The Letters of Franklin K. Lane, Personal and Political
one of the rare spirits of the world, and Anne and I have loved
him deeply. Surely he must live on, and we must all see him again!
May strength come to you out of the Infinite resources of the
Universe to bear this blow. The world was made better by him! In
deep sympathy,
FRANK LANE
TO--
Wednesday, November, [1919]
MY DEAR OLD MAN,--I am sitting alone in my den having come down
stairs to write a line on my report, but instead have been lured
into an evening of delight with Robert Louis Stevenson, whose
letters, in four volumes, I advise you to read for the spirit of
the man. Much like your own, my brave fine fellow! He went through
tortures with a smile and a merry imagination which made him
great, and makes all of us, and many more to come, his debtor. I
know how little you read. The birds have been yours and the trees
and the dogs and fishes, but there are men in the world, or have
been, whom one can know through their writings. Did you ever read
Trevelyan's three volumes on GARIBALDI? No,--well get it before
you are a week older and you will thank me for ever and a day.
All of this, however, I had not intended to write, rather to tell
you ... how emotional I have been all day with the old soldiers
passing by on parade--the last that many of them will ever have.
Fifty years ago, Andrew Johnson received Grant's returned forces
on the same spot. There were 180,000, or so, then--and 20,000 now
--crippled, lame, one-legged, bent, halting most of them, but
determined to make the long journey from the Capitol to the White
House, and prove that they had lived this long time and were still
good for a longer journey. There was little of gaiety among them,
tho' some were swinging flags, torn, tattered, be-shot ... and
raised their hats to the President as they passed, tho' most of
them, doubtless, were sorry that he was not a Republican. It was a
time to remember.
... Nancy is back after her tour of glory--larger than ever but
not less tender or playful. She is the brightest spirit I have
ever met--and all her vanities are so dear and human and lie so
frankly exposed. I thank you for your kindness to her, she loves
you very much; yes, really recognizes those qualities which some
cannot see, poor blind things! But I can, and she can, and Frances
can, and many more when you give them a look in. May your grass
grow and soul keep warm and your spirit lift itself in song at
morning and at night. Affectionately always,
F.L.
TO M. A. MATHEW
Washington, November 3, 1919
MY DEAR MR. MATHEW,--I have your letter of October 27th, and I
appreciate very much its kind words. The Industrial Conference was
not a success because we got into the steel strike at first, and
people talked about their rights instead of talking of their
duties. We will have another conference, however, which I think
will do some real work and lay a foundation for the future. The
coal strike is a bad one, but the people are not in sympathy with
it, and sooner or later, in my judgment, it will come to an
adjustment situation in which the President will be perfectly
willing to participate. He, by the way, is getting along very
well, but I expect it will be many weeks before he is himself
again. ... Cordially yours,
FRANKLIN K LANE
TO HERBERT C. PELL, JR. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Washington, November 8, 1919
MY DEAR MR. PELL,--I wish you success with your Constitutional
League. I have no objection whatever to my name being used in
connection with it, providing the League is not an institution for
denouncing people or denouncing theories of government or economic
panaceas; but is a positive, aggressive institution for the
presentation to our people of the fact that we have in this
Democracy a method of doing whatever we wish done, which avoids
the necessity for anything like revolutionary action. The
objection to Bolshevism is that it is absolutism--as Lenine has
said himself, the absolutism of the proletariat. It is an economic
government by force, while our Democracy is a government by
persuasion.
I find that no good comes from calling names. The men who are to
be reached are the men who are not committed against us, but are
disposed to be with American institutions. We must show them that
we have a system that it is worth while betting on, and that if
they have another way of doing things economical, machinery by
which it can be instituted is in the people's hands. Our policy is
to look before we leap, and to submit our methods to the judicial
judgment of the people. This permits any doctrine to be preached
that does not subvert our institutions. Where do our institutions
come from? What have they been effective in bringing about? What
is the condition of the United States as a whole compared with
other countries? Can we hope to work out our salvation without
civil war? These are legitimate questions, the answer to which is
found in this other question--is not political Democracy the one
practical way to eventual industrial Democracy? Cordially yours,
FRANKLIN K. LANE
TO HENRY P. DAVISON
Washington, November 23, 1919
MY DEAR MR. DAVISON,--I wired you yesterday my conclusion, as to
your very generous and patriotic offer, which was the same that I
had come to before seeing you in New York. Your appeal was so
strong and went so much to my impulse for public service that you
made me feel that, perhaps, I was giving undue weight to the
considerations I had presented to you. So I sought the judgment of
others--all of them men of large distinction whom you know, or at
least have confidence in, and without dissent I found them saying,
voluntarily and unbidden, what I had said to you--that for me to
undertake this work of arousing the best patriotic feeling of
America, on a salary, would make seriously against the success of
the work and against my own value in it, or in anything else I
might undertake. If I were rich I would go into it with my whole
heart. But a poor man can not be charged with making money out of
the exploitation of the good opinion others have of his love of
country. This is not squeamishness, it is a rough standard,
arrived at by instinct rather than by any refined process of
reasoning.
I say this to you because of my deep confidence in you and my very
real confidence that you are my friend, and sought to do me a
kindness and give me an opportunity. Now let me see if I can be of
any help in this work. ...
[Here followed a full detailed plan of an Americanization program,
that concluded with the paragraph.]
These outline some methods of reaching the public with the idea
that this is a land that is lovable, prosperous, good-humored,
great, and noble-spirited. To carry it out will cost a great deal
of money, I should say that not less than five million a year
should be available. With warm regard, cordially yours,
FRANKLIN K. LANE
TO GEORGE W. LANE
Washington, November 28, [1919]
MY DEAR GEORGE,--Do not be surprised if you hear that I am out of
the Cabinet soon, for I have been offered two fifty thousand a
year places, and another even more. I don't want to leave if it
will embarrass the President, but I do want something with a
little money in it for awhile. ... But I must see the President
before I decide ... and I don't know when that will be, now that
he is sick.
This life has a great fascination for everyone and I dread to
leave it; for anything else will bore me I am sure. I deal here
only with big questions and not with details--with policies that
affect many, and yet I have but a year and a half more, and then
what? Perhaps it is as well to take time by the forelock, tho' I
do not want to decide selfishly nor for money only. I must go
where I can feel that I am in public work of some kind. ...
... I have served him [the President] long and faithfully under
very adverse circumstances. It is hard for him to get on with
anyone who has any will or independent judgment. Yet I am not
given to forsaking those to whom I have any duty. However we shall
see, I write you this, that you may not be misled by the thought
that there has been or is any friction. Of course you won't speak
of it to anyone.
I am so glad you are able to be out a little bit. "Ain't it a
glorious feelin'?" The farm must look mighty good. Well, old man,
goodnight, and God give you your eyes back! With my warmest love,
FRANK
TO C. S. JACKSON OREGON JOURNAL
Washington, December 29, 1919 MY DEAR SAM,--I hear from Joe Teal
that your boy has been lost at sea, and I write this word, not in
the hope that I can say anything that will minimize your loss, for
all the kindly words of all men in all the world could not do as
much as one faint smile from that boy's lips could do to bring a
bit of joy into your heart.
But you are an old, old friend of mine. It is more than thirty
years since we dreamed a dream together which you were able to
realize. We both have had our fortune in good and bad, and on the
whole I think our lives have not added to the misery of men, but
have done something toward making life a bit more kind for many
people. And why should that boy be taken from you? There is the
mystery--if you can solve it you can solve all the other
mysteries. I hope you have some good staunch faith, which I have
never been able to get, that would enable me to look upon these
things in humility, in the confidence that this thing we call a
body is only a temporary envelope for a permanent thing--a
lasting, growing thing called a spirit, the only thing that
counts. If we can get that sense we can have a new world. I do not
believe we will change this world much for the good out of any
materialistic philosophy or by any shifting of economic affairs.
We need a revival--a belief in something bigger than ourselves,
and more lasting than the world.
With my warmest sympathy, I am, yours as always,
FRANKLIN K. LANE
TO JOHN CRAWFORD BURNS
Washington, December 29, [1919]
MY DEAR JOHN,--The manner in which you write assures me that you
are very happy, notwithstanding your marriage and your new
religion, for which I am glad. An even better assurance is the
picture of the bride. By what wizardry have you been able to lure
and capture so young, good, and intelligent-looking a girl? I
presume she was fascinated by the indirectness of your speech, the
touches of humor and your very stern manner. John, you are a
humbug, you have made that aloofness and high indifference a
winning asset. I shan't give you away. Only you fill me with a
mortifying envy.
As for your religion, various of your friends think it odd. I
think that you are a subject for real congratulation. A man who
can believe anything is miles ahead of the rest of us. I would
gladly take Christian Science, Mohammedanism, the Holy Rollers or
anything else that promised some answer to the perplexing
problems. But you have been able to go into the Holy of Holies and
sit down on the same bench of belief with most of the saints--this
is miraculous good fortune. I mean it. I am not scoffing or
jeering. I never was more serious.
This whole damned world is damned because it is standing in a bog,
there is no sure ground under anyone's feet. We are the grossest
materialists because we only know our bellies and our backs. We
worship the great god Comfort. We don't think; we get sensations.
The thrill is the thing. All the newspapers, theatres, prove it.
We resign ourselves to a life that knows no part of man but his
nerves. We study "reactions," in human beings and in chemistry--
recognizing no difference between the two--and to my great
amazement, the war has made the whole thing worse than ever. John,
if you have a religion that can get hold of people, grip them and