USA > Indiana > The war purse of Indiana; the five liberty loans and war savings and thrift campaigns in Indiana during the world war > Part 6
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A few days after this meeting, though not because of it, Dearborn County again came to the front, with a telegram to the state campaign committee from William H. O'Brien, the chairman, as follows :
"Dearborn County's over top. Maximum allotment is only a memory. Subscription six hundred seventy thousand dol- lars and everybody still busy."24
Although this telegram did not arrive until after October 20, but a few days before the official ending of the campaign, it served as an elixir at State Headquarters and the telegram immediately was transmitted to all the county chairmen of the state, with a legend at the bottom, as follows:
"Go Thou And Do Likewise !"25
23. Ibid. October 17, 1917.
24. Second Liberty Loan Files; telegram dated October 22, 1917.
25. Ibid. October 23, 1917 ...
60
INDIANA WORLD WAR RECORDS
It became apparent during the latter days of the Loan cam- paign that there would have to be a large amount of under- writing of the bonds by the banks and financial institutions of the counties, if even the minimum allotment was to be sub- scribed. On October 20th Otto L. Klauss, auditor of state, wired all of the banks and trust companies in the state, urging them to lay aside other business until the Second loan quota was complete. Already many of the banks had begun to underwrite the bonds on an extensive scale. J. F. Wild, Chairman of Marion County, announced October 19, that $2,050,000 had been subscribed in the Second liberty loan drive by half a dozen banks and trust companies in the city of Indianapolis. Among the amounts pledged were the fol- lowing :
Fletcher American National Bank, $500,000; Indiana Na- tional Bank, $500,000; Fletcher Savings and Trust Company, $500,000; Merchants National Bank, $250,000; Indiana Trust Company, $200,000; Union Trust Company, $100,000. Mr. Wild pointed out that these subscriptions were "purchases out- right, just the same as bonds are sold to an individual" and that Marion County then was "half way out of the woods," with total subscriptions above $7,000,000. The county's mini- mum quota was approximately fifteen millions, while its maxi- mum quota was approximately twenty-four millions.
An editorial appeared in the Indianapolis Star October 20th headed "The Farmer Not A Slacker". Cartoons and other published material had taken him to task, as a class, quite severely during the Loan campaign. The Star editorial pointed out how isolated was the average agriculturist and then quoted bond sale results from various agricultural counties in the state, comparing them with those from counties having large cities within them. Inefficiency of local campaigns perhaps was the reason for the backwardness of some rural counties, the editorial pointed out, as it named agricultural counties of the state that showed Loan figures well up in the lead of the northern counties' list. It concluded with a sentence much to the point:
"But he is human, like those of us in town, and may wait until he is urged."26
26. In a special study made by Walter Q. Fitch, Sceretary of the Indiana Com- mittee on Food Production and Conservation, and Director of Farm Publieity in the Liberty Loan campaigns, an explanation is found of the reason why during the First and Second liberty loan campaigns the farmers did not purchase to the fullest extent
61
THE WAR PURSE OF INDIANA
Renewed Efforts During Closing Week
A serious situation confronted the Liberty Loan workers at the opening of the last week, judging both from the tone of the letters of the State Liberty Loan correspondence and from the numerous articles in the newspapers of October 22 and 23. Reports showed that the sixty-eight northern coun- ties were approximately $40,000,000 behind their minimum allotment, and Marion County had subscribed only about half of its $15,000,000 quota. The week was referred to as a "week of drives." The war board of business men, which had been hurriedly organized to speed up Marion County's lagging campaign, the Citizens Committee, the Boy Scouts, the life insurance companies, and a committee of women, all united to push Marion County over the top. Out over the state speak- ers and bond salesmen were assisting the local Liberty Loan committees to meet county quotas.
Reports from Washington indicated that the campaign throughout the entire country was lagging seriously during the last week of the drive, and the statement was made that only forty per cent. of the total national quota had been sub- scribed. This announcement served as a stimulus to those in charge of the drive in Indiana, and a special appeal was made to put the state at the head of the list. On October 23, Mr. Wade announced that while the situation generally throughout Indiana was improved "here and there progress was being im- peded by banks which were apparently doing everything pos- sible to discourage the successful flotation of the loan.
"I am telegraphing them not to give up the fight," Mr. Wade said, in reference to what he called the "quitter counties".27
A report from Gibson County, in the Eighth Federal Re- serve District, on that date, said the county had "gone over the top" of its minimum allotment by $12,600. From South Bend came a report that the "biggest indoor meeting ever held in South Bend" was being staged there as the climax to the Loan campaign.
When Josephus Daniels, Secretary of the Navy, appeared in Marion, Indiana, on the night of October 23, for a Liberty
of their ability. The opinion is advanced that the apathy of the agricultural people was due to lack of specific rural publicity. He concludes that in those communities where the farmers had been aroused to the importance of buying bonds, they subscribed their full share in every case. Mr. Fitch's complete study on The Hoosier Farmer as a Bond-Buyer is on file in the Indiana State War Records Collection.
27. Indianapolis Star, October 24, 1917.
62
INDIANA WORLD WAR RECORDS
Loan address, he was preceded by the announcement from the speaker's stand that Grant County had just gone over its mini- mum allotment of $1,080,000.
"Twenty-eight young men of the navy have already sealed this war with their blood," the Secretary said, in referring to the destruction of the Antilles. "Let us consecrate our- selves to the cause for which they have died, and see to it in this struggle of nations, in an issue between right and wrong, that liberty may not perish from the earth."28
An interesting viewpoint was made public at this time in a letter dated October 23, from Fred Klopfer, vice-president of the Merchants National Bank, of Muncie, Indiana, a man of German extraction, to customers of his bank. The letter showed very definitely the manner in which many of this ex- traction in Indiana then were viewing the war. A paragraph from the letter said:
"Regardless of our ancestry and no matter what our ideas in regard to the World War may have been before our coun- try's entrance into it, we are all now convinced there was no other alternative and every loyal American citizen recognizes the righteousness of our cause. We must, therefore, as one man, rise to the emergency and meet the grim reality of the situation with a steadfast determination to mobilize every re- source which our country possesses to the end that the war may be effectively waged and brought to a successful conclu- sion at the earliest possible moment."
There followed a plea for the success of the Liberty Loan, and then :
"There is an element of intense personal sadness in this message. Memories of boyhood days and present family ties still tug at my heartstrings. But the United States of Amer- ica has been the land of my choice; it has afforded me a full measure of opportunity ; it protects my family and my home, in fact everything in life which is most sacred to me. I could not, therefore, regard my duty as having been fully performed if I did not do to the maximum amount of my ability myself, and also give this personal word to my friends."29
The city of Elwood, in Madison County, an industrial center which had been known for the Socialistic tendencies of num- bers of its people, announced that it had oversubscribed its minimum allotment of $375,000 on October 24th. Henry
28. Indianapolis News, October 24, 1917.
29. Ibid. October 23, 1917.
63
THE WAR PURSE OF INDIANA
County announced that it had exceeded its minimum, as did Wayne and Putnam counties, on the same day. The City of Batesville, Ripley County, also announced that day it had ex- ceeded its minimum. Dozens of other communities of course had done likewise with but three days of the Loan campaign remaining, but few of these found their way into the state newspapers until later. Bank underwriting was the means of sending the communities "over the top" in practically all instances.
The Indianapolis Star, on October 24, printed the list of the first ten among the sixty-eight northern counties as follows :
Subscription
Minimum Allotment
Bartholomew
$470,000
470,000
Clinton
800,000
800,000
Dearborn
340,000
340,000
Dekalb
340,000
340,000
Decatur
474,000
430,000
Madison
1,420,000
950,000
Putnam
400,000
400,000
Steuben
250,000
250,000
Delaware
1,100,000
940,000
Wayne
1,363,000
1,100,000
The following day Indianapolis newspapers printed another list of banner counties, which had attained or exceeded their 10 per cent. minimum quotas, as follows: Bartholomew, Clinton, Dearborn, Decatur, Dekalb, Delaware, Fayette, Franklin, Grant, Hancock, Henry, Madison, Monroe, Newton, Parke, Rush, Shelby, Union, Wayne, White.30
Southern Counties Active
Following the large mass meeting held in Evansville on Sunday afternoon, October 21st, at which talks were made by Willard D. Vandiver, St. Louis, Chief of the United States Sub-Treasury ; Frank H. Watts, president Third National Bank of St. Louis, and William H. McCurdy, the southern counties plunged into the last week of their campaign with fixed determination to oversubscribe their quota. During the days following this great mass meeting the newspapers of the twenty-four southern counties carried extensive adver-
30. Indianapolis News and Star, October 25, 1917.
64
INDIANA WORLD WAR RECORDS
tising, and a review of their columns shows that the Liberty Loan campaign was the one dominating thought in the minds of the public at that time.
On October 24th Mr. Sonntag, who was then in St. Louis, wired his workers in Evansville that some of the southern counties had already gone "over the top". Business houses closed in many cities throughout the southern counties on the 24th, in order to devote the entire day to Liberty Loan work.
At a Liberty Loan rally in the corridors of the Indiana State House on October 25, Lieutenant Governor Bush announced that every man or woman employed in the State House had purchased bonds to as great an extent as was possible. Con- cerning this sale of bonds, Lieutenant Governor Bush said :
"Following a meeting held in the State Capitol today, in the interest of the Liberty Loan campaign, I have the honor and pleasure of informing you that every member of the In- diana state administration and every employe at the State Capitol, from the Governor of Indiana down, is the owner of all the Liberty Bonds he or she is able to purchase."31
The following day four counties in the northern sixty-eight had oversubscribed their maximum allotment-Clay, Dear- born, Henry and Madison. These counties, according to rec- ords of the Seventh Federal Reserve Bank, printed later, had made wonderful records. Clay, with a maximum allotment of $688,000, eventually sold $812,900 of Second loan bonds, or 19 per cent. of banking resources. Dearborn, with a maximum quota of $640,000, sold eventually $1,062,000 or 27 per cent. of banking resources. Henry, in the final federal reserve fig- ures, did not quite equal its maximum of $1,024,000, but was credited with 16 per cent. of banking resources in the official figures. Madison, with a maximum of $1,520,000, sold $2,- 193,950, or 23 per cent. of banking resources.
The successful work accomplished by the women Liberty Loan workers in Anderson was largely responsible for the splendid showing made in Madison County. At a meatless supper held in Anderson on Wednesday night the 24th, for the two hundred canvassers, Mrs. Jesse Fremont Croan startled the men of the Liberty Loan committee, who had estimated that the women would do well if they sold $40,000 worth of bonds, when she reported a total sale of $218,000. Mrs. Croan
31, Indianapolis Star, October 26, 1917,
65
THE WAR PURSE OF INDIANA
announced that the goal for the women had now been set for $250,000. The team headed by Miss Mary McCullough re- ported sales amounting to $103,000, the largest amount sold by any one woman's team.32 It should be added here that the final total reached by the women's teams in Madison County was $424,250. Miss Mccullough's team sold $193,350 worth of bonds.
State Goes Over in Last Days of Drive
During the last days of the drive the public generally throughout Indiana participated in a frenzied effort to put the Loan over. In Bluffton, Wells County, men started out in automobiles, fearing the county would not take its $350,000 of bonds, dispatches from there said. At Columbus, in Bar- tholomew County, children were bringing the pennies and nickels from their savings banks to the bond headquarters to buy bonds, while clubwomen combed the town and business men combed the county for additional subscriptions, although the county was already over its minimum allotment. The same sort of frenzied effort was apparent everywhere. As another indication of the methods being adopted throughout the state to insure a proper response, came news from Hamil- ton County to the effect that Judge Cloe, of that county, had announced he would make an order permitting guardians, ad- ministrators and other officials holding money in trust to in- vest it in the Loan.
Vanderburgh County had subscribed $1,719,900 October 25th and went up to $2,155,950 the next day. Evansville "went over the top" at noon October 26th, according to the newspapers. Mayor Benjamin Bosse, at a luncheon on that day, personally guaranteed $153,200 of the bonds-enough to make up the minimum quota. Thereafter the quota was ex- ceeded by hundreds of thousands of dollars. Mayor Bosse had undertaken a similar personal liability at the close of the First campaign, according to the Evansville newspapers. The gen- eral banking committee at St. Louis wired the Evansville com- mittee the last night of the Loan that the southern counties had oversubscribed their quotas, and extended congratulations.
Delaware County, according to the official records, even- tually led the northern counties in the Second loan with a total subscribed of $3,055,950, or 33 per cent. of banking resources
32. Indianapolis News, October 25, 1917.
5-21521
66
INDIANA WORLD WAR RECORDS
as against 16 per cent. maximum requirement. Other honor counties in the final analysis, were Bartholomew, with 16 per cent. of banking resources subscribed; Fayette, with 16 per cent .; Fountain, with 16 per cent .; Franklin, with 19 per cent .; Hancock, with 16 per cent .; Lake, with 18 per cent .; Monroe, with 16 per cent .; Parke, with 19 per cent .; Putnam, with 16 per cent .; Rush, with 16 per cent .; Shelby, with 21 per cent .; and Wayne, with 17 per cent.
George C. Forrey, acting state chairman at the close of the drive, sent the following telegram to Chicago on the last night of the campaign :
"Indiana total, with practically no reports from today's sales, is now $65,000,000 (meaning the northern counties) . Feel sure our district will have at least $70,000,000. Com- paratively few large sales, showing wonderful distribution."33
As evidence of the remarkable work done by the women workers during the Second Liberty Loan drive, a news dis- patch from South Bend dated December 12, 1917, in the In- dianapolis Star, said Mrs. Alice Foster McCulloch, Chairman of the Woman's Liberty Loan Committee had announced that the women of the state had sold more than $5,000,000 worth of bonds during the Second drive.
The First Shot
Reports received at State headquarters on October 30th an- nounced that a total of more than $70,000,000 worth of bonds had been sold in the northern sixty-eight counties. On the same day,-as if to let Hoosiers visualize the actual impact of their money with the enemy-came a story from the fighting front in Europe in which a paragraph said:
"We staggered single file across a valley to see the gun that fired the first shot of the war. A young lieutenant from In- diana told with boyish enthusiasm how that first shot came to be fired. He interspersed his running narrative with cryptic commands to his gunners working underground. . Down below at this particular juncture there was another trembling earth-roar and another American shell went swish- ing along. The same American artillery sergeant who had pulled the lanyard for the first American shell, was yanking away, busy at his job today-and firing the same gun."34
33. Mr. Forrey's last sentence was facetious, for it was generally understood that millions of dollars in bonds had been underwritten by banks.
34. Indianapolis News, October 30, 1917. The reference is to Sergeant Alex Arch, of South Bend, Indiana. See p. 73.
67
THE WAR PURSE OF INDIANA
Indiana Oversubscribes Quota
In the official files of the campaign committee for the Sec- ond loan appears a list of county quotas and subscriptions for the first three Loan campaigns, for the northern counties, as viewed from the State headquarters standpoint. In the totals for the Second loan, given in this summary, the quotas given are the minimum quotas (based on 10 per cent. of estimated banking resources). The Second loan figures, as given in this summary, apparently are more nearly in accord with other available statistics of the period than are other sets of Second loan figures, also filed by the state committee. The attached list, therefore, is the summary of the Second loan quotas and subscriptions, as compiled by the state committee at Indian- apolis long after the close of the Second loan.
Sixty-eight Northern Counties
County
Chairman
Quota
Subscriptions $298,800
Adams
A. H. Sellemeyer
$430,000
Allen.
Charles H. Worden
4,000,000
(a)3,266, 150
Bartholomew . Will G. Irwin .
470,000
754,600
Benton
Charles B. McKnight
375,000
417,350
Blackford
A. G. Lupton
330,000
(b)328,650
Boone
W. J. DeVol
500,000
608,800
Brown
W. L. Coffey
23,500
(c)10,550
Carroll
M. W. Eaton
450,000
370,200
Cass
B. F. Sharts
880,000
814,250
Clay
H. Stevenson
430,000
812,900
Clinton
John A. Ross
800,000
853,750
Dearborn
W. H. O'Brien
400,000
1,062,000
Decatur
Walter W. Bonner
430,000
647,400
Dekalb
I. M. Zent
340,000
444,050
Delaware
Harry L. Kitselman
940,000
3,055,950
Elkhart
B. F. Deahl and Wm. H. Charnley
970,000
1,049,350
Fayette
Arthur Dixon
360,000
557,300
Fountain
Dan C. Reed
335,000
533,050
Franklin
John C. Shirk
210,000
402,850
Fulton
Frank E. Bryant
300,000
229,400
Grant
Milton E. Matter
1,080,000
1,515,950
Hamilton
R. S. Truitt .
520,000
521,100
Hancock William B. Bottsford
290,000
(d)468,050
(a) See page 37 for Byron Somer's letter explaining Allen County's quotas in First and Second campaigns.
(b) See page 37 for letter from A. G. Lupton relating to Blackford County's sub- scriptions.
(c) Letter from William L. Coffey, Nashville, dated April 7, 1922, reported that the quota for Brown County was $10,000 instead of $23,500.
(d) George J. Richman of Greenfield states in his history, Hancock County in the World War, page 122, that the quota for Hancock County in the Second loan was $464,000, and the subscriptions amounted to $469,750.
68
INDIANA WORLD WAR RECORDS
County
Chairman
Quota
Subscriptions
Hendricks W. C. Osborne ..
300,000
408,300
Henry
W. J. Murphy
640,000
992,300
Howard
Henry C. Davis
950,000
1,332,850
Huntington
John R. Emly
780,000
678,650
Jasper
James H. Chapman
200,000
229,600
Jay.
Orville R. Easterday
480,000
477,050
Jennings.
W. S. Matthews
140,000
148,250
Johnson
A. A. Alexander
460,000
629,900
Kosciusko
Hugh W. Kingery
514,000
550,450
Lagrange
Leon Rose.
315,000
200,850
Lake
H. G. Hay, Jr
2,840,000
5,173,400
Laporte
Frank J. Pitner
1,300,000
1,408,850
Madison
Dale Crittenberger
950,000
2,193,950
Marion
J. F. Wild
15,000,000
14,907,950
Marshall
Guy Baker
450,000
343,700
Miami
R. A. Edwards
540,000
610,500
Monroe
Samuel Pfrimmer
280,000
451,850
Montgomery
B. B. Engle
750,000
793,150
Morgan
Charles S. Hubbard
390,000
290,150
Newton
Warren T. McCray
225,000
313,500
Noble
A. M. Jacobs
570,000
468,900
Ohio
H. S. Espy
100,000
(e)102,250
Owen
Homer Elliott
120,000
78,500
Parke
A. H. Starke
330,000
432,150
Porter
O. P. Kinsey
350,000
368,050
Pulask
Elmer Johnson
230,000
106,700
Putnam
Clem C. Hurst
400,000
680,050
Randolph
J. E. Hinshaw
530,000
648,000
Ripley
J. A. Hillenbrand
380,000
(f)374,950
Rush
Earl Payne
590,000
931,800
Shelby
H. C. Morrison
400,000
852,050
St. Joseph
Charles L. Zigler
2,600,000
(g)2,320,050
Starke.
M. D. Falvey
170,000
93,500
Steuben
E. S. Croxton
250,000
255,550
(e) Hugh S. Espey of Rising Sun, Chairman of the Liberty Loan drives in Ohio County, stated in a letter dated April 18, 1922, that Ohio County's quota in the Second loan was fixed at $90,000, and the subscription amounted to $100,150.
(f) J. A. Hillenbrand of Batesville, Chairman of the five Liberty Loan drives, stated in a letter dated April 12, 1922, that the total subscription for Ripley County in the Second loan amounted to $380,500.
(g) A letter dated April 20, 1922, received from Charles S. Zigler of the First National Bank, South Bend, Indiana, reported that in the Second liberty loan drive, bonds amounting to more than $1,000,000 were subscribed for by the citizens of St. Joseph County, which were not credited to the county's record. The bonds were bought through the Federal Reserve Bank and through Chicago banks, but were not at the time reported to the credit of St. Joseph County. Mr. Zigler reports that the total subscription made by St. Joseph County citizens in the Second loan amounted to $3,653,400.
George M. Barnard
Edward C. Toner .
R. O. Pike
Charles Goodbar
69
THE WAR PURSE OF INDIANA
County
Chairman
Quota
Subscriptions
Tippecanoe
. Thomas Bauer.
2,380,000
2,067,500
Tipton
F. E. Davis
380,000
451,100
Union
Charles D. Johnson
180,000
(h)128,000
Vermillion J. C. Straw
350,000
497,250
Vigo
James S. Royse.
3,060,000
3,928,550
Wabash
Charles S. Haas
500,000
604,500
Warren
Burt Fleming
220,000
264,300
Wayne
George Cates
1,100,000
1,900,400
Wells
Fred Tangeman
350,000
390,900
White
W. K. O'Connell
367,500
(i)362,200
Whitley
Frank J. Gandy
437,500
335,950
Total
$66,865,500
$81,499,050
Twenty-four Southern Counties
Figures, published by the Liberty Loan organization of the Eighth Federal Reserve District, St. Louis, Mo., and now a part of the official files of the state give the final results of the Second loan campaign in the Southern Counties. They fol- low :
County
Chairman
Minimum Quota
Target Quota Subscriptions
Clark
Charles E. Poindexter ...
$291,000
$485,000
$307,550
Crawford
S. J. Elsby
89,000
148,000
117,750
Daviess
M. F. Burke
279,000
464,000
313,200
Dubois
Felix L. Schneider
203,000
337,500
222,650
Floyd
C. L. Balthis
443,000
738,000
573,250
Gibson
Frank M. Harris
355,000
590,000
443,800
Greene
Q. T. Mitchell
240,500
400,000
626,700
Harrison
W. E. Cook
152,000
253,000
164,450
Jackson
J. H. Andrews
291,000
485,000
386,850
Jefferson
John W. Tevis
355,000
590,000
359,250
Knox
J. L. Bayard, Jr
784,000
1,307,000 (a)1,547,300
Lawrence
T. J. Brooks
266,000
443,000
335,700
Martin
Edgar Witcher
76,000
126,500
124,000
Orange
Owen C. Ham
114,000
190,000
354,200
Perry
W. F. Huthsteiner
165,000
274,000
193,350
Pike
George T. Frank
114,000
190,000
1290000
Posey
John W. Turner
329,000
548,000
444,200
(h) A letter dated April 10, 1922, received from Charles D. Johnson, Chairman of the five Liberty Loan drives in Union County, stated that all Liberty Loan drives were oversubscribed in Union County.
(i) William K. O'Connell, Chairman of the Second Loan campaign in White County, reported, in a letter dated April 1, 1922, White County's subscription as $404,250, and cites the Monticello Herald of October 25, 1917, and the White County Democrat of the same date as authority for this statement.
(a) J. L. Bayard, Jr., of Vincennes in a letter dated April 17, 1922, reported that W. M. Alsop really did the work as Chairman in connection with the Liberty Loan drives in Knox County and urged that due credit be given him.
70
INDIANA WORLD WAR RECORDS
Minimum Quota
Target
County
Chairman
Quota Subscriptions
Scott ..
John Hooker
63,500
105,500
105,400
Spencer
T. E. Snyder
114,000
190,000
215,400
Sullivan
R. W. Akin
405,000
675,000
430,600
Switzerland
E. T. Coleman
114,000
190,000
126,150
Vanderburgh
. John J. Nolan
2,555,000
4,257,000
3,801,200
Warrick .
Charles E. Powell
190,000
316,000
194,700
Washington
L. L. Persise
165,000
274,000
181,100
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