The Washington times., 1922-11-26

thinking. wondered. patient-
IL ly or not. what was going
on In the mind of President Will.
son and behind the locked doors
of the Cabinet room early in 1917.
Since then there have been reve-
lations of a sort-chief among
them the articles of the devoted
Tumulty.
1t is only Iatural that the
Tumulty articles should have been
written from the standpoint Of an
enthusiastic partisan. And not
even Mr.. Tumulty was admitted
In the Cabinet quarters when the
Cabinet was there.
The strong light of publicity has
been let into those meetings and
the whole intricate maneuvering
Of the wartime administration be-
cause the late Franklin X. Lane
had to have some escape, for his
feelings. and wrote detailed ac-
his resulting reactions to his
brother George. These, and hun
dreds of other letters. painstak-
ingly collected and edited largely
by Mrs. Lane, add intellectually to
the true history Of the troublous
times from which the nation has
mi n,,tl
There is a brief sketch of Lane
as a young man-his early lean
Ing toward becoming a preacher
his ventures into politics and the
newspaper business-his friends
ard associates of those early days
on the West coast. Then follow
Nhis l"tters-letters written to a
host OF friends, covering his life
and it's myriad interests more
fully than any biographer could
hope to do.
Lare's letters, while a member
OF tie Interstate Commerce Com
miss on. naturally cannot hold the
interest o his later epistles, and
this IS 10 r~flcction on the earlier
writings. l. is just that the later
expressions dealt with events of
toweri' s interest, things u.at then
held the heart of the whole world
wit1 a viselike grip.
Without self-approbation, 1t be-
came evident that many months be-
fore the word finally went to Con-
gress TO declare war, Mr.. Wilson's
Secretary OF The Interior saw that
the Uni,ed s,o,es must inevitably
be dra a~n H.. He set about the or.
ganizat'on Of industry as best could
be done, and no doubt materially
shortened the actual fighting time,
once the die was cast.
AS late as February of 1917 Presi-
dent Wilson was opposed TO aoy
large preparedness for war--As d
war was declared early in April.
Near the end of February the Presi.
dent resented it when Mr.. Lane
ventured to suggest that IL the
country knew that the wives
of American consuis had been
stripped naked at the German bor-
der, bathed with acid to detect
writing on their flesh. and sub
5ected to other indignities, the
country would demand war. When
McAdoo. Houston and Redfield
backed up Lane, Mr.. Wilson Bit
terly reproached all of them with
Appealing to the spirit of the code
duello." Lanes clear vision of
the true Wilson, even at this date,
Is shown In the same letter, when
he wrote, II don't know whether
the President is an International
list or a pacifist, he seems to be
very mildly national-his patriot.
ism Is covered with film of phil.
osophic humanitarianism that
certainly doesn't make for punch
at such a time as this"
In 1920, when Cox was riding
20 a hard political fall, Lane
prophesied 1t, and laid the blame
on Wilson-"the little Wilson,"
sulIen and doing nothing, not the
'Great Wilson" of Lanes earlier
association with him. He specu-
lated on Harding. not as a bitter
partisan, but as a hopeful Ameri-
can.
els Harding great and master.
full In his simplicity, or trusting
and yielding? and IL the latter,
where is the Hanna?' he asked
George w. .Wickersham.
Lane was not a partisan Of the
blind type. He had and frequently
expressed whole-souled admiration
for Theodore Roosevelt and Her.
bert Hoover. But sometimes his
faith In democracy was severely
strained by,eyents. Once he wrote
that democracy seems to be gov.