The Letters of Franklin K. Lane, Personal and Political
Rome up, England, and Ireland. In the latter spot, he was shot at
three times, notwithstanding a general order that no Irishman is
allowed to have a gun. He was challenged to a duel by a Frenchman
who tried to get away with his seat in a car. He gave the
Frenchman a good licking and then discovered that he was liable to
court martial, but he got the seat and then told the French
lieutenant he would throw him out of the car window if he talked
any more about dueling. The following morning he offered the
Frenchman a cigarette which was taken, and they shook hands and
parted.
He went up in an aeroplane in Italy at one place and had a hunch,
he said, that something was wrong with the machine and so he
brought it down and landed. Another fellow took it up, an Italian.
He got up about one thousand feet in the air and the gas tank
exploded. The poor fellow came down burnt to a cinder, all within
five minutes. He shot a German from the Belgian trenches and has
been recommended four times for promotion, but hasn't got it yet.
With much love to Frances and yourself, I am, affectionately
yours,
FRANKLIN K. LANE
TO EDGAR C. BRADLEY ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR
Washington, [December 18, 1918]
MY DEAR BRADLEY,--You wouldn't let me close my sentence yesterday
and I don't propose to close it to-day. Yet I am not going to let
you drive westward toward the land and people we both love so
much, without letting you carry a word of affection and greeting
from me, which you can just throw to the winds when you get there,
throw it out of the window to Tamalpais, it will sweep over those
eucalyptus trees on the right, throw it up to the Berkeley hills,
which now are turning green, I suppose, throw it up the long
stretch of Market Street till it reaches Twin Peaks, and let it
flow down over "south of the slot" that was, and up over Nob Hill,
even to the sacred brownstone of the Pacific-Union.
Go with a heart that is full of rejoicing that peace has come,
through our sacrifice as well as that of other of the nobler
peoples of earth, and with a heart that is proud that you were
able to help with your strength and sane judgment and great
gentleness of speech and manner, in carrying on this nation's
affairs in the day of its greatest adventure. We shall all miss
you greatly, whether you are gone two weeks or two years! Do just
what you think is right, just what she who is so much to you
thinks you should do. There is no better test of a man's duty.
If you can't return we shall stagger on. I shan't stop climbing
this ladder because a rung is gone--tho' many a rung is gone--and
a damn hard old ladder this is sometimes. ...
F.K.L.
XI
AFTER-WAR PROBLEMS--LEAVING WASHINGTON
1919
After-war Problems--Roosevelt Memorials--Americanization--Religion
--Responsibility of Press--Resignation
TO E. C. BRADLEY
Washington, January, 1919
MY DEAR BRADLEY,-- ... I am terribly broken up over Roosevelt's
death. He was a great and a good man, a man's man, always playing
his game in the open. ...
I loved old Roosevelt because he was a hearty, two-fisted fellow.
... The only fault I ever had to find with him was that he took
defeat too hard. He had a sort of "divine right" idea, but he was
a bully fighter. I went to his funeral and have joined in mass
meetings in his memory, which I suppose is all I can do. ... Of
course ... he said a lot of things that were unjust and
unjustifiable, but if a fellow doesn't make a damned fool of
himself once in a while he wouldn't be human. The Republicans
would have nominated him next time undoubtedly. They are without a
leader now, and we are just as much up in the air as ever. ... I
am standing by the President for all I am worth. I talked to the
Merchants' Association the other day and gave him a great send-
off, but they didn't rise to their feet at all, which is the first
time this has happened in two years. ... Sincerely yours,
FRANKLIN K. LANE
TO GEORGE W. LANE
Washington, January 30, 1919
MY DEAR GEORGE,-- ... The one thing that bothers us here is the
problem of unemployment. We have not, of course, had time to turn
around and develop any plan for reconstruction. Our whole war
machine went to pieces in a night. Everybody who was doing war
work dropped his job with the thought of Paris in his mind, with
the result that everything has come down with a crash, in the way
of production, but nothing in the way of wages or living costs.
Wages cannot go down until the cost of living does, and production
won't increase while people believe prices will be lower later on.
I to-day proposed to Secretary Glass that he enter upon a campaign
to promote production, (1) by seeing what the Government could
buy, (2) by seeing what the industries would take as a bottom
price, (3) by getting the Food Administration at work to reduce
prices. Perhaps it may do some good. ...
I have always thought the President was right in going across, and
I believe that he will pull through a League of Nations. When I
get a copy of it I will send you my speech on this subject, which
is rather loose but is a plea for dreams.
Ned is going West to. work for Doheny in some oil field, starting
at the bottom. I rather think this is right, but of course he
won't stay as a laborer very long. The boy is fine and gay, and
did splendid work, and is anxious to get into the game and make
money. Just where he gets this desire for making money I don't
know. Certainly I never had it. But he was telling me the other
day of his hope that by forty he would have made enough money to
retire. I told him you were the only fellow I ever knew who had
actually retired, and you had only done it half way. He will
report at Los Angeles, but I expect he will get up to see you as
soon as he can. He has a remarkable affection for California,
considering he has seen so little of it, and so has Nancy. They
both regard it as the golden land where all things smile, and
people have hearts. I have not attempted to cure them of their
illusion.
Do write me a good, long letter, for I am always eager to hear
from you.
F. K. L.
To George W. Lane
Washington, May 1, [1919]
MY DEAR GEORGE,--Well, what do you think of the Italian situation?
I think the President right, that Fiume should not go to Italy.
Certainly she has no moral claim, for by the Pact of London, Fiume
was to go to Croatia. Orlando says that he is answering the call
of the Italians in exile. Let them stay in exile, I say. They went
into a foreign land to make money and now they wish to annex the
land they are visiting, to the home country. How would we like it
if the Chinese swamped San Francisco and then asked to be annexed
to China? This is carrying the Fiume idea to its ultimate, a
ridiculous ultimate, of course, as most ultimates are.
Whether he [President Wilson] gave out the statement as to the
break too early, and without the consent of England and France, of
course I don't know. Quite like him to do it if he thought the
thing had hung long enough, and that Italy was too damn predatory.
And she does seem to be. The New Idea seems to have less real hold
in Italy--at least among the governing class--than in any other
European country. Her present position will postpone peace. This
will cause us trouble over the extra session of Congress for our
appropriations will run out. And perhaps in England it may give a
chance for labor troubles to rise. It will postpone the return of
good times to this country. But ultimately Italy will have to come
through. If economic pressure were put upon her she would be
compelled to yield at once, for she depends on England and
ourselves for all the coal she uses, and on us chiefly for her
wheat. Of course this form of coercion will not be resorted to.
She might think more kindly if she were given an extended credit,
say of two hundred million dollars. But the people being aroused
now over what they think is a matter of principle--loyalty to
their compatriots in Fiume--they may not be able to compromise.
Lord Reading rather fears that this is the situation and that it
might have been avoided if the President had not issued his
statement when he did. However, I have no doubt that the President
will have his way. He nearly always does. Surely the God that once
was the Kaiser's is now his.
To be the First President of the League of Nations is to be the
crowning glory of his life. I believe in the League--as an
effort. It will not cure, but it is a serious effort to get at the
disease. It is a hopeful effort, too, for it makes moral
standards, standards of conduct between nations which will bring
conventional pressure to bear on the side of peace, to offset the
old convention of rushing into war to satisfy hurt feelings.
Sooner or later there will come disarmament--the pistol will be
taken away and the streets will be safer.
The boy is having a tough time in his oil work. It is so dirty!
But I hope he sticks out until he proves himself. I hear that the
Dutch Shell people have bought out Cowdray in Mexico, and now are
trying to get Doheny's lands. They bestride the earth, and as soon
as their activities are known generally, this country will look
upon the Standard Oil as the American champion in a big
international fight.
... Well, dear old chap, I know that I could add nothing to your
cure if I were there but I am not content to be so far away from
you. ... F. K. L.
TO WILLIAM BOYCE THOMPSON ROOSEVELT PERMANENT MEMORIAL NATIONAL
COMMITTEE
Washington, May 20, 1919
MY DEAR MR. THOMPSON,--I told Mr. Loeb that I would feel greatly
honored to be a member of a Memorial Committee, to do honor to Ex-
President Roosevelt. To-day, I receive an agreement which I am
asked to sign in which the members of the Committee are to pledge
themselves to a memorial for the furtherance of Mr. Roosevelt's
policies. I do not know what such a phrase means. With some of his
policies I know I was in hearty accord but as to others, such as
the tariff, I have my doubts. This might be turned or construed
into a great machine for propaganda of a partisan character, and
it seems to me that the Colonel's memory is altogether too
precious a national possession to have that construction possibly
given to any memorial to him.
There are hundreds of thousands of Democrats, like myself, who
admired him and who would contribute toward a memorial, who should
not be asked to do this if it was any more than a straight-out
memorial to the man, the soldier, the naturalist, the historian,
the President, the intense, vital American.
And all of your officers, so far as I am acquainted with them, are
Republicans. This does not seem to convey quite the right
suggestion.
I have already planned for a lasting Roosevelt memorial in the
creation of a park in California, to bear Colonel Roosevelt's
name. I expect this will have Congressional approval at the
present session of Congress.
Last night I talked with Senator Frank Kellogg about this matter,
and he agrees with my view. He says that he understood the
memorial was to be something in Washington of a permanent and
artistic character, and perhaps the home at Oyster Bay, and that
the personnel of all committees was to be popular, including if
possible as many Democrats as Republicans.
Under these circumstances I beg leave to withhold my signature to
the agreement sent me. I would have no objection to asking
Congress to provide for a memorial, though I think this should be
deferred as a matter of policy until the public had subscribed
generously. Cordially yours,
FRANKLIN K. LANE
TO BENJAMIN IDE WHEELER PRESIDENT EMERITUS, UNIVERSITY OF
CALIFORNIA
Washington, June 16, 1919
MY DEAR WHEELER,--I have seen your goodbye address at Berkeley,