The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-07-17
ADVERTISING LIBERTY BONDS
Rx HOLLAND

New York, July 16.-(Special.) )-Hovard Elliott, when president of the Northern Pacific Railway company, directed one vestigation of certain conditions in the northwest, and having done that, to re- port to him confidentially what had been discovered. After President Elliott read the report he was asked if he had any criticism to make. In reply he said that he had none unless it was to say that his subordinate had suffered from too much zeal. Many of those who tried in all the reserve districts with all their energy to assist Secretary McAdoo in floating the liberty loan met with em- barrassment and difficulty occasioned as they thought, by the fact that some of those who were directing from Wash ington these endeavors were revealing too much zeal, too great enthusiasm and too little judgment or knowledge of con ditions.
 Our bankers explain this by saying that the offer of the liberty loan was a new proposition, suddenly made in the expectation that it would be within a few weeks accepted by the people but that the work was directed by staff which was without experience and ir some directions the work was absolutely wasted Now, while new loan, possibly for as much as 5000, ,0Oo,0 900, is under con- sideration, Secretary McAdoo will have the benefit obtained from the varying experiences met with and lessons taught when the first loan was offered for sale. Since the secretary was able to announce that the liberty loan was oversubscribed by little more than billion dollars. men of finance of this city and presum- ably in the other large financial centers began to give careful consideration to what they regarded as the inevitable of fer sometime in the autumn of a new loan which might possibly exhaust the entire amount authorized by Congress namely 5000, 1000.
 Many have been the inquiries put to bankers in this city which referred to the rate of interest which Secretary Nc Adoo might determine as the expedient one to nominate on the bond But it has been invariably observed that it is, al this time, not so much a question of the
  ton, nation wide, for offering the loan to the people. Many of the organiza- tions, voluntarily created for the purpose of aiding the Secretary in placing the liberty loan have not been disbanded, but instead have been maintained so that they may be ready to take up the work of selling the new bonds after the Secre- tary has made the offer. But the chair men of all the organizations and the men of influence as bankers who are per suaded that the new loan can be floated even more easily than the first are, above all, anxious that the Secretary snai make his offering in such manner thai there will be good understanding of all the details.
 LOAN OVER SUBSCRIPTION Although not yet has there been ina analvsis of the statistics which tell the story of the floating of the liberty loan vet it is the opinion commonly held III this city that the over-subscription Of g billion dollars reflects in great measure the heavy subscriptions made by ths hanks of the United States. These SUD- scriptions were thus written because the mana gers of the banks of the country were anxious tc feel assured that the llp- erty loan would be fully subscribed ane therefore were not taking any chances i that the popular subscription would p' sufficient.
 { But if there be careful, thoroughly sys l tematic preparation for the nation wid l "a mpaign for selling the new bonds, will presumably not be necessary for tn