July 1916 - The Fra - The Harmony of Living

In the post on June 27 Joe mentioned that he was told that he had a piece published in The Fra, a monthly magazine Elbert Hubbard started publishing in 1908. I decided upon seeing this in his letter to check on the internet and see if I could find the article he wrote. I was fortunate to find a great source without much trouble. It is the Garrison House Ephemera. I emailed the site and inquired about the article and after I told them of the name of the author I received an email back saying that, in fact, one of the copies they had contained the article by Joseph G. Shapiro. I was really excited and I sensed so was the woman form the site. It was an amazing thing when it arrived in the mail a few days later and there it was the original in pristine form. The entire issue is dedicated to the memory of Elbert Hubbard who had died in the sinking of the Lusitania a year before. There are so may interesting articles to read about him and I am sure that I will do that in time. For now I am posting the front and back cover, the first article by his son Bert and the article by Joe. Elbert Hubbard II (Bert) kept Roycroft going for years after the untimely death of his father and stepmother.

 

Roycroft—July, 1916
Bert Hubbard
When Elbert Hubbard started the Roycroft Shops, in June, 1895, he did not foresee the development they were to make. Nor do we now see any lim­itation to what we shall accomplish. But for twenty years he put his heart and his abilities into the making of the institution that today stands as his monument.
Twenty years is not a very long time— unless it is in front of you. In this brief span, from a small capital to start with, there has evolved a business whose last inventory shows it to be worth consider­ably more than half a million. Many men have made many times that in half the time £•» I do not speak of this value to accentuate the accomplishment as a great financial one.
I have in mind the thought that The Roycrofters, Incorporated, is the result of putting to the practical test a man's ideals —the ideals of living, of working, of art, study, desire, environment. To have made capital out of these things, which seemingly belong to dreamers, artists, and scorners of accumulated wealth, is the great achievement
Elbert Hubbard did not set his abilities to making money as a cumulative proposi­tion. He never had any money on hand. It was always on the turn-over. He has said to me at times, when we were going over the cashbook preparatory to making up a payroll, " When we have a cash balance in the bank of twenty-five thou­sand all the time, we will rest easy." I surely thought so, but I knew we'd never have it, for nothing made my father more generous and eager to do something new, than a couple of thousand dollars in the bank m» b+
He has been criticized for his money-making propensities, but he cared nothing for money for. its own sake. He drew a personal salary of only $2,000 a year, and he always had plenty of it left over for pennies for the kiddies!
He lived a simple life and spent little money for his own pleasures. His satis­faction in being able to make money was in that he could use it to make a better and bigger Roycroft. This institution was always self-supporting. It has been created out of its own earnings. No outside capital was ever invested in it. It has no bonds, no mortgages, no preferred stock.

Just a year ago Elbert Hubbard sailed away on the Lusitania. When the unbelievable news came and the world had caught its breath, the people who knew of the Roycroft Shops looked toward East Aurora with a speculative wonder as to what was to happen. Much was said as to the probability of the Chapel becoming a home for bats; the Printshop a dungeon of darkness; the Inn a parlor of solitude; the Furniture Shop, the Copper and Leather Shops, empty chambers where rust, ruin and cobwebs would greet the chance visitor; the beautiful lawns and flowerbeds becoming pastures for patient old horses, where burdocks and thistles would hold full sway! Some had a vision of Roycroft as a flower gone to seed, a lamp out of which the oil had burned, a once busy place where now no wheels turned and no song of contented workers gladdened the long hours of the summer day. All would be quiet, still, and the breath of life would go out with the sink­ing of the sun in the west, as it cast long shadows across the playgrounds where happy children used to play. Without its master, Roycroft would become a thing in history.

But these were the visions of gossips whose blood ran thin. Their prophecies were from their own empty minds. For one month only was there any slack­ing of Roycroft industries. We needed that time and no more to govern our sorrow and find ourselves. From the 1st of July, 1915, every depart­ment of the Roycroft Shops has been working to capacity. There are more One Hundred Ten workers on the payroll than ever before. Out of the possibility of a decline we have made real progress. The Printshop is running its presses night and day to keep up. The Copper and Leather Shops can't fill their orders. This Magazine has more subscribers than it had on May 7, 1915. H, Roycroft is busy, therefore happy. There is an absolute spirit of success in its blood. We have no doubts, no fears. Our ship is sailing ahead under full rig. You can't stop us. We are bound for that port called Success. The last six months of 1915, ten thousand visitors came to the Inn. This year, double that will come. Next year, reservations will have to be made months in advance. No, I am not boasting—I'm telling you straight stuff. You should be advised of this because you are interested. The per­petuation of The Roycrofters means much more than a mere financial success. The place stands for many ideals. Elbert Hubbard's efforts are in evidence in every nook and corner. His spirit permeates the atmosphere and constantly holds out to us an inspiration to do better work and more work. Never do I see and feel the accomplishment of a job well done but that I want him to pass his judgment on it and approve. There is an everlasting desire to demonstrate that he taught us well, and that we are fitted to do things as he would have us do them.

We have gone through this first year with credit to ourselves. We have grown and broadened. Our future is clear to us. We have lots of work to do and have the heart and courage to do it. The Roycroft Shops shall live. Elbert Hubbard's finest monument shall be the institution he founded and developed. His hopes are our hopes—his joys our joys. And when he looks out upon us from his present sphere of life and sees the result of our efforts he shall say: " My work was not in vain. I helped them to help them­selves. They do me credit and I am proud of my Roycroft boys and girls."
 

THE FRA

The Harmony of Living

Joseph G. Shapiro

SEVERAL years ago Elbert Hubbard at­tended a dinner of the Board of Trade, in this City (Shelton, Conn.); and being acquainted with him, I naturally made it my business to speak to him after his talk. Though he intended spending the night at the hotel, he made such an impression on the audience that it kept him up till after one A. M. He left a call for five, for he decided to take the early train out to make connections for Buffalo; but at the last moment altered his plans, having been invited to be the guest of some people who had a private car here and were leaving for New York that night.
In order that he could get to the train with as little delay as possible, he requested me to assist him in packing his things; and the happiest five minutes of my life were spent in his room as he was taking a quick shave, while I placed his things and a large, luscious apple in his bag. I said that reading his writings had been a great source of inspiration to me, to which he replied, “Perhaps I may have attuned some lives to the harmony of living, but it is up to the individual to compose and play his own symphony." Isn't that exactly the reason for his greatness? And as I read The Fra today it seems to have the same spirit.

Sublime thoughts and great deeds are the children of married minds. A man alone is only half a man—it takes a man and a woman to complete the circuit.





The next letter will be July 6.