---
title: '"Come On, Boys!" Give the Guard a Fighting Chance'
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/come-on-boys-give-the-guard-a-fighting-chance-1918/
description: Ranks of uniformed National Guardsmen march toward the viewer with rifles on their shoulders, one in front waving the viewer on.
section: Collection
---

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3. "Come On, Boys!" Give the Guard a Fighting Chance

[!["Come On, Boys!" Give the Guard a Fighting Chance, 1918 US poster: Ranks of uniformed National Guardsmen march toward](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/come-on-boys-give-the-guard-a-fighting-chance-1918.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/come-on-boys-give-the-guard-a-fighting-chance-1918.jpg)

# "Come On, Boys!" Give the Guard a Fighting Chance

Ranks of uniformed National Guardsmen march toward the viewer with rifles on their shoulders, one in front waving the viewer on. The text invites the reader to 'fight alongside your friends' and states that all branches of Army service are open, presenting enlistment as joining a group already in motion.

## Propaganda techniques used in this poster

[Bandwagon](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/bandwagon/) [Identity fusion](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/identity-fusion/)

## Text on the object

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

```
"Come On, Boys!"
Give the Guard a Fighting Chance
Fight alongside Your Friends
Fill up the National Guard
ALL BRANCHES OF ARMY SERVICE ARE OPEN TO YOU.
[C]OMMITTEE OF PUBLIC SAFETY, DEPARTMENT OF MILITARY SERVICE, SOUTH PENN SQUARE, PHILADELPHIA
```

The first letter of the imprint line is cut off at the left edge of the scan (supplied here as [C] in square brackets); the remainder is read from the image and is small.

[← Come and Learn How You Can Help Our Boys at the Front: War Meeting (W.S.S.)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/come-and-learn-how-you-can-help-our-boys-war-meeting-1918/) [Come On! Buy More Liberty Bonds →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/come-on-buy-more-liberty-bonds-1918/)

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- [Consult of the doctors on the grave illness of the Grand Sultan (Consult vande medicijnen inde swaere siekte vanden grooten Sultaen)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/consult-of-the-doctors-sick-sultan-antwerp-1683/) (Spanish Netherlands · 1683 · Transfer, Bandwagon)
- ["Jackson ticket" with Hickory tree motto, Baltimore (1828)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/jackson-ticket-hickory-tree-1828/) (United States · 1828 · Bandwagon, Transfer)
- [Democratic tickets, "Go it, ye Cripples!" and "Stop Van!!!" (Ohio electors, Van Buren and Johnson), 1836](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/democratic-ticket-stop-van-van-buren-1836/) (United States · 1836 · Name-calling, Bandwagon)
- [Democratic ticket, "Going the whole hog" (Ohio electors for Van Buren and Johnson), 1836](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/democratic-ticket-whole-hog-van-buren-1836/) (United States · 1836 · Bandwagon)
- ["Political race course - Union Track - fall races 1836"](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/political-race-course-union-track-harrison-1836/) (United States · 1836 · Bandwagon, Name-calling). Content note: Partisan caricature of named politicians that uses the epithet 'Black Dan' for Daniel Webster and regional stereotypes in the speech balloons.
- ["Grand match between the Kinderhook poney and the Ohio ploughman", April 1836](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/grand-match-kinderhook-poney-ohio-ploughman-harrison-1836/) (United States · Apr 1836 · Transfer, Bandwagon)
- ['The People's Line -- Take care of the Locomotive', Whig woodcut, 1840](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/peoples-line-take-care-of-the-locomotive-1840/) (United States · 1840 · Bandwagon)
- ['The Fox Chace', Whig cartoon of Van Buren hunted by cider-barrel hounds, 1840](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/the-fox-chace-van-buren-harrison-childs-1840/) (United States · 1840 · Name-calling, Bandwagon)