East Aurora's Lights

"Blessed is the man who does not bellyache." said the late Elbert Green Hubbard long before he died but well after he had made $75,000 selling soap. Had he been alive last week to read the news of his Roycrofters he would have had little to bellyache about.

Surrounded by a capitalist world deep in Depression, the printing and bookbinding plants which Elbert Hubbard founded on a profit-sharing basis in 1895 reported they were working on two shifts 24 hours a day. His son, Elbert Hubbard II, now head of the Roycrofters in East Aurora, N. Y., made the surprising announcement. He admitted business had not been quite up to last year's standard until a recent flood of rush orders promised continuous work for several months for the 175 Roycrofters. Socialistic, outdoor man like his father, Brother Hubbard saw the end of Depression, fell into capitalistic phrases, predicted an upturn.

Medium height and stoutish, the present Sage of East Aurora at 49 hunts, fishes, farms & rides much as did his famed father. Golf he dislikes as it shows nothing for the effort. He prefers chopping wood. The Buster Brown cut of the thick hair, the flowing black silk tie, the wide-brimmed felt hat of the founder have been adopted (and greatly modified) by the son. But here the father-son resemblance ends. Many changes have come to the Shops. In the early days all of the workers were shareholders; profits were split; Hubbard the First took a salary of $50 a week. Now the Roycrofters looks like any other family-owned company. Assets are about $700,000; there are preferred shares which pay dividends, common shares which do not. Brother Hubbard controls the company, a half-sister owns an interest, craftsmen are paid wages like other labor.*

Founder Elbert Green Hubbard was known in his day as the Hero of the Simple Life. Playboy, philosopher, publisher, poseur, he founded the Roycrofters in 1895 from an idea he picked up at William Morris' hand-made-book works in England. When he returned to the U. S. he was downcast by the shoddy vulgarity of the 1890's, developed his own creed of beauty & culture. Everyone, he believed, wanted to create something beautiful and useful with his hands. The Roycroft Shops gave anyone who went to East Aurora material with which to work.

Hubbard II is at one with his father's beliefs on manual work and a life close to nature, but he does not devote his whole time to it. Reforestation is his hobby. He conducts a nursery on a 75-acre farm unconnected with the Roycrofters. Except for the printing and binding shops Roycrofters are not so multitalented as they once were. The Turkish Corner passed on with Queen Victoria; modern decorations do not include many brass or bronze ornaments. But the presses, turning out mostly reprints of the Founder's works, have withstood a fair test of time. Best seller: A Message to Garcia. This "literary trifle," as he called it, Hubbard wrote one night after dinner when Bert II had remarked that Rowan was the real hero of the Spanish-American war./- The Sage of East Aurora made this incident the peg for a passionate sermon on loyalty, duty, alertness. Short & snappy, it is still the gogetters' ABC, one of the first bits of advertising copy at which the Sage later became so successful. Translated into 45 languages and dialects, "more copies of it have been distributed than any piece of writing except the Bible." Hubbard's magazines, The Philistine and The Fra, made bold, spicy reading for Victorians although today their ideas seem childishly simple.

Today, business for the Shops depends on the recurrent demand for the Note

Book, Little Journeys to the Homes of Good Men and Great, and the famed Elbert Hubbard's Scrap Book (first published in 1923). Under Hubbard II the publishing business has grown. Last week he pointed with pride to 1,500 orders on hand for Little Journeys and a new memorial edition on the press.

Excerpts from the Founder's writings:

"It is getting harder to find a gentleman than a genius."

"There is no tyranny like tyranny of useless things."

"A college degree does not lessen the length of your ears; it only conceals it."

"Every knock a boost."

"Two in a bush is the root of all evil."

"I believe in sunshine, fresh air, spinach, applesauce, laughter, buttermilk, babies, bombazine and chiffon."

* Elbert Green Hubbard was twice married, begat five children, all living. Surviving also is his first wife, Bertha, mother of Elbert II, Sandy, Ralph, Catherine. His second wife, Alice, bore him one daughter and died with him on the S. S. Lusitania, May 9, 1915.

/-General William McDaniel Rowan, brother of Lieut. Andrew S. Rowan who carried the Message to Garcia, is Deputy Prohibition Administrator of Nebraska. Last week his area was under Investigation by Washington because of a liquor ring said to be operating successfully in Omaha. Four men have been taken for "rides" in the last six months, five murders have been attempted. General Rowan denied a liquor ring exists.

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