History of Fresno County, California, with biographical sketches of the leading men and women of the county who have been identified with its growth and development from the early days to the present, Volume I, Part 87

Author: Vandor, Paul E., 1858-
Publication date: 1919
Publisher: Los Angeles, Calif., Historic Record Company
Number of Pages: 1362

USA > California > Fresno County > History of Fresno County, California, with biographical sketches of the leading men and women of the county who have been identified with its growth and development from the early days to the present, Volume I > Part 87

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HISTORY OF FRESNO COUNTY

That loan drive reached its height with the issue of the first draft call and when men were registering. The public sentiment in America had not yet been welded. It had not yet awakened to the German propagandism in America. It had not yet heard of Gerard's reported' threat of the kaiser: "We'll stand no nonsense from America after this war is over." Nor to the' other threatened uprising of 500,000 Germans in this country, and Gerard's reply as to the handiness of lampposts for these uprisers in Yankeeland. Many things had not yet happened to unify the Americans. There was yet a too great divergence of popular views. That first drive was an unorganized effort popularly, carried out in the main by the bankers and not to be com- pared with the subsequent efforts when the country was thoroughly awak- ened to the situation. No country was more woefully unprepared for every- thing than America save in its resourcefulness and latent wealth. There was yet no war consciousness in the west with the call for this first loan to the government. Even the federal reserve bank records of that first subscription are limited or lacking. There was another spirit with the second loan. Pershing was in France with a quarter of a million of those wonderful Yanks and he had made his reported speech over La Fayette's tomb, "La Fayette, we are here." The second contingent of future soldiers drafted into the service was in training camps. The thrills of war were being felt. In Fresno County the raisin growers had harvested the greatest crop in history. In this drive the government had set a minimum and also a maximum quota for Fresno, $2,410,189 on a three billion loan and $4,106,- 982 on a five billion allotment. The third loan came after the Yanks "had made good" at Chantignv and the marines had been baptized by the Huns with the name of "Die Teuffels Hunde." The Tuscania transport had been torpedoed and there were American soldier graves on the northern shore of Scotland. There had also been a change of policy. Honor flags were awarded every town and county that exceeded its quota. with a star added when the quota was doubled. The war was being brought nearer home, the county was better organized, returning wounded of the allies appeared before the public and confirmed the atrocities of the Huns. The loan was oversub- scribed and the achievement was considered a notable one. Came then the fourth and the result was almost beyond belief. It was conducted under the greatest handicaps, yet the record is unique in that in spite of them it was again oversubscribed, notwithstanding a German peace offensive, locally a great loss in raisin crop by reason of rain, and the outbreak of the influenza epidemic. It was the largest loan oversubscription and the number of sub- scribers was the largest, remembering that the population had been reduced by the demands of the service in some 8,000 men. And the time for the drive was one week less than any other. A volume might be written of the concerted and individual efforts in carrying through these loan campaigns. Never was there more earnest, patriotic and unselfish labor. That first fight to carry Fresno over the top was a difficult one. That first issue of bonds carried only three and one-half per cent. interest and the lenders of money to the government must be taught to disregard interest rates when placing their dollars behind the government at the lesser rate, not as an investment but as a necessity and to credit the difference in rates to duty and patriotism. O. J. Woodward of the First National Bank was the general county chair- man of the first campaign with E. E. Manheim of the Farmers' National as the vice, W. O. Miles of the Union National, Berton Einstein of the Bank and Trust Company of Central California and Dan Brown of the Bank of Italy as the executive committee. The theaters were in this campaign first used for publicity speeches, the bankers for a time carried on the drive without outside aid, the period June 3-8, 1917, was designated as Liberty Loan week, the slogan was "Pay Up or Go to War," June 1 Frank H. Homan of the Merchants' Association named a merchants' committee to lend aid, William Neilsen came from the federal reserve bank in San Francisco to establish

584

HISTORY OF FRESNO COUNTY

loan headquarters locally. Chase S. Osborn Jr. was named chairman of pub- licity, E. A. Berg of the display advertising, Carl A. Lisenby of public utilities and manufactures, L. R. Payne of the raisin and Samuel Samelson of the peach industry, and June 15 after strenuous efforts the drive closed. The result a city oversubscription of $250,000 and the county communities of $50,000. Reedley was the only town community that failed in its quota --- $22,600 short on quota of $47,400. In the end the government returned all oversubscriptions on the first loan. The second drive was launched Septem- ber 31, and unlike any of the others was directed for the four counties of Fresno, Kings, Madera and Tulare from Fresno by William Neilsen as special representative. This plan was afterward abandoned as impracticable be- cause of too great an area to be covered and too large a population to be reached. There was then another general organization of committees. With a total of $6,779,100 the four counties exceeded their minimum allotments and only Kings and Tulare did not come up to their maximum. That second drive in Fresno city was carried by a wonderful eleventh hour drive on an announcement that it lacked $490,000 on its maximum of $3,000,000. An- other strenuous effort and the limit on the last day was exceeded by $11.750. O. J. Woodward retired from the general chairmanship and with the third loan approaching W. O. Miles was chosen and another campaign manager was sent by the reserve bank. No announcements were made and Fresno prepared to raise a great quota. The plan adopted provided for an educa- tional campaign of one month before taking subscriptions to be undertaken by the Four Minute Men and the newspapers to make clear the atrocious character of the foe that would be faced overseas. Another general com- mittee organization of the county followed until the formal opening of the drive April 6, 1918. There was a great demonstration in a parade followed by a mass meeting in the city auditorium, Frank G. Hood as the marshal of the parade. The country was invited to parade and participate, the fra- ternal societies were a feature, the women's division was another, so were the labor organizations and the Masons. So great the throng in the pageant that the auditorium could not contain it and overflow meetings were held at the courthouse park, that night over $700,000 was subscribed and the fraternal organizations came in with their subscriptions. It was a night of greatest excitement and enthusiasm. Tremendous work was done day after day. Through the Parlor Lecture Club the women contributed $350,000. William Farnum, the movie star, spoke for eight minutes at the Liberty Theater and the speech yielded at the rate of $1,000 a minute. On Monday following the opening day there had been subscribed $1,331,600. The high school pupils had pledged $100,000. The country district campaign was car- ried even into the mountain regions. April 11 a great mass meeting of the women was held and on that day every town in the county had gone over the top save Fresno, and the total paid on subscriptions was only $812,000. Display advertising in the newspapers was paid for by patriotic merchants or groups of merchants as a feature. Sunday, April 14 the Armenians at a special service subscribed $16,450 in addition to their previous large sub- scriptions. Saturday, April 20, was held a mass meeting for the distribution of the honor flags that had been earned, and on that morning Fresno city was alone in not having such a flag while many of the towns had won stars for their flags. Fresno struggled to the last to earn the star but it could not double its quota. On the afternoon of April 23, Maj. Gen. E. D. Swin- ton of the British army, inventor of the tanks and commander of them in their first appearance at the front, addressed a great meeting, declaring that the fight was against "Hun savages led by gorillas." In all the drives Fresno was visited and addressed by notable speakers of the war days. Every ex- pedient within reason was taken avail of to keep the public interest at fever heat. Friday, April 26, was designated as Liberty day and honor flags were raised over the city hall and from the flag pole in front of the county court-

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HISTORY OF FRESNO COUNTY

house with parades and speechmaking. That same night "Doc" Wells, the Canadian sergeant that lost an arm and was bayonetted and gassed in the first attack on the Canadians at Ypres, was brought to Fresno by the Ro- tary Club to speak "to men only" at the big auditorium on the atrocities of the Huns, and there was gathered the greatest throng that had ever assem- bled in that capacious edifice. His visit resulted in a big jump in the sub- scriptions on the following day. "Don't Quit" was the slogan of the closing week of the drive. Thursday, May 2, Marie Dressler, the actress, was a speaker making her 340th speech during the drive. She was accompanied by four sailor boys and their appeals brought in $25,000 in money. Of course with such unremitting and unflagging efforts the drive was bound to prove a success, although there was well founded criticism that the promoters were always raising the cry of "Wolf! Wolf!" to frighten the people into a belief that failure threatened and Fresno would be disgraced. Signal as in the end the success of this third drive was, it was to be outdistanced by another. The figures for the third loan are these:

Quota

Subscribed

Fresno County $2,545,175 $3,949,059 155.15 20,284

Fresno City $1,858,682 $2,340,850 125.94

Percentage subscribed

Subscribers

Population (Census 1910)

75,657 26.81

11,627 42,892

Percentage subscribing

24.89

The fourth loan was the biggest of all. It was for six billions. In Fresno the obstacles against it have already been alluded to. There was another element that called for action. It was that there were "slackers"-people well able to lend the government money but who did not or made ridiculously small subscriptions considering their means. A meeting of the county Liberty loan chairmen was held in San Francisco in August, 1918, and the powers approved of the publication of the names of the slackers to bring them to shame. County Chairman Miles of Fresno opposed the plan but as a matter of fact such an inquisition committee of citizens did meet and slackers were brought before it and informed that they would be expected to contribute. The affair was done in secret to apply "moral suasion" arguments. However, the drive was conducted in the county without any outside aid, the first so conducted, and the record was the county turned over a pile of dollars in an oversubscription to the greatest loan in history that ever a nation has asked of its people. It is true that the morale of the atrocious Hun across the sea was at this time at low ebb, but it must have fallen to zero when the Junkers over there learned that the nation had oversubscribed the loan, that Yank soldiers were landing daily on French soil by the thousands, that the sub- marine had been driven from the surface of the sea and depth-bombed to smithereens to "Davy Jones' Locker," that the Yanks were at the front and making possible the offensive of the allies and forcing the "tactical retreats" of the Hun legions. "Fresno Never Fails" was the campaign slogan. The campaign was organized September 5. Frederick B. Fox was named cam- paign manager, Charles T. Cearley city manager and Mrs. W. A. Fitzgerald director of women's efforts as she had been in all the other like efforts. The campaign organization was the best yet. The experience of the past had taught a lesson and the combing for dollars was complete. The drive was opened by a night pageant followed not by one great mass meeting but by three. The victory at St. Mihiel to be followed by the pressing in of the salient at Chateau-Thierry had taken place. The time had come to deliver the last money blow home. The singing was a feature of that parade. The church choirs took part, the schools organized choruses, the Normal also and the Fresno Male Chorus. The marching was to the singing. And if there were 20,000 in that third Liberty loan parade, there were 35,000 in that

586

HISTORY OF FRESNO COUNTY

of the fourth. It was probably the largest street demonstration witnessed in the city. Corporal James Bonnar, Fresno's first returned war hero, a vic- tim of a Hun gas attack, was to make appearance at the auditorium but did not arrive until the following morning, because of government red tape at the army hospital in Texas, though after coming his tales of life in the trenches and of the soldiers at the front sold thousands of dollars' worth of bonds. At the auditorium meeting $1,776,000 was pledged, at the two over- flow meetings $60,000 and the first day's total was $1,382,200. It rained on the opening night of the celebration and for two days after and following an interval of a day more rain. People had hardly begun to count the loss on a drying raisin crop from the rain when the beaten German began with his peace offensive. Peace? Unconditional surrender, yes; otherwise "On to Berlin !" Redemption of pledges after the first meetings was so slow that again the cry of "Wolf! Wolf!" was raised for two weeks. Redemptions were dis- appointing. October 1 one-third or $1.540,000 on a quota of county fixed at $4,501,000 had been subscribed. War movie pictures were exhibited and Liberty Loan posters in the theaters. Theaters which had aided every war move helped as never before. Four days before the close of the drive, Fresno was still nearly one million behind the goal. The epidemic was on and indoor, public meetings were under the ban. A day was set apart as "Save Fresno Day," and in the down town district street corner meetings were held and appeals made and pledges taken up. War heroes were drummed up to talk to the people from the street corners. Tanks bearing the names of the battles in which the Canadians and Americans had participated were placed at nine corners, and from these Four Minute Men addressed the populace. These and other devices were made use of to keep up the spirit on the day that closed with a great mass meeting in the courthouse park addressed by Edward F. Trefz who had spent months investigating for Hoover the food conditions in the French trenches. This day and for several following the confidential committee went on with its sessions which ran far into the night. And it is said that every one that was hailed before that committee "came through." October 19-a Saturday-the report was that the county and the city had both gone over. The figures were:

Fresno City Fresno County 4,501,000

Quota $3,009,200

Subscribed $3,107,550 4,774,300

The final figures showed that with the $4,501,000 quota the county had actu- ally subscribed $5,946,550 only $54,000 short of $6,000,000, making a total over- subscription of $1,445,550. This by about one-third of the estimated popu- lation.

Of unquestioned educational value was the yard garden planting cam- paign begun in April, 1918, by the children of the public schools under the supervision of Richard Schmidt, war garden director and supervisor of voca- tional agriculture in the city high school. The work was confined to the pupils of the grammar schools from the fourth to the eighth grades. County Horticultural Commissioner F. P. Roullard gave his services to familiarize student inspectors with the insect pests, and give in the schools illustrated lectures on insects of economic value, the film illustrations being by Claud C. Laval the photographer and moving picture man. Besides aiding in the raising of vegetables, the children made exhibition at the county fair in October, 1918, and prizes amounting to $100 in thrift stamps were awarded as follows :

Thirty dollars, Grand Prize-Modena Prouty.

Fifteen dollars, First Prize-Helen Macon, James Shelbourne and J. B. Ostrander.

Nine dollars, Second Prize-Frederick Hammond, Silvio Digiola, Gerald Wenke and Richard Dwyer.

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HISTORY OF FRESNO COUNTY

Three dollars, Third Prize-John Riggins, Eral Ritter and Clement Edwards.

Fresno led in the state with a record for War Savings Stamps pledges on National War Savings Day-June 28, 1918-memorable year of won- derful achievements in the war. In six hours pledges were added which totaled $2,360,000 and carried county over the year's allotment of $2,000,000 until a surplus of $360,000 was rolled up. With the close of the year a drive was on to collect on the unredeemed pledges to wipe out the million dollar indebtedness to the government to start out the new year with clean slate and it was done. The June big drive was from the 18th to the 28th. The result was to show Fresno in first place among the counties for percent- age of oversubscriptions ; in second for total oversubscribed; San Francisco with a population of half a million had oversubscribed three-quarters of a million. Retarded two months in the start, Fresno ended first. The work of the campaign was under the direction of the following named: County Director-E. E. Manheim; Assistant and Campaign Manager-Harry C. Wilber: City Director-Thomas E. Risley; Postmaster Earle E. Hughes, Ralph W. Woodward, Ben Epstein and W. A. Durfey. The personnel under- went changes, M. B. Harris succeeding Woodward, City School Superin- tendent Jerome O. Cross supplanting Epstein and D. S. Ricker, Durfey. In the pledge redemption campaign, Mrs. E. A. Williams directed the women's activities and A. E. Berg was director of display advertising. A campaign of education was launched, the W. S. S. and T. S. plan of aiding the allies financially being a new gospel of thrift. The speaking campaign was organ- ized and conducted by the Four Minute Men and 800 stamp selling agencies were established in the county. The two million quota had been arbitrarily set to be saved by self-denial, the elimination of non-essentials and the sav- ing of the cost of living in every department during the year 1918. The in- culcation of thrift was the cardinal aim. The schools were thoroughly organ- ized, even to weekly thrift-stamp school parades. No child paraded that had not saved and bought at least one twenty-five-cent thrift stamp. And the children of foreign parentage told of it at home. The first street drive was opened March 9, Mrs. W. A. Fitzgerald was the leader of the women, with Mrs. Pete Droge in charge of the store booths. and Mrs. O. L. Everts as the treasurer. The work in these booths overcame the loss by a delaved start for a total of over $300,000 had been rolled up by April 1. New devices to stimulate the sale of stamps were devised week after week. And in the county communities the work proceeded as tirelessly. A notable achieve- ment was that of Letter Carrier C. A. Tockstein who had read that a Spring- field, Il1., carrier held the national record for the largest sale of stamps in a one-day drive by one man in the postal service. The mark was $3,000. Tock- stein chose his own day, confining himself to his own route and he turned in for the day $9.640, smashing the record by $6,640. The Junior Americans of the city schools undertook a week's drive June 3-8, had a general campaign committee, conducted a school children's parade, with Alfred Serpa as mar- shal, Junior American four-minute speakers invaded the theaters, barkers and spielers addressed the crowds from street rostrums, held a big meeting at the auditorium with Claude Minard as chairman with a play picturing a boy who would not save his money on candy and the movies for war stamps, had bad dreams and awoke a patriot, and the drive resulted in the sale of $20,000' in stamps. About this time the plan was changed giving up the thrift idea and going out after the money in five-dollar stamps and under the readjusted program a ten days' drive was put on during June 18-28. On the starting day Fresno's taken up stock of stamps was $412,000 and to make up the $2.000,000 quota $1,588,000 in pledges were required. The city's goal was $1,200,000, the difference between amount of stamps sold in the city and quota $788,000. A house to house canvass was resolved upon by the women and placed in charge of an executive committee of four, namely :

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HISTORY OF FRESNO COUNTY

Mrs. C. F. Reilly, Miss Emma Brix, Mrs. W. F. Fitzgerald and Mrs. Mont- gomery Thomas with district captains. The letter carriers also put on a drive and in one week gathered in $49,000. The campaign resulted in an oversubscription as follows:

War Savings Stamps sold 212,351; face value $887,502.

Thrift Stamps sold 573,995; face value $143,498.75.

Total face value $1,031,000.75; maturity value $1,205,253.75.

The women's committee was an important adjunct of the Fresno County Unit of the Council of National and State Defense organized July 1. 1917, with Mrs. H. A. Goddard as president, Mrs. S. L. Pratt as treasurer and Mrs. C. Matheney of Clovis as secretary. The committee's first activity was the distribution of the pledge cards for conservation of food on the lines laid down by Herbert Hoover, resulting in signatures to about 3,000 cards. The committee work was extended to the county towns. Next was taken up the question of house deliveries especially by the grocers and that service was cut down to two daily deliveries. August 24, 1917, a swimming party was given and funds were raised to finance the committee for the first six months of its existence. August 1 slips had been printed which merchants distributed with every purchase parcel giving the following reminder :

Your country needs your help.

Eat no white bread on Wednesdays.

Fat no meat on Fridays.

Eat no lamb nor veal at any time. Help to feed the boys who are fighting for us.

In November, 1917, the second food campaign was started and con- tinued for one month and in its interest Edward F. Trefz of Hoover's staff made his first appearance in Fresno. Nearly 25,000 signatures were secured and window cards distributed with the shield of the U. S. Food Administra- tion. In November Mrs. E. A. Williams succeeded to the presidency. the work was more definitely organized by state headquarters and fifteen chair- men were named to conduct the work of the various departments. This Mrs. W. A. Fitzgerald was in charge of the work for the four Liberty loan drives. Miss Benlah Miller with Miss Isabel Tapscott in charge of the weighing and measuring of babies needing medical attention to the end of bringing up "Better Babies." Two thousand seven hundred forty-one chil- dren in all were medically examined. Dental examination was also given. Miss L. Dahlgren as teacher of domestic science of the high school was in charge of the Home Economics Department and had to aid her the domestic science teachers in the county high schools. A booklet of conservation rec- ipes was published and distributed and a series of food conservation demon- stration lessons was given on these and other lines. Posters were placed in theaters and stores during the week of the potato drive. Plans for a com- munity kitchen were well under way but interrupted by the influenza epi- demic. Mrs. Henry Hawson had charge of the food conservation after the November drive with ten active assisting sub-chairmen in the outside towns. Special drive efforts were made for 400 fruit jars to teach the Indians how to preserve their fruits and then there was the potato drive. Survey was made of the foreign population patronized groceries for cooperation and the use of recipes for the use of substitutes and 2,000 such printed recipes in foreign languages were distributed. Mrs. C. M. Hill had charge of the publicity and was aided by the county librarian Miss Sarah McCardle in the distri- bution of literature and the exhibition of placards and posters in the main library and its branches throughout the county. In all the loan drives the committee lent assistance and Vice Chairman Mrs. H. E. Patterson under- took a drive for nurses to enter the Army School for Nurses as well as civil hospitals to release trained nurses for service across the seas. Forty-five were enrolled and most of these were assigned for duty in hospitals in Cali- fornia and out of it. As did most of the women's committees, at a standstill

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HISTORY OF FRESNO COUNTY

during the epidemic, it gave over its office and helpers to the work of sup- plying nurses for influenza sufferers.

Registrations in Fresno city under the selective draft calls were:

June 5, 1917 3,784

June 5 and August 24, 1918. 326

September 12, 1918, 18-45ers 8,023

Total

12,133

Claiming exemption and classed as aliens were 2,253. Total Class 1 subject to military service 2,172. Physically examined 2,315. Qualified for general service 1.161. For limited service 230-total qualified 1,391. Ordered to camp 919. Inducted Students' Army Training Corps sixty-five-total in- ducted 984. Delinquents 270. Deserted six. Physically disqualified 217. Statistics of registrations prior to September 12, 1918, are:

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History of Fresno County, California, with biographical sketches of the leading men and women of the county who have been identified with its growth and development from the early days to the present, Volume I, Part 87

Author: Vandor, Paul E., 1858- Publication date: 1919 Publisher: Los Angeles, Calif., Historic Record Company Number of Pages: 1362

Author: Vandor, Paul E., 1858-
Publication date: 1919
Publisher: Los Angeles, Calif., Historic Record Company
Number of Pages: 1362