University of Virginia Library

Sixth War Loan

The Sixth War Loan brought 1944 to a close. The campaign to
raise a quota of $2,610,000 was conducted between November 20
and December 16, but sales of E bonds were pushed throughout all
of both months. J. Emmett Gleason, City Commissioner and
former Mayor of Charlottesville, was named chairman for
the drive. Under the chairmanship of Miss Sylvia P. Horwitz,
teacher at Lane High School and a member of the Education Committee
of the statewide war bond sales organization, the school children
spearheaded the campaign.[32]

Prizes of war bonds and stamps were offered in the city and
county schools to those who made the most individual sales and
also to those who sold the largest dollar value of bonds. In some
of the smaller schools prizes were offered for the greatest dollar value
in bond sales only.

The drive was opened by Major Don Gentile, American fighter
pilot ace of the European theater, who was credited with destroying
over thirty German planes. On November 20 he visited five city
schools and then went to McIntire School, where he spoke to a
gathering of the county school children. He stressed the fact that
war bond sales made possible the purchase of material essential to
winning the war.[33]

The following Saturday a thirty-nine man Infantry combat team
staged “Here's Your Infantry” at Scott Stadium. Various items of
infantry equipment, including the “Bazooka”, were displayed, and
a sham battle was enacted in which a well equipped Jap pillbox
was taken by flame throwers.[34]

At Clark School students achieved the sale of a dollar's worth
of war bonds or stamps for each of the 3,633 miles from Pearl Harbor
to Tokyo. At McGuffey School $15,000 in war bonds were
sold by pupils in order to secure the purchase of an army training
plane. On December 7 Lane High School completed a campaign
begun in September to purchase a PBY Consolidated Vultee Catalina
Patrol Bomber costing $172,000. Actually their bond sales reached
$181,793,90. A decalcomania bearing the name and address of
the school was forwarded to the Treasury Department to be mounted
on the plane. This was the first PBY Catalina Bomber to be purchased
by a Virginia school.[35]

By December 2 half of the over-all quota had been subscribed,
and by the twelfth the drive was over the top, but as usual E
bond sales lagged. In an effort to meet the E bond quota of
$425,000, of which only about sixty per cent had been subscribed,
school children in the sixth grade and above, who had actually been
working as members of the Sixth War Loan Army in the bond
drive, were dismissed from their classes at two o'clock on December
14 to canvass the city, house by house. They took orders for bonds
which were later purchased at the regular sources. This helped,
but it was Santa Claus who put the E bond drive over. People
began to buy large amounts of bonds for Christmas presents, and
the quota was quickly passed on December 20. Charlottesville and
Albemarle County were among the very first communities in the
state of Virginia to surpass all quotas in the Sixth War Loan.[36]

Sales of all types of bonds in the city-county area for the drive
were 248 per cent of quota and totaled $6,471,507, or $3,861,507
more than the quota. After a slow start E bond purchasers boosted
sales in that category to $627,530, or $202,530 in excess of the
quota. In appreciative recognition of the energetic campaign conducted
through the schools, Chairman Gleason said, “With the final
report showing the area well ahead in E bond purchases, it is apparent
that the children are largely responsible for this success since

their work was confined solely to this field. I want to congratulate
the youngsters for their remarkable work.”[37]

The unflagging zeal of Lane High School students resulted in the
record sales of $492,326.55 worth of war bonds and stamps during
the first semester of the 1944 session. This was the largest amount
ever reported by a Virginia school. Sales in the other schools of
Charlottesville brought the city total to $686,938.71.[38]