University of Virginia Library

III
Buying War Bonds

An outstanding record was made by Charlottesville and Albemarle
County in the purchase of war bonds and stamps. Under the leadership
of William S. Hildreth, president of the Peoples National
Bank, who served as permanent chairman of the local volunteer sales
promotion organization throughout the entire period of the war,
each of the eight loan drives exceeded its over-all quota.

Defense Bonds

At a luncheon of the Charlottesville Kiwanis Club on December
15, 1941, at which he read an appeal urging all wage-earners to
buy U. S. defense bonds and stamps, Hildreth reported that the
citizens of Charlottesville and Albemarle had been purchasing “defense
bonds” for months but that in the week since Pearl Harbor
sales had increased from $1,000 daily to $5,000 daily.[1]

By the New Year daily sales had climbed until Charlottesville
averaged over $10,000 per day. This figure would have been even
higher had not a bond shortage developed. Local banks, having
sold out of the popular bonds and being unable to secure an adequate
resupply, were holding large sums of money with which to buy
when bonds again became available.[2]

This fast pace continued, and by the middle of March Charlottesville
had bought nearly $900,000 worth of “offense bonds” since
the Japanese attack, an average of $45 per citizen. But April saw
a decline in sales.[3] The first wild enthusiasm passed and was replaced
by a more systematic war bond program.

The most intensive effort since the Victory Loan Drive of World
War I was initiated on May 1, 1942, all over the United States.
In President Roosevelt's Fireside Chat of April 28, Americans were
asked to pledge ten per cent of each pay check to the bond campaign.
A goal of $600,000,000 of war bonds and stamps was
set for the month of May, for June, $800,000,000, and for every
month thereafter, $1,000,000,000.

The first E bond quota assigned to Charlottesville and Albemarle
County was $143,950 for the month of May, 1942, but sales

totaled only $104,573. This figure, however, does not give the
complete picture, since other types of bonds were bought in large
blocks and a number of persons had made important purchases in
other communities. Sales in the three Charlottesville banks for the
six months following Pearl Harbor amounted to a maturity value
of $1,146,675. There had been a marked drop after the record
average of $10,000 a day for January, February and March.[4]

Bond selling campaigns were carried on in the city and county by
groups of every type. Schools and industries, civic clubs and
women's organizations, had their goals. Accounts of only a few
of these campaigns can be included here.

Manned by volunteer workers dressed in patriotic pinafores and
caps, the American Legion “40 and 8” car, replica of the French
railroad car of 1918, was stationed on Main Street in Charlottesville
to assist in the Retail Merchants' campaign to increase the sale of
war stamps and bonds in the city during July, 1942. Other booths
were located in various parts of the city.[5]

The first wartime parade was sponsored by the Retail Merchants
Association in an effort to sell $25,000 in bonds and stamps on
American War Heroes Day, July 17. E. R. Newman, parade chairman,
assembled a colorful series of units which took six minutes to
pass a given point. Randolph H. Perry, the marshal, and most of
the other participants, including the city officials, traveled on foot.
There were, however, a number of bicycles and saddle horses in the
parade. The Charlottesville Muncipal Band and the Jefferson High
School Band furnished music to which marched the Virginia Protective
Force, the various veterans organizations, the Red Cross units,
and others. The University Volunteer Unit, which consisted of
forty-five students who had cut classes at the last minute to shoulder
realistic wooden rifles, was cheered as it marched along Main Street.
Overhead droned the Civil Air Patrol. The city's American Heroes
looked on by proxy from a store window where their photographs
were displayed. The spirit of the day led customers to flock to
the bond booths. All morning a line stood before the “defense
window” at the post office.[6]

The visit of movie actress Greer Garson to Charlottesville in September
was a gala event. Judge Armistead M. Dobie, toastmaster
at the dinner given Miss Garson, paid high tribute to her and to the
sunshine of her radiant presence. She in turn spoke of how much
she enjoyed visiting Virginia. “Here in the Old Dominion you
have wonderful towns and great little cities,” she said. “The heart
of the country is in the big little towns.” At her appearance at
a local theater she was heartily applauded. Stimulated by Miss
Garson's visit, E bond sales soared, and reached a peak of $294,922
for September.[7]

“Women at War Week” the latter part of November saw about
twenty women's organizations selling bonds and stamps in booths
located in various stores in Charlottesville. On the first day,
November 23, the United Daughters of the Confederacy, led by
their president, Mrs. John R. Morris, set a record by selling $10,570
worth at their booth in the C. H. Williams department store.
During the week the American Legion Auxiliary sold $7,984 worth,
and the Jack Jouett Chapter of the Daughters of the American
Revolution sold $4,119 worth. All together, more than $27,000
in war bonds and stamps were sold during the six days.[8]

On December 3 the Scottsville Lions Club put on a highly successful
minstrel show at the Victory Theater in Scottsville. Edward
N. (“Uncle Jim”) MacWilliams of Keene directed the show. From
admission charges a sizeable contribution was made to the Lions'
fund for the blind. A number of servicemen, including some
British seamen, were in the audience, and several had an impromptu
part in the show. The highlight of the evening was the auction
of objects to purchasers of war bonds and stamps. The necktie of
Sergeant Merril L. Carter of Scottsville, then serving in India,
brought the high bid of $2,000. More than $20,000 worth of
bonds and stamps were sold.[9]

First War Loan

The Victory Fund Drive, later known as the First War Loan,
brought 1942 to a close. It was carried on jointly by the local
city-county War Savings Committee, appointed by the U. S. Treasury
Department, which promoted sales of Series E savings bonds,
and by the Victory Fund Committee, appointed by the Federal
Reserve Bank, which promoted sales of securities other than E bonds.
Series E bonds were ten-year appreciation bonds issued at three-fourths
of maturity value. Both locally and nationally the drive
was a success. The division of responsibility led to some confusion
and makes it difficult to secure accurate and complete figures,
but there was less uncertainty here, where both promotional agencies
had enlisted William S. Hildreth to serve as chairman of their local
committee, than in many other communities. Between November
30 and December 31, 1942, the people of Charlottesville and Albemarle
County purchased $842,755 worth of government bonds.
Of this amount $106,668 represented purchases of E bonds, for
which there was a quota of $150,000. Purchases made by commercial
banks were excluded from the tabulation of these sales and
were never included in the sales credited to the community in later
drives. Nearly thirteen billions were subscribed by the nation as a
whole. This made a good beginning to the financing of the war.[10]

Second War Loan

On Monday, April 12, 1943, the Second War Loan Drive to raise
thirteen billion dollars began. Charlottesville and Albemarle County,
assigned a quota of $1,313,900, again went to work buying
bonds under the leadership of William S. Hildreth, who was assisted
by a committee of the Lions Club in the city and a similar
committee of citizens, under Harry Frazier, Jr., in the county.

Although the campaign began officially on April 12, the sales of
Series E, F, and G bonds between April 1 and May 8 were counted
toward fulfilling the quota. Other U. S. Treasury securities were
on sale between April 12 and May 1. Alex Thompson was chairman
of publicity in this and all subsequent drives. Full page advertisements
in The Daily Progress urging the purchase of bonds
had been sponsored jointly by thirty local business organizations
each week beginning on February 10. With some changes in sponsors,
these continued to appear regularly throughout the war. Local
firms frequently supported the bond drives individually with advertisements
in the newspapers, over the radio, and on billboards.[11]

The drive was a success from the start. By Friday of the first
week $628,450 worth of bonds had been bought, and by the following
Wednesday the quota had been exceeded. Many local business
firms made substantial purchases and contributed materially to
the early success of the drive. The campaign was pushed to the
end of the three-week period. Local sales finally totaled $1,550,873,
of which $1,358,250 worth was sold by the Peoples National
Bank. For this outstanding achievement in individually exceeding the
entire local quota, the bank was given a United States Treasury
Department Citation, which corresponded to the Army-Navy “E”
award for superior industrial production. Lane High School, which
sold $131,000 worth of bonds and stamps, was also given a citation.[12]

A national campaign, announced early in March, was started
to encourage school children to buy bonds and stamps. Any school
which sold stamps and bonds in the amount of $900, the price of
a jeep, was eligible for a certificate signed by the Secretary of the
Treasury, bearing a picture of a jeep in action and the name of the
school. The quota for Virginia was 174 jeeps. By a vigorous selling
campaign, Lane High School accounted for forty-seven jeeps.
Venable School raised funds for three jeeps, and Clark School added
another. In the county Scottsville High School, Greenwood High
School, and Albemarle Training School for Negroes each sold enough
bonds and stamps in this campaign to win a certificate.[13]

Finding itself unable, because of war conditions, to undertake the
usual amount of construction work, the Charlottesville City Council
in May bought $100,000 worth of war bonds. This action was
generally approved, the citizens feeling that the money would be

doubly useful, first in winning the war and later in building their
city.[14]

An analysis of war bonds sales in Virginia for the fiscal year beginning
July 1,1942, showed that in Charlottesville and Albemarle
County $2,017,263 worth of war bonds and stamps had been
distributed within twelve months. This sum represented per capita
purchases of $44 and was equivalent to 5.4 per cent of the estimated
per capita income. This local record was disappointing when compared
with per capita purchases of $59, which were equivalent to
9.2 per cent of estimated per capita income, for the state as a whole.[15]

Third War Loan

On September 9, 1943, the nation's Third War Loan Drive
started. Beginning with this drive, all bond selling activities were
placed under the Albemarle County-Charlottesville War Finance
Committee, an agency of the U. S. Treasury Department which
succeeded all previous agencies. Charlottesville and Albemarle
County had a quota of $2,877,700, over $1,500,000 more than
the quota for the previous drive. Seeking to curb inflation by getting
individuals to invest as much as possible of the “easy” money
which was coming into their hands, the Federal government placed
great emphasis on the sale of E bonds. The local E bond quota for
September and October was $701,000 and was a part of the larger
quota for the drive. In this drive William S. Hildreth, permanent
chairman, was ably assisted by C. T. O'Neill, Vice-President of the
National Bank and Trust Company, who served as county chairman,
and by Harry Frazier, Jr., Vice-President of the Peoples National
Bank, who was in charge of special subscriptions.[16]

Because “this is the cradle of liberty” and because of Albemarle's
“wonderful war bond record,” Secretary of the Treasury Henry
Morgenthau, Jr., chose Charlottesville as the place from which to
make his first report on the bond drive to the nation. At the “Freedom
Sing” held at the Rotunda of the University of Virginia on
Sunday afternoon, September 12, Morgenthau told a crowd of over
3,000 people that “Jefferson's abiding faith informs and inspires
the new generation of Americans on the battlefronts thousands of
miles away. The noblest appreciation we can pay him is to understand
that we must carry Jefferson's good, valiant fight on and on.”
After reporting that over two billion dollars had been subscribed in
the first three days of the drive, Morgenthau cited the example of
the 540 employees of Frank Ix and Sons, Inc., of Charlottesville,
who had pledged a week's pay to the purchase of war bonds over
and above those purchased by payroll deductions. “If everybody
does as well, I can assure you this bond drive will be a great success,”
he said.

The principal address at the “Freedom Sing” was delivered by
Judge Armistead M. Dobie. Harry Rogers Pratt arranged the
musical program and led the singing. A Negro chorus of more than
one hundred voices, under the direction of L. Augustus Page, sang
several spirituals, and the University of Virginia Band, directed by
James E. Berdahl, played several stirring numbers.

In the evening Secretary Morgenthau presided as master of ceremonies
on the “We, the People” radio broadcast which originated
from Jefferson's study at Monticello. A crowd of nearly 500, seated
on the lawn in front of the east portico of Jefferson's home, listened
to the nationwide appeal to buy bonds and heard various persons
introduced by Morgenthau. Among these were Brigadier General
Cornelius Wickersham, head of the School of Military Government
at the University of Virginia; Mrs. Lucian K. Truscott, Jr., wife of
Major General Truscott; Mrs. Demas T. Craw, widow of the late
Colonel “Nick” Craw, who had been the first American to die in
the invasion of North Africa; Lieutenant Landon L. Davis, Jr., back
from a year's service aboard a submarine in the Pacific; Mrs. Henry
Harlow, mother of three sons in the air forces; Mrs. Betty King,
local factory worker, who had three brothers and a husband in the
service; and Willis Henderson, Negro employee at Monticello, whose
family had lived at Monticello since Jefferson's time. Ernie Pyle,
beloved war correspondent, who had witnessed the Sicily invasion,
told of seeing the use of war materials bought by money invested
in war bonds. “I've known enemy artillery that had to retreat
because it ran out of ammunition,” he said, “but in Sicily we had
such immense stores of ammunition that there was never fear at
any time about our having enough to overwhelm the enemy. That's
what war bonds can do.”[17]

Realizing that Secretary Morgenthau's visit had brought responsibility
as well as honor with it, Charlottesville and Albemarle began
buying bonds in earnest, and by September 21 the half-way
mark had been reached. An uphill battle remained, however. E
bond sales lagged badly. The “Retailers for Victory” committee
of the Chamber of Commerce, in cooperation with the Retail Merchants
Association and the local War Finance Committee, planned
a Saturday Night War Bond Rally for the benefit of those who
were unable to make their purchases in the daytime. On September
25 East Third Street between Main and Water was the scene
of this special program. The Lane High School Band, directed by
Sharon Hoose, furnished the music, and J. Lawson Stott was master
of ceremonies. There were seven booths on the street in charge
of young ladies who took orders for bonds, and all three downtown
banks were open from 7:15 to 9:30 P. M. to issue E bonds. The

success of the evening is measured by the $14,437.50 worth of
war bonds sold.[18]

On October 1 the local quota was topped. The Commonwealth
of Virginia had invested $11,500,000 in war bonds and credited
to each locality a proportional part. Charlottesville and Albemarle
were thereby given a boost of $318,550, enough to put them over
the top. On October 1 local sales and credits for the Third War
Loan totaled $3,009,427. Later this figure was increased to
$3,119,290.[19]

Fourth War Loan

The Fourth War Loan Drive extended from January 18 to February
15, 1944. As in the previous drive, William S. Hildreth,
chairman of the local War Finance Committee, was assisted by C. T.
O'Neill and Harry Frazier, Jr. Especial emphasis was again placed
on sales to individuals, particularly of Series E bonds, which had a
quota of $510,000 out of a total local quota of $2,353,000.

The retail merchants and their employees, working through the
Retailers War Finance Committee with Frank Payne as chairman,
undertook to make the campaign a success. On the opening day
stores were closed until 10:00 A. M., and all employees attended a
mass meeting at the Paramount Theatre. The principal address was
made by James S. Easley, the executive director of the War Finance
Committee for Virginia and a past president of the Virginia State
Chamber of Commerce. Brief talks were also made by Lieutenant
J. Elmer Harlow, back from Europe where he had recently taken
part in the great Schweinfurt air raid, and by two wounded veterans
from the Woodrow Wilson General Hospital near Staunton, Virginia.
Each sales person present was asked to sell a minimum of
$200 worth of war bonds during the drive.[20]

Four days later the quarter-milepost was passed, and by the
eighth day the halfway mark was reached. E bond sales lagged
behind, however, and not until February 2 did they reach the
halfway mark. Meanwhile, a letter was received from Lieutenant
Billy McCann. U.S.M.C., Sergeant Maurice A. Bibb, A.U.S., Private
Johnny Davis, U.S.M.C., and Fire Controlman First Class Kenneth
W. Beale, a Seabee, who had spent Christmas day together
on an island in the South Pacific. They wrote: “We are on a
one-way road that leads straight to Tokyo. There's no turning
back and you can be sure we'll get there. We miss good old
Charlottesville, so please buy a lot of war bonds and help us get
home early.” As if in answer to this request, the general drive went
over the top on February 3.[21]

Every resource was then turned to gaining the E bond quota.
Buyers of these bonds who made their purchases at the Paramount

Theatre were guests of the theatre at a showing of “Destination
Tokyo” on February 16. This was one of many successful “War
Bond Premieres.”

The Retailers' War Finance Committee, in cooperation with the
Lane High School Bond Committee, conducted an auction sale on
February 25 at the high school. Valuable items, such as Nylon hose
and Virginia hams, were offered to bond buying bidders by G. F.
Norcross, the auctioneer. High bids for articles auctioned included
a $5,000 bond purchase for an old typewriter, $2,000 for a $25
war bond donated for the auction, and $2,000 for a chair. In
all, $32,000 worth of E bonds were purchased. This was enough
to top the quota and make the Fourth War Loan a complete success
in Charlottesville and Albemarle.

The community was warmly congratulated for its success by
state officials. Altogether $3,362,178 worth of all types of war
bonds were bought, the quota being exceeded by more than a million
dollars.[22]

From Major Charles N. Hulvey, Jr., with the Marines came the
warm tribute. “The fighting spirit of the people of Charlottesville
and Albemarle, exemplified by their unselfish purchase of war bonds,
gives us of the hometown, in the South Pacific, a glowing sense of
pride in the community we already regard so highly.”[23]

Fifth War Loan

First to purchase a war bond in the Fifth War Loan Drive which
started June 12, 1944, just six days after the Normandy invasion,
was Lieutenant General Alexander Archer Vandegrift, Commandant
of the United States Marine Corps. The bond was handed to General
Vandegrift by Mrs. John R. Frizzell, Jr., who, like the general,
hailed from Charlottesville.[24] Keenly aware of the titanic struggle
in which fathers, sons, husbands, and brothers were engaged on the
coast of Europe, citizens as never before bought bonds, feeling that
thus they had a share in supplying the Monticello Guard as it fought
its way into France. Raymond Hunt, president of the Chamber
of Commerce, who served as campaign chairman, reported more E
bonds sold on the first day of the drive than in any previous day in
the history of the city.[25] In Albemarle County, C. T. O'Neill
headed the sales organization. Committees were set up; the Scottsville
Lions Club canvassed the southern end of the county, while
the Crozet Lions and the Greenwood Community League worked
in the western section.[26] The over-all quota for the community
was $2,700,000, but within ten days the first million was secured
and sales to individuals had passed one-third of the quota.[27]

One June 27 the Treasury Department's special war bond trailer,
containing an exhibition of captured German and Japanese battle
equipment, was parked from 6:00 to 10:00 P. M. in front of the

Paramount Theatre, where, on the following evening, “The Eve
of St. Mark” was shown as a War Bond Premiere.[28] On the thirtieth
a bond auction, similar to the one held during the fourth loan,
took place at Lane High School, but the attendance was poor. On
the Fourth of July the Crispus Attucks Post No. 62 of the American
Legion sponsored a parade on Main Street, followed by a war bond
rally at Washington Park.[29]

A feature of the Fifth War Loan Drive was the contest among
civic and fraternal organizations and the contest among industrial
plants. Each organization or plant had a war bond quota against
which it measured its sales. The record sale of 2,302 per cent of
quota made by the Kiwanis Club is hard to comprehend, but so are
the records of B'nai B'rith, 2,274 per cent, and the Rotary Club,
2,267 per cent. Industrial plant records were also impressive; the
leaders were Monticello Dairy, 789 per cent: Virginia Stage Lines,
750 per cent; and Southern Welding and Machine Company, 719
per cent.[30]

By July 3 the over-all quota was topped, but the E bond quota
of $475,000 was less than half subscribed. Continued effort
brought results, and by the end of July all quotas had been exceeded.
Total sales reached $4,669,053, almost two million dollars
over the quota, and the lagging E bond sales at last passed the
quota by over $17,000. Ben C. Moomaw, Jr., senior deputy
manager for the Treasury Department's War Finance Committee
for Virginia, wrote to Hildreth, “While the entire performance of
your committee in the Fifth War Loan Campaign is top-flight, your
sales of other [than E] bonds to individuals surpass anything that
has been done in the State in any of the war loan drives.” These
purchases in the county and city were $3,066,721.75, or $1,341,721.75
over the quota of $1,750,000.[31]

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]

Seventh War Loan

By 1945 almost every worker who was regularly employed had
been given an opportunity to buy war bonds through the payroll
savings plan. So effective was the campaign that nearly everyone
who could was buying bonds by this method. Between drives it
was these purchases which accounted for most of the sales. In the
month of February, 1945, these interim sales reached their local
peak when a quota of $125,000 was exceeded by 143 per cent, sales
amounting to $304,564. During each drive a great effort had been
made to increase payroll deductions for bonds, but in the Seventh
this procedure was varied a little. The campaign for payroll deductions
was made in April, and the regular bond selling drive began
May 14.[39]

Having made an outstanding success of the Sixth War Loan Drive,
J. Emmett Gleason was drafted to lead the “Mighty Seventh,” which
had the largest quota of any drive. Charlottesville and Albemarle
County were asked to buy a total of $3,560,000 worth of war
bonds. Of this amount, $660,000 was to be E bonds. Since this
quota exceeded by over $30,000 the largest amount of E bonds ever
sold in the community, it presented an extreme challenge. To meet
it, Chairman Gleason again enlisted the aid of the school children.
Since schools would close soon after the regular campaign began
on May 14, a special drive and contest, with war bonds as prizes,
was conducted by the schools from April 30 to May 18, along the
same lines as the one during the Sixth War Loan.[40]

President Franklin D. Roosevelt having died on April 12, Frederick
C. Disque of the University of Virginia prepared for the bond
committee of Lane High School a scroll to be signed by bond purchasers,
who through their financial support of the war effort expressed
a reaffirmation of their faith in freedom and democracy.
When completed the scroll was sent to the Roosevelt Museum at
Hyde Park, New York.[41]

On May 15 the Charlottesville chapter of the American Association
of University Women gave a performance of Gilbert and Sullivan's
operetta, “The Mikado.” Tickets for the show were given
to each purchaser of an E bond and over 500 persons attended. On
the day of the performance one bank sold over $13,000 worth of

bonds to persons desiring to attend. June 7 brought the usual
War Bond Premiere, but on the day before there was also “Free
Movie Day” in observance of the first anniversary of the invasion
of France. Bond buyers had the choice of attending either the
premiere or of attending any moving picture theater in the city on
the sixth, free.[42]

The school campaign carried the E bond drive more than one-fourth
of the way to the quota, but as soon as it ended E bond sales
began to lag even though other bond sales moved ahead. By June 13
the over-all quota had been passed, but only 66 per cent of the
E bond quota had been sold. A week later Charlottesville and
Albemarle County, $1,168,297 over the general quota, were lagging
behind most of the state in E bond sales. Over $185,000 worth
had to be sold in a hurry. Special stress was laid on getting workers
who had made payroll deductions to buy additional bonds during
the drive. During the last week of June the Boy Scouts were sent
scurrying to secure pledges to put the E bond drive over. The response
was disheartening. July 1 found the drive still
$100,000 short of the E bond quota. With one week of grace
allowed, efforts were redoubled, but when the drive ended, Charlottesville
and Albemarle had apparently failed by over $48,000 to reach
the E bond quota. Then belated reports began to close the gap.
Final figures at last showed the quota topped by $103,599. Purchases
of E bonds throughout the world by members of the armed
forces from this area and credited to the local community had put
the drive across. The greatest drive of the war had been a complete
success. Indeed, it was nothing short of remarkable. Against
an over-all quota of $3,560,000, a total of $7,780,094 worth of
war bonds had been bought in Charlottesville and Albemarle County.
Among Virginia communities this one ranked twelfth with a percentage
of 218.57.[43]

Victory Loan

The Eighth War Loan Drive, coming after the victory in both
Europe and Asia, was designated the “Victory Loan”. Only eleven
billion dollars was asked by the Federal government as against fourteen
billion asked in the previous drive. Charlottesville and Albemarle
consequently had a somewhat smaller combined goal of only
$2,600,000. As usual, this was subdivided: $450,000 for E bonds,
$1,750,000 for other types of bonds bought by individuals, and
$400,000 for purchases by corporations. The drive began October
29 and ended December 8, but E bonds sold up to December 31,
1945, counted toward the quota for the drive. Miss Mary Stamps
White, former executive secretary of the local office of Civilian
Defense and only recently returned from overseas duty with the
American Red Cross in Europe, was chairman for the Victory Loan

Drive. She was the first Albemarle County resident to head the
joint city-county campaign and the first woman to accept the reins
in such an undertaking.[44]

The drive opened with the announcement that the all-star United
States Coast Guard Victory Armada, including a thirty-piece band
and a cast of entertainers, would give a performance at the Paramount
Theatre on November 8 for purchasers of war bonds. The
auditorium was scaled to produce a total of $216,315 in bond
sales, with reserved seat sections including accommodations for purchasers
of $25, $50, $100, $200, $500, and $1,000 E bonds. As
soon as tickets became available, sales became brisk. The $25 and
$1,000 seats were sold out almost at once, but those in between
moved more slowly. Only seventy-five per cent of the seats had
been taken up by the day of the show. Approximately 1,200 Victory
bond buyers saw the two hours of entertainment and paid a
total of $143,450 into the Treasury for the privilege. This was
considerably less than the projected $216,315, but it accounted
for the greater part of early E bond sales.[45]

As usual the city and county schools pushed war bond sales.
The prizes of war bonds to those pupils securing purchases of bonds
were again offered. At Lane High School the drive was opened by
a meeting at which four returned veterans spoke. Lieutenant James
Hageman, who had been a bombardier with the Eighth Air Force
in Europe, told of the need to finish paying for the war and for
rehabilitation. Beginning November 16 a special five-day campaign
to secure bond purchases in memory of the forty-five alumni of Lane
High School who gave their lives in World War II was held. A
goal of $200 for each of their honored dead was set. A total of
$519,420 in Victory bonds was sold by Charlottesville school children
during the drive; of this amount $400,095 was sold by Lane
High School.[46]

By November 16 the quota of sales of other than E bonds to
individuals had been passed, but as usual the sales of E bonds
fell behind. Not until the first week in December did the sales of
E bonds reach half of the quota. Meanwhile, in an effort to spur
sales, special bond displays in the baby departments of stores were
arranged, and workers in these departments urged persons buying
presents for new-born babies to add to the gift an E bond. The
approach of Christmas offered another occasion for the purchases of
bonds for gifts.[47]

When the main drive ended on December 8, the sale of bonds
to corporations and the sales of other than E bonds to individuals
were both over the top with their quotas trebled, but only 60 per
cent of the E bond quota had been subscribed. The next week,
however, sales took a sudden spurt, only to bog down again the

following week. Purchases of E bonds for Christmas presents and
others who rallied to last minute appeals finally put the drive over.[48]

The purchases of E bonds by city and county servicemen and
servicewomen away from home, always credited toward the local
quotas, amounted to more than $50,000 per drive. These and
late purchases finally ran E bond sales to $601,968 or $151,968
over the quota for the Victory Loan Drive. Bond sales in other
than E bonds to individuals amounted to $6,202,270, and purchases
by corporations amounted to $2,005,638. An over-all quota
of $2,600,000 was surpassed by sales of $8,809,876, the largest
amount ever raised locally. “The Victory Loan campaign is in
every respect your crowning achievement,” wrote Ben C. Moomaw,
Jr., co-executive manager of the War Finance Committee for Virginia,
to Hildreth. “No committee in the State has done a better
job, and, in some respects, none has done as good a job.”[49]

With the close of the Victory Loan Drive, great public campaigns
for the sale of bonds ceased, but the bonds, renamed United States
Savings Bonds, continued on sale. The payroll savings system remained
in effect and workers continued to purchase bonds through
it. During the year of 1946 a total of $2,213,600.75 worth of
savings bonds were bought in Charlottesville and Albemarle County.
This amount compares favorably with the sales for the year 1942
and shows that the habit of buying bonds has been in a measure
carried over into the years of peace.[50]

Between 1941 and 1945, inclusive, $42,229,293 worth of war
bonds were purchased in Charlottesville and Albemarle County,
while the quotas for the same period totaled only $22,181,150.
This record placed this community fourth among approximately a
hundred War Finance Committee areas in Virginia. Only Campbell
County, Henrico County, and Middlesex County had higher sales
in relation to their quotas. Never once did Charlottesville and Albemarle
County fail to meet the over-all quota for a bond drive, and
though E bond sales often lagged, only in the first drive, before
the community was well organized to sell E bonds, was the quota
not attained. Between drives, the sales record is somewhat spotty.
Sometimes the interim quota was exceeded, sometimes not. The
gross sales were indeed large and justly a source of great pride to
the community. Yet in 1944, the year of three bond drives, when
$15,221,395 worth of war bonds were sold locally, the total amount
raised was enough to pay the costs of the war for only about one
hour and twenty minutes.[51] It is a creditable achievement for one
small community within a year to underwrite the staggering cost of
global war for even so short a time.

But the ultimate significance of the generous investment in democracy
by the people of Charlottesville and Albemarle County will

not become fully assessable until the decade of the 1950's, when
their millions or dollars worth of war bonds will mature. Then
dollars which have already fought for freedom will return to buy in
the local markets many things which will contribute to the happiness
of the patriotic investors and to the welfare of the community.

WAR BOND SALES,
CHARLOTTESVILLE AND ALBEMARLE COUNTY

The Eight War Loans

                                 

		Series E Bonds	All Types of Securities
First War Loan,	Quota	$150,000	$150,000
Nov. 30-Dec. 31, 1942	Sales	$106,668	$842,755
Second War Loan,	Quota	None	$1,313,900
April 1-May 8, 1943	Sales	$210,281	$1,550,873
Third War Loan,	Quota	$701,000	$2,877,700
Sept. 1-Oct. 16, 1943	Sales	Above quota	$3,119,290
Fourth War Loan,	Quota	$510,000	$2,353,000
Jan. 1-Feb. 29, 1944	Sales	$518,062	$3,362,178
Fifth War Loan,	Quota	$475,000	$2,700,000
June 1-July 31, 1944	Sales	$492,094	$4,669,053
Sixth War Loan,	Quota	$425,000	$2,610,000
Nov. 1-Dec. 31, 1944	Sales	$627,530	$6,471,507
Seventh War Loan,	Quota	$660,000	$3,560,000
April 9-July 7, 1945	Sales	$763,599	$7,780,094
Victory Loan	Quota	$450,000	$2,600,000
Oct. 29-Dec. 31, 1945	Sales	$601,968	$8,809,876

Total Annual War Bond Sales

     

	1941–1942	1943	1944	1945
Quota	$1,456,550	$5,506,600	$8,398,000	$6,820,000
Sales	$3,266,598	$5,957,041	$15,221,395	$17,784,259

Grand Total of War Bond Sales, 1941–1945

   

Quota	$22,181,150
Sales	$42,229,293

Note: Sales began in May, 1941, but quotas were not assigned until
May, 1942.