A longtime reader sent me this fascinating email:
Yowza. Over the past few years, the North American Vexillological Association has had a few articles in their newsletter dealing with the flags awarded for war bond drives during both World Wars. The latest issue reports on how, at Bethlehem Steel, indivduals who didn’t buy bonds were tarred, ducked, and, eventually, hung in effigy. (“Number six shop, not to be outdone, also had a hanging and the two figures swung by their artificial necks for several days.”) There’s even a photo of an effigy hanging from a flagpole.
Both William McAdoo and his father-in-law, Woodrow Wilson, are cited in the article. Surprise, surprise.
I asked him if all this was online and he replied:
The NAVA article itself isn’t online, but the industry magazine cited within it, which has all the good stuff, is online [Here].
The picture of the dangling effigy is on the back cover, and the article is on page 2, but the whole issue is an orgy of Wilson-era LF.
Also cited in the NAVA article is a speech by Wilson [here] , which has the lines “They will look with reprobation and contempt upon those who can and will not, upon those who demand a higher rate of interest, upon those who think of it as a mere commercial transaction.”
I’m in Sioux Falls, and need to work before bed, but I thought readers would dig this.