Part 10
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
Washington, 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 nobody. 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 gods," 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.
Washington, 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 friendship 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 entitled 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
Washington, 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 multitude 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
Washington, 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 competition. 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
Washington, 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 Washington, 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
Washington, December 13, 1912
MY DEAR MR. HOUSE,--Another suggestion as to the Attorney Generalship. ... 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,
FRANKLIN K. LANE
TO BENJAMIN IDE WHEELER PRESIDENT, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
Washington, December 23, 1912
DEAR DR. WHEELER,--What you say regarding the President-to-be is extremely interesting. That he is headstrong, arbitrary, and positive, his friends admit. These are real virtues in this day of slackness and sloppiness. I have just returned from New York where I have talked with McAdoo and House who are extremely close to him, and advising him regarding his Cabinet, and they tell me he is a most satisfactory man to deal with. He listens quite patiently and makes up his mind, and then "stays put." His Cabinet will be his advisers but no one will control him.
I heard him make that speech at the Southern Society dinner, which was really much larger than the audience could understand. It was a presentation of the theory that the thought of the nation determined its destiny and that we could only have prosperity if our ideal was one of honor. His warning to Wall Street, that an artificial panic should not be created, was done in a most impressive way. ...
I was asked to give the names of men from California who would make good Cabinet material, and I named Phelan and Adolph Miller. The currency question will be the big problem in the next two or three years, and I should like Wilson to have the benefit of as sane a mind as Miller's; but I fancy that even if everything else was all right there might be some difficulty in getting a college professor to appoint another college professor.
I hope we shall see you here soon. With holiday greetings to Mrs. Wheeler and the Boy, believe me, as always, faithfully yours,
FRANKLIN K. LANE
TO SIDNEY E. MEZES PRESIDENT, UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS
Washington, December 23, 1912
MY DEAR SID,--I have your letter enclosing a telegram from Miller. I received a note from him acknowledging the telegram. He was evidently extremely delighted at being remembered. The sturdy, strong old Dutchman has a whole lot of sentiment in him; and he makes few friends, has drawn pretty much to himself, I think, and falls back upon those whom he has known in earlier days. I sent a note to Mr. House regarding him. He would be a splendid man to have here in some capacity connected with the Government, now that we are to deal with currency matters. I told Mr. House that he could find out all about Miller from you.
I saw House a couple of times in New York. He certainly is an adroit and masterful diplomat. The fact is I do not know that I have seen a man who is altogether so capable of handling a delicate situation. By some look of the eye or appreciative smile at the right moment he gives you to understand his sympathy with and full comprehension of what you are saying to him. They tell me in New York that he is really the man closest to Wilson, and he tells me that Wilson is a delightful man to deal with because he has got a mind that is firm as a rock. ...
I send my Christmas greetings to you both. We have a sick little girl on our hands, but she is coming along all right now. As always yours,
FRANKLIN K. LANE
To John H. Wigmore
Washington, January 8,1913
MY DEAR JOHN,--... You may not know it, but I suggested your name to Mr. House, an intimate of President-elect Wilson, for Attorney General. ... He told me that he gave the letter to Governor Wilson. ...
Like so many of the Southerners, I fear that Wilson's idea is that he can declare a general policy and be indifferent as to the men who carry it out. There is a certain lack of effectiveness running through the South which makes for sloppiness and a lack of precision. I have found that generalizations do not get anywhere. The strength of any proposition lies in its application. The railroads and the trusts and the packers, and all the others who are violating the statutes, are indifferent as to how big the law is and upon what sound principles it is based, provided they have a lot of speechmakers to enforce the law. They don't care what the law is; their only concern is as to its enforcement. I am going to give the Democratic Party four years of honest trial, and then if it has not more precision, definiteness, and clearness of aim, am going to call myself a Progressive, or a Republican, or something else.
Wilson is strong, capable of keeping his own counsel, and capable of making up his own mind. In these three respects he differs materially from our present President whose last flop on the arbitration of the Panama Canal proposition is characteristic. ...
Now, old man, let me say to you that you must take the very best of care of yourself, for we need you more than anybody else in this country, right at this time. As always yours,
FRANKLIN K. LANE
To John H. Wigmore Washington, January 20, 1913
MY DEAR JOHN,--I have received both of your letters, and I am very glad that you made that mistake regarding my address for it brought me two letters instead of one. I received your Continental Legal History months ago and thought that I had acknowledged it with all kinds of appreciation, but perhaps I only thought the things. ... I turned the book over to Minister Loudon of the Netherlands who knew the Dutch professor who had written one of the articles, and the rascal has not returned the book, but I shall get it from him one of these days. ... Washington is now greatly stirred because Wilson has frowned upon the Inaugural Ball--a very proper frown, to my way of thinking--but inasmuch as all of the merchants who advance money for the inaugural ceremonies recoup themselves from the receipts from the Inaugural Ball, there is much weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth, and Wilson will enter Washington, in my judgment, a very unpopular president, locally. The fact is, I think, he is apt to prove one of the most tremendously disliked men in Washington that ever has been here.
He has a great disrespect for individuals, and so far as I can discover a very large respect for the mass. His code is a little new to us; and I feel justified in proceeding upon the theory that every man should help him, and that it is within his (Wilson's) proper function to throw Mr. Everyman down whenever public good requires it, and that his silence never estops him from interfering at any time. Perhaps you cannot make out just what this means. I am dictating, sitting in my room at home with a very bad cold, and perhaps I do not know precisely what I mean myself; but I am trying to say that under all circumstances Wilson regards himself as a free man, and that he is bound by no ties whatever to do anything or to follow any course; that he recognizes no such thing as consistency, or logic, or gratitude, as in the slightest embarrassing him. ...
I do hope that the President will get some capable effective administration officers who will take the burden of patronage off his shoulders and give him a chance to think on the money question, which is his big problem. I like his Chicago speech, I like his New York speech, but I do not find many people who understand him, because he is really a sort of philosopher. He teaches the psychology of new thought, the influence and effect of thought upon government.
I have written an article for the World's Work which is to appear in March, entitled What I Am Trying To Do, but it is really sort of an answer to one or two articles that they have had upon the railroad side of the question of regulation--a demonstration of the chaotic condition of things that existed prior to the establishment of the Commission; and that the effect of regulation has been to increase railroad earnings and put things upon a stable and more satisfactory basis. ... I find that I have a copy of the proofs in the office and I am going to send it to you and ask you to criticise it. ...
With my love to your good wife, believe me, as always,
FRANKLIN K. LANE
To Joseph N. Teal
Washington, January 20, 1913
MY DEAR JOE,--... You know we practically have the power now to make a physical appraisement. ... We should not ourselves attempt to arrive at cost. That is a very hard thing for the railroads to furnish. They have taken good care to destroy most of the books and papers that would show cost.
Politically, I hear of no news. Wilson is able to keep his own counsel more perfectly than anybody I have ever known, and nobody comes back from Trenton knowing anything more than when he went. ... The money question is going to be the big one, and it looks to me as though certain gentlemen were preparing to intimidate him with a panic, which they won't do because he will appeal to the country. He has got splendid nerve, and while Washington won't like him a little, little bit, the country, I think, will put him down as a very great President. As always,
FRANKLIN K. LANE
To Edward M. House
Washington, January 22, 1913
DEAR MR. HOUSE,--You ask me what is the precise political situation on the Pacific Coast as to various candidates for the Cabinet.
As I have told you, I am to be eliminated from consideration. California has but one candidate, one who was in Governor Wilson's primary campaign and who made the fight for him in that state, in the person of James D. Phelan whom you have met. ... Recognition given to Phelan will be given to the foremost man in the progressive fight in California. ... He is a brilliant speaker and a man of excellent business judgment. ... He has fine social quality and sufficient money to maintain such a position in proper dignity. Not to recognize him in some first-class manner would be a triumph for his enemies--and his enemies are the crooks of the state.
Joseph N. Teal who is spoken of from Oregon as a possible Secretary of the Interior, is a good lawyer and a most public- spirited man who has been identified with every sane movement for progress in that state. He is a man of means and is deeply interested in questions of conservation and the improvement of our waterways. ...
... As a matter of party politics I do not think that any Pacific Coast state can be made Democratic by the appointment of a member of the Cabinet from it; as a matter of national politics, it seems to be necessary that that part of the country should have a voice in the council of the President.