Life, 1918-03-14 · page 17 of 40
Life — March 14, 1918 — page 17: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains **Liberty Bond recruitment propaganda** (top section) and **social satire** (bottom sections). The top ad recruits Americans to buy government bonds to finance WWI, explicitly excluding "pro-German" sympathizers—reflecting wartime xenophobia and suspicion of German-Americans. The middle section titled "Nobody Home" satirizes American restlessness and rootlessness: if you want to understand regional character types (Easterners, Southerners, Westerners), you paradoxically must travel *away* from home, because Americans never stay put. The bottom cartoon, "When the Wars Over: The Return of the Prodigal," adapts the Biblical parable of the Prodigal Son. It depicts a ragged, starving soldier returning home from WWI to find the door closed—suggesting Americans' feared indifference to returning veterans and society's "nobody home" attitude. The satire criticizes American apathy toward those sacrificing abroad.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
A LETTER NTED AT ONCE—Millions and millions of people to buy Liberty Bonds. People with pro-German ten- dencies and trite excuses about hard times need not apply. An excellent way to serve your country and earn money without turning a hand. No restrictions as to age, sex, ancestry or appearance, If you have common sense in your head and red blood in your heart, you are just the person Uncle Sam wants. This is the opportunity of your life. For further information regarding the advisability of investing in Liberty Bonds, ask any boy or girl in the United States. Nobody Home F you would study the ways of the Easterner, go to Los Angeles; if you would find out the graces of the Southerner, turn your footsteps toward New York; if you would learn the earmarks of the Westerner, seek him in the wilds of Washington, D.C. But, whatever you do, never look for an American at home! FROM FRANCE WHEN THE WAR'S OVER THE RETURN OF THE PRODIGAL