Our plans for the summer are very unsettled. The probability is that we will go up to Bras D'Or Lakes, in Cape Breton, where we can have salt-water bathing and sailing and be most primitive. I should like greatly to run over with you to Europe, and, by way of making the temptation harder to resist, let me know how you expect to go, and where. Give my love to the Lady Wigmore. As ever yours, F, K. L. TO DANIEL WITTARD PRESIDENT, BALTIMORE AND OHIO RAILROAD COMPANY Washington, June 19, 1912 MY DEAR MR. WILLARD,--That was a warm cordial note that you sent me regarding my University of Virginia address, and what you say of my sentiments confirms my own view that property must look to men like yourself for protection in the future--men who are not blind to public sentiment and whose methods are frank. The worst enemy that capital has in the country is the man who thinks that he can "put one over" on the people. An institution cannot remain sacred long which is the creator of injustice, and that is what some of our blind friends at Chicago do not see. Very truly yours, FRANKLIN K. LANE TO JOHN MCNAUGHT NEW YORK WORLD Washington, March 23, 1912 MY DEAR JOHN,--I am very glad indeed to hear from you and to know that you are in sympathy with my "eloquent" address at the University of Virginia. You give me hope that I am on the right track. As for Harmon and representative government, you won't get either. ... Please see Mr. R. W. Emerson's Sphinx, in which occurs this line: "The Lethe of Nature can't trance him again Whose soul sees the perfect, which his eye seeks in vain." Fancy me surrounded by maps of the express systems of the United States, digging through the rates on uncleaned rice from Texas to the Southeast, dribbling off poetry to a man who sits in a tall tower overlooking New York, who once had poetry which has per necessity been smothered! Dear John, read your Bible, and in Second Kings you will find the story of one Rehoboam, that son of Solomon, who was also for Harmon and representative government. I am looking out of the window at the funeral procession for the Maine dead, and it strikes me that our dear friend Cobb has overlooked one trick in his campaign against T. R. Of course he has other arrows in his quiver, and no doubt this one will come later, but why not charge T. R. with having blown up the Maine? No one can prove that he did not do it. He then undoubtedly was planning to become President and knew that he never could be unless he was given a chance to show his ability as a soldier- patriot. He stole Panama of course, and is there any reason to believe that a man who would steal Panama would hesitate at blowing up a battleship? I hope you ... are giving over the life of a hermit--not that I would advise you to take to the Great White Way, but the side streets are sometimes pleasant. As always, devotedly yours, FRANKLIN K. LANE V EXPRESS CASE--CABINET APPOINTMENTS 1912-1913