Great Falls daily tribune., 1920-03-02
THE RETIREMENT OF SECRETARY LANE

Franklin K. Lane, secretary OF the INTERIOR
retired from the public service on the flrst DAY
Of this month after about a score OF years ser
vice in various branches of the public service
His retirement from the cabinet did not come as
I. surprise His intention to resign at the Ilfst
favorable opportunity has long been known IL
would probably have come about some years ago
il the great worlds war had not intervened. 1t
would certainly have come soon after the war
closed had not the illness of the president again
intervened to alter his purpose These are facts
well enough known to his intimate friends IN
Washington and elsewhere.
Franklin K Lane was great secretary of the
interior. He was a really great man and good
patriot. In every department of governmental
activity in which he was ever engaged he made
good. The quality of his service was recognized
by his associates, the public, and his superior
officers. There is practically no dissent from
that proposition. In fact there is none at all
that is worth any serious consideration. Any
man exercising great powers IN great ana
statesmanlike way makes some personal enemies
and has few yelping, snarling ours at his heels,
speWing venom at his shoes. But Franklin *.
Lane had as little of this kind of criticism To
contend with as any man highly placed in the
public service could expect. In the eyes of the
vast majority Of his fellow citizens he was a
great man, and an honest, courageous and eff
cient secretary Of the interior department. None
of his predecessors in that office left better
record behind them. Very few left as good a
record The president did not wish to lose him
from his family of official advisers. Congress
respected him. The general public were loath
to lose him from the headship Of the interior
department. They fully realize that his resig-
nation involves loss to the department and to
the nation.
No doubt many readers Of The Tribune will
regret his removal from the department and his
decision to devote his energies and abilities here
after to private industry, and they will wonder
why it is that this comes about. Of course The
Tribune makes no claim to having any personal
knowledge Of the factors entering into the de
cision Of Secretary Lane to change his employ
ment as a public servant to employment as the
servant Of private industrial corporation. Our
deductions as to the facts are gathered very
largely from the memorandum addressed to the
president at the time of his resignation, but
which we believe was mainly intended for his
fellow citizens, though made in the form of a
report to the president. In that report he critl-
cses the smaness of the salaries paid to our
public service officials the lack Of any provisions
made for their old age when they shall have
worn themselves out in the service, the checks
and balances laid against their initiative and
responsibility which tends to rob them of execu-
tive force and proper sense of responsibility
If Secretary Lane had tried to put his ideas into
few words, as he often did in his public docu-
ments he might have said that public service
pays a man so meanly and inadequately for ser
vices rendered that he has no chance to provide
for his old age and at the same time is so jealous
that it binds his actions with red tape restric-
tions, supervisons and checks so that he cannot
even get the pleasure out of his work that comes
to the finished workman in the knowledge that
his lob has been done in the best and most eff
fcient way.
Secretary Lanes new employer is willing and
glad to pay him more than four times as much
for his service as the public willing to pay
him. No doubt that was some consideration to
q man who feels the prime of life passing and
the first warning signals of old age approaching
and knows that the ideas of compensation held
by his employer the public, are SO limited that
he cannot possibly save anything toward provd
ing for himself and his family in his declining
years. But we have strong suspicion that it
was not alone this factor that caused Mr.. Lane
to leave the public service. Between the lines
of his last report to the president we think we
can detect the resentment of a good workman
who feels that he cannot turn out the best work
that he has in him to do because he is denied
the needed tools to do the work to the best ad-