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PREFACE MEMOIRS OF CHARLES R. CRANE Norman E. Saul The records pertaining to the life and times of Charles R. Crane are located in several locations; the largest collection is in the Crane Papers in the Rare Books and Manuscripts Library at Columbia University and the papers of sister, Frances Crane Lillie, in the Chicago History Museum. A number of additional collections contain valuable insights into his life: papers of university presidents-William Rainey Harper (Regenstein Library, University of Chicago), Charles Eliot (Harvard University Archives); Edwin Alderman (University of Virginia Special Collections); David Houston (Houghton Library, Harvard), and Charles Van Hise (University of Wisconsin Archives). Also important are the papers of his oldest son, Richard Teller Crane II, at Georgetown University, as well as the papers of Mildred Nelson Page (University of Virginia), who carried on a fifty year correspondence with CRC, Eleanor Robson Belmont (Columbia University archives), Anita McCormick Blaine (Wisconsin Historical Society), and Elizabeth Reynolds Hapgood and her husband Norman Hapgood (Library of Congress Manuscript Division). These sources provide a fuller account of Charles Richard Crane that are related in my book, The Life and Times of Charles R. Crane, 1858-1939: American Businessman, Philanthropist, and a Founder ofR ussian Studies in America (Lexington Books, 2013). The most important of the documents is the substantial Memoirs that he left unfinished and uncorrected. The Memoirs derive, in my view, from Crane's propensity for story telling at the dinner table, among friends and relatives, whenever and wherever, over many years. Those who listened to these accounts of travels throughout the world pressed him to put them on paper for posterity. Dictated to a secretary late in life, probably around 1934, at his winter home and date palm ranch in the Coachella Valley near Indio and Palm Springs, California. In over six hundred typed pages he recounted his impressions of the world he saw, enjoyed, and served. Much, of course, is left out. There is little mention of close friends and relatives or associates, such as Donald Brodie and Roger Williams, so this is a recollection of his travel experiences, impressions of widely different cultures, and of reaching out to other nations and peoples. Little is recorded of the women in his life, nor his important role in American politics. Also missing in the Memoirs, are mentions of his associations with close friends, such as Charles Cory, Alois Musil, Nicolas Roerich, Herman Keyserling, Alphonse Mucha, and Progressive leader Robert La Follette. Many of these people, Crane supported generously. Family affairs and tragedies, most notably the favorite deaf daughter Josephine are left in the background. What does become clear, however, is his loyal dedication to certain people, who could be considered his life inspiration: Peter Semenov Tian-Shansky, James Rostovtsev, Maria and Vasily Safonov, and especially Paul Miliukov in Russia; James Bryce, distinguished statesman and British ambassador to the United States and Irish rural reformer Horace Plunkett; and a number of Americans: Andrew Furuseth, leader ofthe Seaman's Union; Richard Olney, attorney general and secretary of state in the Grover Cleveland administrations; George Westinghouse, admired for his business acumen; and, of course Woodrow Wilson, who he supported morally and financially throughout his political career. The Memoirs were produced at the time of his death, or soon after, in several typed carbon copies, some badly marred by excising or were dim and faded. The copy reproduced here from Box 20 of the Crane Family Papers in the Bakhmeteff Archive at Columbia is the one chosen as the most complete but with notations and underlining, most likely made by Crane's younger son John O. Crane. There are at least seven other copies: one in the archives of the Hoover Institution of War and Peace at Stanford (probably that of sister Kate Gartz), one in the Chicago History Museum (probably that of sister Frances Lillie), two others in the Crane Papers, and a couple more in the papers of the Institute of Current World Affairs, which Crane endowed, also preserved in the Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Columbia. A hand written manuscript from which these are made apparently does not survive. The Crane Papers at Columbia University are divided into two sections, one donated by John Crane and another by grandsons Thomas S. and Charles M. Crane. An online finding aid of these papers is available in the Bakhmeteff Archive and reveals the breadth and depth of Charles Crane's activities and should be consulted in addition to the memoirs. This copy of the Memoirs is accompanied by three supplemental appendices relating to his visits to the Middle East in the early 1930s prepared by George Antonius. A basic index is also appended to assist researchers. INTRODUCTION by Thomas S. Crane Charles R. Crane (1858-1939) grew up in a wealthy Chicago, Illinois family and was the product of the optimism of the industrial age. He used his wealth generously to help many individuals and aid a myriad of causes of deep interest to him, most notably advancing Russian and Slavic studies in American universities. This introduction to his working draft autobiography provides brief highlights of his career based on family stories of my grandfather, and the 2013 biography The Life and Times of Charles R. Crane by Prof. Norman E. Saul, I who is also the author of the attached Preface to this autobiography. Crane married Cornelia Workman Smith in 1881, and they had four children, Richard, Josephine (Bradley), Frances and John (my father). Based on his father's strongly held views, Charles Crane had little formal education. His primary education started on the shop floor of the family's Crane Company and continued by means of travel abroad. His first overseas voyage was at the age of 19, and in total he took about 25 trips to Russia. He was deeply involved in his early years with civic causes in Chicago, for example supporting Jane Addams's Hull House and the Chicago Commons Association.2 He was closely associated with the progressive movement, and was instrumental in 1912 in getting the party's leaders to endorse Woodrow Wilson's presidential candidacy. Crane's association with Wilson dated back to when Wilson was president of Princeton University, and Crane became the largest contributor to Wilson's 1912 presidential campaign.3 Crane's first formal appointed position was as ambassador to China in 1909, but he was recalled before he had boarded a ship to take his post. The recall was more of an embarrassment to the Taft administration than to Crane, though it resulted in Crane's permanently severing his ties with the national Republican Party. Wilson looked to Crane as a close advisor. Wilson's first preference was for Crane to serve as ambassador to Russia, but Crane finally closed the door to that idea in May 1914 for personal reasons, most likely related to the pressing needs of running the Crane Company after his father's death in 1912.4 In 1917, Wilson appointed Crane as a member of the Root Commission which was charged to investigate the prospects of the Kerensky government in Russia. Crane was particularly well-suited for that position because of his deep knowledge of many of its leaders, including personal friendships with several of the new government's leaders, including most notably Paul Miliukov. In 1919 Wilson asked Crane to join Henry C. King, president of Oberlin College, in what came to be known as the King Crane Commission, to go to the Middle East to advise Wilson on the division ofthe Ottoman Empire in that region. This work opened an important new geographic sphere of influence to Crane as prospects for human progress seemed to be evaporating in Russia with the Bolshevik I N. Saul, Lexington Books ("Saul"). 2 Saul, pp 80, 256, 264 3 Id., p. 103. 4 Id., pp 106-10. Revolution. Finally, and perhaps mainly as a thank you, in 1921 Wilson appointed Crane to be ambassador to China. Crane's original introduction to Russia was as a businessman responsible for the company's operations in that country. This started a life-long interest in the country and its culture. He became a frequent visitor in the homes of liberal intellectuals in St. Petersburg and Moscow. Back in the States, he befriended a handful of university presidents including Alderman (University of Virginia), Butler (Columbia), Eliot (Harvard), Harper (Univ. of Chicago), Houston (Washington University), Lowell (Harvard), Van Hise (Wisconsin) and Wilson (Princeton). Five universities awarded him honorary doctoral degrees notwithstanding the absence of a college degree. Saul capably connects these interests to Crane's generous donations to these universities' libraries and programs in Slavic studies.5 Crane's interest and influence in Slavic culture extended to Czechoslovakia. In the late 1890s at the suggestion of a Russian friend, he introduced himself to a professor at Charles University, Thomas Masaryk, who initially thought Crane was proselytizing him. Fortunately, Masaryk was opened-minded enough to ignore this first impression and they developed an enduring friendship. Masaryk came to Chicago in 1902 to lecture at the University of Chicago as part of a series in foreign studies endowed by Crane. His instrumental role is well documented in promoting Masaryk's cause to Wilson in Versailles and in getting the new country recognized. On August 7, 1928, Masaryk's son Jan, who at that time was married to Crane's daughter Frances, wrote Crane a congratulatory 70th birthday letter, stating: "The whole Masaryk family calls you the godfather of Czechoslovakia - r think it's a good name.,,6 Crane's other children also played significant roles in the new country: Richard was America's first ambassador (then "Minister"), John was personal secretary to the president for several years, and Alphonse Mucha's portrait of Josephine entitled Slavia was placed on the Czech lOOK note. Crane was also a generous contributor to Slavic music, the arts and culture. He supported many Russian artists, including Gabaev, Roerich, Vereshchagin, and Zakharov;7 and in New York for many years a Russian choir. His two most noteworthy philanthropic contributions were his support for more than a decade to Czech painter Alphonse Mucha's creation of the Slavic Epic and to the saving ofthe Russian bells, which resided for close to 80 years in the bell tower of Lowell House as a gift to Harvard University from Crane. Thanks to the enlightened leadership of Harvard, the bells have been returned to their historic home in the Danilov Monastery in Moscow. While a significant majority of Crane's acts of generosity were informal and unrecorded, he endowed two foundations that still exist today: The Friendship Fund and Institute of Current World Affairs (rCWA). The Friendship Fund served as his personal vehicle for giving and remains a family-controlled foundation. rCWA's mission was, and remains today, to fund scholars and journalists studying abroad, many of whom during Crane's lifetime served as his eyes and ears abroad, particularly in the 1920s and 1930s in Russia during the early Bolshevik era. 8 5 Id., pp 128-32,257-60 6 Charles R. Crane Papers, Rare Book and Manuscript Collection, Columbia University, box 15, folder 3. 7 Saul, p. 260-61. 8 Id. p. 213. Crane was an early supporter of the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. He served on its Board of Trustees for more than 20 years, the majority of which was as its Board Chairman. He gave a significant amount of land to the MBL, organized contributions to build its first permanent building, which was named after him, and gave the MBL its first endowment. He also worked with MBL director and his brother-in-law, Francis Lillie, to help establish the MBL's sister institution, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in 1930. Later in life, he took a deep interest in the Middle East, visited the area many times, and befriended many noted intellectuals, most notably George Antonius, most known for his book the Arab Awakening, which Crane subsidized through Antonius's position as an ICWA Fellow.9 Crane supported water and bridge projects in Yemen, and a failed attempt to find water in Saudi Arabia, which did find oil though. Notwithstanding all of the above, I have little doubt that Crane's most satisfying contributions were his continuous support of numerous individuals. As just one example, I was fortunate to get to know Margaret Zarudny Freeman when she was in her 1990s living in Belmont, Massachusetts. She informed me she was six years old when she first met Crane in Omsk in July 1921 when Crane was travelling across Russia by train car after leaving his diplomatic post in Peking. Crane was bringing a package of money from young Margaret's father to help the struggling family. Margaret and her brother Sergei were the first ofthe Zarudny children that Crane supported by paying for travel to America and for their studies in Pomona College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Mrs. Freeman told me the story that she contacted Crane's personal secretary Donald Brodie to inquire if Crane could possibly assist her other siblings to come to this country. As Mrs. Freeman told me, Mr. Brodie cautioned her that at that time Crane was directly supporting 50 other families. Notwithstanding, Crane funds soon opened up to assist the four other sisters. In all, my father estimated that through all of these acts of generosity and kindness, Charles Crane gave away approximately 90 percent of his fortune. Weston, Massachusetts January, 2014 9 Id., pp 220-24, 241, n.Sl. v .l , t ... tut1 1 YO(U' , - ( I v t .0 o I of' t ont r r1 /' t 1- of' - r t t tc: nno • ov • in lv,""" .. u... t t