Like “Ring It Again—Buy U.S. Gov’t Bonds,” the goal of this poster was to convince Americans to purchase U.S. government bonds to fund the American and Allied war efforts. Of particular interest here, however, was the poster’s target audience: newly arrived European immigrants. From the 1870s until the outbreak of World War I, the United States experienced a great surge of immigration. This trend reached its peak in the first decade of the twentieth century, when nearly 1 million immigrants entered the country each year. The vast majority of these immigrants came from southern and eastern Europe. Most of these individuals came to escape political persecution and to find employment in the United States’ booming industrial economy. Many native-born U.S. citizens, however, became concerned that these immigrant groups were not assimilating into American culture. Some began to call for immigration restriction, while others launched campaigns to “Americanize” immigrants by teaching them English and encouraging them to become U.S. citizens and embrace their civic responsibilities. With U.S. entry into World War I, the impetus behind this Americanization campaign grew even stronger. Many, concerned about the loyalties of these foreign populations, called on immigrants to demonstrate their American patriotism and to fulfill their duties as American citizens. As this poster suggests, funding the American war effort offered one way for immigrants to prove their loyalty to the United States.

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