---
title: 'Pvt. Treptow''s Pledge: Fourth Liberty Loan'
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/pvt-treptows-pledge-fourth-liberty-loan-1918/
description: A sketch shows a soldier lying dead beside a broken fence post, with a quoted pledge found in his blouse pocket.
section: Collection
---

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3. Pvt. Treptow's Pledge: Fourth Liberty Loan

**Content note:** A sketch of a dead American soldier lying beside a broken fence post, as issued. This object is shown as it was published. [Why](https://propagandaarchive.org/about/#as-it-was)

[![Pvt. Treptow's Pledge: Fourth Liberty Loan, 1918 US poster: A sketch shows a soldier lying dead beside a broken fence post](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/pvt-treptows-pledge-fourth-liberty-loan-1918.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/pvt-treptows-pledge-fourth-liberty-loan-1918.jpg)

# Pvt. Treptow's Pledge: Fourth Liberty Loan

A sketch shows a soldier lying dead beside a broken fence post, with a quoted pledge found in his blouse pocket: he would fight cheerfully and do his utmost as if the whole issue of the struggle depended on him alone. The closing lines address the viewer: 'You who are not called upon to die, Subscribe to the Fourth Liberty Loan.' The tell is testimonial from the dead: the soldier's own words become the standard against which the civilian's purchase is measured.

## Propaganda techniques used in this poster

[Testimonial](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/testimonial/) [Transfer](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/transfer/)

## Text on the object

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

```
STRAIGHT FROM THE TRENCHES. ORIGINATED AND PRODUCED FOR THE LIBERTY LOAN COMMITTEE ENTIRELY BY MEMBERS OF THE AMERICAN EXPEDITIONARY FORCE.

Pvt. TREPTOW'S PLEDGE

He had almost reached
his goal when a machine
gun dropped him.
In a pocket of his blouse
they found his pledge
"I will fight cheerfully
and do my utmost as if
the whole issue of the
struggle depended on me
alone."

Sketch by
C. LeRoy Baldridge [rank/unit line partly illegible]
Story from Stars and Stripes
Official Publication of the A.E.F.
France Sept. 1918

You who are
not called upon to die-
Subscribe to the

FOURTH LIBERTY LOAN

PRINTED AND DONATED BY ROBERT GAIR COMPANY, BROOKLYN, N.Y.
F-303
```

Small signature block at right: the artist credit reads as C. LeRoy Baldridge with a partly illegible rank/unit line; edition mark at lower left read as F-303.

[← Julistus (Proclamation): Red Guard committee denies rumours and orders rumour-spreaders arrested](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/punakaarti-julistus-huhut-1918/) [? (The German Ogre), Norman Lindsay recruiting poster →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/question-mark-german-ogre-lindsay-1918/)

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- [Tomb of Darius I at Naqsh-e Rustam: the king in relief beside his inscription DNa, c. 490 BCE](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/dna-inscription-darius-i-naqsh-e-rustam-490bce/) (Achaemenid Empire · 0000 · Testimonial, Card stacking)
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