In the late 1940s and early 1950s, Crane served as a trustee for the Foundation for Economic Education. He played a central role in the National Association of Manufacturers, where he chaired a Committee on Cooperation with Churches, which sought to dissuade churches from allying themselves with “movements to win greater social protection and advantage for labor.” Along with his friend J. Howard Pew, the president of Sun Oil, Crane took on a leadership position in the National Council of Churches, a lay organization devoted to winning control over the mainline Protestant church back from the liberals and socialists whom they believed had won control over the Federal Council of Churches.

Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, loc. 1446