A message for you... from 1953
Illustrated bond-selling sheet: a pipe-smoking man ('John Jones, an average American') speaks from an imagined 1953 in front of his house while his wife waters flowers. He says he kept his War Bonds through 1943 and now owns his home. The ordinary-neighbour figure and 'like most everybody else' carry the appeal; the closing line asks for bigger payroll bond purchases.
Propaganda techniques used in this poster
- Date
- 1943
- Period
- Second World War
- Made by
- Payroll Savings Plan, War Bond campaign (issuer not named on sheet)
- Region
- North America
- Country
- United States
- Medium
- Poster
- Issuer type
- Mixed
- Regime
- Roosevelt Administration
- Leader
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Fundraise
- Themes
- Economy and finance, Home front
- 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)
Payroll Savings Plan, War Bond campaign (issuer not named on sheet). National Archives and Records Administration, RG 44, 44-PA-283 (NAID 513732).
Text on the object
A message for you...from 1953 (Today, John Jones is just an average American, wrestling with all the doubts and worries and problems that beset every one of us right now. But let's skip ahead 10 years. Let's look at John Jones then—and listen to him . . . ) "Sometimes I feel so good it almost scares me. "This house—I wouldn't swap a shingle off its roof for any other house on earth. This little valley, with the pond down in the hollow at the back, is the spot I like best in all the world. "And they're mine. I own 'em. Nobody can take 'em away from me. "I've got a little money coming in, regularly. Not much—but enough. And I tell you, when you can go to bed every night with nothing on your mind except the fun you're going to have tomorrow—that's as near Heaven as a man gets on this earth! "It wasn't always so. "Back in '43—that was our second year of war, when we were really getting into it—I needed cash. Taxes were tough, and then Ellen got sick. Like most everybody else, I was buying War Bonds through the Payroll Plan—and I figured on cashing some of them in. But sick as she was, it was Ellen who talked me out of it. " 'Don't do it, John!' she said. 'Please don't! For the first time in our lives, we're really saving money. It's wonderful to know that every single payday we have more money put aside! John, if we can only keep up this saving, think what it can mean! Maybe someday you won't have to work. Maybe we can own a home. And oh, how good it would feel to know that we need never worry about money when we're old!' "Well, even after she got better, I stayed away from the weekly poker game—quit dropping a little cash at the hot spots now and then—gave up some of the things a man feels he has a right to. We made clothes do—cut out fancy foods. We didn't have as much fun for awhile but we paid our taxes and the doctor and—we didn't touch the War Bonds. "We didn't touch the War Bonds then, or any other time. And I know this: The world wouldn't be such a swell place today if we had!" FIGURE IT OUT FOR YOURSELF YOU'VE DONE YOUR BIT---NOW DO YOUR BEST! BOOST YOUR BOND BUYING THROUGH THE PAYROLL SAVINGS PLAN [signature: illegible]
