If you can't return we shall stagger on. I shan't stop climbing this ladder because a rung is gone--tho' many a rung is gone--and a damn hard old ladder this is sometimes. ... F.K.L. XI AFTER-WAR PROBLEMS--LEAVING WASHINGTON 1919 After-war Problems--Roosevelt Memorials--Americanization--Religion --Responsibility of Press--Resignation TO E. C. BRADLEY Washington, January, 1919 MY DEAR BRADLEY,-- ... I am terribly broken up over Roosevelt's death. He was a great and a good man, a man's man, always playing his game in the open. ... I loved old Roosevelt because he was a hearty, two-fisted fellow. ... The only fault I ever had to find with him was that he took defeat too hard. He had a sort of "divine right" idea, but he was a bully fighter. I went to his funeral and have joined in mass meetings in his memory, which I suppose is all I can do. ... Of course ... he said a lot of things that were unjust and unjustifiable, but if a fellow doesn't make a damned fool of himself once in a while he wouldn't be human. The Republicans would have nominated him next time undoubtedly. They are without a leader now, and we are just as much up in the air as ever. ... I am standing by the President for all I am worth. I talked to the Merchants' Association the other day and gave him a great send- off, but they didn't rise to their feet at all, which is the first time this has happened in two years. ... Sincerely yours, FRANKLIN K. LANE TO GEORGE W. LANE Washington, January 30, 1919 MY DEAR GEORGE,-- ... The one thing that bothers us here is the problem of unemployment. We have not, of course, had time to turn around and develop any plan for reconstruction. Our whole war machine went to pieces in a night. Everybody who was doing war work dropped his job with the thought of Paris in his mind, with the result that everything has come down with a crash, in the way of production, but nothing in the way of wages or living costs. Wages cannot go down until the cost of living does, and production won't increase while people believe prices will be lower later on. I to-day proposed to Secretary Glass that he enter upon a campaign to promote production, (1) by seeing what the Government could buy, (2) by seeing what the industries would take as a bottom price, (3) by getting the Food Administration at work to reduce prices. Perhaps it may do some good. ... I have always thought the President was right in going across, and I believe that he will pull through a League of Nations. When I get a copy of it I will send you my speech on this subject, which is rather loose but is a plea for dreams.