Charles Richard Crane

Charles Richard Crane or Charles R. Crane (1858-1939) of Chicago was a wealthy American Arabist, a philanthropist who had business knowledge of Eastern Europe and the Middle East. His heavy contributions to President Wilson's 1912 campaign led to being named to the 1917 Special Diplomatic Commission, or Root Commission to Russia, service as a member of the American Section of the Paris Peace Conference, and the Inter-Allied Commission on Mandates in Turkey in 1919 that now bears his name (King-Crane Commission). Crane later helped finance the first explorations for oil in Saudi Arabia and Yemen and was instrumental in gaining the Amierican oil concession there.

Crane was the eminence grise behind many events happening around the turn of the century. However, his penchant for secrecy was so strong that he remains unnoticed by most historians. His primary targets were Slavic countries and China. In China, Crane financed the T'ung Meng Hui, Together-Sworn Association, a secret society founded in 1905 by Sun Yat-Sen, striving to overthrow the Qing dynasty. In 1909, President Taft appointed Crane as the ambassador to China. In 1911, the Qing dynasty was overthrown by the coup d'état lead by Sun Yat-Sen.

Among Crane's Slavonic friends were Nijinsky, Pavlova, Stravinsky and Masaryk. Crane became a Russophile, well versed in the intricate politics of Panslavism. Shortly after the beginning of WW I, Crane sponsored a series of Slavonic lectures at the University of Chicago and invited Professor Thomas Masaryk to teach this series.

Toward the end of the World War I Crane introduced Masaryk to President Wilson. At the time Masaryk met Wilson the American public did not favor the partitioning of the Austrian Empire. As late into the war as January 8, 1918, in a message to Congress, President Wilson declared that dismembering the Austrian Empire was not one of the war aims. However, Masaryk managed to change President Wilson's views on this point. Masaryk (convicted meanwhile in Austria for treason in absentia) worked hard to curry favor with President Wilson. His strategy rested on memorizing long passages from Wilson’s speeches and writings. Masaryk did not miss any opportunity to cite, verbatim, these passages to President Wilson, stressing how much he esteemed his views. Wilson’s position of power among the victorious allies was decisive. At the end of the First World One, toward the end of the year 1918, the Austrian Empire was partitioned into its successor states.

Among the defeated Central Powers with crushing debt to the Allies imposed by the treaty of Versailles, with ruined industries and devaluated currencies, Czechoslovakia emerged as a new European power. Her banknotes featured the picture of Crane’s first daughter, Josephine, sitting in a tree as a Slav Goddess, her currency backed by the golden treasure of the Russian Empire at par with the American dollar. Professor Masaryk became the President of the new state, the older son of Charles R. Crane, Richard, became the first United States ambassador to Czechoslovakia and Crane’s younger son became the secretary to President Masaryk. The second daughter of Charles R. Crane, Frances, married Masaryk’s son, Jan, appointed as Czechoslovakia’s ambassador to Great Britain.

External links

• Institute of World Affairs Crane-Rogers Foundation
• King-Crane Commission Report
• Crane Family Papers 1875-1980
• Enhanced reality portrait of Charles R. Crane