Tuesday, May 6th
On May 7, 1915 Elbert and Alice Hubbard perished aboard the Lusitania when it was torpedoed by the Germans and sank off the coast of Ireland. Elbert Hubbard II was the executor of their estate and with other Lusitania victims' families filed a suit against Germany which was arbitrated by the United Nations. The suit was settled October 2,1924.
Here are excerpts of this decision:
" It appears from the records that Elbert Hubbard, then nearly 59 years of age, and his wife Alice Hubbard, then nearly 54 years of age, were passengers on and were lost with the Lusitania. ... Elbert Hubbard as author, lecturer, and business man had carved for himself a unique position. He possessed to an unusual degree the faculty of finding apt words for the coinage of pregnant ideas. While not always orthodox, in his writings and on the lecture platform he persistently preached the gospel of industry, thrift, regular habits, simple living, fair dealing, and good will."
" The domestic and business relations between Elbert Hubbard the elder and his son Elbert Hubbard II were unusually close. Through constant daily contact and supervision the elder man made many and varied contributions to his son, who was in training to succeed him, which had a pecuniary value."
"Katherine Hubbard, who was then 19 years of age, was attending school at Buffalo, New York, at the time of and for several years prior to her father's death. He was accustomed to contribute from $500.00 to $1,000.00 per year to her support. She has never married and now lives with her mother in Boulder, Colorado, supplementing the very small income from her property by teaching music. The inferences from the record are that had Elbert Hubbard lived he would he have continued to contribute funds to defray her living expenses."
"Miriam Hubbard Roelofs is the only child of Elbert and Alice Hubbard. At the time of her parents' deaths she was a student 20 years of age, and she was graduated from the University of Michigan the following year. The third July following their deaths she married, and she has a happy home with four children and a husband. The latter has a small income as a university instructor. While both her parents were devoted to her and she has been deprived of their counsel and supervision, it is reasonably apparent from the record that she has not suffered any very great pecuniary injury through such deprivation."
" It will be borne in mind that the measure of the awards which this Commission is empowered to make in these cases is not the value of the lives lost but the pecuniary losses suffered by claimants resulting from the deaths. To the extent that contributions by the deceased made during their lives and those which they would probably have made to claimants but for Germany's act causing their deaths were the direct fruits of the personal efforts of the deceased whose producing powers were destroyed by their deaths, the claimants have pecuniary damages which Germany is obligated to pay."
"Applying the rules announced in the Lusitania Opinion and in the other decisions of this Commission to the facts as disclosed by the records herein, the Commission decrees that under the Treaty of Berlin of August 25, 1921, and in accordance with its terms the Government of Germany is obligated to pay to the Government of the United States on behalf of (1) Elbert Hubbard II individually the sum of twenty-five thousand dollars ($25,000.00), (2) Miriam Hubbard Roelofs the sum of twenty-five thousand dollars ($25,000.00), (3)Katherine Hubbard the sum of seven thousand five hundred dollars ($7,500.00), and with interest on each of said sums at the rate of five per cent per annum from November 1, 1923;..."
Thanks to my friend, Linda, Roycroft Inn Docent, for discovering and sharing this United Nations document.
- Sue
The letters GPI are not someone's initials but rather Grove Park Inn, in Asheville, North Carolina. The Roycrofters built most of the furniture for this beautiful mountain retreat in 1912-1913. It was their largest commission. 
