Lansing State Journal and the firm’s name was changed to Kerr & Hosmer. I can remember the two men and the old red building on West Michigan Avenue where the State printing and binding was done, and this paper was published. It had a long sign on the roof that informed the passerby that it was the State Bindery and Republican Office." Over the next 50 years, the paper saw many name changes and many different owners, finally merging with the rival "Lansing Journal" forming "The State Journal" in January 1911. The first Sunday edition was published on September 27, 1936. Gannett bought
Robert Lansing , Lansing backed Woodrow Wilson in issuing three notes of protest to the German government. William Jennings Bryan resigned as Secretary of State following Wilson's second note, which Bryan considered too belligerent. Lansing replaced Bryan, and said in his memoirs that following the "Lusitania" tragedy he always had the "conviction that we would ultimately become the ally of Britain". In 1916 Lansing hired a handful of men who became the State Department's first special agents in the new Bureau of Secret Intelligence. These agents were initially used to observe the activities of the Central Powers in America, and later to