World War 1 bond drives
May 21, 2009 – 3:05 pm 
A decorated vehicle of World War I vintage was used as a float in a bond drive parade. It is pictured here moving up Monterey St. in front of the Stag Billiard Parlor. The original picture came from Zaidee Andrews.
As Memorial day arrives a few notes from 1918.They called it the Great War or The War to End All Wars. Sadly it planted the seeds for an even greater conflict about 20 years later.According to Wikipedia the First World War resulted 16 million deaths and 21 million wounded. For a point of reference Spanish Influenza spreading at the time killed 50-100 million.On page 3 of the Daily Telegram October 2, 1918
SAN MIGUEL BOY ISKILLED “OVER THERE”
Mrs. Kelley Receives the SadNews of Son’s Death.
Staff correspondence to The TelegramSAN MIGUEL, Oct. 2–The sad news came to Mrs. J. Kelley Sunday noon that her son Joe Clark Kelley was killed in action in France on Sept. 14.Joe has been “over there” for nearly a year and had gone through two previous big drives without a scratch. Joe has many friends here who extend their sympathy to Mrs. Kelly and her family.
One of the hallmarks of the era was the sense of shared sacrifice at home.War bond ads were in every paper, sometimes taking up a full page. Back then China was not loaning the United States money so the government relied on citizens to buy war bonds.Some of the ads appealed to a sense of patriotism, another had the drawing of a dead soldier with the tag line, “They are dying over there. Are you Buying over here?”
Another sacrifice was the drive to save food so that supplies could be diverted to the soldiers and the refugees. A story on the same page outlines a food conference in San Francisco attended by Miss Whiting of the California Polytechnic School.
The main idea emphasized at the conference was the rigid necessity for each man, woman and child to “carry on” in conserving food. The winning of the war depends on each individual’s ability and desire to do this.
The man in charge of this relief operation carried it off successfully and would later become president, Herbert Hoover.The Telegram had a lot of pictures from wire services, but sadly very few local pictures.One of the goofiest wire stories was a composite photo made up of four men in the armed forces. The best stories take a major topic and put some sort of face on it.It gives readers insight and relates on a human scale.This story fails by taking the face away from the participants.
6 Responses to “World War 1 bond drives”
Wow, the US government REALLY wanted you to buy war bonds. To do anything else would be downright unpatriotic.
I was thinking about bonds the other day. If every American who’s invested in US bonds decided to claim their due, the national debt would be in even worse straits than it already is. If, on the other hand, Americans volunteered to give up their bonds to relieve the national debt, we’d be in much better economic shape.
But I don’t see that happening anytime soon …
By Sarah on May 22, 2009
I have my doubts about the facial analysis of “The Yankee Fighting Face.” I’m not sure the science is exactly sound there …
By Sarah on May 22, 2009
David,
This being Memorial Day, and your site about things past, I got to wondering again about something that has piqued my curiosity from the time I first laid eyes on it. Just west of Cuesta College on the side of the hill near the shooting range, there is a vehicle of some sort that was used for target practice by the Army when Camp SLO was in operation. At one time,at the base of the hill were berms with wooden emplacements dug into them that long ago rotted and caved in. I think it would be interesting for you or one of the staff to do an article on it.
Joe
By Joe Dunlap on May 25, 2009
The story on ww1 war bonds got me thinking about why our Government does not do something similar today. After all, our wars in the middle east are generating debts that will be on the books past our children’s lifetimes. I wonder if the reason could be the first thing that comes to my mind. There would be little support for those bonds. It might be very revealing just how little support there would be.
By Albert Bursey on May 26, 2009
I love this blog! It shows how some things of yesteryear are so different from today — but in this case, how much they are the same.
Poor Joe Kelley (RIP) and his grieving mother (RIP). To what end did Joe’s death serve? For our freedoms? Oh, please! Were the Huns at our doorstep? Were the hapless citizens of SLO County in imminent danger of invasion by German troops? What lunacy!
And now we’re supposedly in imminent danger of invasion by Iranian Muslim fanatics. It’d almost be funny if the real waste in lives and treasure weren’t so real and huge.
Sometimes, the more things change, the more they stay the same.
By MrBill on May 30, 2009
Thanks for the comments Joe, Albert and MrBill.
Joe, the Tribune has done a few articles in the past about the ranges that used to be active near Highway 1. The area was a major training base during World War II. Before the botanical garden could open at El Chorro Regional Park it was swept for explosives by military bomb squad.
Albert, your comment speaks to the idea that in recent decades America has bought a lot of things on credit, including our wars. Some economists have charted our personal debt levels as a percentage of Gross National Product and found that they are similar to 1929, close to 100%. The reason banks are cranking down lines of credit is a result of their failure to study history. Free markets go down as well as up, credit can’t expand forever.
MrBill, thanks for the compliment. It is always interesting to see what is the same and what has changed between eras.
Your point of view was similar to a prevailing view of many before and after World War 1. There was a strong viewpoint, especially among conservative Republicans, that the United States should not get entangled in the problems of Europe.
The unrestricted German U-Boat war did much to turn American public opinion toward joining the first war but you can see in cartoons in The Telegram that French and English leaders were often the punchline for jokes.
The peace after The Great War was not managed well, in part because America failed take on responsibility, and world would go to war for a second more bloody time. America was the last great power involved, drawn in by the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor.
The lessons drawn from post World War I failures have made the United States more willing to engage in world affairs after World War II with mixed results.
By David Middlecamp on Jun 1, 2009