MY DEAR MR. MARTIN,-- ... It does not seem to me that this country will rise to a class war. We have too many farmers and small householders and women--put the accent on the women. They are the conservatives. Until a woman is starving, she does not grow Red, unless she is without a husband or babies and has a lot of money that she did not earn. ... Cordially yours, FRANKLIN K. LANE TO GEORGE W. LANE Washington, September 11, 1919 DEAR GEORGE,--You do not know how much of sympathy I send out to you and how many words of prayer I send up for you. You need them all, I expect. ... What a long siege you have had! I suppose you will not be able to hear the President speak when he is there. You will miss much. He is not impassioned nor a great orator, such as Chatham or Fox, or Webster or Dolliver, or even Bryan--but he has a keen, quick, cutting mind, the mind of a really great critic, and his manner is that of the gentleman scholar. He is first among all men to-day, which is much for America. My Nancy has been having a splendid time, even if she only saw your ranch for a week--but she is the gayest thing alive--God grant she may continue so always. ... For the first time in twenty-five years we are living in an apartment, large and in a nice place, but somehow my sense of the fitness of things will not let me call the place "home"--altho' it is the most comfortable habitation I have ever lived in, elevator, whole floor to ourselves. ... and they let me keep my dog. I wouldn't have come if they hadn't. We turned down a fine place with a more expansive view because Jack was not wanted. But surely in these days of doubt and disloyalty one must have some rock to cling to, why not a trusting-eyed dog? ... But all this does not recompense me for the absence of a "home"--which is a house, anywhere. Yet we may have to do our own work. ... The cooks are all too proud to work--I wish you would tell me just how this economic problem should be settled. How much do you believe in socialism or socialization? ... Do you think there can be a partnership in business? I am inclined to think this can be worked out, along lines of cooperative ownership, but not until an enterprise is well standardized. I expect bad times soon with labor. We are only postponing the evil day. The President seems less radical than he was. He is sobered by conditions, I suspect. The negro is a danger that you do not have. Turn him loose and he is a wild man. Every Southerner fears him.