back and around the whole line, spending several
weeks in fruitless endeavor.

The case of the red-threaded paper seemed hopeless, but he stuck
persistently to the task, and brought the paper so often to the notice of
the authorities that at last they consented to look at it. Then its
advantages were evident, and the Crane Brothers' paper-mills got a
contract to furnish a lot of bond-paper for the printing of government
notes. They have held the contract ever since, and all the paper on which
United States money is printed comes from the paper-mills in Dalton.

Crane First Enters Politics.

Crane made his first appearance in politics in 1892 as a delegate to the
Republican National Convention in Minneapolis, when Harrison was
renominated, and later, in 1896, he was a delegate to the St. Louis
convention where McKinley was nominated. It was in 1896, too, that he ran
for office for the first time and was elected Lieutenant-Governor of his
State. He made no speeches and issued no political documents during this
time, nor did he when he ran on two subsequent occasions for
Lieutenant-Governor, nor in 1899 when he ran for Governor.

The earliest document to bear his signature was his first message as
Governor of Massachusetts. It was the shortest ever submitted at the
opening of the Great and General Court, but its terse, straightforward,
businesslike statements, utterly devoid of rhetoric, fully acquainted the
members with the views of the Governor and outlined the work necessary to
be done.

The messages he subsequently sent were of the same nature, and, besides
being simple, they were short and to the point. They were unique also in
the fact that each recommendation they contained was afterward enacted
into law. The great work of his administration was the freeing of the
State from the expense and inefficiency of a multitude of boards and
committees. Such action was businesslike and pleased the people, but it
made the politicians shudder.

Besides the paper-making business, Crane is interested in various other
big enterprises. Crane Brothers hold the largest block of stock in the
American Bell Telephone Company, for they were among the first to
recognize the importance of the new invention, and they went in at a time
when the company was struggling for life.

Senator Hoar died in 1904, and former Governor Crane was the only man
suggested as his successor. Governor Bates made the appointment and Mr.
Crane reluctan