Roycroft to Shine

Elbert Hubbard, flowing-haired, flowing-tied purveyor of philosophical-artistic tripe to the U. S. of a generation ago, was drowned when the Lusitania was sunk. To his son, Elbert II, he left a lucrative property--the Roycrofter Corporation in East Aurora, N. Y. Inspired by William Morris, 19th-Century British arts-&-crafter, the Roycrofters printed and bound books, made elegant whatnots of pottery, wood, metal and hand-tooled leather. After the elder Hubbard's death, however, the community slipped financially, lately was $160,000 in the red. Last week, a religious organization called the Federation of Churches of Infinite Science, Inc. contracted to buy the Roycroft properties for $121,500 and take over most of the community's debts.

Nonsectarian, incorporated in 1935, the Federation construes the word "churches" broadly, to mean a group of people with a common aim. The Federation's aim, shared by 20,000 people in the U. S., is to apply the principles of the Sermon on the Mount "scientifically" to modern life. The Federation considers the lilies of the field, how they grow, and it accepts Christ's words: Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works. To grow like the lily or to shine like the light is to use the "creative essence of the power of God," which everyone possesses. Not everyone, however, has an equal chance to create. So the Federation, by means of a revolving sinking fund to which each of its members lends $25, attempts to equalize matters by training, and finding jobs for, people "of good moral character, free from religious prejudice."

President of the Federation is Clarence B. Benedict, a retired patent attorney of Brookline, Mass., who will be president of the new Roycroft Community. The jobs which Infinite Science is to provide in East Aurora will be much the same as those of the old Roycrofters, but more numerous -- up to 1,000 when the shops are running at Infinite capacity with three scientific shifts.

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