The Letters of Franklin K. Lane, Personal and Political
knickerbockered footmen, on either side of the hedge, the ground
must rise in a very gradual swell and culminate in the rose-
covered gate. Throw it a kiss for me--(I wonder if there could be
any roses left?). All of it is a lovely bit of man's handiwork,
and Mr. Eno should have been born poor so that his planning mind,
conceiving things of beauty in regular and balanced form, could
have been used by many.
Tell him I got his nice letter and will drop him a line one day.
With much love,
FRANK LANE
TO ISADORE B. DOCKWEILER
Washington, September 25, 1920
MY DEAR DOCKWEILER,--It is a great disappointment that I am not
able to speak in California this year, I wished so much to say a
word that might be helpful to Senator Phelan. I helped in his
election six years ago, and I wanted to be able to say to those
whom I then addressed, that Phelan had thoroughly made good in
Washington. He has been strong, honest, courageous, loyal to
California and the country, and at every minute he has been at the
service of his constituents. That is much to say, isn't it? Well,
every word is true. ...
These things I know, for I have watched him through the past six
years and for many years before. Indeed, it is more than thirty
years now since we first joined with boyish enthusiasm in the
activities of the Young Men's Democratic League, and always I have
wondered at his willingness to make himself the target of so much
criticism because of his loyalty to convictions that have not
pleased those in political or social power. He thinks; he does not
take orders. And you can rely on his being superior to the
partisan phase of any real issue. This self-respecting, or self-
owned individual is the sort of man we need to promote in our
political life, or else we will soon find ourselves back in the
pre-Roosevelt days of political invertebrates. I found in
Washington the secret of the exceeding great authority which the
older states carry in Congress, they return their Senators and
Congressmen, term after term, and give them opportunity to rise to
positions of eminence in the national legislature. The usefulness
of a Senator is not to be measured by the roundness of his
periods, nor even by the soundness of his ideas. He must pass
through a period of impatient waiting before his status is such
that he can really have the opportunity to have his ideas
considered seriously. By returning men who have been faithful, the
State strengthens itself in Washington and eventually gains
greatly in prestige, as in the case of Julius Kahn. Senator Phelan
has now passed through this initial period of gaining status, and
his future will be one of an assured and much strengthened
position among his colleagues. Not to return Phelan will mean a
loss at Washington that California can ill afford at this critical
time, for in the national mind he is identified with her prime
concerns.
... These are to be most momentous times ... Just where we are
going no one knows, but clearly the people here, as elsewhere, are
bent upon testing the value of Democracy as a cooperative
organization of men and women, and are determined to make of it a
fuller expression of human capacities and hopes. We must feel our
way carefully at such a time, but we must act constructively, else
there will surely come a dangerous radical reaction. Sympathy must
be checked by wisdom, a wise knowledge of man's limitations and
tendencies, that we do not take on burdens we cannot safely carry.
Yet we must dare, and dare purposefully. What can this Democracy
do for men and women--that is the super-question which rises like
Shasta and follows one throughout the day, dominating every
prospect. And the answer must be wrought out of the sober thought
and the proved experience of our statesmen. ... Cordially yours,
FRANKLIN K. LANE
In September, 1920, he wrote,--"Things look dark to me
politically. The little Wilson (as distinguished from the Great
Wilson) is now having his day. Cox is making a manly fight on
behalf of the President's League, but the administration is
sullen, is doing nothing. Cox will be defeated not by those who
dislike him but by those who dislike Wilson and his group. This
seems mighty unjust."
To Hall McAllister
Katonah, September 25 [?], 1920
MY DEAR HALL,--This paper is a concession to my love for color, it
is not yellow, but golden, and to make the touch truly Californian
I should write with a blue pencil.
I cannot write as gaily or as bravely as you did, for I have been
pretty well beaten down to my knees. My nights are so unforgivably
bad--wakened up two or three times, always with this Monster
squeezing my heart in his Mammoth hand--By God, it is something
Dante overlooked ...
Take my advice, dear Hall, and avoid doing any of the things which
the 3793 Doctors I have paid tell me cause this thing--among them
are;--smoking, eating, drinking, swearing, working.
You can recover partially--not wholly under any circumstances--if
you arrive at a state of Nirvana before death. ... Gay life this,
my boy! I've been so wicked and fast and devilish and hoggish and
gluttonous and always rotten and riotous that I needs must spend a
few months in this agony by way of preliminary atonement before I
may get even a chance at purgatory.
You know that sometimes in the most terrific crushing pain, I
laugh, at the thought that my steady years of drive and struggle
to help a lot of people to get justice, or a chance, should be
gloriously crowned by an ironical God with an end that would make
a sainted Christian, in Nero's time, regret his premature taking-
off. ...
Tell that most charming of all women, who is your sister, that her
noble man was in great good fortune; and I envy him because the
Gods showed their love for him even up to the last. The wicked,
torturing devils respected his gay spirit as he passed along and
forgot to fill him full of arrows, poisoned arrows, as he ran the
gauntlet down to the River. Her letters are beauteous reflections
of her thoroughbred soul, and they give delight to Anne and
myself. ... Yours as always,
FRANKLIN K. LANE
TO MRS. GEORGE EHLE
Bethel, October [3], 1920
That is so charming and gracious a letter that it must be answered
within the day, not that any word in kind can be returned, but the
spirit may be echoed. We may be short in words but not in feeling.
Let me tell you, Lady Ehle, about this place. It is Nirvana-in-
the-Wilderness, the Sacred, Serene Spot. Beautiful, for it is a
ridge surrounded by mountains--or "mountings"--of gold and green,
russet and silver. Noiseless, no dogs bark or cats mew or autos
honk. Peaceful--no business. Nothing offends. Isn't that Nirvana?
No poverty. People independent but polite. Children smile back
when you talk to them, and you do. And the sky has clouds that
color and that cast shadows on purpling mountains and stretches of
meadow. Yes, this is one lovely spot over which a man named
Gehring presides, unofficially, modestly, gently; he has given it
purpose for being, for here he does good by healing, and some of
his wealthy patients have put up a handsome inn in his honor--and
they have said so in a bronze tablet over the mantel.
How much good he can do me I cannot say, but he is trying, Oh,
ever so hard to touch my trouble-centre, and I shall give him a
full chance yet awhile.
Wouldn't it be splendid if Shepaug were assured, or any other
place of simple beauty to which we could retire to commune with
the things that, alas, one only discovers to be the really great
things, the worth while things, late in life. Daily would we
foregather beside that stream to build some kind of altar to the
God of Things as we Hope they may sometime Be. ...
Give my regards to the Duke of Saugatuck and tell him that his
picture on horseback is good enough to enlarge--and then I want
one.
And to you, The Ehle, may the peace that gay souls need and seldom
get, and the joy that good souls long for, be with you always. And
do write some more!
F. K. L.
TO BENJAMIN IDE WHEELER
Bethel, [October 28, 1920]
MY DEAR B. I.,--It has been along time since your letter came, but
until now I have not felt that I could write. Most of the time I
have been in pain and I have also been much discouraged over the
condition of my health. No one wants to hear a man talk of his
aches and I haven't much else on my mind. I am beginning to crawl
a bit health-wards, I think; at any rate I am moving on that
assumption.
What a hell of a condition the land is in politically. Cowardice
and hypocrisy are slated to win, and makeshift and the cheapest
politics are to take possession of national affairs. Better even
obstinacy and ego-mania! Cox, I think, has made a gallant fight.
He is to be beaten because Wilson is as unpopular as he once was
popular. Oh! if he had been frank as to his illness, the people
would have forgotten everything, his going to Paris, his refusal
to deal with the mild Reservationists--everything would have been
swept away in a great wave of sympathy. But he could not be frank,
he who talked so high of faith in the people distrusted them; and
they will not be mastered by mystery. So he is so much less than a
hero that he bears down his party to defeat.
And after election will come revolt in the Republican party, for
it is too many-sided for a long popularity.
I am sorry to be out of it all, but the Gods so willed. I did want
to help Phelan. The country will think that what he has stood for,
as to California matters, especially oil and Japan, has been
repudiated if he is not returned. He was California incarnate in
Washington.
Remember me to the Lady and the Soldier. Always your friend,
FRANKLIN K. LANE
To John W. Hallowell
Bethel, November 3, 1920
MY DEAR JACK,--You have so much idle time hanging, dragging,
festooning on round and about your hands that I want to give you a
job, something to do. Eh, what!
I have taken it into my head, caput, cranium, that I will read
Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, and as the only
copy here is too poorly printed to read, and furthermore as I wish
to own said work myself, I would that you make purchase of same
and send it to me. Now, I do not wish an expensive copy, nor a
large copy, nor a heavy copy. Therefore I think it would be best
to buy a good second-hand set, say in half-leather--perhaps you
can get it in six or eight volumes--and it must not be heavy,
because I read in bed. About the size of an ordinary novel would
be very good, and pretty good sized type--leaded not solid. Yes,
the more I think of a second-hand set, the better I like the idea
--old binding but strong, old paper but light, old type but clear.
Twelve dollars I enclose for a second-hand set. By devoting twenty
dollars worth of time to the search I know you can get a second
hand set for twelve dollars. That is uneconomical, but think of
the fun you will have. I suggest to you that this was the very
thing you needed to do to bring perfect contentment into your
life. Search for Gibbon, pretty backs, good type, light in weight
for twelve dollars. Oh what joy you will have! Really I should be
selfish enough to do it myself but now that I have said so much
about it I can't withdraw this boon. ...
Well, get Gibbon and "with all thy getting get understanding."
F. K. L.
TO JOHN W. HALLOWETT
Bethel, November 12, [1920]
MY DEAR JACK,--I said nothing of the kind to myself. This is what
I said, "Now I want a Gibbon. Not a show-off set but a useful
one--light and small and well bound. How can I get it? Cotter in
New York? What does Cotter know of learning and books of learning?