We regard ourselves as very lucky in the men we have in the foreign posts, notwithstanding the attacks made upon us by your press. ...

I wish you would convey my hearty respects to His Excellency, the Ambassador, and to your wife, of whose return to health I am delighted to hear.  Cordially yours,

LANE

TO EDWARD J. WHEELER

CURRENT OPINION

Washington, March 4, 1915

Dear Mr. Wheeler,—­I am extremely obliged to you for your appreciative letter regarding my speech, [Footnote:  On the American Pioneer.] but don’t publish it in the Poetry Department or you will absolutely ruin my reputation as a hard working official.  No man in American politics can survive the reputation of being a poet.  It is as bad as having a fine tenor voice, or knowing the difference between a Murillo and a Turner.  The only reason I am forgiven for being occasionally flowery of speech is that I have been put down as having been one of those literary fellows in the past.  Cordially yours,

FRANKLIN K. LANE

TO JOHN CRAWFORD BURNS

ROME, ITALY

Washington, March 13, 1915

My dear John,—­I have received three letters from you within the last two weeks, greatly to my joy.  Your first and longest letter, but not a word too long, I thought so very good that I had it duplicated on the typewriter and sent a copy to each member of the Cabinet, excepting Bryan, whom you refer to in not too complimentary a manner.  On the same day that I received this letter I received one from Pfeiffer, presenting the American merchants’ point of view, who desire to get goods from Germany, a copy of which I inclose.  So I put your letter and his together, and told them all who you both are.  Thus, old man, you have become a factor in the determination of international policy.  Several members of the Cabinet have spoken with the warmest admiration of your letter, one scurrilous individual remarking that he was astonished to learn that I had such a learned literary gent as an intimate friend.

We are just at present amused over the coming into port of the German converted cruiser Eitel, with the captain and the crew of the American bark, William P. Frye, on board.  The calm gall of the thing really appeals to the American sense of humor.  Here is a German captain, who captured a becalmed sailing ship, loaded with wheat, and blows her up; sails through fifteen thousand miles of sea, in danger every day of being sunk by an English cruiser, and then calmly comes in to an American port for coal and repairs.  The cheek of the thing is so monumental as to fairly captivate the American mind.  What we shall do with him, of course, is a very considerable