Elbert Hubbard by rights shouldn’t have been sailing on the Lusitania on May 1, 1915. Why was he there with his wife, Alice? President Woodrow Wilson pardoned him, that’s why. The publisher and country philosopher had written an article that joked about contraception, which back then was a violation of the law. It produced a felony conviction, which prevented him from getting a passport. He was famous enough to get a presidential pardon. It’s just another one of the strange stories associated with the sinking on May 7.