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WWI
Liberty Loans
McLean County, Illinois
(Transcribed by: Teri Moncelle Colglazier)

Harris K. Hoblit, cashier of the State Bank of Bloomington, is the one man of the county on whose shoulders rested larger financial responsibilities of the war in this section than upon any other man. Mr. Hoblit was secretary of the Bankers' Organization during the first and second campaigns and had sole charge of the last three, his appointment coming through the Federal Reserve Bank. The five Liberty Loan campaigns were carried on during 1917, 1918 and 1919, and the people of this county subscribed more than $11,000,000 of their money in the form of loans to help the government in its great task of financing the war. It was on May 8, 1917, that the bankers of Bloomington were offered the first war bonds of the government for disposal. On June 1 of that year the announcement came that McLean County was supposed to subscribe for $1,500,000 of these bonds. Such a proposition was staggering in its immensity, for the people of the county, including the bankers themselves, were not then accustomed to doing big things for mere patriotic motives. On June 2 the bankers of the county held a meeting to talk of some general plan for handling the sale of the bonds. At this meeting Mr. Hoblit was chosen chairman, and he continued in the same capacity througn each succeeding drive for the other Liberty Loans, each of the last four being larger than the first. When the first campaign was on, the general opinion among the people was that this was a proposition for the bankers that they would have to take up the bonds as offered, and if the people generally bought any of them, it would be comparatively few, and these to be sold only to people of ample surplus means. The banks themselves could not in the nature of things absorb so large a quota of government paper at one time and leave ample capital for the ordinary business. Consequently, with the public apathy on the question, the immature organization of the bankers themselves, and a general failure of the people to understand the stiuation, that the quota for the county was not reached. However, this was never true in any subsequent loan, and the total of the five campaigns in all was much greater than the total quota of the county for the five loans. Mr. Hoblit in each succeeding campaign, gave himself without stint to the work of raising the quota. He devoted days and weeks to this work, to the neglect of his own private interests to a large extent. Of course in every campaign for the Liberty Loans, there was a large and earnest committee covering every precinct in the county, who gave their time and labor to enlisting the interest of the people in the propositions. Mr. Hoblit worked so quietly, so unostentatiously, and with no thought of credit to himself, that he inspired every other worker with zeal and devotion to the cause. Consequently, when the close of the final campaign for Liberty Loans came it was found that the people of the county had loaned $11,000,000 of their money to the government, divided as follows among the various campaigns: Quota Subscribed First loan $1,500,000 $ 800,000 Second loan 1,700,000 1,200,000 Third loan 1,762,000 3,022,250 Fourth loan 3,676,927 3,805,200 Fifth (Victory) loan 2,866,900 2,998,400 [McLean County, Illinois, in the World War, 1917-1918; by Edward E. Pierson & Jacob Louis Hasbrouck c 1921]

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