"Over the Top"

Both Hobart papers used a phrase from the battlefield to describe the success of the town's latest Liberty Loan drive — "over the top." The quota for the Hobart section of Lake County had been set at $80,000 in bonds; its subscriptions, collected from 1,077 people, amounted to $90,250. And that number would have been higher had not "captain" Sam Woods, who commanded part of the Ross Township district, defected to the Crown Point section with the subscriptions he had collected, thus depriving Hobart of some of its glory and adorning Crown Point's brow with borrowed laurels. I get the sense that the Gazette had to restrain itself from calling him a traitor. (The Gazette further pointed out that if subscriptions from the nearby towns of Miller and Aetna had been reported to the Hobart section, its total would have come to about $160,000.)

Of all the "captains" who remained loyal to the Hobart section, John Dorman was far in the lead. His Ross Township district accounted for $16,800 in subscriptions. Only group efforts outdid him: "collections by women" ($17,400) and "collections at banks" ($22,150).

During the drive, John had also been occupied with politics. He was running to be a delegate to the Democratic state convention as well as a committeeman for the second precinct of Ross Township.


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Sources:
♦ "Democratic Township Candidates." Hobart Gazette 3 May 1918.
♦ "Hobart Goes Over the Top in Liberty Loan Drive." Hobart News 9 May 1918.
♦ "Hobart Section 'Over the Top' in Bond Drive." Hobart Gazette 10 May 1918.