4A COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL MARCH 1, 2017
O PINION
Offbeat Oregon History
How Oregon’s own “anti-Grinch” saved Christmas
It was late in the afternoon, on a late autumn day in 1918, when
Oregon native Alfred Carlton Gilbert, president and CEO of the
toy company Mysto Manufacturing Company, was shown in for
his scheduled 15-minute hearing before the Council of National
Defense. He was greeted with weary courtesy by the Council mem-
bers, all of them high-ranking members of President Woodrow Wil-
son’s cabinet — Secretary of War Newton Baker, of course, as well
as Navy Secretary Josephus Daniels, Interior Secretary Franklin
Lane, Commerce Secretary William Redfi eld, and others.
The Council had spent the entire day listening to similar pleas
from various industry groups. The country had shifted to a full-
fl edged war economy to meet the challenge of the First World War,
and that had meant a lot of disruptions to domestic industries as
factories were re-tooled to produce war materiel.
But now the Council was considering taking an additional step
— a step that had Gilbert and his fellow toy makers deeply worried:
They wanted to cancel Christmas.
The reasoning behind the plan was solid and understandable.
Tremendous amounts of money would change hands in the months
ahead, spent to buy Christmas presents for children. If spent instead
on war bonds, those millions could really help the war effort. So the
Committee on Public Information prepared a publicity campaign
urging American parents to “Buy bonds, not toys” for their young-
sters for Christmas 1918, and the War Council prepared to place an
embargo on all toy sales. Yes, Christmas would still exist … but
without presents to unwrap, it promised to be a cold and lifeless
shadow of itself.
Luckily for Santa Claus and other parties interested in children,
the industry group Toy Manufacturers of the U.S.A. got wind of the
scheme in time to arrange for a 15-minute opportunity to make the
case for Christmas. To win over the Cabinet members, they turned
to the president of their association, the charismatic and enthusias-
tic A.C. Gilbert.
They could not have made a better choice. Alfred Carlton Gilbert
was an extraordinary man. Born in the 1880s in the frontier town
of Salem, Ore., he entered college at Pacifi c University in Forest
Grove, then transferred to Yale for medical school — paying part of
his way through school as a performing magician.
After he earned his M.D., Gilbert’s father hoped he would move
back to Oregon and establish a practice. But Gilbert had other ideas.
Joining with a fellow magician, he established the Mysto Manufac-
turing Company, producers of supplies for professional and ama-
teur magicians.
Then one day, in 1911, Gilbert was watching some railroad work-
ers assemble a steel trestle, and it gave him the idea for what would
become the original Erector Set.
It was the Erector set, and the various similar creative-construc-
tion toys that followed it — chemistry sets, microscope kits, and
later even an atomic energy set with a Geiger counter and real ura-
nium-238 samples — that would make Gilbert rich and famous.
In 1918, most of that success was still to come. But his toy com-
pany was already one of the biggest in the country, and his natural
enthusiasm and charisma had made him a natural as a spokesman
for his industry.
Still, the task that faced him was a daunting one. He had to con-
vince the most powerful men in the United States to change their
minds, to voluntarily walk away from a source of war-bond revenue
that could shorten the war and could save American lives. He had
to convince them that canceling Christmas for America’s children
was too high a price to pay, in morale and in lost educational devel-
opment, for that short-term advantage. He himself was absolutely
convinced that such was the case. Now he just had to convince the
nation’s war-hardened leaders.
Gilbert faced the Council members and began his pitch.
“The greatest infl uences in the life of a boy are his toys,” Gilbert
told them. “A boy wants fun, not education. Yet through the kind
of toy American toy manufacturers are turning out he gets both.
The American boy is a genuine boy, and he wants genuine toys. He
wants guns that really shoot, and this is why we have given him air
rifl es from the time he was big enough to hold them. It is because
of the toys they had in childhood that the American soldiers are the
best marksmen in the battlefi elds of France.”
Gilbert went on a bit in a similar patriotic vein, and then, when
the time seemed right, the other toymakers who had accompanied
him into the room started pulling out toys and passing them around
the table.
“From the moment he opened them out onto the library table, the
Secretaries were boys again,” wrote the reporter from the Boston
Post, which published a big spread on the event. “Secretary Daniels
was as pleased with an (Ives Mfg. Co.) Submarine as he could be
with a new destroyer.”
The fi fteen-minute allotment of time was soon gone, but nobody
was paying attention now. The tense, somber atmosphere of a war
planning meeting melted away into the joys of remembered youth.
“How the boys and girls of America would have laughed if they
could only have been concealed in the room and, peeking over the
tops of the davenports, seen the Cabinet playing with the toys!” the
reporter continued. “Secretary Redfi eld wanted the steam started in
one of Mr. Ritchie’s Weeden Engines as soon as he set eyes on it.
‘I learned the rudiments of engineering on a machine like this,’ he
said. Secretary Lane became buried in an aviation book just issued
by the McLoughlin Brothers and wanted to know where he could
get more books just like it. Every one of the 40 or more toys they
laughed over and played with. ‘Toys appeal to the heart of every one
of us, no matter how old we are,’ said another Cabinet member.”
“And it was because they did, and because the words of a man
who makes them, a man who believes in them, a man who loves
them, appealed too, that the boys and girls of the United States are
going to awake this Christmas morning upon a day as merry as
Christmases past.”
Over the subsequent half-century, A.C. Gilbert would steadily
move from strength to strength. His toy manufacturing business,
soon renamed A.C. Gilbert Company, became one of the biggest
and most successful in the world.
But that fi fteen minutes in front of Woodrow Wilson’s cabinet, in
which he saved Christmas for America’s children, always remained
a highlight of Gilbert’s life.
By the way, although A.C. Gilbert never did move back to Oregon
after he went away to Yale, his home town of Salem remains very
proud to claim him as a native son. The Gilbert House Children’s
Museum, located in the house that belonged to Gilbert’s uncle, has
an extensive collection of the products of his company, and is well
worth a visit — especially with a youngster in tow.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Gold mine museum a success
The Grand Re-opening of the Bohemia Gold Mining Museum on
January 28 was a huge success, attended by many from our com-
munity and outside the area. After closing for a year and relocating
to the newly renovated Boots and Sandals Square Dance Barn, we
are happy to be welcoming visitors once again.
We are also very pleased to resume our partnership with the Cot-
tage Grove Historical Society, who we share this space with. To-
gether we are open Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 1 to 4.
We are grateful to the Faye and Lucille Stewart Foundation for
making this space available to us, The Bohemia Mine Owners As-
sociation for starting the museum in 2003 and the entire community
for supporting our efforts to preserve the mining history of our area.
Sara I. Smith,
President of the Board
Bohemia Gold Mining Museum
Opal Center plays deserve more media coverage
I had the pleasure of attending the fi nal
performance of "Becky's New Car" at the
Opal Center for Arts & Education in the
downtown historic district. If you haven’t
been there yet, it’s a small “blackbox” the-
ater with comfy seats and produces a variety
of enjoyable events. The atmosphere inside
reminds me of the little building that was
Cottage Theatre’s fi rst home on Thornton
Lane.
For me, the play was a wonderful invest-
ment of $12 and two hours of my time on
a cold and wet Sunday afternoon. "Becky’s
New Car" is a delightful comedy and was
Marion Dempsey’s directorial debut. She is
most familiar for her backstage work at Cot-
tage Theatre. All of the actors are veterans
of CT productions and each gave a memora-
ble performance. It was a real family affair
for the Dempseys: Mom directed, Dad acted
and built sets, and Lincoln Middle School
son, Austin, operated the spotlight.
The script called for audience participa-
tion that only added to the laughs. Amazing-
ly to me, they cleverly created three sets in
the small space that realistically took the au-
dience from a car dealership where Becky
worked, to her living room, to a balcony of
a multi-million-dollar home.
This is the fi rst full season of productions
at the Opal Center. (To see what’s coming
up visit www.opalcentercg.org.) Kudos to
Executive Director Leah Murray, the Opal
Center Board of Directors, and the signifi -
cant investment each cast and crew put into
every production. I’m thankful and blessed
for the role the Opal Center plays in provid-
ing such affordable entertainment. Be sure
to get your kids involved in Judy Smith’s
upcoming Storybook Theater plays. They’ll
love it!
Opal Center productions do not get the
timely media attention I believe they de-
serve. I hope that will change in the future.
Cindy Weeldreyer
Cottage Grove
Devos story lacking
I was pleased to see the front page photo of the CGHS students
who led a protest against Betsy DeVos. A great opportunity was
missed when the article interviewed only one student, and instead
focused on the "unexcused absences" of these students. In my opin-
ion, it trivialized the importance of cultivating students who care
about issues in our government. Students have voices that need to
be heard.
Thank you
Jean W Miksch
Eugene
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