1918 WW1 Liberty Loan Advert - "Scotty has done his part" - USS Plattsburg

Description

A rare original advertisement for the 4 th. Liberty Loan published in the Baltimore Sun dated October 1,1918 reading as follows:
"Scotty has done his part. Are you doing Yours?" . The image of Scotty, killed by a sniper's bullet, was drawn by Cyrus LeRoy Baldridge - see below
The full-page advertisement has been folded and glued to a scrap book page to which the following have also been attached:
Notice of No Smoking on board the troopship USS Plattsburg - January 1919
List of Calls on board USS Plattsburg - January 1919
Telegram confirming monetary transfer of 0 for Christmas - presumably 1918
Notice of Minstrel Show in Tours, France - November 28 (1918)
This was part of a large collection of memorabilia gathered by Herman G. Scott in Pittsburg who was stationed with the American Expeditionary Forces (see below) in Tours, France in 1918 and later became a successful leader in the insurance business
Tattered condition (it has been to war and back!) with edge tears and spotting to the advertisement and surface dirt and fading to the other attachments - see scans.
A great and unique piece of World War 1 memorabilia
CYRUS LEROY BALDRIDGE
Baldridge's career in art began when the 10-year-old Cyrus was accepted as the youngest student at Frank Holme's
[3]
Chicago School of Illustration. Holme became his second father. In his studio, Baldridge sat with students three times his age to do life drawings, and under Holme's direction went into the streets to make the detailed sketches meant to become newspaper illustrations. He learned to count and remember the number of buttons on a policeman's jacket, and the sad faces of tenement children, and then return to the studio to include them in finished illustrations. The tenet of art creation that he would ever remember from Holme was "Say it with a few bold strokes." He followed that rule and improved upon it through time spent with Japanese artists years later.
[4]
Baldridge was admitted to the
University of Chicago
in 1907 and graduated in 1911 and was evermore devoted to that institution. He was poor boy with no scholarship in an elite college. During his whole life lack of money never stopped him from anything, and at the University of Chicago he paid his way by drawing signs for campus events. He became a campus leader, most likely to succeed, Grand Marshal of the University and a model for students who remembered him long afterwards. According to Harry Hansen, "Men who knew him then will talk to you about him by the hour – but not necessarily about his drawings. They will tell you about his honesty, his candor, his sense of democracy, his unfailing good humor and his faith in his fellow man."
[4]
After college, life for Baldridge was both struggle and an exuberant adventure. While looking for commissions as an illustrator, he worked in a Chicago settlement house and in the stockyards. He became superb rider while training in the Illinois National Guard Cavalry and with that skill worked as a cow hand on the 6666 Ranch in Texas for a summer.
[4]
When World War I began, Baldridge traveled through occupied Belgium and France as a war correspondent and illustrator. Using a German letter of passage he interacted with the conquered and their conquerors. He traveled through war zones on bicycle, horse cart and horseback until his money ran out and he returned to Chicago.
[4]
Called to Mexico as a member of the National Guard he was on the Mexican/American border in 1916 to repulse Pancho Villa and in 1917 he joined the French Army as a stretcher bearer. The entrance of the United States into the war required his transfer to the
American Expeditionary Forces
(AEF). In the AEF he joined the talented team that brought the
Stars and Stripes
newspaper into being. Baldridge was the chief artist on staff that included
Harold Ross
, founder of
The New Yorker
,
Alexander Woollcott
, drama critic for the
New York Times
, and others who later achieved considerable fame. As a journalist, Baldridge traveled freely and saw as much as any general. His work appeared in virtually every issue of
Stars and Stripes
from March 1918 until the end of the War in November, 1918, and portrayed the full range of emotion of soldiers facing death at the Front. HaroldRoss called him the greatest illustrator of the War.
[5]
Cyrus Baldridge saw as much of the War as anyone could, having traveled with the German army as a journalist in the beginning, and later being part of both the French and American campaigns. He had walked among piles of dead soldiers and lines of innocent people filling the roads after their homes had been destroyed. He had begun as an idealistic follower of the Wilsonian dream but, by the end, was dreadfully disillusioned with war and the colonialism that lay behind it. In the
Chicago Evening Post
he described what he had seen as ". . . a nightmare of horror: a red vision of machine guns and dead men, inspiring only a feeling of disgust for the cold efficiency with which it was accomplished."
[6]
Baldridge's reputation as an illustrator was launched in the United States when his battlefield drawings appeared on many covers of
Leslie's Weekly
and
Scribners
. His illustrations in Stars and Stripes reached an audience of 530,000 soldiers weekly by the end of the War and many copies were sent home to family and friends. After the war he assembled his sketches as his first book,
I was There with the Yanks in France
.
I Was There
is a collection of sketches that record, better than cameras could, intimate moments of sadness, heroism and relaxation. The book's publication was more than an artistic triumph. Through it Baldridge meant to carry his perceptions of the War to the world. As he told Harry Hansen, "If only I can make the public see what war is – what a dirty, low thing it is, and how brutal it makes men, fine clean men – then they'd fight to the last ditch for the League of Nations."
[7]
Liberty bond
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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1918 4.25% First Liberty Loan
Joseph Pennell
's poster
That Liberty Shall Not Perish from the Earth
, for the fourth Liberty Loan (1918)
A 1917 government poster using the
Statue of Liberty
to promote the development sale of bonds of the 2nd Liberty Loan Act.
Douglas Fairbanks
, movie star, speaking to a large crowd in front of the Sub-Treasury building,
New York City
, to aid the third Liberty Loan, in April 1918
Mary Pickford
signing the entrance to the Mary Pickford War Funds bungalow.
A
Liberty bond
(or
liberty loan
) was a
war bond
that was sold in the United States to support the allied cause in
World War I
. Subscribing to the bonds became a symbol of patriotic duty in the United States and introduced the idea of financial securities to many citizens for the first time. The Act of Congress which authorized the Liberty Bonds is still used today as the authority under which all U.S. Treasury bonds are issued.
Securities, also known as Liberty Bonds, were issued in the aftermath of the
September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks
to finance the rebuilding of the areas affected.
[1]
Contents
1
Liberty Bond Issues, 1917–1918
2
First Liberty Bond Act
3
Second Liberty Bond Act
4
Sales difficulties and the subsequent campaign
5
Victory Liberty Loan
6
Repayment
7
Default of the Fourth Liberty Bond
8
Liberty Bond posters
9
See also
10
References
11
Bibliography
11.1
Primary sources
12
External links
There were four issues of Liberty Bonds:
[2]
Apr 24, 1917 Emergency Loan Act authorizes issue of .9 billion in bonds at 3.5 percent.
Oct 1, 1917 Second Liberty Loan offers .8 billion in bonds at 3 percent
Apr 5, 1918 Third Liberty Loan offers .1 billion in bonds at 4.15 percent.
Sep 28, 1918 Fourth Liberty Loan offers .9 billion in bonds at 4.25 percent.
Interest on up to ,000 in the bonds was tax exempt.
[2]
The
1st Liberty Loan Act
established a billion aggregate limit on the amount of government bonds issued at 30 years at 3.5% interest, redeemable after 15 years. It raised billion with 5.5 million people purchasing bonds.
1918 4.25% Second Liberty Loan
The
2nd Liberty Loan Act
established a billion aggregate limit on the amount of government bonds issued, allowing billion more offered at 25 years at 4% interest, redeemable after 10 years. The amount of the loan totaled .8 billion with 9.4 million people purchasing bonds.
The response to the first Liberty Bond was unenthusiastic and although the billion issue reportedly sold out, it probably had to be done below par because the notes traded consistently below par.
[3]
One reaction to this was to attack bond traders as "unpatriotic" if they sold below par. The Board of Governors of the New York Stock Exchange conducted an investigation of brokerage firms who sold below par to determine if "pro-German influences" were at work. The board forced one such broker to buy the bonds back at par and make a 0,000 donation to the Red Cross.
[4]
Various explanations were offered for the weakness of the bonds ranging from German sabotage to the rich not buying the bonds because it would give an appearance of tax dodging (the bonds were exempt from some taxes).
First Service Star pamphlet
A common consensus was that more needed to be done to sell the bonds to small investors and the common man, rather than large concerns. The poor reception of the first issue resulted in a convertible re-issue five months later at the higher interest rate of 4% and with more favorable tax terms. Even so, when the new issue arrived it also sold below par.
[5]
This weakness continued with subsequent issues, the 4.25% bond priced as low as 94 cents upon arrival.
[6]
Secretary of the Treasury
William Gibbs McAdoo
reacted to the sales problems by creating an aggressive campaign to popularize the bonds.
[7]
The government used a division of the
Committee on Public Information
called the
Four Minute Men
to help sell Liberty Bonds and Thrift Stamps.
[8]
[9]
[10]
Famous artists helped to make posters and movie stars hosted bond rallies.
Al Jolson
,
Elsie Janis
,
Mary Pickford
,
Douglas Fairbanks
and
Charlie Chaplin
were among the celebrities that made public appearances promoting the idea that purchasing a liberty bond was "the patriotic thing to do" during the era.
[11]
Chaplin also made a short film,
The Bond
, at his own expense for the drive.
[12]
The
Boy Scouts
and
Girl Scouts
sold the bonds, using the slogan "Every Scout to Save a Soldier". Beyond these effective efforts, in 1917 the Aviation Section of the U.S. Army Signal Corps established an elite group of Army pilots assigned to the Liberty Bond campaign. The plan for selling bonds was for the pilots to crisscross the country in their
Curtiss JN-4
"Jenny" training aircraft in flights of 3 to 5 aircraft. When they arrived over a town, they would perform acrobatic stunts, and put on mock dog fights for the populace.
After performing their air show, they would land on a road, a golf course, or a pasture nearby. By the time they shut down their engines, most of the townspeople, attracted by their performance, would have gathered. At that point, most people had never seen an airplane, nor ridden in one. Routinely each pilot stood in the rear cockpit of his craft and told the assemblage that every person who purchased a Liberty Bond would be taken for a ride in one of the airplanes. The program was successful in raising a substantial amount of money which was used to pay for the war effort. The methodology developed and practiced by the Army was later followed by numerous entrepreneurial flyers known as Barnstormers, who purchased war surplus Jenny airplanes and flew across the country selling airplane rides.
World War I poster. "Remember Belgium--Buy bonds--Fourth Liberty Loan" - During World War I,
Allied Nations
relied for propaganda on images and accounts of German atrocities to motivate their citizens to participate in the war effort. In this scene, the silhouetted German soldier with his thick Kaiser mustache drags a young girl away while the ruins of the city burn in the background.
1919 Victory Liberty Loan drive steel medallion made from "captured German
cannon
".
Vast amounts of promotional materials were manufactured. For example, for the third Liberty Loan nine million posters, five million window stickers and 10 million buttons were produced and distributed.
[13]
The campaign spurred community efforts across the country and resulted in glowing, patriotically-tinged reports on the "success" of the bonds.
[14]
For the fifth and final loan drive (the Victory Loan) in 1919 the Treasury Department produced steel medallions made from melted down German cannon that had been captured by American troops at
Château-Thierry
in NW France. The inch-and-a-quarter wide medallions suspended from a red, white, and blue ribbon were awarded by the Department to Victory Liberty Loan campaign volunteers in appreciation of their service in the drive.
Peak US indebtedness was in August 1919 at a value of ,596,000,000 for Liberty Bonds, Victory Notes, War Savings Certificates, and other government securities. As early as 1922 the possibility that the war debt could not be paid in full within the expected schedule was raised, and that debt rescheduling may be needed. In 1921 the Treasury Department began issuing short term notes maturing in three to five years to repay the Victory Loan
[15]
According to the Massachusetts Historical Society, "Because the first World War cost the federal government more than billion (by way of comparison, total federal expenditures in 1913 were only 0 million), these programs became vital as a way to raise funds".
[16]
Despite all these measures, recent research
[17]
has shown that patriotic motives played only a minor role in investors' decisions to buy these bonds;
Through the selling of "Liberty bonds," the government raised around billion for the war effort. Considering that there were approximately 100 million Americans during that time, each American, on average, raised 0 on Liberty bonds.
A fifth bond issue relating to World War I was released on April 21, 1919. Consisting of .5 billion of gold notes at 4.75% interest, they matured after four years but could be redeemed by the government after three. Exempt from all income taxes, they were called at the time "the last of the series of five Liberty Loans."
[18]
However they were also called the "Victory Liberty Loan," and appear this way on posters of the period.
The first three bonds and the Victory Loan were partially retired during the course of the 1920s, but the majority of these bonds were simply re-financed through other government securities. The Victory Loan, which was to mature in May 1923, was retired with money raised by short term treasury notes which matured after three to five years and issued at 90-day intervals until sufficient funds were raised in 1921. The likelihood of successfully retiring all of the war debt (within the amount of time) was noted as early as 1921.
[15]
In 1927, the 2nd and 3rd, together worth five billion dollars, 1/4 of all government debt at the time, were called for redemption and refunded through the issuance of other government securities through the Treasury Department. Some of the principal was retired. For example, of the 3.1 billion dollars owed on the 2nd Liberty Bond, 575 million in principal was retired and the rest refinanced. At this same time, the 1st Liberty Bond still had 1.9 billion dollars outstanding in 1927 with a call date for 1932 while the fourth Liberty Bond, with six billion dollars, had a call date for 1932 as well.
[19]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to
Liberty bonds
.
The first three Liberty bonds, and the Victory Loan, were retired during the course of the 1920s. However, because the terms of the bonds allowed them to be traded for the later bonds which had superior terms, most of the debt from the first, second, and third Liberty bonds was rolled into the fourth issue. As a result, the large majority of Liberty bond debt was still outstanding into the 1930s.
[
citation needed
]
The fourth Liberty Bond had the following terms:
[20]
Date of Bond: October 24, 1918
Coupon Rate: 4.25%
Callable Starting: October 15, 1933
Maturity Date: October 15, 1938
Amount Originally Tendered: billion
Amount Sold: billion
The terms of the bond included: "The principal and interest hereof are payable in United States gold coin of the present standard of value."
[21]
This type of "
gold clause
" was common in both public and private contracts of the time, and was intended to guarantee that bond-holders would not be harmed by a devaluation of the currency.
However, when the US Treasury called the fourth bond on April 15, 1934,
[21]
it defaulted on this term by refusing to redeem the bond in gold, and neither did it account for the devaluation of the dollar from .67 per troy ounce of gold (the 1918 standard of value) to per ounce. The 21 million
[2]
bond holders therefore lost 139 million troy ounces of gold, or approximately 41% of the bond's principal.
[
citation needed
]
This was the equivalent of .866 billion (in 1918 dollars), or approximately 0 billion at the 2012 price of 00 per ounce.
[
citation needed
]
The legal basis for the refusal of the US Treasury to redeem in gold was House Joint Resolution 192, dated June 5, 1933.
[22]
The Supreme Court later held this to be unconstitutional under section 4 of the
Fourteenth Amendment
.:
[23]
However, due to Roosevelt's elimination of the open gold market, the Court ruled that the bond-holders' loss was unquantifiable, and that to repay them in dollars according to the 1918 standard of value would be an "unjustified enrichment".
[21]
The ruling therefore had little practical effect.
Various posters published to publicize the buying of liberty bonds over time