Franklin K. Lane — To Joseph N. Teal
Washington, January 20, 1913
MY DEAR JOE,—… You know we practically have the power now to make a physical appraisement. … We should not ourselves attempt to arrive at cost. That is a very hard thing for the railroads to furnish. They have taken good care to destroy most of the books and papers that would show cost.
Politically, I hear of no news. Wilson is able to keep his own counsel more perfectly than anybody I have ever known, and nobody comes back from Trenton knowing anything more than when he went. … The money question is going to be the big one, and it looks to me as though certain gentlemen were preparing to intimidate him with a panic, which they won’t do because he will appeal to the country. He has got splendid nerve, and while Washington won’t like him a little, little bit, the country, I think, will put him down as a very great President. As always,