Margie Poster SP No. 1 (1944), a letter from home about saving pay

Margie poster SP no. 1 is a 1944 War Department savings poster for soldiers, printed by the Government Printing Office. A woman rests her cheek on a raised pen, and a handwritten note signed "Love, Margie" urges the reader to put pay aside for a home (NAID 514987).

A note in a woman's hand

The poster is a close portrait of a woman holding a pen in her raised hand, her cheek resting against it. The sheet carries a handwritten note. A printed checklist names five ways a soldier could set money aside. The note speaks to the reader as if he were the one she is waiting for.

SOLDIERS' DEPOSITS PERSONAL TRANSFER ACCOUNT CLASS E ALLOTMENTS OF PAY WAR BONDS NATIONAL SERVICE LIFE INSURANCE

the home of your own you've always dreamed of. Of course waiting is hard-- don't I know!-- but you can start building right now, wherever you are, by putting aside money every pay day-- much better than just laying a foundation of star-dust.

Love,

Margie

MARGIE POSTER SP NO. 1

[imprint:] U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE : 1944 - 604494

Printed for day rooms and post exchanges

The archive credits the U.S. War Department's Army savings promotion, with printing by the Government Printing Office. The small distribution line is the most specific part of the record. It reads "FOR DISPLAY IN ORDERLY OR DAY ROOMS", names post exchanges, recreation halls and Red Cross installations overseas, and sets a count of copies for each savings promotion office on the list. FRAME sets the audience to "Own forces" and the purpose to "Fundraise". This site's snapshot holds eight Margie sheets, numbered 1 to 8.

Saving, sold in a sweetheart's voice

FRAME tags plain folks and transfer. The device is the voice. It belongs to a woman who signs with love, writes about the home the reader has dreamed of, and admits that waiting is hard. The list of five savings channels is the information; the letter is the reason to read it.

Taken on its own terms, the request is a good one. It asks a soldier to keep his own money for his own future, through accounts and bonds he could choose among. Nothing on the sheet says saving is required. The tactic deserves a plain name all the same: an official office wrote a letter signed with love, in a woman's voice, to change how men spent their pay. That is a gentle kind of manipulation, and it is still one.

The Treasury's version of the same request for civilians is on the war bonds hub, which reads the payroll plan's mix of voluntary terms and social pressure. Admiral Ernest J. King Says makes the payroll request in a commander's voice.