Winthrop M. Crane

Winthrop Murray Crane was born in Dalton, Massachusetts on April 23, 1853. His mother was Louise Fanny Laflin. His father, Zenas Marshall Crane, was owner of the Crane Paper Company, a dominant economic force in the small community and a major producer of paper products.

In 1896, Crane was elected Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts, serving under another Young Republican, Roger Wolcott. The office was part of a traditional cursus honorum in Massachusetts Republican politics, with the next step being the Governorship. When Wolcott retired after his traditional third one-year term, Crane ran for Governor. He won a comfortable victory against a disorganized Democratic opposition and was reelected the next two years by wide margins.[6]

Crane's tenure as governor was marked by fiscal conservatism, business-like management, and relatively little reform. His leadership was characterized as non-partisan and was viewed with favor even by Democrats.

In 1902, Crane successfully negotiated a Teamsters strike,[7] and was then called in by President Theodore Roosevelt to mediate the 1902 Coal Strike, which threatened national winter coal supplies.[8]

He vetoed legislative authorization of a merger between the Boston Elevated Railway and the West End Street Railway, in part because it did not contain a clause calling for a referendum by the affected populations.[9] He did, however, sign legislation authorizing the lease of the Fitchburg Railroad to the Boston and Maine Railroad, and of the Boston and Albany Railroad to the New York Central Railroad. Crane was a major shareholder in the New York Central.[5]

Crane was hosting President Roosevelt in Pittsfield on September 3, 1902, when a speeding trolley car rammed into the open-air horse carriage carrying Roosevelt. The accident killed the president's Secret Service agent, William Craig.

Crane was appointed October 12, 1904 by Governor John L. Bates to continue the U.S. Senate term of the late George F. Hoar.[10] He was then elected in a January 18, 1905 special election to finish the term.[11] He was re-elected in 1907 and served until 1913.

As Senator, Crane was famous for his lack of public statements and behind-the-scenes maneuvering. Senator from New York Chauncey Depew wrote that Crane "never made a speech. I do not remember that he made a motion. Yet he was the most influential member of that body."[12] Calvin Coolidge observed that "his influence was very great, but that it was of an intangible nature."[12] He was also known to often choose inaction over action on many matters, with a common answer to requests for advice being "Do nothing.[1] As U.S. Senator, he used his influence to help secure the state's approval of a merger of the Boston and Maine with the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad.[13]

He was an opponent of reciprocity (reduced tariffs) with Canada and the Dominion of Newfoundland, working to water down provisions of a proposed treaty.[14]

In 1905, Crane may have been instrumental in denying Democrat William L. Douglas a second term as governor. Douglas, a successful and widely-known shoe manufacturer, won election in 1904 with labor support and high name recognition.[15] According to Charles S. Hamlin, Republicans discovered that Douglas had apparently fraudulently acquired an honorable discharge after deserting during the Civil War. The quid pro quo for this information not being revealed, supposedly engineered by Crane and Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, was that Douglas would not run again.[16]

In the 1908 presidential election, Crane expressed early support for William Howard Taft, but later came to oppose Taft, believing him a weak candidate. This placed him in opposition to fellow Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, a strong Taft supporter, in a struggle for control of the state delegation to the national convention. Crane preferred to leave the delegates without formal instruction as to how they should vote, while Lodge preferred that they be required to pledge for Taft. Crane won Lodge's support for an uncommitted delegation in exchange for the election of John Davis Long, a Taft supporter, as an at-large delegate.[17] Crane ultimately reconciled with both Taft and Lodge. He became one of Taft's closest advisors after his election and worked to secure Lodge's reelection in 1911.[18]

In the 1912 general election, the Republican Party was divided by Roosevelt's defection, and conservative elements of the party dominated the state legislature's caucus. This resulted in the election in early 1913 of the ultraconservative John W. Weeks over Crane for the Senate seat.[19]

In 1880, Crane married Mary Benner. She died in 1884 giving birth to their only child, Winthrop Murray Crane Jr.

In 1906, Crane married socialite Josephine Porter Boardman. She was 20 years his junior and from a politically connected family. They had three children:

• Stephen
• Bruce Crane (b. 1909), who later served as president of Crane & Co. and a member of the Massachusetts Governor's Council
• Louise Crane (b. 1913), poet, publisher, and philanthropist

Crane died at his home in Dalton on October 2, 1920.[20]

• Abrams, Richard (1964). Conservatism in a Progressive Era: Massachusetts Politics 1900-1912. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. OCLC 475077.
• Hart, Albert Bushnell, ed. (1927). Commonwealth History of Massachusetts. New York: The States History Company. OCLC 1543273. (five volume history of Massachusetts until the early 20th century)
• New England Historical and Genealogical Register (biographic sketch by John L. Bates)

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Winthrop M. Crane.

• United States Congress. "Winthrop M. Crane (id: C000875)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
• Massachusetts Historical Society Biography and Photograph Collection Archived March 15, 2007, at the Wayback Machine