DISTRIBUTION OF 15,000,000 HAND GRENADES STOPS

War Department Cancels Contract to Supply Treasury With Bombs

San Francisco—The War Department has refused to proceed with the delivery of 15,000,000 hand grenades to the Treasury Department for conversion into savings banks to stimulate thrift and the sales of War Savings Stamps, according to a telegram received by C. A. Farnsworth, associate director of the War Loan Organization of the Twelfth Federal Reserve District. A contract which the Treasury Department had with the War Department was cancelled.

The grenades, filled with TNT, were ready for shipment to American Expeditionary Forces when the armistice was signed. The plan of the Treasury Department was to convert these grenades into savings banks by removing the explosive and to offer them as souvenirs of the war to purchasers of War Saving Stamps and Treasury Savings Certificates of the 1919 series. The plan met with instantaneous success throughout the country, millions of them having been ordered. They were to be awarded through banks and trust companies which in the Twelfth Federal Reserve District alone ordered nearly 100,000 of them. These orders will all have to he cancelled.

"To say that I am disappointed is putting it lightly," said Farnsworth. "The demand for the grenades was tremendous, which proved that they were an excellent means of stimulating the habit of saving and investment in government securities. Moreover, they were the best possible souvenirs of the war. However, a Certificate of Achievement to be signed by Secretary Glass will be given instead of the grenades to the person who would be entitled to a grenade."

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