A 1917 Treasury poster for the Second Liberty Loan sets a portrait of President Wilson between flags and eagles over two lines attributed to him, "The time has come to conquer or submit" and "For us there is but one choice. We have made it."
What the sheet prints
A framed portrait of the President, two flag shields, two eagles, then the words. The quotation comes first and the request second, so the reader meets the commander's voice before the price.
"THE TIME HAS COME TO CONQUER OR SUBMIT." —
"FOR US THERE IS BUT ONE CHOICE. WE HAVE MADE IT—"
PRESIDENT WILSON.
BUY A BOND OF THE 2ND LIBERTY LOAN AND HELP WIN THE WAR
A LIBERTY BOND IS A UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT BOND
The poster attributes both lines to Wilson. It does not say where or when he said them, and the FRAME record does not add a source.
Who issued it
The issuer is the U.S. Treasury Department for the Second Liberty Loan campaign. The National Archives copy is in Record Group 4, World War I Posters (series NAID 512439), local identifier 4-P-198.
How to read it
The last line is the most honest sentence on the sheet: a Liberty Bond is a United States government bond. It is a loan, with a lender and a borrower and a promise to repay. That is a fair thing for a government at war to sell.
The lines above it change the transaction. "Conquer or submit" leaves no third road, and "we have made it" tells the buyer the decision is already taken on his behalf. In a constitutional sense that is close to true: Congress had declared war. But a war declared by the people's representatives does not make every citizen's savings the President's to call. A loan has to be something a person can decline, or it is a tax with a coupon. The poster does not threaten anyone. It leans on the presidency to make declining feel like submission.
Later loan posters dropped the portrait for fear, as in Halt the Hun!, Hun or Home?, and Remember Belgium. This sheet is the respectable end of the same campaign. The publicity office of the same administration is covered in the CPI case study. The Wilson administration essay reads the Treasury's Liberty Loan posters, among them Halt the Hun, beside Creel's committee and the wartime statutes.
Sources
- FRAME object record, Buy a Bond of the 2nd Liberty Loan and Help Win the War, 1917. U.S. Treasury Department, Second Liberty Loan campaign.
- U.S. National Archives, RG 4, World War I Posters, series NAID 512439, catalog item 512636, local identifier 4-P-198, retrieved by the archive 3 October 2026. Rights as recorded: NARA unrestricted.
