---
title: Children Bear the Promise of a Better World
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/children-bear-the-promise-1941/
description: Landscape home-front sheet headed 'Children Bear the Promise of a Better World', with tan silhouettes of children and adults walking across a list of nine
section: Collection
---

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3. Children Bear the Promise of a Better World

[![Children Bear the Promise of a Better World, 1941 US poster: Landscape home-front sheet headed 'Children Bear the Promise](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/children-bear-the-promise-1941.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/children-bear-the-promise-1941.jpg)

# Children Bear the Promise of a Better World

Landscape home-front sheet headed 'Children Bear the Promise of a Better World', with tan silhouettes of children and adults walking across a list of nine 'Defend them from...' lines, nine 'Make them' words (SAFE, HEALTHY, FREE, TOLERANT and others) and nine 'And they shall...' outcomes. The technique is glittering generalities: virtue words tied to national goals such as democracy and a free society.

## Propaganda techniques used in this poster

[Glittering generalities](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/glittering-generalities/)

## Text on the object

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

```
Children Bear The Promise
Of A Better World
What Are We Doing To Defend Them?
Defend them from external danger / Make them SAFE / And they shall live to achieve the goals of our democracy
Defend them from accident and disease / Make them HEALTHY / And their health shall insure a sound people for the future
Defend them from hunger and undernourishment / Make them STRONG / And as men and women they shall be equal to the work of the world
Defend them from insecure home life / Make them CONFIDENT / And their self-reliance shall strengthen our free society
Defend them from poor schooling / Make them PREPARED / And their knowledge and skill shall build a finer Nation
Defend them from lack of wholesome play / Make them HAPPY / And they shall learn to pull together for the common welfare
Defend them from child labor and other bars to opportunity / Make them FREE / And they shall help bring about equal opportunity for all youth
Defend them from bad neighborhood influences / Make them UPRIGHT / And they shall have the character to guard our way of life
Defend them from prejudice / Make them TOLERANT / And they shall respect freedom as the birthright of all
OUR CONCERN EVERY CHILD
U. S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
CHILDREN'S BUREAU
[imprint:] U. S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE : 1941—O—424093
```

[← Child-labor standards for the nation's children](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/child-labor-standards-1941/) [Chuck it in the trash can →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/chuck-it-in-the-trash-can-1941/)

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- [Gypsum alabaster slab inscribed in cuneiform, from Nimrud (Kalhu), reign of Ashurnasirpal II](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/nimrud-slab-ashurnasirpal-ii-inscription-883bce/) (Neo Assyrian Empire · 0000 · Transfer, Glittering generalities)
- [Colour lithograph of the Latin text of the Res Gestae Divi Augusti on the wall of the temple of Roma and Augustus at Ancyra, with the heading in large letters (Perrot, Guillaume and Delbet, 1872)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/lithograph-res-gestae-ancyra-heading-0014/) (Roman Empire · 0014 · Card stacking, Glittering generalities)
- [Bronze sestertius of Trajan, reverse S P Q R OPTIMO PRINCIPI, S C, the emperor on horseback riding down an enemy](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sestertius-trajan-optimo-principi-0103/) (Roman Empire · 0103 · Testimonial, Glittering generalities)
- [Gold solidus of Constantine I, reverse RESTITVTORI LIBERTATIS](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/solidus-constantine-i-restitutori-libertatis-0313/) (Roman Empire · 0313 · Glittering generalities)
- [Gold solidus of Justinian I, reverse VICTORIA AVGGG with Victory holding a Christogram staff](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/solidus-justinian-i-victoria-avggg-0538/) (Byzantine Empire · 0538 · Transfer, Glittering generalities)
- [The Armada Portrait of Elizabeth I (Royal Museums Greenwich version), oil on panel](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/armada-portrait-elizabeth-i-greenwich-1588/) (England · 1588 · Transfer, Glittering generalities)
- [Medal of Elizabeth I: portrait in a ruff, reverse an ark on stormy waves with SAEVAS TRANQVILLA PER VNDAS (18th-century aftercast of a 1588 model)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/elizabeth-i-ark-medal-aftercast-1588/) (England · 1588 · Transfer, Glittering generalities)
- [Frontispiece to Eikon Basilike, The Pourtraicture of His Sacred Majestie in his Solitudes and Sufferings (Hollar, 1649)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/eikon-basilike-frontispiece-hollar-1649/) (Dutch Republic · 1649 · Transfer, Glittering generalities)