The Letters of Franklin K. Lane, Personal and Political Part 15

Sincerely yours,

FRANKLIN K. LANE

Immediately after Woodrow Wilson's election in November, telegrams and letters from different parts of the country, and especially from his many friends in California, began to reach Lane asking that he should consider himself available for a Cabinet position, offering support and requesting his permission for them to make a strong effort in his behalf. This he emphatically refused, saying that he was not a candidate, but in spite of his refusals, editorials began to appear in many Western papers.

To Charles K. McClatchy Sacramento Bee

Was.h.i.+ngton, November 25, 1912

MY DEAR CHARLES,--I received your note and this morning have a copy of the paper containing the cartoon on "Unfinished Business,"

the original of which, by the way, I should like to have for my library. ...

I know absolutely nothing about the suggestion made by the Call as to my being appointed to the Cabinet. I rather think that it was Ernest Simpson's friendly act, though I have not heard from him at all. Three men have been to me from the Coast who wanted to be in the Cabinet, and I have told each one the same thing:--That I was not a candidate; that no one would speak to the President for me with my consent; but that I would not say that I would not accept an appointment, because I would do almost anything to make Wilson's administration a success, for I believe that he has faced the right way and the only difficulty that he will have will be in securing strong enough support to carry out his own policies. I think he lacks somewhat in adroitness and that his campaign was much less radical than he would voluntarily have made it. I do not know him and shall not go near him unless he sends for me. If he does send for me I shall tell him the truth regarding anybody of whom he speaks to me. I shall advocate n.o.body. I am not going to be a job peddler or solicitor. My present position makes all the demand upon my imagination, initiative, and capacity that my abilities justify. I could not work any harder or do any better work for the people in any position that the Government has to give. I am not at all enamored of the honor of a Cabinet place.

Now, I am talking to you in the utmost frankness as if you were sitting just across the table from me. Of course what I am saying to you is absolutely private and personal. ...

We will just let this matter rest "on the knees of the G.o.ds," and I shall try to serve with as little personal ambition moving me as is possible with a man who has some temperament.

Sincerely yours,

FRANKLIN K. LANE

To Ernest S. Simpson San Francisco, Cal.

Was.h.i.+ngton, November 26, 1912

MY DEAR SIMPSON,--How it ever entered into your head to give me so splendid a boom for a position in Wilson's Cabinet I do not know.

Someone suggested that the tip came from Ira Bennett at this end, and I see that the Sacramento Bee suggests that the railroads wish to remove me from my present sphere of troublesomeness; but my own guess is that your own good heart and our long-time friends.h.i.+p was the sole cause of this most kindly act.

Some of the California papers, I notice, have had editorials saying I should stay where I am (which is not a disagreeable fate to be condemned to, barring a slight surplus of work), but of course Wilson is not going to appoint anyone to his Cabinet because of pull. He has a more difficult job than any President has ever had since Lincoln, because he has to reconcile a progressive Northern Democracy with a conservative Southern Democracy, and satisfy one with policies and another with offices.

My guess is that he will have to turn over the whole question of patronage practically to his Cabinet and that he will become the actual leader of his party and attempt to formulate the legislative policies of the party. He has a distinct ideal of what the Presidency may be made. Whether he can make good under conditions so apparently irreconcilable is a question that time only can answer. His political family he will choose for himself.

They ought to be the very largest men that our country can produce, and I am not fool enough to think that I am ent.i.tled to be in such a group.

With the warmest thanks, my dear Simpson, for your kindness, believe me, as always, cordially yours,

FRANKLIN K. LANE

To Fairfax Harrison

Was.h.i.+ngton, November 26, 191L

MY DEAR MR. HARRISON,--That is an exceedingly interesting and philosophical presentation of your reason for adherence to the Progressive Party. I understand your point of view and I sympathize with it thoroughly. I had the hope that Colonel Roosevelt would carry several of the Southern states. The Democratic party of the North is distinct from the Democratic party of the South, at least I fear that it is. The next four years will demonstrate the possibility of these two elements living together in effective cooperation. If Governor Wilson is a mere doctrinaire the present victory will be of no value to the Democratic party, but may be of great value to the country, for the horizontal cleavage in the two parties will become manifest, unmistakable, and open, and out of the breaking up will come a re- alignment upon real lines of tendency. If President Wilson attempts to do anything which satisfies the reasonable demand of the progressive North he will run counter to the traditional policy of the South; that is to say, effective regulation of child labor, of interstate corporations--railroad and industrial--flood waters, irrigation projects. [These,] and a mult.i.tude of other matters make necessary the wiping out of state lines to the extent that a national policy shall be supreme over a state policy. As our good Spanish friend said some centuries ago, "Where two men ride of a horse one must needs ride behind."

This fact is stronger than any written word, and facts are the things which statesmen deal with. If the South is large enough to see this--if it has grown to have national vision--the hope of the Northern Democrat can be realized. Otherwise the traditionalists of both North and South will make a party by themselves, and the rest of the country will follow in your lead into THE new party or A new party.

With warm regards, believe me, cordially yours,

FRANKLIN K. LANE

To James P. Brown

Was.h.i.+ngton, November 27, 1912

MY DEAR JIM,--I see your point of view and am glad you have taken the position that you have, because you can demonstrate whether there is anything excepting a sawed-off shot-gun that will compel some editors to tell the truth. ...

I shall not read your pamphlet because I have too much other reading that I am compelled to do. My own guess, being totally ignorant on the subject, is that you have violated the Sherman Law, but everybody knows that the Sherman Law should be amended and the conditions stated upon which there may be combination. Do get out of your head, however, the idea that a railroad corporation and an industrial corporation are subject to the same philosophy, as to compet.i.tion. One is necessarily a monopoly and therefore must be regulated; the other is not necessarily a monopoly, and the least regulation that it can be subjected to the better. We have let things go free for so long that we have created a big problem that sane men must deal with sensibly; not admitting all there is to be right, but recognizing every natural and legitimate economic tendency. With warm regards, believe me, as always,

FRANKLIN K. LANE

TO ADOLPH C. MILLER

Was.h.i.+ngton, December 4, 1912

MY DEAR ADOLPH,--Hon. J. J. London, Minister from the Netherlands to the United States, left last night for San Francisco and will be there about the ninth of the month. I have told him somewhat of you and I want you to call on him. He is one of the most charming men in Was.h.i.+ngton, really a poet in nature. He loves the beautiful and good things of the world and is totally unspoiled by success and position. ...

It is very good to know that you and President Wheeler have a sort of mutual agreement on me for a Cabinet position, but I don't think of it for myself. ... I find that I do not have the ambition that I once had, excepting to do the work in hand just as well as possible, and I am altogether impatient with the way I do it. I should like to see you Secretary of the Treasury. There is to be some change made in our currency laws during the next four years, and a man of perfectly sane, level mind is tremendously needed to guide Wilson in this matter, for I guess he is very ignorant upon the subject. Especially is this true if Bryan goes into the Cabinet. E. M. House, who is Sid Mezes' brother-in-law, is as close to Wilson as any other man, and I will drop him a note, telling him something about you, for I know that he is interested in selecting Cabinet officers as he has been talking to me about possible Attorney Generals. I have told him that I wanted nothing.

Mezes is the same adroit diplomat that he has always been, since receiving the Presidency at Texas. He is doing big things for his University and says that in two or three years he will be in a position to retire, and will retire and spend the most of his time in Europe; but unless my guess is wrong, his ambition has at last been fired and he will look for other worlds to conquer if he achieves what he is after in Texas. Cordially yours,

FRANKLIN K. LANE

TO EDWARD M. HOUSE

Was.h.i.+ngton, December 13, 1912

MY DEAR MR. HOUSE,--Another suggestion as to the Attorney Generals.h.i.+p. ... Have you ever heard of John H. Wigmore who is now Dean of the Law Department of the Northwestern University? He is one of the most remarkable men in our country. ... He has written the greatest law book produced in this country in half a century, WIGMORE ON EVIDENCE, besides several minor works. There is no lawyer at the American bar who is not familiar with his name and his work. ...

... Wigmore is a Progressive democrat with a capital P. and a small d; can give reason for his faith based on his philosophy of government. He has national vision and has rare good common sense.

The man who can write a good law book is rarely one who would make a good lobbyist, although Judah P. Benjamin was this sort of genius. So with Wigmore. He is practical, wise, in the sense that this word is used by the boys on the street; knows men and knows how to deal with them; never lets theory get the better of judgment; commands as much respect for his strength as for his reasonableness; has the enthusiasm of a boy for all good things; and has infinite capacity for hard work; can say "No" without developing personal bitterness; and is above all a gentleman in face, manner, and nature. All this I have said with enthusiasm, but every word of it is true. I have known him for thirty years.

He would not thank me for writing this letter, I know. The only way he could be had to serve would be by persuading him that he is absolutely needed. ...

You have brought this long letter upon your own head by the gracious nature of your invitation to me to advise with you. Very truly yours,