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Show fh opporuttffy for yours ef- to the mayor of Philadelphia to have the bell sent to the Panama-Pacific Panama-Pacific exposition. Symbol of Freedom There and on its journey by rail to and from the Golden Gate, an estimated 17,000,000 Americans turned out to see the bell. Since New Year's, 1926, when it was struck 18 times with a rubber-tipped rubber-tipped gold mallet to spell out the new year, it has not been sounded directly, nor is it likely to be again. A trip across a continent, the voice of sorrow and happiness, stolen and cast into a river, the first to proclaim freedom all that is but a part of its history. And it continues to serve its country. Today To-day it is the symbol telling Americans Ameri-cans to purchase savings bonds to insure their freedom and independence. inde-pendence. Fifty-two replicas of the bell have been donated to the savings sav-ings bond cause and are now on tour of the country. The bells, one for each state, one for the District of Columbia, and one each for Alaska, Hawaii Ha-waii and Puerto Rico, are exact ex-act copies of the original; the crack is indicated on the surface; sur-face; the bells ring and are harmonically tuned. The tour of the replicas, which will end July 4, will enable millions mil-lions of Americans, who have never nev-er seen the original bell and might never get to Philadelphia to see it, to inspect an exact copy of this most hallowed of our historic relics. rel-ics. Since its return from the San Francisco exposition in 19J5, the bell has not been allowed to leave Philadelphia. Since October 10, 1917, when it was the star attraction attrac-tion in Philadelphia's first liberty loan parade during the first World War, it has not even left its shrine in Independence Hall, because of the danger of further cracking of the historic relic. Made in France On the last journey in 1915, a six-armed iron spider was fastened to the clapper bolt inside its crown, with arms hooked under the lip of the bell to distribute the strain of its weight, 2080 pounds, more evenly. The bells now on tour of the nation na-tion were made at the foundry of the Sons of George Paccard at Annecy-le-Vieux in France. Dr. Arthur L. Bigelow, professor of engineering and bellmaster of Princeton university, made the measurements and drawings from which the new bells were made. Andrew J. Dunn, director of the labor section of the U. S. savings bonds division in Washington, and its liaison officer with the American Federation of Labor, went to France to expedite the production and shipment of the bells to this country. To symbolize for millions of Americans the idea of thrift which is essential to Independence, Indepen-dence, the replicas will have visited 2,000 communities during dur-ing the nation-wide tour. Authorities report the, bells, because be-cause of the painstaking, old-world production, sound exactly like the Liberty Bell would if it could be rung. They attributed this to the fact the bells are of the same com position as the original, 85 plus per cent copper, and that their con struction gives the same tone. Millions of Americans will thrill to the sound that the people of Philadelphia heard when the original bell proclaimed liberty "throughout all" the land and to all the inhabitants thereof." At the conclusion of the bond drive on July 4, the secretary of the treasury will lend one bell to each state and territory for perma nent exhibit. |