Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1942-11-29
Wall Street Pinned
For Giant Federal
Bond Drive
'BIitz' for Billions
Will Be. Biggest
Job in History
BY BERNARD S. OHARA,


Ass ciated Press Financial Writer.
NEW YORK, Nov. 2S.-The men
who run Wall Streets security SELL
ing organization say 1t is primed and
eager for the biggest assignment
which ever has come to it-partici-
patton in the treas December
drive for nine bin bars from
the sale of Treasur Is.
Directing the thousands of volun-
teer workers in this area who will
sell to speed the downfall of the
Axis is the Treasury Victory Fund
Committee of the second Federal
Reserve district headed by Allan
Sproul. president of the Federal Re-
serve bank of New York.
AS the bank and business eXecu-
tives and security dealers compris-
ing the committee have plotted their
job, it will be straight selling of the
hard-hitting kind without benefit of
circus trappings or oratory to stimu-
late the purchase Of bonds.
The army of volunteer workers
men with all the needed experience
in security selling-on Monday will
swing into action.
Plan Face-tO-Face Job.
They will, so far as possible make
it a face-to-face job, using the tele-
phone to solicit orders only when no
other approach is available. The
Victory Fund Committees field men
will ring any door bell If there is
chance they will find a buyer in
any of the investment brackets, from
$25 Treasury note to million dol
lars worth of Treasury bonds.
Some of the conventions and nice
ties of the security selling business
will be brushed aside in this "blitz
for billions" as the committee calls
it. Here is an excerpt from the
sales manual prepared by the COM
mittee:
let no prospect be approached bv
salesman hat in hand. as though
seeking favor This is not Giving.
it is lending to the Government. The
Government promises to repay with
interest. If United States Govern
ment bond is not the best invest
ment in the world. there is only one
that is. A Jap bond. Or a German
bond"
The committee forehandedly also
has equipped it's statesmen with
answers to questions that might be
raised by unresponsive prospects.
Some may be inclined to invest"
says the manual. but they are
worried over inflationary prospects,
wondering If, when the Govern
ment redeems their bonds, the
money they get back will have the
purchasing value it has today. They
should be reminded that the very
act OF their putting a big share Of
their income and savings into Gov
eminent bonds now acts as a check
on the imitation that they fear.
Seen as Initiation Curb.
I'm a nutshell, the Government to
check imitation must draw money to
itself that would otherwise be spent
competing for the purchase of a
dWlndllng supply of goods. Spend
ing, not borrowing. tends to bring on
price imitation. 1t follows that not
only by taxing heavily and thus
dlverting these dollars to the Gov
eminent is imitation checked, but
also by the Government borrowing
n the right places: that is, if it turns
to those who by lending the money
deprive themselves of the oppor-
tunity to spend"
Investment experts were confident
the Treasury would have no trouble
IN achieving its goal in,spite of the
unprecedented size of the total
oHerlng-by several billions of dol
lars 1t tops any previous single piece
OF Treasury financing in peace or
war time history.
IL Is the sort Of combination
offering. they said. which has some
thing to appeal to investors of all
classes. 1t includes Treasury bills
Treasury certificates of indebtedness
Treasury tax savings notes and
Treasury bonds.
Wide Field to Be Covered.
AS the Victory Fund Committees
sales manual expressed it, the one
aim OF our campaign is to sell hun
dreds OF thousands of United States
Government bonds to men and
women. to labor and to industry, to
small investors and to the well-to-do.
to insurance companies, corpora
tons. trust funds, societies. labor
unions, schools and colleges, churches,
benevolent groups, fraternal orders,
foundations, farmers and lawyers
and to merchants and doctors. to
any one who has $25 or any organi-
cation that has a hundred million.
Active members of the Victory
Fund Committee of the second Fed
eral Reserve district include VIM
throp w. Aldrich, chairman of the
Chase National Bank of New York:
George L. Harrison, president of the
New York Life Insurance Co.; Cor
don S. Rensselaer,, chairman of the
National City Bank of New York,
and Emil Schram, president of the
New York Stock Exchange. Also
active on the committee are bank
executives, security men and BUSH
ness executives.
There is Victory Fund Committee
in each of the other IL Federal Re-
serve districts. They were organized
early in 1912 to promote the sale of