---
title: In the Name of God, the Father, Have Pity
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/in-the-name-of-god-the-father-have-pity-1917/
description: A text-heavy broadside under a large red 'HAVE PITY' carries six small photographs of ruined Belgian towns and relief queues.
section: Collection
---

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3. In the Name of God, the Father, Have Pity

[![In the Name of God, the Father, Have Pity, 1917 US poster: A text-heavy broadside under a large red 'HAVE PITY' carries six](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/in-the-name-of-god-the-father-have-pity-1917.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/in-the-name-of-god-the-father-have-pity-1917.jpg)

# In the Name of God, the Father, Have Pity

A text-heavy broadside under a large red 'HAVE PITY' carries six small photographs of ruined Belgian towns and relief queues, and an appeal from Belgian workingmen to American workingmen. It ties giving to national identity with the question 'Are You An American?' and states that every cent goes to food for the Belgians.

## Propaganda techniques used in this poster

[Fear appeal](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/fear-appeal/) [Identity fusion](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/identity-fusion/)

## Text on the object

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

```
IN THE NAME OF GOD, THE FATHER
HAVE PITY
The workingmen of Belgium appeal for the lives of their wives
and babies to the big-hearted workingmen of America.

Before the war Belgium was a famous manufacturing center. Her people among the most prosperous and industrious in the world. Today no business is carried on. An armed guard with the power of life or death stands at every corner. They may not go from town to town nor from village to village. Great strands of barbed wire charged with electricity enclose their frontiers, shutting off all avenues of escape.
Unable to work and unable to flee, all that stands between them and starvation is the World's Charity
Three million destitute working people are being fed under the protection of the American Flag
Their daily ration is 1 pt. of soup and three slices of bread. Of these 1,250,000 are children. These children are fed in the schools, once every twenty-four hours.
There IS SO LITTLE FOOD
that only those children who need it most, MAY HAVE IT. Those who are overweight are taken out of the lines, until their weight is reduced. May be one, or perhaps two or three days.
Only those who are underweight and facing starvation may have food.
Tuberculosis is killing thousands of these underfed children
The Belgian workingman has no work, can save no money, his savings are gone
The only thing that stands between his children and death is America
Their children are as dear to them as your children are to you

[Photograph captions]
Their homes are battered and shell-torn, and reduced to heaps of ruins.
Their mills and shops have been burnt and razed.
Their streets are as if devastated by a terrible earthquake.
All day long they stand in line for the relief, coming from generous America.
Their towns and villages are empty skeletons, devastated by flame and cannon shot.
The mills that ground their grain are themselves ground in the terrible war mill.

Are You an American?
IF YOU ARE, in the name of God the Father, have pity and give.
Contributions will be received in your own shop.
Every cent you give will help to save a life
YOUR HELP WILL REACH THEM
We have the statements of the Belgian Government, we have the assurance derived from the high character of the Belgian Commission, and we have the solemn pledge of the committee appointed by the President of the United States, that
Every Cent Contributed Goes into Food for the Belgians
Make your shop a leader in this merciful cause

THE BERKS COUNTY BELGIAN COMMITTEE
```

All printed text is legible in the larger scan. The six photograph captions are listed together after the body text, in the order left column top to bottom, then right column top to bottom.

[← If You Want to Fight! Join the Marines](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/if-you-want-to-fight-join-the-marines-1917/) [In Who's Cup? →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/in-whose-cup-sugar-soldier-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.
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