Magazines
were widely read in early 20th century America. Among the most
prominent at the time were Collier’s and
McClure’s. While other magazines,
such as Saturday Evening Post and Atlantic
Monthly were also widely read, in the
interest of time, I have selected focusing on these two magazines for their
wide circulation, slightly different tones, and generally pro-war positions.
Magazines
such as these led the charge in explaining bond purchase and ownership to the
public in a clear, detailed way. Explaining the necessity of giving to the
point of sacrifice for the cause, banker Thomas Lamont was able to explain loan
purchases in relation to other countries in Collier’s. “We must all realize that individual economy, thrift,
and saving of pennies, collected in units of dollars and invested in loans to
the Government, will shorten and help win the war,” he wrote.[1]
He explained that Britain gave 40% of the nation’s (considerably smaller)
income to the war effort, and though this may have been prompted by the volume
of death they were experiencing, “must we in America wait until our casualty
lists begin to come in before we can rouse ourselves to this same wholehearted
support of the Government?”[2]
If
encouraging people to support the government in the interest of
self-preservation was an effective tool, so was self-interest. Paul Tomlinson,
in McClure’s financial column,
explained that “Patriotism usually implies self-sacrifice and denial, but a
Liberty Bond presents the unique opportunity not only of aiding our country
materially, but of benefiting ourselves as is possible in no other way.”[3]
Bond purchasing wasn’t just helping American soldiers in the trenches defend
the American way of life, it was also a sound economic investment. There was
money to be made in the war, and every American could get in on the spoils.
In the same column, Albert Atwood also avoided
patriotic sympathy altogether, and went right to America’s old favorite
motivator of profit. To argue nobility in making a sound investment was
dangerous. War bond sales “may, probably will, create habits among the American
people for which there has been a bitter need. But it is very dangerous to
argue much beyond this point.”[4]
In a message echoed in the column throughout the war, Atwood, like Street
arguing against “doing your bit” posters, saw a risk in equating buying bonds
to military service.
Atwood
was in the minority in his condemnation. While occasional protests about the
inequality in sacrifice between bondholding and serving (such as the criticism
of “do your bit”), and a smattering of arguments in favor of higher taxation
instead of bonds appeared, Liberty Loans were usually supported and praised.
The
essence of the loan program was “Work! Save!! Win!!!” explained the Collier’s
editorial page in one of their
frequent pushes to sell bonds. “This Liberty Loan is a double-save. You lend
our Government the money which you are earning but not spending during the next
few months, and the Government will buy for our armed forces the goods which
you made to earn that money but which you did not use up because you saved that
money and put it in the loan. That’s the whole truth of it. The old road of
economic thrift is the road of victory for us in this war, and these Liberty
Bonds are its milestones.”[5]
Not
only was buying bonds good for the war, went the argument, it was also good for
the future. You were buying yourself some financial stability after the war to
purchase those things you couldn’t during the fight. In the meantime, “You put
up your money for the best goods mankind has ever known – justice for all
peoples, freedom from tyranny and fear, and you get these engraved papers.”
They didn’t miss the opportunity to point out that others were giving their
lives.[6]
Magazines
were also effective in letting the public know of coming drives. Collier’s made a habit of announcing coming bond drives on the
bottom of their covers for months at a time, and regularly gave free or
discounted ad space for the cause.
“Every
week and almost every day, the newspapers and magazines that circulate through
this country carry pages of unpaid matter which urge investment in our national
loans,” read one editorial. In doing so, magazines served as “Uncle Sam’s
Billboard,” promoting the products of war and Liberty Bonds.[7]
In
this capacity, magazines echoed some of the less savory depictions of Germans.
One particularly anti-German ad, which was produced by the Division of
Advertising (a division of the CPI), promoted the Fourth Liberty Loan by using
what was by then an old standby bugbear of a hulking subhuman attacking a woman
and child. Under it read “This is Kultur.” Harkening back to the alleged “Rape
of Belgium,” the ad goes on: “Such a civilization is not fit to live. And, god
willing, it shall be mended or ended. To this task America summons every loyal
heart and hand. It is a Crusade, not merely to re-win the tomb of Christ, but
to bring back to earth the rule of right, the peace, good will to men and
gentleness He taught.”[8]
As the war drew to a close, magazines like Collier’s distributed government propaganda attacking and
degrading Germans. They had a fierce and un-Christian appearance. The use of
the German word “Kultur” too was new, and certainly couldn’t have helped
German-Americans struggling to justify maintaining their language and culture.
Indeed,
before this ad circulated, magazines were attacking the German language in
America. Mr. Tarkington of the Vigilantes wrote of all Americans’ suspicion of
disloyalty among German-Americans, which led them to “instinctively shiver when
he hears the German language spoken.”[9]
The
magazines also did their best to explain what it was we were seeing and dealing
with. While Collier’s characterized
someone unfamiliar with Liberty Bonds as “either an idiot or a freak,”[10]
they promptly retracted such an attack on the American public for whom they
were tasked with explaining things.
McClure’s
explained that previous depictions of
allies England and France were false, as well. Denouncing the gnashed-teeth and
glasses of old Teddy Roosevelt cartoons, goateed French and mutton-chopped English
caricatures, Julian Street explained “It is a good thing for us to discard the
old rubber-stamps now and then. And it pretty well nearly takes a war to make
us do it.”[11] He stayed
notably silent about the newly developed “rubber-stamps” the propagandists had
created of America’s enemies.
Winning
the Money War on All Fronts
The
United States Government put forth a massive war effort, expanding their budget
twenty fold, changing the role of the government and how we mobilize for all
time. While there were problems in relaying the message the government was
trying to communicate, the sales of Liberty Loans to fund the war must be
considered a success. Though there was some anti-German and pacifist violence
(one such “unexceptional” attack occurred in May, 1918, when a woman in Canton,
Ohio was wrapped in an American flag by a group of clerks, dragged to the bank,
and forced to purchase a $50 Liberty Bond), it was kept at a minimum and never
sanctioned by the government. Meanwhile, the American people succeeded in an
endeavor to raise what one writer called “the largest loan ever intrusted [sic]
to any government in the world.”[12]
Through the loosely managed American home front, the United States entered its
first major war in Europe as a wealthy but naïve adolescent nation.
Under the direction of the CPI and its allies, they
went to work and they saved. In saving in through the Liberty Loans, the U.S.
Government was able to raise a third of its needed war-funding without having
to pay back exorbitant interest rates, and simultaneously established the roots
of a borrowing infrastructure that they would need to rely on just a few
decades later in World War II.
[1] Thomas W.
Lamont. “A Government Bond for Everybody,” Collier’s Magazine, October 20, 1917, 7.
[2] Thomas W.
Lamont, 7.
[3] Paul
Tomlinson. “Our Fighting Dollars,” McClure’s Magazine. March, 1918, 32.
[4] Albert W.
Atwood. “Profit and Patriotism,” McClure’s Magazine. July, 1917, 60.
[5] ---,
“Lending to Justice,” Collier’s Magazine.
October 20, 1917, 10.
[6] ---, “In
Words of One Syllable,” Collier’s Magazine.
October 20, 1917, 10.
[7] ---, “Uncle
Sam’s Billboard.” Collier’s Magazine, September
14, 1918, 16.
[8] Division of
Advertising, “This Is Kultur.” Collier’s Magazine. September 28, 1918, back inside cover.
[9] Booth
Tarkington, 52.
[10] ---,
“Planning for Liberty Loans,” Collier’s Magazine. April 27, 1918, 10.
[11] Julian
Street. “Our Fighting Posters,” McClure’s Magazine, July 1918, 12.
[12] ---, “Uncle
Sam as Ben Franklin,” Collier’s Magazine,
December 8, 1917, 10.
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