“Work! Save!! Win!!!”: Selling the Cost of World War I in America - Part 3: Boy Scouts and Other Children

Boy Scouts & Child Bond Sellers

            Secretary McAdoo and George Creel, as we have seen, often stumbled upon fundraising approaches from outside sources. Indeed, Creel complained in his memoir of the “flood of people that poured into Washington during the war, each burdened with some wonderful suggestion that could be imparted only to an executive head.” Though he conceded it was their “right as citizens, but it was equally the case that the idea might have real value.”[1] Such was the case with the Boy Scouts.

A Boy Scout aides Lady Liberty in raising
War Funds.

            As bond sellers, the Boy Scouts were perfect. In line with their mission, President Wilson lauded giving “every Scout a wonderful opportunity to do his share for his country under the slogan ‘Every Scout to Save a Soldier.’”[2] Not only could they save soldiers; they could do it for free.

            Initially, the young bond salesmen were unsuccessful. Apparently, they had a tendency to lose their nerve after knocking on the door. Partnering remedied the problem, and scout tandems sold 139,654 bond subscriptions worth over $23 million in the First Liberty Loan.[3]

“Work! Save!! Win!!!”: Selling the Cost of World War I in America - Part 2: Four-Minute Men

Four-Minute Men

            Visuals weren’t the only approach the government used to sell Liberty Bonds. They had salesmen in the flesh, as well.  The so-called “Four-Minute Men” were a masterful collaboration between the Committee of Public Information and local volunteer groups.

A poster promoting the Four Minute Men.
Courtesy of Library of Congress.

            Initially proposed to Committee of Public Information (CPI) director George Creel by a stranger named Donald Ryerson, the idea was initially to have a respected member of the community speak during the four minutes it took to change silent movie reels at a movie theater. During that time, a slide explaining that the man would be speaking for four minutes was projected on the screen, and declared approved by the CPI.[1]

While the organization was not exclusively aimed to sell bonds, it did spend almost four of the program’s 17 active months during the war doing precisely that.[2] Like the posters advertising the Liberty Loans, the Four-Minute Men were generally positive and fact-based in the beginning, focusing on the impressive achievements of the American people and the needs of their allies. As time went on though, instructions from the CPI became more colored with negative depictions of Germans, and atrocity stories were greatly encouraged.[3]

“Work! Save!! Win!!!”: Selling the Cost of World War I in America - Part 1: Introduction and Posters

Woodrow Wilson was less than a month into his second administration as President of the United States when he asked Congress to declare war on Germany. It was an unlikely position for the President, who had, in his inaugural address, just reaffirmed the nation’s neutrality in Europe’s war.[1] His famous reelection campaign slogan, “He Kept Us Out of War,” was suddenly replaced by an appeal to make the world “safe for democracy.”[2]

            At the time, The United States had very little in the way of a standing army, which was reflected in their annual budget. On the day that Congress passed the declaration of war on Germany, the entire national budget was $1 billon. Just a year later, war spending would force it to increase by 2000% to $20 billion.[3]

Figure 1 - Poster promoting Liberty Bonds.
All images in this post courtesy
of Library of Congress. 

Raising revenues by such an extreme amount proved a daunting task for the Treasury Department, but Secretary George McAdoo, along with the newly minted Department of Public Information, popular magazines and newspapers, and home front armies of volunteers from organizations like the Boy Scouts, The Four-Minute Men, and local bond drive organizers effectively sold bonds over the course of America’s 18-month involvement “over there” through posters, editorials, articles, lectures, social events, and door-to-door sales. These efforts, as we will see, played on a wide range of emotions and beliefs of Americans, ranging from pride in community and nation, to guilt and obligation, to depictions of belligerent enemies as monsters, non-Europeans, and amoral.  

            Regardless of their angle, these varied and often decentralized approaches at fundraising were all directed at The Department of Treasury’s “Liberty Loans”, of which heavy-loaded requests for purchase were made of the American people four times from April 24, 1917 to September 28, 1918.

Read about posters after the jump!