‘Defense is your job too’

During World War II, the U.S. government budget ballooned to nearly 35% of national GDP.  These immense expenditures strained the federal coffers and demanded that the federal authorities come up with new and creating ways to generate revenue.

Among the most effective of such campaigns was the Treasury Department’s issuance of a series of war bonds designed to help finance the campaigns over seas.  These bonds were, in all essentials, the same thing as the Department’s new "Series E" which entered circulation on May 1, 1941 when President Franklin Roosevelt purchased  the first one from then-Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau. 

With a clever marketing campaign, the government began selling these bonds to the American people as the first of the "war bonds."  The entire country was exhorted to "do its part" to help the troops on the frontline by keeping up the steady infusions of cash.

This poster was part of that effort.  While its publication date seems to be lost to history, its message and artwork leave not doubt that it was one of the myriad products of the WWII-era government printing office.

It is worth noting that the U.S. Treasury made wide use of "Liberty Bonds" to help finance the America’s role in WWI.  President Wilson, like Roosevelt in the ’40s, played a personal role in publicizing the fundraising effort.  These bond issues were crucial, because the total cost of the war effort was more than thirty times the U.S.’s annual budget.

Interestingly, the war bonds concept emerged again after 9/11, when the government issued a great number of "Patriot Bonds."  These were a modification of the EE Series bonds, which in turn as the replaced for the older E Series bonds discussed above.