They Give Their Lives. Do You Lend Your Savings?

Black crosses on a night-time hill, apparently a battlefield grave site, sit above the headline 'They give their lives' and a large yellow question mark over 'Do you lend your savings?' A W.S.S. panel at lower right names War Savings Stamps as issued by the United States Government. The poster sets the soldiers' deaths beside a request to buy stamps, so the grave imagery lends its weight to the purchase.

Propaganda techniques used in this poster

Fear appeal Transfer

Date: 1918
Period: First World War
Made by: U.S. Government (War Savings Stamps, W.S.S.)
Region: North America
Country: United States
Medium: Poster
Issuer type: State
Regime: Wilson Administration
Leader: Woodrow Wilson
Audience: Domestic public
Purpose: Fundraise
Themes: War and the military, Economy and finance
Event: World War I
Regime: Wilson administration
Leader: Woodrow Wilson
Source: Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
Source: U.S. National Archives (NARA), RG 4 (U.S. Food Administration), World War I Posters (NAID 512439), retrieved October 3, 2026
Rights: NARA Unrestricted; hosted by owner decision
U.S. Government (War Savings Stamps, W.S.S.). National Archives and Records Administration, 4-P-210.

Text on the object

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

THEY GIVE
THEIR LIVES
DO
YOU
LEND
YOUR
SAVINGS ?
W.S.S.
WAR SAVINGS STAMPS
ISSUED BY THE
UNITED STATES
GOVERNMENT
H. Devitt Welsh
HACKETT & WILHELMS CORP. N.Y.

Artist signature and printer line are small and partly hard to read; transcribed as best seen.