The slogan on this World War I poster, intended to motivate the many workers now assigned to build military ships, refers to General John Pershing, commander of the American Expeditionary Force in Europe, responsible for the largest military effort even seen by the United States. At his insistence, 2.8 million American citizens were ultimately drafted into the armed forces to ensure an Allied victory. The poster was issued by the Emergency Fleet Corporation, a government body created by the United States Shipping Board soon after the country’s entry into the war in April 1917 to oversee a huge shipbuilding program to produce military vessels of all kinds. Adolph Treidler’s illustration of the welder working in a shipyard was one of around 20 he made for various government agencies during both world wars; he had established his career as an illustrator for magazines and commercial advertisements.