The Letters of Franklin K. Lane, Personal and Political Part 16

FRANKLIN K. LANE

TO BENJAMIN IDE WHEELER PRESIDENT, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA

Was.h.i.+ngton, 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

Was.h.i.+ngton, 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 st.u.r.dy, 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

Was.h.i.+ngton, 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 Ca.n.a.l 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 Was.h.i.+ngton, 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. ... Was.h.i.+ngton 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 gnas.h.i.+ng of teeth, and Wilson will enter Was.h.i.+ngton, 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 Was.h.i.+ngton 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 ma.s.s. 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 circ.u.mstances 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 grat.i.tude, as in the slightest embarra.s.sing 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, ent.i.tled 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

Was.h.i.+ngton, January 20, 1913

MY DEAR JOE,--... You know we practically have the power now to make a physical apprais.e.m.e.nt. ... 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 n.o.body 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 Was.h.i.+ngton 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

Was.h.i.+ngton, 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-cla.s.s 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.

Now, I want to say a word or two on a more important matter. You realize, I presume (and Governor Wilson evidently does) that there is talk of a probable panic in the air. He dealt with this matter masterfully in his New York speech. Worse things than panic can befall a nation. We must preserve our self-respect as a self- governing people. But what is the cause of this loose talk?

Apprehension. The business interests of the country do not know what they are to expect. As a party we are too much given to generalization; we have too little precision of thought. You will notice how the New York papers of yesterday speak of Governor Wilson's bill regarding the regulation of trusts. This is something definite, and does not frighten because it is known. The problems we have to deal with--the tariff, currency, and trusts-- should all be dealt with in this same manner. The Administration should have a definite program on each one of these questions; and I mean by that, bills framed in conference between the leaders which should be presented as party measures at the very first possible moment. I have information that the banks are already saying that they will stop loans until these questions are dealt with. This is the way by which panic can be produced. The country is too prosperous to allow a widespread industrial panic if the measures favored by the Government commend themselves to the people as sane and necessary. Why can't we, as the boys on the street say, "beat them to it"? If Congress is called by the middle of March, and the tariff is quickly put out of the way, and a currency bill promptly follows, we can restore the mind of the country to its normal state by midsummer. You know that this problem of government is largely one of psychology. The doctor must speak with definiteness and certainty to quiet the patient's nerves, and the doctor is the party as represented in the President and Congress.