This Week in Texas Methodist History  October 7

Methodist Church in Paducah Hosts War Bond Rally,  Oct 6, 1918

World War I was in its final stages.  The Allies had mounted a final push to try to end the horrific stalemate which had gone on for four years and had already resulted in millions of causalities.   On Sunday night, October 6, a giant rally was held in the MECS  Church in Paducah.   The account in the Paducah Post reported that the rally consisted of music and speeches full of “spice and snap.”  The program “made the audience “hate the Kaiser all the more.”  Promoting any kind of hatred in the church seems odd, but another article on the front page of the Post goes even further.   J. W. Hoopes of the Federal Reserve Bank called the Kaiser an “unnatural degenerate.”    One should remember how strong the anti-German sentiment was.  About 70 miles from Paducah, the town of Brandenburg changed its name to Old Glory.  German language instruction was banned in the public schools, and some German-Texans were forced to kiss the American flag to show their loyalty.  At least a few German-Texans bought war bonds because of pressure to show their patriotism, although there was no evidence of German-Texan fifth column activity.

On Monday, October 7, the rally continued.  Stores closed at 12:00 so the population could go watch an airplane land.  Two aviators from Call Field in Wichita Falls flew to Paducah in support of the rally.  

This episode naturally makes us remember how our nation has funded its wars.  In both World War I and World War II there were bond drives which have much in common with Methodist pledge drives.  Musical entertainment, stirring oratory, and lots of competitions between communities were all part of the process in both national and church fund drives.

The bond drives and pledge drives depended upon a broad based reservoir of support.  Both had significant impacts.  For example, just one year later the Methodist denominations staged the largest coordinated fund drive of all, the Centenary Campaign in support of missions.  Thousands of mission projects were initiated.  When the enthusiasm of the campaign waned and the Depression set in, many of those mission projects were abandoned.   

A main result of the bond drives after World War I and World War II was enforced savings.  During World War II the conversion of factories producing consumer goods to military goods created shortages in products from tires to nylon stockings.  Overtime wages earned in the cause of military production and enforced savings meant that after World War II there was a pent up demand for consumer goods desired by a population with accumulated savings, a sure recipe for both inflation and increased investment in factories to produce consumer goods.   

From the Methodist perspective, there was also a pent up demand for new church buildings.  The Depression and World War II had slowed new church construct.  In the period 1946-1956 Texas Methodists went on a building spree, financed, in part, by contributions made possible by the accumulation of wealth through war bond sales.