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Ground Floor Safe Deposit Vaults

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Liberty Loans were quite popular.  Entire towns would be in shared competition with each other to raise the most money for them.  That is why it was quite popular for banking and savings institutions to offer free holdings for them.  Another example of the freebie giveaway used to try to attract new business.

My Daddy Bought Me A Liberty Bond, Did Yours?

To help pay for the war, the U. S. government sold Liberty Bonds.  Essentially what we still use today called Treasury Bonds, these were loans given to the government with a gauranteed percentage of payout in the future for the use of the money.  There were 4 Liberty Bonds (often called Liberty Loans) and one Victory Liberty Loan which rounds out the total at 5 Loans in total for the Great War.

The first two loans, being included for this ad from Security Trust Company, sold out but were not as popular as the successive three loans.  The first Liberty Bond was enacted on April 24, 1917, and vested $5 billion in bonds at 3.5 percent.  The Second Liberty Loan offered $3 billion at 3 percent.  The interest on the bonds were tax exempt up to the first $30,000.  The first two offers were ethargicly sold leading to later Bond drives given higher percentage rates (all in the 4% range) and totalled at least 13.5 billion more dollars to boost the war effort.  It is of interest that even the pressure of patriotic consideration failed to move the market much from other investments which would perform better.  The economy churned along at its own pace.

Businesses such as Security Trust Company did not make a dime off of these Liberty Loans.  They were encouraged to offer free storage for the certificates, and of course, to sell them as much as possible.  The industry fell in line for several reasons, not the least of which was to be seen as supporting the war.  As with just about every other commercial mentioning the war, the concern was to increase foot traffic into their establishment by plying upon the glowing patriotic embers of the average citizen.