I shall not read your pamphlet because I have too much other reading that I am compelled to do.  My own guess, being totally ignorant on the subject, is that you have violated the Sherman Law, but everybody knows that the Sherman Law should be amended and the conditions stated upon which there may be combination.  Do get out of your head, however, the idea that a railroad corporation and an industrial corporation are subject to the same philosophy, as to competition.  One is necessarily a monopoly and therefore must be regulated; the other is not necessarily a monopoly, and the least regulation that it can be subjected to the better.  We have let things go free for so long that we have created a big problem that sane men must deal with sensibly; not admitting all there is to be right, but recognizing every natural and legitimate economic tendency.  With warm regards, believe me, as always,

FRANKLIN K. LANE

TO ADOLPH C. MILLER

Washington, December 4, 1912

My dear Adolph,—­Hon. J. J. London, Minister from the Netherlands to the United States, left last night for San Francisco and will be there about the ninth of the month.  I have told him somewhat of you and I want you to call on him.  He is one of the most charming men in Washington, really a poet in nature.  He loves the beautiful and good things of the world and is totally unspoiled by success and position. ...

It is very good to know that you and President Wheeler have a sort of mutual agreement on me for a Cabinet position, but I don’t think of it for myself. ...  I find that I do not have the ambition that I once had, excepting to do the work in hand just as well as possible, and I am altogether impatient with the way I do it.  I should like to see you Secretary of the Treasury.  There is to be some change made in our currency laws during the next four years, and a man of perfectly sane, level mind is tremendously needed to guide Wilson in this matter, for I guess he is very ignorant upon the subject.  Especially is this true if Bryan goes into the Cabinet.  E. M. House, who is Sid Mezes’ brother-in-law, is as close to Wilson as any other man, and I will drop him a note, telling him something about you, for I know that he is interested in selecting Cabinet officers as he has been talking to me about possible Attorney Generals.  I have told him that I wanted nothing. ...

Mezes is the same adroit diplomat that he has always been, since receiving the Presidency at Texas.  He is doing big things for his University and says that in two or three years he will be in a position to retire, and will retire and spend the most of his time in Europe; but unless my guess is wrong, his ambition has at last been fired and he will look for other worlds to conquer if he achieves what he is after in Texas.  Cordially yours,

FRANKLIN K. LANE