Again thanking you for your letter, believe me, with the highest regard, faithfully yours,

FRANKLIN K. LANE

TO JOHN H. WIGMORE

Washington, April 3, 1912

My dear John,—­You overwhelm me. ...  You have no right to say such nice things to an innocent and trusting young thing like myself.  The flat, unabashed truth is that I appreciate your letter more than any other that I have received concerning that speech.  By way of indicating the interest which it has excited I send you copies of some correspondence between Mr. Justice Holmes and myself.

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.