University of Virginia Library

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.