F. K L.
TO JOHN H. WIGMORE
Washington, July 3, 1912
MY DEAR JOHN,--Of course you may keep the Napoleon book. It is intended for you. Your criticism of T. R.'s literary style is appreciated, and no doubt he lacks in precision of thought.
Now we shall have a chance to see what a college president can do as President of the United States. I believe Wilson will be elected. What a splendid jump in three years that man has made! They tell me he is very cold-blooded. We need a cold-blooded fellow these days ...
September 21, 1912
... You will by this time have picked up all the politics of the time. Wilson is strong, but not stronger than he was when nominated. T. R. is gaining strength daily, that is my best guess. He has the laboring man with him most enthusiastically but not unanimously, of course. The far West--Pacific Coast--is his. All the railroad men and the miners ...
I am not sure of Wilson. He is not "wise" to modern conditions, I fear. Tearing up the tariff won't change many prices. Doesn't he seem to talk too much like a professor and too little like a statesman? Hearst is knifing him for all he is worth. He has fixed in the workingmen's minds that Wilson favors Chinese immigration.
Well, when am I to see you again? And how is Mrs. John? How I do wish you were here! As always,
F. K. L.
To Timothy Spellacy
Washington, September 30, 1912
MY DEAR TIM,--I have your fine, long letter of September 23, and this is no more than just an acknowledgment. I am glad to know that you are taking so hearty an interest in the campaign. It is really too bad that you did not stay longer in Baltimore and see Bryan win out all along the line.
I don't want a position in the Cabinet. I am not looking for any further honors, but I want to help Wilson make a success of his administration, for I think he will be elected. I am afraid that he will become surrounded by Southern reactionaries--men of his own blood and feeling, who are not of the Northern and more progressive type. We have got to cut some sharp corners in doing the things that are right. By this I don't mean that we will do anything that is wrong; but from the standpoint of the Southern Democrat it is illegal to have a strong central government--one that is effective--and we have got to have such a government if we are going to hold possession of the Nation. The people want things done. Wilson is a bit too conservative for me, but maybe when he realizes the necessity for strength he will be for it.
I am sorry for B--. Poor chap! His alliance with Hearst undid years of good work ... As always yours,
FRANKLIN K. LANE
To Adolph C. Miller
Washington, October 18, 1912
MY DEAR ADOLPH,--I have postponed until the last minute writing you regarding my proposed visit in California. I see now clearly that it is impossible for me to get out there this fall. The Express Case ... is still on my hands, and with all of my energy I shall not be able to get rid of it until the first of the year at least ... Moreover (and this is a personal matter that I wish you would not say anything about) ... I am doing my work in a great deal of pain, and have been for the last three or four weeks ... I cannot work as hard as I did some time ago ...
I rebel at sickness as much as I do at death. The scheme of existence does not appeal to me, at the moment, as the most perfect which a highly imaginative Creator could have invented. My transcendental philosophy seems a pretty good working article when things are going smoothly, but it is not quite equal to hard practical strain, I fear.
Politically things look like Wilson, though I suppose T. R. will get California and a lot of other states. I think he will beat Taft badly. The new party has come to stay, and it will be a tremendous influence for good. I don't take any stock in the talk about T. R's personal ambition being his controlling motive. I think that he has found a religious purpose in life to which he can devote himself the rest of his days, not to get himself into office but to keep things moving along right lines.
Remember me most kindly to your wife and President Wheeler. As always yours,
FRANKLIN K. LANE
To William F. McCombs Chairman, Democratic National Committee
Washington, October 19,1912
Dear Mr. McCombs,--I cannot go to California and make speeches for Governor Wilson without resigning from the Commission. Four years ago two Republican members of the Commission were strongly urged at a critical time in the campaign to get into Mr. Taft's fight so as to help with the labor vote. I insisted that they should not do it, and the matter was brought before the Commission, and we then decided that no member of the Commission should take part in politics. So you see when the telegrams began to come in this year, urging that I go out to California and the other Pacific Coast states, I was compelled to say that I was stopped by my position of four years ago.
I have never wanted to get into a campaign as much as I have this one. Governor Wilson represents all that I have been fighting for, for the last twenty years in my State; but I think that it would be almost fatal to the independence and high repute of this Commission for its members to take part in a national campaign. We have so much power that we can exercise upon the railroads and upon railroad men that any announcement made by a member of this Commission could properly be construed as a threat or a suggestion that should be heeded by the wise. I know that this view of the matter will appeal to you as entirely sensible when you reflect upon it, and to my impatient friends in California, to whom it has been very hard to say no.
I am glad to see that you are holding the fight up so hard at the tail end of the campaign. That is when Democratic campaigns have so often been lost. Governor Wilson is maintaining himself splendidly, and our one danger has been over-confidence. Sincerely yours,
FRANKLIN K. LANE
About the political situation he wrote to one of his former Assistants in the City and County Attorney's office in San Francisco
To Hugo K. Asher
Washington, October 22,1912
MY DEAR HUGO,--I have your long letter which you promised in your telegram. Now, old man, I want to have a perfectly open talk with you. I understand your attitude of affectionate ambition for me, and I am mighty proud of it, that after the years we were associated together, the ups and downs we had, you feel the way you do.
Wilson is going to be elected unless some miracle happens, and I would tremendously like to get out to California and speak to the people once more. You do not know just how the old lust for battle has come over me. Following your telegram came a letter from McCombs, the Chairman of the National Committee, saying that he had received a lot of telegrams urging him to have me go and that Governor Wilson would like me to. But I wrote him precisely as I have you. If the members of this Commission once get into politics, the institution is gone to hell, for we can make or unmake any candidate we wish. This is the most powerful body in the United States, and we must act with a full sense of the responsibility that is on us ...
As for being a member of Wilson's Cabinet, I don't want to be. In the first place I can't afford it. There is no Cabinet man here who lives on his salary, and as you know, I have got nothing else. I save nothing now out of the salary that I get, and if the social obligations of a Cabinet position were placed upon me I would have to run in debt ...
Furthermore, I am doing just as big work and as satisfactory work as any member of the Cabinet. The work that a Cabinet officer chiefly does is to sign his name to letters or papers that other people write. There is very little constructive work done in any Cabinet office. While the glamour of intimate association with the President--the honor that comes from such a position--appeals to me, for I still have all my old-time vanity and love of dignity and appreciation; yet the position that I occupy is one of so much power, and I am conscious so thoroughly of its usefulness, that I do not want to change it. I should be more or less close to the President anyway, I presume. His friends are my friends, and I shall have an opportunity to help make his administration a success by advising with him, if he desires my advice.
Now, old man, I have talked to you very frankly, and I know that you will understand just what I mean. If I were out of office I would have been in Wilson's campaign a year ago. If I wanted a Cabinet position now I would resign from the Commission and go out to help him. I think probably if I felt that California's vote was necessary to Wilson's success and that I could help to get it, I would take the latter course, although it is not clear that that would be my duty, in view of conditions in the Commission.
With warmest regards, believe me, as always, faithfully yours,
FRANKLIN K. LANE
To Francis G. Newlands Reno, Nevada
Washington, October 28, 1912
MY DEAR SENATOR,--I am delighted at the receipt of your long letter, for I have been very anxious to know how you felt about your own State. Of course it has been a foregone conclusion for some time that Wilson would carry the United States, but I was desirous that you should carry Nevada for your own sake ...