The Letters of Franklin K. Lane, Personal and PoliticalLane, Franklin K.
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The Letters of Franklin K. Lane, Personal and Political
Lane, Franklin K.
United States -- Politics and government -- 1913-1921; World War, 1914-1918 -- United States
When the spirits Good and Bad will permit me to visit Ipswich I
cannot say. Are Doctors of the carnal or the spiritual? They hold
me. So soon as I was given a few ducats these banditti rose to rob
me. Polite, they are, these modern sons of Dick Turpin, and clever
indeed, for they contrive that you shall be helpless, that you may
not in good form resist their calculated, schemed, coordinated
blood-drawing. And I had as lief have a Sioux Medicine man dance
a one-step round my camp fire, and chant his silly incantation for
my curing, as any of these blood pressure, electro-chemical, pill,
powder specialists. Give me an Ipswich witch instead. Let her lay
hands on me. Soft hands that turn away wrath. Have you such or did
your ancestors, out of fear of their wives, burn them all?
Well, this is no way for a sober, sick, sedate citizen to be
talking to a Man of the Cloth, even tho' he be on vacation. Have
you read any of Leonard Merrick's novels? CONRAD IN QUEST OF HIS
YOUTH, for instance? If not, do so now. They are what you literati
would designate as G. S.--great stuff.
Give me another cheering line, do! For I live in a world that is
not altogether lovely.
F. K. L.
TO JAMES M. COX DEMOCRATIC NOMINEE FOR PRESIDENT
New York City, July 25, 1920
MY DEAR GOVERNOR,--I shall presume upon your flattering invitation
to speak frankly, not in the hope that I may in any way enlighten
a man of such experience and success, but that I may possibly
accentuate some point that you may recognize as important, which
in the rush of things, might be overlooked. If I should appear in
the least didactic, I beg that you charge it to my desire for
definiteness, and my inability to give the atmosphere of a
personal conversation.
A WORD AS TO GENEROSITY
The unforgivable sin in our politics is a lack of generosity.
Smallness, meanness, extreme partisanship, littleness of any kind
--these are not in accord with the American conception of an
American leader. A clever thing may gratify a man's own immediate
partisan following, but the impression on the country at large is
not good. We want a FULL, adequate appreciation of the fact that
there is hardly more than a film that divides Republican from
Democrat; indeed, in that fact lies our hope of success. We must
win FIRST VOTERS and Independents.
Let me be concrete;--The war was won by Republicans as well as
Democrats. ... Therefore, I would say, give generously of
appreciation to the Republicans, who raised Liberty Loans, who
administered food affairs, who put their plants at the Nation's
service, who directed the various activities, such as aeroplane
making, and transporting and financing during the war. ...
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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