The work done by the National Woman’s Liberty Loan Committee, of which more detailed description is given in the chapter dealing with “The Work of Women for the War,” deserves mention here because of the importance of its contribution to the success of the loans. When the committee was appointed by the Secretary of the Treasury in May, 1917, it was made independent of all other loan organizations and given the status of a Bureau of the United States Treasury. It was a unique pioneer, for it was the first executive committee of women in the Government of the United States. When it was established the campaign for the First Liberty Loan was already in full swing, but it made a beginning, produced some good results and then bent its energies to thorough organization. It had a county chairman in practically every one of the thirty-two hundred counties in the United States, with 49,500 associate chairmen organizing subordinate units, and in cities, towns, villages, farming regions, mountain and desert districts, its members canvassed for subscriptions from house to house, by carriage, by motor, by horseback and on foot, in rain or shine, in mud or dust. In the Fourth Liberty Loan campaign there were nearly 1,000,000 working members of the Woman’s Committee, every one of whom was busy as organizer, or canvasser, or both. In the Second Liberty Loan the organization was officially credited with the raising of $1,000,000,000 and in the Third Loan with a similar sum, while in the Fourth the Woman’s Committee sold bonds to the amount of $1,500,000,000. The total contribution of the Committee to the three loans for which it worked was, therefore, one-fourth of the total asked for these three loans and only a slightly smaller proportion of the total subscriptions. One of the most significant factors in the financing of the war was the contribution of the War Savings Societies. For what they gave was the result of small economies and of a thrift for which the American people have never been notable. Wasteful and prodigal beyond any other nation, America, asked to economize for the sake of her soldiers, began saving pennies and nickels and quarters as nobody had ever dreamed she could, or would. The National War Savings Committee was appointed by the Secretary of the Treasury in December, 1917, and under it state, county, city and town committees were soon organized. All their members began preaching and practicing the gospel of thrift and asking men, women and children to save in every possible way and invest the results of their small savings and economies in thrift stamps costing twenty-five cents each. Sixteen of these stamps were exchangeable, with a cash payment of a few cents, for a war savings certificate redeemable in five years at a value of five dollars.