University of Virginia Library

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]