Page:EB1922 - Volume 31.djvu/765

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LAMONT—LANG
725

and the Orinoco dispute between the latter and Venezuela. He was sent to represent Austria at St. Germain, returned broken in body and spirit, and died shortly afterwards, on Jan. 6 1920.

(C. B.)

LAMONT, THOMAS WILLIAM (1870- ), American banker, was born at Claverack, N.Y., Sept. 30 1870. He was educated at Phillips Academy, Exeter, N.H., and at Harvard (A.B. 1892). After graduation he was for two years on the editorial staff of the New York Tribune; then for some years was actively engaged in the manufacturing and mercantile business of Lament, Corliss & Co. From 1903 to 1909 he was connected with the Bankers Trust Company, in New York, first as secretary and treasurer,, and, after 1905, as vice-president. In 1909 he was elected vice- president of the First National Bank of New York City, serving for two years. On Jan. i 191 1 he entered the firm of J. P. Morgan & Co. In 1912 he was elected a member of the board of overseers of Harvard College and in 1915 president of the Associated Harvard Clubs. He was active in raising additional endowment for the Harvard School of Business Administration, in which he was specially interested. He took an active part in floating the British, French and Russian loans in America during the World War. In 1918-22 he was proprietor of the New York Evening Post. In 1919 he was financial and economic adviser of the American delegation to the Peace Conference in Paris, and was U.S. dele- gate in the formation of the new Consortium, composed of American, British, French and Japanese bankers, for aiding Chinese industries and railways; in 1920 he visited China as the representative of the American group, and in 1921 he was chair- man of the American Committee for the China Famine Fund.

LANCIANI, RODOLFO (1846- ), Italian architect and archaeologist, was born at Rome Jan. 1 1846. Educated at the Collegio Romano and the university of Rome, he became pro- fessor of ancient topography at that university in 1878. In 1872 he had been appointed secretary to the Archaeological Com- mission (of Rome), in 1876 vice-director of the Kircherian museum and in 1878 director of excavations. He was the designer and builder of the archaeological park at Rome. The recipient of hon. degrees from many universities, English, American and European, he was made a member of numerous archaeological and similar societies, including the Royal In- stitute of British Architects, who bestowed on him their gold medal. He became a senator of the kingdom of Italy. In 1920 he married Princess Caracciolo Colonna. Among his books are Golden Days of the Renaissance in Rome (1906); and Wanderings in the Roman Campagna (1909).

LANE, FRANKLIN KNIGHT (1864-1921), American public official, was born near Charlottetown, P.E.I., Canada, July 15 1864. He was taken to California in childhood and graduated from the university of California in 1886. He began his career as a newspaper reporter, studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1889. He practised in San Francisco, drafted a charter for that city, and soon afterwards, in 1897, was elected city attorney, to which office he was twice reelected. In 1902 he was the unsuccessful Democratic candidate for governor of California and the following year received the Democratic vote of the state legislature for the U.S. Senate, but failed of election. In 1905 he was appointed by President Roosevelt a member of the Interstate Commerce Commission and was retained by President Taft, serving for eight years, part of the time as chairman. The decisions which he wrote, many of which were regarded as radical at the time, were all upheld by the courts. In 1913 he entered the Cabinet of President Wilson as Secretary of the Interior. During his term of office the wealth of Alaska was made more accessible by the construction of a Government railway. Dams were built in several western states for con- serving the water-supply in dry regions. To the Indians he gave special attention, maintaining that perpetual tutelage was wrong. Long before, authority had been granted the Secretary of the Interior to deal with individual cases, and by a generous interpretation of his powers many Indians were made free citi- zens. In connexion with national resources he advocated devel- opment without waste as being reasonable conservation. He was an earnest advocate of reclamation of land, and suggested that farms for soldiers returned from the World War could be provided by extensive drainage and irrigation. He favoured a policy of Americanization for the foreign population and the education of illiterates. In 1916 he was a member of the American-Mexican Joint High Commission, and the following, year became a member of the Council of National Defense. In 1920 he resigned his post as Secretary of the Interior. He was treasurer of the European Relief Council. He died at Rochester, Minn., May 18 1921. He was the author of The American Spirit (1918, addresses delivered in war time).

LANE, SIR HUGH PERCY (1875-1915), Irish art collector and critic, was born in co. Cork Nov. 9 1875, the son of the Rev. J. W. Lane. His mother was a daughter of Dudley Persse, of Roxburgh, co. Galway, and a sister of Lady Gregory, the Irish playwright. Hugh Lane entered the firm of Colnaghi & Co. in 1893, and he rapidly made a name as a gifted connoisseur and collector of extraordinary perception. In 1898 he began dealing on his own account at 2, Pall Mall Place. He took a prominent part in the revival of an interest in art in Ireland, and was espe- cially enthusiastic in the matter of establishing a gallery of modern art in Dublin. With the object of interesting the general public in this idea, an exhibition was held at the Guildhall in 1904 of works by artists of Irish birth, and exhibitions of modern art were subsequently held in Dublin and Belfast, with the object of raising money for the purchase of pictures for Dublin. A fine collection was ultimately made, and housed in Harcourt Street, Dublin, where it was opened in 1906. Sir Hugh Lane, who was knighted in 1909, also offered a number of his own splendid purchases of old masters to the city of Dublin on con- dition that a suitable building be provided for housing them, but, owing to the attitude adopted on the subject by the Dublin Corporation, his gift did not take effect. He acted as adviser on the formation of the Johannesburg Municipal Gallery of modern art founded by Lady Phillips (1909), and brought together the Cape Town National Gallery collection of 17th- century Dutch pictures (1912). He was in 1914 appointed director of the National Gallery of Ireland. In the early months of 1915 he paid a visit to America, and sold two of his most important pictures (Titian's " Man in the Red Cap " and Hol- bein's " Portrait of Thomas Cromwell") to American collectors. He returned to England on the " Lusitania," and was drowned in the sinking of that ship May 7 1915, one of his last acts hav- ing been to secure by telegram for 10,000 the blank canvas contributed by J. S. Sargent to a Red Cross sale at Christie's.

Sir Hugh Lane left a considerable fortune and also a splendid collection of pictures, including fine examples of Gainsborough, Goya and Rembrandt. Most of these were left to the National Gallery of Ireland, but a certain number came to the English National Gallery. Owing to an informality in the drawing-up of a codicil to the will, which had been signed but not witnessed, it was the occasion of controversy. It was contended that Sir Hugh Lane had altered his intention of bequeathing some of his pictures to the English National Gallery, and that the entire bequest was thus the property of the Irish National Gallery. The court, however, decided otherwise.

See The Life and Achievements of Hugh Lane: with some account of the Dublin Galleries, by Lady Gregory (1920).

LANESSAN, JEAN MARIE ANTOINE DE (1843-1919), French statesman and naturalist (see 16.169). At the elections of 1914 he was again, as in 1906, not returned, and he retired definitely from politics. Among his latest works were La Crise de la Republique; Introduction a la Guerre de 1914 and l'Histoire de V Entente Cordiale Anglo-Francaise, of which he was an ardent admirer. He died at Ecouen, Seine-et-Oise, Nov. 7 1919.

LANG, ANDREW (1844-1912), English writer (see 16.171), died at Banchory, Aberdeenshire, July 20 1912.

LANG, COSMO GORDON (1864- ), Archbishop of York, was born Oct. 31 1864 at Aberdeen, son of John Marshall Lang, sometime moderator of the Church of Scotland, and educated at Glasgow University until 1882, when he won a scholarship at Balliol College, Oxford. He took his degree in 1886, becoming