A group of men in Seward county held a meeting around the holiday season in 1917, shortly after the appointment of count}- chairmen and local committees, to devise ways and means to meet the quota in Seward county, accepted the suggestion of Mr. W. H. Brokaw, now director of the Agricultural Extension Department of the State University and Farm Bureau work. They drew a plan from this idea, to conduct a preliminary campaign of education and follow it with a set date, upon which there would be called a meeting simultaneously, for the same day and hour, in every school district of the count}-, and each district would endeavor to subscribe to its quota then and there. This plan worked so successfully in Seward count}- in January, 1918. that Seward county's early response to her quota attracted the attention of Ward M. Burgess (of M. E. Smith & Company", Omaha), who had been made state director. Upon inquiry and presentation of this plan to Mr. Burgess, he decided to give it a try-out in the
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
state of Nebraska. A state-wide campaign of education was conducted for six weeks. and on March 22, 1918, practically every count}- in the state except Seward, held these meetings and subscribed its (junta, and the state of Nebraska was the first state to go over the top on the War Savings Stamps. The success of the Nebraska plan so attracted the attention of those in charge of the national campaign, that Mr. Burgess was called east to assume charge of its application to the nation and a second date set for the War Savings Stamps campaign, in every state in the Union except Nebraska. In this campaign, as in the others. Kimball county followed the policy of having a large percentage of her quota subscribed ahead of the date and went over easily.