So vividly was the phrase "War Savings Week" driven home that the War
Savings Committee decided instantly to capitalise this new asset. In a
few days hundreds of bill boards and fences throughout the Kingdom
blossomed forth with this sentence, painted in red, white and blue
letters: "Make Every Week National War Savings Week."
Not content with splashing the bill boards with the injunction to save,
the National Committee hit upon what came to be the most popular medium
for disseminating the Gospel of Thrift. It enlisted the movies. A film
called "For the Empire" was made by a number of well known motion
picture actors and actresses who gave their services free of charge.
It was a moving and graphic story of the war showing how a certain
English lad volunteers at the outset and goes to the front. You get a
vivid picture of life in the trenches shown in actual war scenes. Then
you see the young soldier fall while gallantly leading a charge: his
body is brought home and he is buried with military honours. Then the
screens hurls the question at the audience: "This man has died for his
Country. What are you doing for the Nation in its hour of trial?" Now
follows a vivid lesson in how to save and buy a War Savings
Certificate. This film has been shown in 2500 cinema theatres up to the
first of the year and was booked to be shown in 1000 more within the
next few months.
So widespread has the Thrift movement become that the War Savings
Committee now publishes its own monthly magazine called _War Savings_.
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