The Wilmington morning star., 1944-03-07
Fourth
WarLoan Drive
Ely JACK STINNETT

! WASHINGTON - the U. S. Treasury came
close to kicking itself in the chin in the fourth
war loan drive.
The result was that the Treasury bond sales
division got lot of hasty criticism at time
when the Treaury was least able to stand it,
for the heat was just being turned on about
those complicated income tax returns.
Here's what happened: Before the drive
started, Treasury officials, including T. r.
Gamble, director Of war bond sales, express
ed considerable optimism, predicting that the
drive would go well over the top, with big
rise in sales to little investors" which is the
principal sector Of the anti-inflation front.
Came the end of the drive and although the
national quota itself was reported cover the
top" figures issued by the Treasury on sales
to individuals were disappointing. 1t looked for
a while that somebody had bungled some
where
The criticisms voiced may have been JUST
fled by the fgures-but not by the facts. The
bond sales division hasn't yet got around to
overhauling its reporting division and therein
lies the secret Actually all the reports on
the fourth war loan sales aren't in yet-more
than two weeks after the drives closing date.
| What actually happened was that the fourth
war loan campaign, with goal of $14, 900, 000,.
000 actually raised about sixteen billion I'm.
der the total for the third war loan, when the
Treasury's sights were higher.
! This in spite of the fact that the Treasury
had for the first time eliminated all sales to
so-called 'joy riders,' to whom was sold
around two or three billion dollars worth last
September.
These 10y riders were spectators who
took the bonds and eventually dumped them
into the lap Of the commercial banks-a pro-
cess that had no effect whatever in the fight
against initiation.
Because Of the Treasury's system of report
ing on Federal Reserve Bank clearanceS OF
the bonds rather than actual day-to-day sales,
reports were about two weeks late and this
was especially true of the series "E'' bonds
designed primarily for the small investors and
considered the spearhead in the bond-selling
battle against initiation.
Now that final figures are beginning to roll
n the progress in this field is becoming an
entirely different story. In the first war loan
drive in September, 1912, only around $725,-
600, 900 of 'E'' bonds were sold. In the second,
this was approximately doubled; in the third,
it rose to around two and half billion; but
there seems to be no doubt at this writing
that we are over the $1,000, 900, 900 quota set
for the small and moderate investors in this
type in the fourth war loan. That's more than
400 per cent increase since the first war loan
year and half ago and report that the
Treasurys bond division hasn't any reason to
be ashamed of.
In spite of that the fact remains that they
got lot of complaints of bumb]ing as the
drive came to close. They are working now
on revision of the reporting system. If it
can't be changed, there'n be plenty of ex
plantations next time that the daily figures are
far from final. You can bet your bottom dollar
on that, if you still have one after March. Is
income taxes AND war bonds