Kennewick Crushes Liberty Loan Goal
Despite being a community of borrowers rather than investors, local residents exceed their financial quota to support the war effort.
We are just beginning to know and understand the temperament, the loyalty, the dependability—the real worth—of the people of the Kennewick district. When the Red Cross war drive was organized, when the committee was told the amount allotted to this district, they answered 'It can’t be done.' They went to work and the people answered with subscriptions more than double the quota. When the second Liberty Loan campaign was organized, the committee again said, 'It can’t be done.' Again the people answered with bond purchases nearly $25,000 in excess of the community’s quota. To date the Kennewick people, with splendid loyalty and commendable effectiveness, have responded to every call and met every demand the great war work has made upon them. While the bond campaign called for loans and not contributions, in many cases the purchase of bonds will mean not a little self-denial. This community is a borrowing and not an investing one; there is no surplus and the bank deposits in the main are working capital and not accumulated profits. And yet the community more than met the demand made upon it.
“This community is a borrowing and not an investing one. There is no surplus and the bank deposits in the main is working capital and not accumulated profits.”
During World War I, Kennewick was a small, capital-constrained town that leveraged its community spirit to meet national war financing goals. Today, Kennewick is a rapidly growing regional hub, but the tension between local economic reality and national civic expectations remains a recurring theme in its development history.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.