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
- Date
- 1941
- Period
- Second World War
- Made by
- U.S. Department of Labor, Children's Bureau
- Region
- North America
- Country
- United States
- Medium
- Poster
- Issuer type
- State
- Regime
- Roosevelt Administration
- Leader
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Persuade or win support
- Themes
- Home front, Health
- Event
- World War II
- Regime
- Roosevelt administration
- Leader
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Source
- Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- Source
- U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, Record Group 44, World War II Posters, retrieved October 4, 2026
- Rights
- Public domain (U.S. government work)
U.S. Department of Labor, Children's Bureau. National Archives and Records Administration, RG 44, 44-PA-572 (NAID 514052).
Text on the object
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
