Virginia's Push for War Bonds and Stamps
The OWI created several outlets towards influencing Americans to contribute and assist in the war effort, but war bonds and stamps were among the most focused. Across the country, purchasing stamps and war bonds were highly influenced on Americans to maintain the flow of finance to the warfront to ensure that they could continue fighting in the war. Elmer Davis made it clear that war bonds were worth the investment because the United States had just as much to lose than any country taken over in Europe, encouraging and scaring people to contribute. [1] Listing the many consequences and downsides of not purchasing war bonds and/or stamps, showed how much of a reliance the OWI had on every media outlet to make the country understand that financing the military was a major priority.
Virginia assured that war bonds and stamp purchases, were to be a collective effort done by several committees and groups. Throughout the duration of the war, the several war loans that were funded by each state were vastly advertised to get a large return from the public. Virginia, intent on reaching their goal to fit the war loan, made it so that war bonds and stamps were to be the single most focused source of sales in the state. It was reported that schools in Virginia were able to collect an estimated $10 Million worth of war bonds and stamp purchases across the state.[2]
Within Virginia, similar to what was occurring in others states in the country, committees and groups were formed to widely influence the state purchasing of war bonds and stamps. Special events and festivities were held by these committees and groups to increase sales and influence others to do their part. A famous clown performer, Al Schacht, accepted an invitation to perform at a war bond baseball show to help increase sales of war bonds.[3] Gaining support and attention for these events, were beneficial to getting a large crowd to show up. Virginia had experienced difficulties among cities during the fifth war loan campaign, Alexandria was reporting low sale number and the Alexandria Amusement Corp. took initiative and held a program in order to meet a certain goal for the campaign.[4] In Virginia, it was widely common to see advertisements, promotions, or notices for war loan campaigns, war bond and/or stamp propaganda, at a large capacity coming from every form of media at the time.
[1] Davis, Elmer, “War bonds -- the world's best investment”, The Washington Post (1923-1954), Oct 18, 1942.
[2] “Schools in VA. Buy 10 Million In War Bonds”, The Washington Post (1923-1954), Aug 08 1944:3.
[3] “Famous Funny Man to Entertain Fans at War Bond Game: Schacht Performs for War Bond Fans. The Washington Post (1923-1954). May 06 1943:17.
[4] "Alexandria Close to Bottom in Fifth War Loan Campaign", The Washington Post (1923-1954), Jul 05, 1944.
An advertisement from the Northern Neck News newspaper, describing the dutites of buying war bonds and listing reasons why.