---
title: The Accusing Finger of Conscience
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/accusing-finger-of-conscience-save-fats-1917/
description: A pen-and-ink drawing shows a huge hand pointing down from a swirl of smoke, with a gaunt, wailing face at its wrist.
section: Collection
---

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3. The Accusing Finger of Conscience

**Content note:** A drawing of a gaunt, wailing face with a large accusing hand, as issued, depicting starvation in Europe. This object is shown as it was published. [Why](https://propagandaarchive.org/about/#as-it-was)

[![The Accusing Finger of Conscience, 1917 US poster: A pen-and-ink drawing shows a huge hand pointing down from a swirl](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/accusing-finger-of-conscience-save-fats-1917.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/accusing-finger-of-conscience-save-fats-1917.jpg)

# The Accusing Finger of Conscience

A pen-and-ink drawing shows a huge hand pointing down from a swirl of smoke, with a gaunt, wailing face at its wrist, above text asking readers to save fats because glycerine for explosives is made from them. The poster ties a household cooking choice to hunger in Europe and to the reader's conscience ('God and Conscience witness every action'). The tell is the guilt appeal: the pointing finger puts the reader personally in the dock.

## Propaganda techniques used in this poster

[Fear appeal](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/fear-appeal/) [Transfer](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/transfer/)

## Text on the object

Original (English) · read from the image, not independently checked

```
The Accusing Finger of Conscience

There is no knowing when horrifying news may be flashed over the cables from battle-torn Europe—our own boys are in the front line trenches now.

Bold headlines and harrowing details may herald the torturing death of thousands from starvation as well as bullets—the weakened, emaciated condition of allied soldiers—perhaps our own—FROM THE LACK OF FOOD.

Then YOU may be brought face to face with the terrible realization of a neglected duty—if you don't CONSERVE FOOD NOW.

God and Conscience Witness Every Action

When the shock comes will the silent, tormenting, blunt-pointed finger of conscience—and this accusation would agonize the devil himself—make you shrink from it shuddering with shame, guilt and stinging regret that you didn't even do so little as spare an unnoticeable quantity of certain foods which the government so urgently requested and fully explained why?
Surely no American whose veins are coursed with red blood will permit this indelible stain.

The Authorities Ask That You Save Fats

Glycerine, one of the Chief Substances Used in Making Explosives, is made from Fats
So if Each Person Will Use One-Third of an Ounce Less of Fats from Meat a Day
The Government Will Have 395,000 Tons More of Fats to Use for Glycerine in a Year—They Need It.

When you buy meats tell the butcher you will trim of the fats. Use more vegetable fats and oils for cooking. Conditions are serious, and growing more so each day—it is imperative that you comply with the government requests to conserve particular foods—concerted action on the food question is very vital in winning this war.

Relieve the Present Menacing Situation and Prevent Future Distress by Conserving Food

This space was cheerfully contributed in the interests of a most vital question—food conservation—by a group of ten men.

[artist's signature at right of the drawing, approximately: Frederick H. Spiegle; the copyright line beneath it is [illegible]]
```

The artist's signature is lettered below the drawing and is read approximately; the small copyright line beneath it is not legible and is marked [illegible].

[← A Wonderful Opportunity for You. Ashore, On Leave. United States Navy](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/a-wonderful-opportunity-for-you-us-navy-1917/) [All About Liberty Bonds →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/all-about-liberty-bonds-1917/)

## More propaganda examples that use the same techniques

- [Miniature of Pope Urban II at the Council of Clermont, Les Passages d'outremer (BnF Fr. 5594, fol. 19r)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/passages-doutremer-council-of-clermont-colombe-1474/) (France · 1474 · Testimonial, Fear appeal). Content note: Medieval religious imagery and a French text describing alleged killings and captivity of eastern Christians, as used to argue for the First Crusade; the text is shown as written.
- [Anacoana fut pendue sans raison (engraving in Le miroir de la cruelle et horrible tyrannie espagnole)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/anacoana-hanged-miroir-tyrannie-espagnole-1620/) (Dutch Republic · 1620 · Fear appeal, Name-calling). Content note: Engraving of a hanged, bare-breasted Taino woman, burning huts and people being killed by Spanish soldiers.
- [Der Warner (broadsheet lampoon on the Jesuits after Breitenfeld and Rain)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/der-warner-anti-jesuit-broadsheet-1632/) (Holy Roman Empire · 1632 · Scapegoating, Fear appeal)
- [Sans-Culottes, feeding Europe with the Bread of Liberty (James Gillray)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sans-culottes-bread-of-liberty-gillray-1793/) (Kingdom of Great Britain · Jan 12, 1793 · Fear appeal, Name-calling)
- [Proclamation de Sonthonax en créole, Cap-Français (Proclamation of Commissioner Sonthonax in Creole)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sonthonax-proclamation-creole-1793/) (France · Aug 29, 1793 · Fear appeal, Scapegoating). Content note: Colonial-era proclamation on slavery and emancipation in Saint-Domingue; speaks of slaves, whips and 'Nègues' in period terms.
- [Gazette of the United States, "The Jeffersoniad" no. VIII, 14 August 1800](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/gazette-us-jeffersoniad-1800/) (United States · Aug 14, 1800 · Name-calling, Fear appeal)
- [Tyrants Prostrate, Liberty Triumphant (pro-Polk cartoon on Dorr), 1844](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/tyrants-prostrate-liberty-triumphant-polk-1844/) (United States · 1844 · Name-calling, Fear appeal). Content note: Speech balloons contain anti-Catholic and nativist wording ('the ruins of Popery') in the mouths of the Whig figures, written by a Democratic cartoonist and shown unaltered.
- [Brolej Žemajčiaj! (Brothers Samogitians!): hand-painted broken-cross poster](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/brolej-zemajciaj-broken-cross-1862/) (Russian Empire · 1862 · Fear appeal, Transfer)