<San Francisco Call>, September 15th 1911, p.10:

<PALO ALTO - Sept. 14. - Emulating the example of Elbert Hubbard in an effort to establish a Utopian order of society in which social justice and industrial equity will reign supreme, H. W. Simkins, a pioneer resident, good government worker and former city official of Palo Alto, has laid the foundations in this city for a new cult called "Altruria."

Already Simkins is surrounded by a small coterie of believers and followers, who are assisting in the promulgation of the new doctrine. A little booklet entitled the Altrurian will be published and distributed monthly to spread the precepts of the faith.

Simkins, who is a personal friend of President David Starr Jordan of Stanford university, declares that church and monarchy have been the ancient enemies of social reform and that the Altrurians will organize a co-operative association in Palo Alto to solve the social problem.

"Altruria is not socialism, communism nor anarchy," said Simkins. "It seeks to destroy nothing that is good. It believes that our present knowledge, the inheritance of the ages, is the only safe foundation upon which to build, unhampered by excessive conservatism and unrestricted by vested wrongs."

The first issue of the Altrurian was distributed today. It devotes seven pages to an article entitled "The Material waste of War" by Dr. David Starr Jordan. Fifteen pages of the publication are given to the subject of prison reform as outlined by Abraham Ruef, former political boss of San Francisco, who is serving a term in San Quentin, and another six pages are devoted to a detailed autobiography of the founder of Altruria. But Simkins defends himself against any possible accusations of egosim by saying: "If the personal note harps loud in this, remember that it is needful to get acquainted.">