When at 11 o'clock on November 11, 1918, peace dawned upon a war-sick world we had 2,000,000 men in Europe, and as many more on this side putting themselves in readiness to go across. On the seas we had close to 300,000 men. This tremendous force was welded into form in the nineteen months we were in the war. Yet within a few months after our entrance into the war there were more than this total in the Liberty Loan Army. The list of subscribers to the First Liberty Loan which closed two months after our entry had 4,500,000 names. And this number remained for the duration of the war, giving every penny they could spare, mortgaging their property, committing themselves to personal privations. When the Second Loan books were totalled in November the number had increased to 9,500,000, and it leaped to 17,000,000 in the Third. In the Fourth--the last loan of war-time--it had grown to 22,777,680 and in the Fifth which closed six months after the armistice, it finished with 12,000,000 names. As in the Army, where organization is half the battle, it was through organization of the enthusiasm and the deep fervor of the American people that success came in this big venture. We had to create a state of mind, we had to educate the American public in finance--which in itself appeared an insuperable task--we had to marshal resources on a scale such as never before had been attempted, and we had to map out a sales campaign that would comprehend millions of persons. There were no precedents to go by; the example set in Europe could not have application in the United States because of temperamental and financial differences; the flotation of the loans in the Civil War afforded no practicable working basis. It was pioneering, and this fact was made clear in the first conference held in Washington when Secretary of the Treasury William G. McAdoo called together the financial leaders of the country. [Illustration: A Poster Used During the Fourth Liberty Loan Campaign] Only three weeks were allowed to prepare for the First Loan Drive. As soon as we had decided to get into the war, this decision carried with it the determination to go in to the limit of our resources. The Secretary of the Treasury informed the bankers that the first issue would be for $2,000,000,000 and this would be merely the forerunner of a succession of loans in larger amounts. The bonds were to be put on the market at three and a half percent. and the campaigns were to be conducted according to the territories of the Federal Reserve districts, twelve in all. "It is quite likely," said the Secretary of the Treasury, "that we could induce a group of men to take up this loan but that would compromise the country before the world. We must sell to the public in such numbers that there shall exist no doubt among our enemies that our people are back of the Government as a unit in this war."