The one point where the objective was not reached was on the right of the attack in the Belleau Wood. The fiercest fighting is continuing here….

Chapter 26

FIRST NATIONAL BANK OF PINE RAPIDS
101 W. First Street, Pine Rapids
Monday, June 24, 1918

A June day, so glorious that all the bank’s windows are open, even the windows in the conference room where John Mickelson is meeting with his vice president, Odell Drake, and cashier Hal Lundholm. A warm breeze—like a miracle, after the long, frozen winter—dances through the building, tickling customers and tellers into laughter, friendly conversation. Everyone feeling looser, more at ease, really beginning to thaw. One of the first truly warm days they’ve had, warm enough that John has removed his jacket and rolled up his shirtsleeves, and he can’t help but feel the fortune and glory of living.

But it’s easy enough to feel fortunate when you’re president of the First National Bank of Pine Rapids and watching your numbers climb steadily up, since Secretary of the Treasury McAdoo has been telling Americans to borrow from their local banks to buy Liberty bonds. “A man who can’t lend his government a dollar twenty-five per week at four percent interest is not entitled to be an American citizen,” the secretary has said, and movie stars such as Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks are saying the same thing, inciting rallies to such patriotic fervor as has never been seen. Even here in Pine Rapids, people are buying bonds at a rate John would not have anticipated. The First National Bank of Pine Rapids happily lends citizens the money to buy all the bonds they want, and then happily rediscounts the same bonds at the Federal Reserve district bank downstate. It is much more profitable than financing the small farms in the area that almost invariably fail.

John has hung a service banner with two blue stars in the bank’s window, representing Jack and Chase, and makes it a point to personally thank each person who comes in to buy a Liberty bond, on behalf of his boys. Everyone wants to know how the boys are doing, of course, and John’s pride is expansive, thinking about, talking about them. “They’re doing great! Having a grand time!” he was able to report, throughout the past winter. “Seeing a lot of France! Meeting so many French people! They’re billeted in a new place just about every week, with a new French family, and marching all day every day, you know, training, getting in shape. They say the French people are wonderful! They’ve heard the sounds of the guns at the front lines a few times, but they haven’t seen any action yet.”