50 Facts About Franklin Lane

Franklin Knight Lane was an American progressive politician from California.

Franklin Lane served as a commissioner of the Interstate Commerce Commission, and was the Democratic nominee for Governor of California in 1902, losing a narrow race in what was then a heavily Republican state.

The following month, Franklin Lane accepted President-elect Woodrow Wilson's nomination to become Secretary of the Interior, a position in which he served almost seven years until his resignation in early 1920.

In spite of that limitation, Franklin Lane was offered support for the Democratic nomination for vice president, though he was constitutionally ineligible for that office as well.

Christopher Franklin Lane was a preacher who owned a farm outside Charlottetown; when his voice began to fail, he became a dentist.

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Franklin Lane was hired to work in the printing office of the Oakland Times, then worked as a reporter, and in 1884 campaigned for the Prohibition Party.

Rather than practicing law, Franklin Lane moved to New York City to continue his newspaper career as a correspondent for the Chronicle.

Franklin Lane returned to the West Coast in 1891 as editor and part owner of the Tacoma News.

Franklin Lane was successful in driving a corrupt chief of police into exile in Alaska, but the business venture as a whole was unsuccessful, and the paper declared bankruptcy in 1894, a victim of the poor economy and Lane's espousal of Democratic and Populist Party causes.

Franklin Lane moved back to California in late 1894, and began to practice law in San Francisco with his brother George.

Franklin Lane wrote for Arthur McEwen's Letter, a newspaper which crusaded against corruption, especially in the San Francisco Bay area and in the Southern Pacific Railroad.

Franklin Lane ran for Governor of California in 1902 on the Democratic and Non-Partisan tickets.

Examiner owner William Randolph Hearst later denied responsibility for this policy, and stated that if Franklin Lane ever needed anything, he should send Hearst a telegram.

Franklin Lane retorted that if Hearst received a telegram purportedly signed by Franklin Lane, asking him to do anything, he could be sure it was a forgery.

At the time, the state legislatures still elected United States Senators, and in 1903, Franklin Lane received the vote of the state legislature's Democratic minority in the Senate election.

Franklin Lane returned to the private practice of law, and would not again stand for elective office.

Franklin Lane had taken cases against those corporations in his law practice, and, in his gubernatorial campaign, had argued that they had too much power.

Franklin Lane'storian Bill G Reid, in his journal article about Lane, suggests that Lane's liberal record was a factor in the Senate's hesitation to confirm him.

Franklin Lane, who was living in north Berkeley while awaiting Senate confirmation, hurried to the city within hours of the earthquake to do what he could to help.

Franklin Lane led the inquiry and held hearings in Chicago, and concluded that the car shortage was due to demand for cars further west, and that it would actually cause area railways to lose money since they could not transport the grain to port.

Franklin Lane found that fifty million bushels of grain still remained on North Dakota farms or in the state's grain elevators, because of lack of space in eastbound railroad cars.

Franklin Lane recommended that railroad companies pool their cars with neighboring lines.

Franklin Lane was approached by, as he put it, "a good many people" who urged him to seek the Democratic nomination for Governor of California in 1910.

Franklin Lane presided over a lengthy hearing in New York in November 1911.

Fellow Commissioner James S Harlan noted that after hearing of the abuses of the express system, Lane recommended to Congress that it establish a parcel post service as part of the United States Post Office Department.

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Early in 1912, Commissioner Franklin Lane returned to New York to preside over hearings into oil pipelines.

Franklin Lane advocated the creation of a new commission with powers over any corporation engaged in interstate commerce, as the best way to prevent trusts.

The possibility of Franklin Lane becoming Secretary of the Interior was discussed, but he indicated he was happy in his present position.

Wilson continued to keep his Cabinet intentions quiet, and Franklin Lane noted in January 1913 of those who met with the President-elect in New Jersey, "nobody comes back from Trenton knowing anything more than when he went".

Franklin Lane considered the position the most difficult Cabinet post but was willing to serve in any other capacity.

Franklin Lane had supported the project as City Attorney and continued his advocacy as the new Interior Secretary.

In July 1913, Franklin Lane left on a long inspection tour of National Parks, Indian reservations, and other areas under the Interior Department's jurisdiction.

Franklin Lane did, and then rejoined his inspection party in San Francisco.

In 1915, Franklin Lane returned to San Francisco to open the Panama-Pacific International Exposition.

Franklin Lane defused a difficult situation for the CND when it decided to merge its male-dominated state and local organizations with the separate Women's Committee into a unified Field Division.

Franklin Lane headed the Division, leading a board of five men and five women.

Franklin Lane bitterly opposed what he saw as the President's hesitation to commit the country to war.

Franklin Lane helped Thomas Garrigue Masaryk to create Washington Declaration in October 1918.

Franklin Lane made many effective speeches for the Committee on Public Information.

Franklin Lane urged businessmen to make "sacrifices as worthy as those of the men on their way to the trenches".

Franklin Lane was a supporter of the Treaty of Versailles and of the League of Nations.

Franklin Lane wrote articles urging, in vain, U S ratification of the treaty establishing the international organization.

Secretary Franklin Lane stated that he had not done so earlier because of President Wilson's illness.

Franklin Lane resigned in February 1920, and left office on March 1.

Franklin Lane subsequently accepted employment as vice president and legal advisor to the Mexican Petroleum Company, which was run by Edward Doheny, as well as a directorship of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company.

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Franklin Lane was able to leave the Clinic and spend the remainder of the winter in warmer areas as advised by his physicians, but soon returned.

Franklin Lane's heart was in such poor condition that the Clinic could not give him general anesthesia during his heart operation.

Franklin Lane survived the operation, and wrote of the ordeal, but died soon afterward.

The vice-president of Franklin Lane's company noted that the Californian had worked 21 years for the Government on a "living salary", and the earnings from the one year of substantial wages had been heavily sapped by illness.

Franklin Lane's body was cremated, and his ashes thrown to the winds from atop El Capitan peak in Yosemite National Park.