Page:The North Carolina Historical Review - Volume 1, Number 1.pdf/34

32 ing to win the war and to serve humanity. The new spirit of industry has manifested itself in the farm-boys planting Victory Acres and the Farm-girls Thrift Gardens, in boys and girls everywhere earning money with which to buy Stamps and in people of all ages and circumstances working with a new motive.

The War Savings Campaign made people more economical by convincing them of the sin of waste, by showing them how they could help win the War, be economizing in the consumption of labor and material, and in offering them a safe and convenient means of investing their savings. For the first time, the child with his pennies saved and the laborer with his dollar taken from his pay-envelope had a way to invest their savings at any time and at any one of over eight thousand places in the State by purchasing Government bonds—called War Savings Certificates—that bore as good or better rate interest than Liberty Bonds themselves. It opened the eyes of business men—even of those who had considered themselves prudent—to the value of small items. If millions of dollars could be accumulated by savings of quarters, then millions could be scattered by the waste of quarters.

Hereafter men will be more regardful of the small leaks and extravagancies in their business.

The War Savings Campaign made our people more patriotic. In the beginning of the campaign Governor Bickett said that it would be worth while if it did nothing more than teach our people the necessity and righteousness of the war. The chorus of opinions of the County Chairmen was that the campaign not only reconciled our people to the War, but even made them heart supporters of it in sections where real opposition to the War had existed. One could not make a War Savings appeal without at the same time explaining the necessity and maintaining the righteousness of the War. War Savings speakers, who went into every nook and corner of the State, to a greater extent than speakers ever did before, made themselves real educators of the people. They told the people in the remote sections what the War was about, how it started, why we were in it, what defeat would cost us, what victory might cost us and what part each one of us had in it. The people were made to see that it