April 5, 1918 - Liberty Bonds

Oops, my mistake.  Yesterday, April 4 was a rare day for Mary, no diary entries.  The only other day without entries from now on until the end of her diary is July 6.

But what I described for yesterday was actually today's entry, which gives me more time to expand on another topic addressed in today's entry.  When she and her sisters attended a movie at the Strand Theater, Mary was clearly annoyed about a man "selling some kind of Liberty Bonds."

To support the war effort the government borrowed money from the general public ("Liberty Loan") in the form of Liberty Bonds.  The then recently established Federal Reserve, issuing bonds to be sold at banks, coordinated intense propaganda campaigns, each bond sale being for a limited period of time.  Interest rates were set slightly below existing yields of comparable investments.  The first Liberty Loan campaign was in May of 1917, just one month after declaration of war by the United States.  The second, third and fourth Liberty Loan drives were in November 1917, April 1918 and October 1918 and a Victory Loan drive was held shortly after the armistice in November 1918.  Each campaign was accompanied by intense publicity in the newspapers, theaters, celebrity rallies, etc. appealing to public patriotism and duty.   Charlie Chaplin, in addition to making public appearances promoting the bonds, also made a propaganda film to encourage support for the bond effort.

The $17 billion raised through the Liberty Bond effort would be about $306 billion in 2018 dollars.

The Federal Reserve and Wikipedia have excellent explanations of the origin and history of World War I Liberty Bonds.