The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-08-31
HOW The LIBERTY LOAN
WAS FL0ATED
THE TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
INFORMATION BUREAU
By Frederic j. Haskiu. Director.
Washington, d. c.


one thing, in the opinion of the men
who. did the work of introducing the
biggest first bond issue in history to
the American people.
Every man who bought bonds got
one button and only one, whether he
took twenty million dollars worth, or
only one fifty dollar bond. And all
of the buttons were just alike John
D. Rockefeller's was no better than
the ones they gave to the department
store girls. In the opinion of Robert
| w. Woolley, who had charge of the
publicity work for the liberty loan, it
was this democratic quality shout the
button which made it popular.
| At any rate the American chest
seemed to swell with pride whenever
the button was applied to it, and the
demand for buttons was tremendous.
NFederal reserve banks were haunted
and pestered by bond buyers who had
their receipts for money paid but had
MT yet received their buttons. The
pressure for buttons became so high
! that the president of an upstate New
! York bank suggested to- the treasury
| department that hereafter it sell but
tons and give away the bonds
Meantime button manufacturers
were securing the markets of the
! world for celluloid out of which the
| buttons were made. Owing to the
great demand for cellu1ose to use in
| the manufacture of high explosives,
|
| for five million celluloid buttons on
such short order. But the thing was
done with reasonable promptness, and
| every bond buyer ultimately got his
| button altho some of them waited
quite a while.
| The problem faced by the treasury
department in selling the giant bond
issue was unprecedented both in size
and nature. 1t had to sell a bond is
sue of billions to a people who had
/ haf fol hor1 fnx
| hundred millions of bonds in one is
sue; it had to sell bonds to millions
| of Americans tho only three hundred
| thousand of them had ever before
| bought bond; and it had to do the
| whole job in jig time.
The Part That Was Easy.
1t was easy enough to sell a rela-
lively large share of the bond issue to
men with large capital. A bond ex-
| empt from taxation was tG them an
attractive proposition with congress
| busily at work piling uE ingenious
| taxes; while the success of the bond
issue would mean less need for taxa
| ton.
| But to the man with a few hun
| dreds or even thousands, it was a diff
ferent matter. He was asked to loan
at three and a half per cent money
that he could not get when he needed
/ it ordinarily for less than six. OF
course the safety of the investment
| could be pointed out, but it is not hard
to find a safe place for small sum
| of money at a moderate interest rate.
| The only real appeal was to the
mans patriotism-his sense of duty.
If the idea could once be hammered
| into the general consciousness that it
| was the correct and commendable
thing to buy a bond, the issue would
| sell.
There was only one agency in the
| world equal to the task, and that was
| the American advertising industry
Every branch of it was appealed to.
1 Mr.. Woolley organized separate de-
partmentS to deal with the billboard
and poster interests, the moving pic
ture industry, the weekly and farm
press, the technical and trade journals,
the dailies, and the popular magazines.
In every one of the twelve federal re-
serve districts a publicity bureau sub
ordinate to this central bureau was
organized, and these district bureaus
carried the organization into every
town and city in the United States.
Each of the district bureaus reported
daily to the Washington bureau and
sent duplicate of its report to every
other district board. In this way Mr..
Woolley was in constant touch and
what was good was utilized to the
fullest extent.
The Advertising Plan.
The Associated Advertising Clubs of
plan for tho systematic advertisement
of the loan in every newspaper in the
country. Mr.. WoOlley mentioned con-
gress had made appropriation for SELL
ing expenSes"one-tenth of 1 per cent
of the amount of the issue. He eX-
planned that some one besides the gov
eminent would have to pay for the
space, and suggested that the big de-
partment stores and other large ad-
vertisers be asked to devote some OF
their display space to the liberty loan
| The response was astonishing. One
Sunday there were twenty-one Sepa-
rate advertisements of the liberty loan
; in each important newspaper in New
York. The great auto and tobacco
| companies were especially generous
: Some of them gave whole pages in
the magazines with merely a mention
| of the latest -four or pipe mixture al
the bottom of the page. The Assoc
ciated Advertising clubs got behind the
movement with man in each dlStrlcl
to direct the work.
The foreign language press of the
United States, anxious to prove be-
yond question it's patriotism contrib
; uted most generously without being
requested to do so. The liberty lean
got some seven hundred pages of dis
| play advertising free in thirty-SiX elf
ferent languages. The National A.
| ISOLATION of the Motion Picture Indus
try and the independent motion pic
ture producers, chlpped IN win con-
| tribution of a scenario and the right
, to exhibit free a trailer" film dealing
with the liberty loan at the conclusion
of every motion picture show in ever.
5 theater in the country for three weeks
and the Eastman company backed
? this up with a gift of five hundred
, thousand pounds of raw film
Other Methods of Publicity.
The popular street car card wa:
used most effectively. The Nationa
} Street Railway Advertising associa.
: ton gave two caros'to the liberty loar
in ever street car it controls in 8, 300
towns and cities and other agencies
added space enough SO that every sur
face, subway and elevated train il
: America carried the appeal to buy &
bond.
The signboards were only one jurnI