# Admiral King's 1943 bond poster: lend, not give, ten percent

A 1943 Government Printing Office poster pairs a portrait of Admiral Ernest J. King with his request that Americans lend 10 percent of their income through the Payroll Savings Plan, then prints the workers' answer for them: "Yes Sir, Admiral." The plan is named on the sheet as voluntary (NAID 513753).

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      Admiral Ernest J. King says

      Admiral King's 1943 bond poster: lend, not give, ten percent
      A 1943 bond poster quotes Admiral Ernest J. King asking Americans to lend 10 percent of income through the voluntary Payroll Savings Plan. NAID 513753.

## Techniques named on the archive record

TestimonialTransfer
      Date1943Made byU.S. Government (Government Printing Office imprint); Admiral Ernest J. King quotedMediumPosterCountryUnited StatesRegimeRoosevelt AdministrationNARANAID 513753; Record Group 44SourceIdentified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they areSourceU.S. National Archives and Records Administration, Record Group 44, World War II Posters , retrieved October 4, 2026SourcePublic domain (U.S. government work) U.S. Government (Government Printing Office imprint); Admiral Ernest J. King quoted. National Archives and Records Administration, RG 44, 44-PA-306 (NAID 513753).
      Object, image, and catalog record from the FRAME archive. Text on this page is CC BY 4.0. Image rights are as the archive records.

      Full record at propagandaarchive.org

  A 1943 Government Printing Office poster pairs a portrait of Admiral Ernest J. King with his request that Americans lend 10 percent of their income through the Payroll Savings Plan, then prints the workers' answer for them: "Yes Sir, Admiral." The plan is named on the sheet as voluntary (NAID 513753).

## The words

The picture is a portrait of the admiral in a white cap. The text does the rest, in two voices: first the commander, then a reply written in the first person plural for the people reading it.

ADMIRAL ERNEST J. KING says—

"You are not asked to give but merely to lend 10 percent of your income to help us bring this war to a victorious end. You can do it systematically and most conveniently through the Government's Payroll Savings Plan. I urge you to do this."

Commander-in-Chief United States Fleet and Chief of Naval Operations.

Yes Sir, Admiral, we are regularly investing at least 10% of our pay in UNITED STATES WAR SAVINGS BONDS THROUGH THE VOLUNTARY PAYROLL SAVINGS PLAN

FRAME transcription. Full record at propagandaarchive.org. NAID 513753, local id 44-PA-306.

## Who issued it

The sheet names no department. Its foot carries a Government Printing Office imprint for 1943, and FRAME credits it to the U.S. government, with King as the person quoted. A companion sheet in the same format, General George C. Marshall says, is credited to the Treasury's War Finance Division and ends with the same reply, "Yes sir, General."

## How to read it

King's sentence is accurate about the transaction. A war bond was a loan, and the Treasury's own My Promise to You sheet lists the terms: redeemable after 60 days, $4 back for each $3 held ten years. Calling it lending rather than giving is the honest description, and the poster deserves credit for using it.

The pressure is in how the request is delivered. The request carries the titles printed under King's name, Commander-in-Chief of the United States Fleet and Chief of Naval Operations, and the poster then writes the reader's consent before the reader has given it. "Yes Sir, Admiral" is the answer a sailor gives an order. Printed over the word "voluntary," it makes a point the sheet probably did not intend: the plan was a free choice, and it was presented in the grammar of command.

The ten percent figure is the same norm set by Aim to Win and counted on the 1942 participation chart. The Roosevelt administration essay places the Treasury's bond drives beside the Office of War Information; World War II war bonds and war stamps, 1941–1946 sets this sheet among the other drives.

## Sources

- FRAME object record, Admiral Ernest J. King says, 1943. U.S. Government (Government Printing Office imprint); Admiral Ernest J. King quoted. Rights as recorded: public domain (U.S. government work).

- U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, Record Group 44, World War II Posters, 44-PA-306, NAID 513753, retrieved by the archive 4 October 2026.

Canonical: https://americanpropaganda.org/collection/admiral-king-payroll-savings-1943/