Liberty Bond

Poster by Ellsworth Young , 1918, alluding to the Dinant massacre , Belgium

Douglas Fairbanks speaks at Federal Hall , New York , in April 1918 on behalf of the Third War Loan

Liberty Bonds , also known as Liberty Loans or Liberty Loan Bonds referred, were war bonds , which in the United States during the First World War emitted have to cover the costs of war.

In the first World War

The Liberty Bonds could be bought back at face value plus interest . The Secretary of the Treasury William Gibbs McAdoo led for an aggressive advertising campaign . The government of Thomas Woodrow Wilson supported the sale by sending well-known people like Al Jolson , Elsie Janis , Mary Pickford , Douglas Fairbanks , Charlie Chaplin and Samuel Untermyer on promotional tours depicting the purchase as a " patriotic act". Even the Girl and Boy Scouts of America sold the Liberty Bonds under the slogan "Every Scout saves a soldier".

Scope and output data were:

April 24, 1917 - The Emergency Loan Act authorizes the issuance of $ 5 billion in bonds at 3.5%.
October 1, 1917 - Second Liberty loan in bonds of $ 3 billion at 4%.
April 5, 1918 - Third Liberty loan in bonds of $ 3 billion at 4.5%.
September 28, 1918 - Fourth Liberty loan in bonds of $ 6 billion at 4.25%.

The Massachusetts Historical Society stated in 2002:

“Because the first World War cost the federal government more than 30 billion dollars (by way of comparison, total federal expenditures in 1913 were only $ 970 million), these programs became vital as a way to raise funds through the bond drives […]. ”

"Since World War I cost the federal government over $ 30 billion (by comparison, total government spending in 1913 was only $ 970 million), the program was vital to raising money through the bonds [...]."

Poster for the Second Liberty Bond, 1917
Poster by Winsor McCay , 1918

Later reprints

Tax-free Liberty Bonds valued at $ 8 billion were also issued after the September 11, 2001 attacks to rebuild the devastated area.

Web links

Commons : Liberty bonds - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

↑ Kenneth D. Garbade : Birth of a market: the US treasury securities market from the Great War to the Great Depression . Ed .: MIT Press. MIT Press, Cambridge 2012, ISBN 978-0-262-01637-7 .
^ War Saving Stamps. In: Massachusetts Historical Society. June 2002, accessed on March 16, 2018 .

[1] Kenneth D. Garbade : Birth of a market: the US treasury securities market from the Great War to the Great Depression . Ed .: MIT Press. MIT Press, Cambridge 2012, ISBN 978-0-262-01637-7 .

[2] War Saving Stamps. In: Massachusetts Historical Society. June 2002, accessed on March 16, 2018 .