100 years ago in The Saratogian

Tuesday, May 29, 1917

The federal government and the nation’s bankers are calling on Americans to keep “A Liberty Bond in Every Home” to raise money for the war against Germany. “If You Can’t Enlist, Invest,” another slogan advises. A Saratogian editor thinks that a more practical slogan would be, “They’re a good buy.”

Rather than increase income taxes steeply to pay its war bills, the government is encouraging ordinary citizens to help cover war expenses voluntarily by buying bonds that they can redeem after the war is over. The U.S. declared war on Germany last month.

Ballston Spa has been given a goal of $295,000 in Liberty Bond sales. The local Chamber of Commerce meets tonight to organize a Liberty Bond campaign in the village. The guest speaker is Edward F. Swenson, who is organizing the Liberty Bond drive in Albany.

“Mr. Swenson was an eloquent and convincing speaker and impressed the audience with the danger of being too optimistic,” a reporter writes, “to make the loan a success required the united efforts of everyone.

“It is not to be a banker or business man’s business, but the duty of the whole people, for the loan must be financed largely out of the savings of the people and not by disturbing the banking and business of the country by withdrawal of large sums from the channels of business.” The discussion after Swenson’s speech shows, in one reporter’s opinion, that “the local manufacturers and merchants have already taken up the work nobly and their employees were responding well to their appeals.”

Today’s editorial argues that Liberty Bond boosters are overstressing the patriotic duty aspect of investing in the war effort when “plain business sense” should show that people will profit in the near future by buying bonds now.

“Some short-sighted persons are saying they can’t afford to put their money into war bonds at 3 ½ per cent when they can get five or six or seven per cent in other lines of investment. There are three important facts that they ignore.

“One is that the government bonds are absolutely the safest investment in the world, and their safety adds to their intrinsic and market value. Another is that they are free from taxation – a highly significant factor at a time when heavy war taxes are being laid on nearly every other form of investment.

“Moreover, according to Jacob Schiff, one of the foremost financial authorities in America, these bonds are almost sure to rise in value.” Schiff reportedly believes that people will profit from buying bonds regardless of whether the war is long or short.