The Fourth Liberty Loan drive during World War I was under way in York County and so was the Spanish flu, as this newspaper ad states. Background posts: Single shell killed two York countians in World War I and Well-known doctor, York, Pa.'s Edmund Meisenhelder, beat back flu and York's Spanish flu epidemic of 1918: 'It remains one of the darkest periods for White Rose residents'.
In the fall of 1918, leading York businessman Grier Hersh had a problem.
He faced a fourth Liberty Loan drive goal of $8.7 million. Those funds would be used to prosecute World War I.
He planned for church bells to ring a 7 p.m. each night to remind citizens of that goal. Military planes would drop "propaganda bombs" on the city.
"But all these well-laid plans came to naught," Carl E. Hatch and Joseph Hicks wrote in "World War I: York, Pennsylvania's Response."
The Spanish flu hit York... .
