---
title: Tell That to the Marines!
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/tell-that-to-the-marines-1918/
description: A civilian in shirtsleeves and waistcoat tears off his jacket, fists clenched, his hat thrown down beside a newspaper whose headline reads 'Huns kill…
section: Collection
---

[Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/)

**Content note:** "Hun" epithet for Germans in a headline reporting the killing of women and children. This object is shown as it was published. [Why](https://propagandaarchive.org/about/#as-it-was)

[![Tell That to the Marines!](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/tell-that-to-the-marines-1918.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/tell-that-to-the-marines-1918.jpg)

# Tell That to the Marines!

A civilian in shirtsleeves and waistcoat tears off his jacket, fists clenched, his hat thrown down beside a newspaper whose headline reads 'Huns kill women and children!' The tell of name-calling is that the epithet carries the story: no place, date or act is named, only 'Huns', and the man's anger is the whole argument for walking to the recruiting office at 24 East 23rd Street.

- **Date:** 1918
- **Period:** [First World War](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#era=wwi)
- **Made by:** U.S. Marine Corps recruiting (New York); James Montgomery Flagg (artist)
- **Region:** [North America](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#region=north-america)
- **Country:** [United States](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#country=united-states)
- **Medium:** [Poster](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#medium=poster)
- **Issuer type:** [Military](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#actor=military)
- **Regime:** [Wilson Administration](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#regime=wilson-administration)
- **Leader:** [Woodrow Wilson](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#leader=woodrow-wilson)
- **Audience:** [Domestic public](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#audience=domestic-public)
- **Purpose:** [Recruit](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#purpose=recruit)
- **Theme:** [War and the military](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=war-military)
- **Event:** [World War I](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#event=world-war-i)
- **Techniques:** [Name-calling](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/name-calling/)
- **Source:** Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- **Source:** [Library of Congress](https://www.loc.gov/item/2008679015/), retrieved September 27, 2026
- **Rights:** Public domain in the U.S. (published before 1931) Flagg, James Montgomery, 1877-1960, artist. 1918. Library of Congress, LC-DIG-ppmsca-18600.

## Text on the object

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

```
TELL THAT TO THE MARINES!
AT 24 EAST 23rd STREET

[on the newspaper, small dateline above the headline] [illegible]
HUNS KILL WOMEN AND CHILDREN!

James Montgomery Flagg
```

A small handwritten dateline above the main newspaper headline (starting 'Via Cable from...') is too small and loosely brushed in this scan to transcribe confidently.

[← Stemt Rood! Kiest de kandidaten der Soc. Dem. Arb. Partij (Vote Red! Choose the candidates of the Social Democratic Workers' Party), poster by Albert Hahn](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/stemt-rood-sdap-hahn-1918/) [That Liberty Shall Not Perish from the Earth: Buy Liberty Bonds →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/that-liberty-shall-not-perish-1918/)

## Using the same techniques

- [Passional Christi und Antichristi: the emperor kisses the pope's foot (leaf 'Antichristus')](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/passional-christi-antichristi-emperor-kisses-pope-1521/) (1521 · Name-calling, Card stacking)
- [Ondersoeckt de Geesten, ofse van den Duyvel syn, of niet (the De Witt brothers as devils)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/ondersoeckt-de-geesten-de-witt-devils-1672/) (1672 · Scapegoating, Name-calling)
- [The Highlanders Medley, or The Duke Triumphant (A Loyal Song)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/highlanders-medley-duke-triumphant-1746/) (1746 · Name-calling, Transfer)
- [The Bloody Massacre perpetrated in King Street Boston on March 5th 1770 by a party of the 29th Regt.](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/revere-bloody-massacre-king-street-1770/) (Mar 1770 · Name-calling, Card stacking)
- [Marche du Dom Quichotte moderne pour la deffence du Moulin des Abus (March of the Modern Don Quixote in Defence of the Mill of Abuses)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/dom-quichotte-moulin-des-abus-1791/) (1791 · Name-calling, Transfer)
- [Sans-Culottes, feeding Europe with the Bread of Liberty (James Gillray)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sans-culottes-bread-of-liberty-gillray-1793/) (Jan 12, 1793 · Fear appeal, Name-calling)
- [Exit Liberté a la Francois! or Buonaparte closing the Farce of Egalité, at St. Cloud (James Gillray)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/exit-liberte-buonaparte-gillray-1799/) (Nov 21, 1799 · Name-calling)
- [Van Moscouw tot Elba moest ik wyken (From Moscow to Elba I had to give way), Napoleon caricature by Wijnand Esser](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/van-moscouw-tot-elba-napoleon-esser-1814/) (1814 · Name-calling)