And as to economic problems, people are going to solve a lot of these along very simple lines. I think I see a great body of opinion rising in favor of the appropriation by the Government of all natural resources.
We saw a lot of the Severances while they were here. Cordy made a great argument in the Merger Case, but if he wins, we won't get anything more than a paper victory--another Northern Securities victory.
Please remember me very kindly to Mrs. Shaw, and believe me, as always sincerely yours,
FRANKLIN K. LANE
TO CURT G. PFEIFFER
Washington, May 21, 1912
MY DEAR PFEIFFER,--I am acknowledging your note on the day when Ohio votes. This is the critical day, for if T. R. wins more than half the delegation in Ohio, he is nominated and, I might almost say, elected. But I find that the Democrats feel more sure of his strength than the Republicans do. Have you noticed how extremely small the Democratic vote is at all of the primaries, not amounting to more than one-fourth of the Republican vote?
... The Democrats are in an awkward position. If Roosevelt is nominated, one wing will be fighting for Underwood, to get the disaffected conservative strength, while the other wing will be fighting for Bryan, so as to hold as large a portion of the radical support as possible. Oh, well, we have all got to come to a real division of parties along lines of tendency and temperament and have those of us who feel democratic-wise get into the same wagon, and those who fear democracy, and whose first interest is property, flock together on the tory side. As always, yours,
FRANKLIN K. LANE
TO GEORGE W. LANE
Washington, July 2, 1912
MY DEAR GEORGE,--I am off tomorrow for Baddeck, Cape Breton, where I shall probably be until the 1st of September or thereabouts--if I can endure that long period of country life and absence from the political excitement of the United States.
It looks, as I am writing, as if Wilson were to be nominated at Baltimore. If he is he will sweep the country; Taft won't carry three states. [Footnote: Taft carried Vermont and Utah.] Wilson is clean, strong, high-minded and cold-blooded. To nominate him would be a tremendous triumph for the anti-Hearst people. I have been over at the convention several times. Hearst defeated Bryan for temporary chairman by making a compact with Murphy, Sullivan and Taggart. ... Bryan has fought a most splendid fight. I had a talk with him. He was in splendid spirits and most cordial. The California delegation headed by Theodore Bell has been made to look like a lot of wooden Indians. Bell himself was shouted down with the cry of "Hearst! Hearst!", the last time he rose to speak. The delegation is probably the most discredited one in the entire convention. ...
My summer, I presume, will be put in chiefly in sailing a small yawl with Gilbert Grosvenor, rowing a boat, fishing a little, and walking some. My diet for the next two months will consist exclusively of salmon and potatoes, cod-fish and potatoes, and mutton and potatoes.
I have just completed my report in the Express Case, a copy of which will be sent you. It has been a most tremendous task, and the work has not yet been completed for we have to pass upon the rates in October; but I am in surprisingly good condition-- largely, perhaps, because the weather has been so cool for the last month ...
All happiness, old man! Affectionately yours,
FRANKLIN K. LANE
"Lane had a long look ahead," says James S. Harlan, "that often reminded one of the extraordinary prevision of Colonel Roosevelt. One striking instance of this was in connection with this Express Case.
"Early in the progress of the investigation of express companies undertaken by him in 1911, at the request of the Interstate Commerce Commission, Lane warned a group of high express officials gathered around him that unless they promptly coordinated their service more closely to the public requirements, revised their archaic practices, readjusted and simplified their rate systems so as to eliminate discriminations, the frequent collection of double charges and other evils, and gave the public a cheaper and a better service, the public would soon be demanding a parcel post.
"The suggestion was received with incredulous smiles, one of the express officials saying, apparently with the full approval of them all, that a parcel post had been talked of in this country for forty years and had never got beyond the talking point, and never would. As a matter of fact, there was little, if any, movement at that time in the public press or elsewhere for such a service by the government. But Lane's alert mind had sensed in the current of public thought a feeling that there was need of a quicker, simpler, and cheaper way of handling the country's small packages, and he saw no way out, other than a parcel post, if the express companies stood still and made no effort to meet this public need.
"Within scarcely more than a year Congress, by the Act of August 24, 1912, had authorized a parcel post and such a service was in actual operation on January 1, 1913. It was not until December of the latter year that the express companies were ready to file with the Commission the ingenious and entirely original system Lane had devised for stating express rates. The form was so simple that even the casual shipper in a few minutes' study could qualify himself for ascertaining the rates, not only to and from his own home express station but between any other points in the country. But by that time the carriage of the country's small parcels had permanently passed out of the hands of the express companies into the hands of the postal service, by which Lane's unique form for stating the express rates was adopted as the general form of showing its parcel post charges."
TO Oscar S. Straus
Washington, July 8, 1912
MY DEAR MR. STRAUS,--I thank you heartily for your appreciative note regarding my University of Virginia talk. I wanted to say something to those people, especially to the younger men, that would make them doubt the wisdom of staying forever with systems and theories not adapted to our day.
As I write, word comes that Woodrow Wilson has been nominated. I do not know him, but from what I hear he promises if elected to be a real leader in the war against injustice. The world wants earnest men right now--not cynics, but men who BELIEVE, whether rightly or wrongly; and the reason that the East is so much less progressive as we say, than the West, is because the East is made up so largely of cynics.
Thanking you once more for your appreciative words, believe me, sincerely yours,
FRANKLIN K. LANE
TO BENJAMIN IDE WHEELER PRESIDENT, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
Baddeck, Nova Scotia, July 81, [1912]
MY DEAR MR. WHEELER,--Your letter followed me here, where at least one can breathe. This really is a most beautiful country filled with self-respecting Gaelic-speaking Scotch from the islands of the north--crofters driven here to make place for sheep and fine estates on their ancestral homes in the Highlands.
I am proud of your words of commendation. The express job is the biggest one yet. I believe we've done a real service both to the country and to the express companies. The latter will probably live if their service and their rates improve. Otherwise the Government will put them out of business, requiring the railroads to give fast service for any forwarder, as in Germany.
Politically, things look Wilson to me. Taft won't be in sight at the finish. It will be a run between Wilson and T. R. I can't name five states that Taft is really likely to carry. My friends in Massachusetts say Wilson will win there, and so in Maine. Well, I suppose you and I are in the same sad situation--eager to break into the fight but bound not to do it. Do you know I believe that T. R. has discovered, and just discovered, that it is our destiny to be a Democracy. Hence the enthusiasm which Wall Street calls whiskey. ... Sincerely yours,
FRANKLIN K, LANE
TO GEORGE W. LANE
Washington, September 17, 1912
MY DEAR GEORGE,--I am mighty glad to get your Labor Day letter, but sorry that its note is not more cheerful and gay. I can quite understand your position though. We are all obsessed with the desire to be of some use and unwilling to take things as they are. I do not know a pair of more rankly absurd idealists than you and myself, and along with idealism goes discontent. We do not see the thing that satisfies us, and we can not abide resting with the thing that does not satisfy us. We are of the prods in the world, the bit of acid that is thrown upon it to test it, the spur which makes the lazy thing move on.
This summer I saw a great deal of a man ... [who was] perfectly complacent. ... And I noticed that he took no acids of any kind-- never a pickle, nor vinegar, nor salad--but would heap half a roll of butter on a single sheet of bread and eat sardines whole. And I just came to the conclusion that there was something in a fellow's stomach that accounted for his temperament. If I ever get the time I am going to try and work out the theory. The contented people are those who generate their own acid and have an appetite for fats, while the discontented people are those whose craving is for acids. A lack of a sense of humor and a love for concrete facts, as opposed to dreams, goes along with the first temperament. You just turn this thing over and see if there is not something in it. I am long past the stage of trying to correct myself; I am just trying to understand a lot of things--why they are. ...