of an American force in Siberia! Yes, we were needed--
perhaps as a guarantee of good faith on Japan's part that she
would not go too far, nor stay too long. But we would not do it.
And besides, Russia would not like it, therefore we must keep
hands off and let Japan take the blame and the responsibility.
The question is not simple, for Russia will say that we threw her
to Japan, and possibly she would rush into Germany's arms as the
lesser of evils. My single word of caution was to so act that
Russia, when she "came back," should not hate us, for there was
our new land for development--Siberia--and we should have front
place at that table, if we did not let our fears and our hatred
and our contempt get away with us now.
Daniels whispered to-day that Russia had five fast cruisers in the
Baltic, which could raid the Atlantic and put our ships off the
sea. He had wired Sims to see if they couldn't be sunk. I hope
it is not too late; surely England must have done something on so
important a matter, though she is slow in thinking. And how is
anyone to get there with the Baltic full of submarines and mines!
The thought is horrible, the possibilities! We certainly have made
a bad fist of things Russian from the start. They have deserted us
because they were trying to drive the cart ahead of the horse,
economical revolution before political revolution, socialism ahead
of liberty with law. And they know we are capitalistic, because we
do not approve of socialism by force.
March 12, (1918)
Nothing talked of at Cabinet that would interest a nation, a
family, or a child. No talk of the war. No talk of Russia or
Japan. Talk by McAdoo about some bills in Congress, by the
President about giving the veterans of the Spanish war leave, with
pay, to attend their annual encampment. And he treated this
seriously as if it were a matter of first importance! No word from
Baker nor mention of his mission or his doings. ...
TO FRANKLIN K. LANE, JR.
SOMEWHERE IN FRANCE
Washington, February 15, 1918
MY DEAR BOY,--... We are anxiously awaiting some word telling
where you are, what you are doing, and how you got on in your
trip. I thought your cablegram was a model of condensation, quite
like that of Caesar, "Veni, vidi, vici." ...
Sergeant Empey has just left the office with a letter to the
Secretary of War, asking that he be given a commission. He has
been lecturing among the cantonments and wants to get back to
France. ... He says that the boys in the cantonments are anxious to
go across, and that they are beginning to criticise us because
they do not have their chance. But they will all get there soon
enough for them. Our national problem is to get ships to carry
them, and to carry the food for the Allies. ... We have undertaken
to supply a certain amount of food to the other side, and our
contract, so far, has not been fulfilled. During December and
January, however, this was, of course, due to railroad conditions.
You are a long way off, but you must not visualize the distance.
Nothing so breaks the spirit as to dwell upon unfortunate facts.
Some one day or another you had to leave the nest, and this is
your day for flying. Wherever you are, with people whose language
you understand only imperfectly, with a civilization that is
somewhat strange, and under conditions that often-times will be
trying, don't adopt the usual attitude of the American in a
foreign country and wonder "why the damn fools don't speak
English." No doubt some of the French will pity you because of
your delinquency in their language.
Another thing that differentiates us from other people is our
lavishness in expenditure, and in what appears to us to be their
"nearness." ... From these same thrifty French have come great
things. They have always been great soldiers; they have led the
world in the arts, especially in poetry, painting and fiction--
perhaps, too, I should add architecture. So that men who are
careful of their pennies are not necessarily small in their minds.
...
I have less doubt, however, of your ability to get on with the
Frenchman than I have with the Englishman. ... You will have
difficulty--at least I should--in understanding the rather heavy,
sober, non-humorous Englishman. ... He is always a self-important
gentleman who regards England as having spoken pretty much the
last word in all things, and who will abuse his own country, his
countrymen, and institutions, frankly and with abandon, but will
allow no one else this liberty. He is not a "quitter" though, and
he has done his bit through the centuries for the making of the
world.
... See as many people as you can, present all your letters,
accept invitations. Remember that while you are there and we miss
you, we are not spending our time in moping. Every night we go to
dinner and we chatter with the rest of the magpies, as if the
world were free from suffering. Last night I talked with
Paderewski for an hour on the sorrows of Poland, and it was one
long tale of horror. ...
To-day the Russians are calling their people back to arms to stop
the oncoming Germans. Foolish, foolish idealists who believed that
they could establish what they call an economic democracy, without
being willing to support their ideal in modern fashion by force.