In the five national Liberty Loan campaigns to finance the war, Knox County not only went "over the top," but in each of them its citizens bought more bonds than the government asked of them.  The total subscriptions in five loans were approximately $13,500,000, though the county's quota was only slightly in excess of $10,000,000.  Add to these subscriptions more than $2,000,000 invested in war savings stamps and the loans from Knox Countians to the federal government for the prosecution of the war reached the huge sum of more than $15,000,000.

The sale of so many government securities was made possible by the splendid selling organization built up and perfected in each succeeding campaign by Hon. T. Asbury Wright, who was chairman for Knox County in each of the five loans.  He was the only county chairman in the Sixth Federal Reserve District who served consecutively through all of these campaigns.  He virtually gave up his private business during them to further the sale of the bonds.  Thanks to his constructive, organizing ability, backed by liberal space contributed by patriotic individuals, firms and by the newspapers themselves, the vital necessity of participating in the loans was carried to every home in the city and county.

Mr. Wright was assisted by an executive committee composed of the presidents of the Knoxville banks -- William S. Shields, Frank L. Fisher, S. B. Luttrell, Joseph P. Gaut, E. E. McMillan, J. Allen Smith, Hu M. Johnston, W. H. Sterchi, Charlton Karns, J. J. Ashe, and, during the Fourth and Fifth Loans, Robert S. Young, president of the American National Bank.  Samuel V. Carter, who was zone chairman for 20 of the upper East Tennessee counties, gave his assistance and support in each of the campaigns.  These men, together with other officials of their banks, did yeoman service.

In the Fourth and Fifth Loans, which were considerably the largest, Mr. Wright organized a ward and district system for the purpose of getting in contact with every citizen in the city and county.  Knoxville was divided into four divisions, while the county constituted a fifth.  Matt G. Thomas was placed in command of the First Division; G. L. Price of the Second; J. L. Deaver of the Third; E. R. Wade of the Fourth; while John L. Boyd had charge of the county, or Fifth Division.  Each general had under him a colonel, lieutenant-colonel, captain and several lieutenants.  These officers in the various divisions, wards and precints were:

In the Fourth and Fifth Loans especially, the commercial travelers of Knoxville did splendid service.  Their two organizations, the T. P. A. and the U. T. C., under the leadership of E. W. Neal, Frank May, J. B. Criswell and W. D. Hogan, worked effectively and harmoniously with the Liberty Loan organization built up by Mr. Wright.  As experienced salesmen they reached large numbers of men and women and sold thousands of dollars worth of the bonds.

As a further means of reaching every home and approaching every man and woman in Knox County, Mr. Wright brought two other strong agencies to bear in the latter campaigns.  These organizations were the Four Minute Men and the Boy and Girl Scouts.  The Four Minute Men campaigned the theatres, moving picture houses and other places of assembly in the city while in the county they stumped every village and cross roads.  The Boy and Girl Scouts, under the able leadership of John M. Gore, Scout Executive, proved effective salesmen in all the campaigns in which they took part.  [Photo at left shows Knoxville Boy Scouts.  "These boys rendered magnificent service in all local campaigns during the war."]

The first loan campaign was ushered in the latter part of May, 1917.  There was little formal organization for the sale of bonds.  The subscriptions were largely from the wealthy citizens and the banks.  They were received through the banks up until the final days of the campaign when eighteen teams of Boy Scouts took the field and sold $153,000 of the bonds by the end of the drive on June 15.  No quota was fixed definitely, but the total voluntary subscriptions amounted to $1,246,555.

The second loan campaign four months later, beginning October 1 and continuing until October 27, saw the creation of the first real bond sales organization.  In addition to Mr. Wright as chairman, Jos. P. Gaut was elected vice-chairman, and Mrs. Joseph H. Anderson was made head of the woman's committee.  J. Pike Powers, Jr., was named director of the Four Minute Men, and John M. Gore organized the Boy Scouts for a more intensive campaign.  The quota assigned to Knox County was $1,200,000.  The sales amounted to $1,838,400, almost fifty per cent more than the quota assigned.

[Photo at left - "Boosting Liberty Bonds.  Boy Scout tank in big civic demonstration for Third Liberty Loan, Saturday, August 6, 1918.]  The third loan was equally as great a success.  Practically the same organization, which had been built up in the previous campaigns, was used to float this one, which began April 6, 1918, and closed on May 4.  Mr. Wright continued his work as director-general of the whole campaign, but Mrs. John W. Hudson succeeded Mrs. Anderson as general chairman of the woman's department.  Mrs. W. C. Ross was named to push the sale of bonds among the women of the county districts.  The "Minute Women" also entered the campaign, making one minute speeches daily on Gay Street and at all public meetings.  Mrs. E. T. Sanford, assisted by Mrs. Herbert Hall, was in charge of this phase of the work, while Harry R. Ryder succeeded J. Pike Powers, Jr., as director of the Four Minute Men campaign.  Ten teams of men and the same number of women canvassed the city and county in selling bonds.  The women alone reported sales of about $900,000.  The total subscriptions were $2,417,100.  The quota was only $2,000,000.  The most encouraging feature of this campaign was the number of people who participated in it.  Final figures showed that 12,880 bought bonds.

[Photo at right - "Fourth Liberty Loan.  Head of big parade marching north on Gay Street in Knoxville, September 28, 1918."]  The fourth loan in the fall of 1918, when our armies were making deep gains daily and a wave of victorious exaltation was sweeping the whole country, outdistanced all the others in the enthusiasm it provoked and the ease with which nearly as many bonds were sold as in the three previous campaigns combined.  Page after page of advertising, splendid war posters, furnished by the national loan organization, letters, personal appeals, exhortations from every platform in Knox County by the very best speakers, all these agencies, with the psychology of the moment of approaching victory, made this loan tremendously popular.

The central sales organization again was headed by Mr. Wright, while Mrs. Samuel G. Shields made an effective chairman of the Knox County woman's committee.  The subcommittees were the same as in the preceding loan. Ministers gave their support from the pulpit, all kinds of street advertising were employed, a street fair, in which loan booths were established, was responsible for the sale of several hundred thousand dollars' worth of bonds, and scores of speakers toured the mills and factories, the stores and the rural districts for the loan.  Boy and Girl Scouts canvassed both homes and streets.  The schools organized bond clubs.  The commercial travelers gave of their time unsparingly.  In the closing days, a "dynamite" committee, composed of influential citizens, made large sales that could not otherwise have been made.

The flood of subscriptions on the last day of the campaign fairly swamped the banks, which received them.  The quota of $3,685,000, which had seemed impossible to reach when the campaign started, was far surpassed.  When all the subscriptions had been counted, it was found that the sales amounted to $4,858,950.  The number of subscribers was 23,985.  Practically one out of every four men, women and children in the city and county had bought a bond of some denomination.

Sales of the notes of the Fifth, or Victory Loan, as it was called, was much harder than in the preceding campaigns, when war was still being waged.  The heat of a great victory had cooled, thousands of soldiers were returning, and, furthermore, a great many of those who had made actual personal sacrifice to buy in the earlier campaigns, did not feel equal to the burden which the final one would entail.  There was a wide-spread feeling also that the money interests of the country, which did not subscribe early in the campaign, would more than take the loan in the final hours of the drive because of the high rate of interest and the exemption from taxation, which this loan afforded.

The quota set for Knox County was $2,832,450.  When the subscriptions reached about $1,500,000, the sales fell off and popular interest and participation lagged.  The "dynamite" committee, composed of teams of two men each who had access to the sources of wealth in the city and county, again was called into action and, with five hours of vigorous canvassing among the larger interests, the quota was almost reached.  The banks underwrote the rest, while late popular subscriptions carried the total to approximately $3,100,000.

The organization was somewhat different in this campaign.  Mr. Wright again gave his time and services as chairman of the central committee, but Mrs. James H. Anderson, who had directed the woman's share of the work in the second loan, succeeded Mrs. Shields, who had gone out of the city, as chairman of the Knox County woman's committee.  Henry Hudson and Mrs. W. P. Davis were directors of the men's and women's five minute speakers, while John R. Williams and Mrs. Walter Luttrell were in charge of the publicity for the loan.

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