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Again Mr. Roberts subsided into his chair, "Maine could learn from the experience it has at York Har-bor," he continued. "Look at what Thomas Nelson Page and Thomas Bailey Aldrich, men of genuine vision, did for that place. Land was bought along shore and the beach was made into an attractive park. Summer cottagers with wealth and influence have appreciated these restrictions and have come to stay. They have brought others like themselves. They own property on which large taxes are being paid. They are an asset to the community and to the State. York Harbor is an internationally known resort. How well-known, or how much of an asset to the State would a tour-ist camp be, even tho twice as pop-ulous as York Harbor! "What York Harbor has done can be accomplished in these other resorts, if selectmen are foresight-ed, and plan with an idea of com-munity well-being and growth. They do not seem to realize how they are injuring their prospects, lessening their income from taxes and destroying the heritage of their children by neglecting to protect and beautify the shore frontage. "Take our waterfront at Kenne-bunk Beach! Robert Lord, an able man, gave land to the town over quarter of a century ago on the condition that it should be made into a parkway. But town officials have permitted it to become a dump. They ignore our pleas for relief. they ignore the conditions of Robert Lord's bequest. In their stubbornness they are wrecking their own property values and their one sure source of future income., but they won't see it! They can't see it! "Some towns spend thousands of dollars to induce the building of factories, but not a penny on pre-serving their waterfronts. Isn't it better to protect a valuable water-front than to foster a dozen fac-tories? The value of the sea, the rocks and a beautiful shore never grows less. Never! But no factory ever built can be permanent, or at-tractive, or any thing but destruc-tive to what the State of Maine is advertising. "On the other hand, the preser-vation of Maine as vacation land of beauty and a lure to summer-home owners will increase buying-power population for years--just as long as our shore fronts are protected. If they are not protect-ed they bring in cheaper and cheaper people. Homes decay and shacks spring up; and it is one of the best-known economic facts that one had house pulls down the character of a street, one bad street that of a town, and one bad town that of the larger units of county and State. "Ruin a show-window and the remainder of the store becomes worthless, no matter what is in it. It is the same here at the shore!" With a sweep of his hand ocean-ward; "Southern Maine has be-come like Chelsea, Massachusetts---a suburb. Drive up and down this part of the State and it gives you that feeling! "Of course we can't fight the motor-age," he conceded, as he paced the room," and we don't want to. But we can fight stupid-ity and injustice! If the State wants to advertise itself as a vaca-tionland why doesn't it put an end [image] Study-Courtyard, Mr. Roberts Inspecting His Fountain and Flowers

to a condition that allows three or four half-witted boys with an out-board motor to destroy the peace and comfort of an entire summer resort, including people who bring untold advantages to a State and must have peace to do it, Margaret Deland, for example, and Booth Tarkington! "That's what I'm fighting for--protection of the right kind!" Asked if he had any idea that the beach might be set apart from the remainder of Kennebunk, Mr. Rob-erts said that the anger of the sum-mer community at the shortsight-edness of the town officials was so intense that anything might result from it. "Salmon Levenson of Chicago, who wrote the peace plan which won the Nobel Peace Prize for Sec-retary of State Kellogg, has been active in behalf of such a local plan," said Mr. Roberts. "So, too, has the Rev. John Haynes Holmes, a clergyman with an international reputation. "Some people believe our desire to have our water front protected is a selfish one. Mine is not. I'm working for the best interests of my own town and my own State, and against the pig-headedness of people who want to wreck both. They call me a summer resident: a selfish summer resident. Piffle! They're opening the Vaughn house in Kittery this week. That house is built on the land my family owned in 1632. Part of my family moved to Arundel in 1725. Three of my ancestors from Maine were carried to Canada by Indians. Two of them fought the French at Ticonderoga under Abercombie. Three more helped to capture Lou-isburg in 1745. Four other, all from this same town, were officers in the Revoluntion. "Another was a privateer cap-tain and did a stretch in Dartmoor prison. "Selfish summer resident! H--I! This is my State! I was born here! I love it! Do you think it is self-ishness that makes me see red when a lot of mental pigmies go to work to wreck it?" Mention of "Rabbie in Arms" proved to be cue for a shift in conversational scenery. This au-thor, for the moment dynamic ac-tor is championing a cause lost (to date), relaxed into happier times. His typewriter came under the spotlight. The steady beating of the keys up to the last second before the day's invasion raised the question as to how he worked. "Two thousand words a day is an extremely high average to main-tain on sustained work; but in or-der to meet my publisher's--and my own--needs I was obliged to write the last 85,000 words of 'Rab-ble in Arms' between July 8 and August 30, 1933. In order to do it I had to work from nine to one each morning, from three to eight o'clock each afternoon, and from eleven to three o'clock each night. No job ever will come closer to killing me than that one did. When I finished it I was a wreck for a year." The author stepped quickly to the stairs and from a pendant shelf took down a big volume which proved to be a revision of his last book. He spread open the pages, showing fine writing with many changes in words and phrases thru-out the text. " 'Rabble in Arms' was revised a dozen times or more," he explained. "The writing of a book is the easi-est part of it. The re-writing is the hardest. It is almost impossible to get it into such shape that it sat-isfies you. Even after "Arundel" was published it was entirely re-written--partly due to some irri-tating but justified criticism on the part of Arthur G. Staples. That took eight months. The revision of "The Lively Lady," which is being published in England this month, is entirely re-written. The re-writ-ing took four months." Mr. Roberts said that all four of his chronicles of Arundel were be-ing published in England this year and next by John Lane, and in Germany by Hollie and Company. Mr. Roberts contends that it is only by using small and accurate details that a novelist can create.