Like the Liberty Loan drives encouraging U.S. citizens to buy war bonds during World War I, the War Savings Stamp (W.S.S.) program was developed to promote individual investment in the war effort. In late 1917, the Treasury introduced the $5-dollar War Savings Certificate Stamps (much more affordable than Liberty Bonds, which started at $50) and the 25-cent War Savings Stamps or Thrift Stamps, as they were also known; when collected in special booklet, these could be exchanged for Treasury Certificates or War Bonds. As the image, showing a line of immigrants of all ages cheerfully lining up to buy the stamps from Uncle Sam, indicates, the stamps were intended to be accessible to citizens of modest means. The W.S.S. campaign ultimately raised around $9 million for the war effort. The image also relates to the socialist leanings of Canadian-American painter and illustrator William Balfour Ker, who produced several posters promoting the war effort. Before the war, in addition to working for Life magazine, he had produced an illustration for John Ames Mitchell’s 1906 novel The Silent War about the class struggle in America. Ker’s 1905 print for the book, originally titled “From the Depths,” shows the subterranean world of working men and women pressing against the dance floor on which elegant figures twirl above them at a luxurious ball. It was clearly a call for class revolution; nonetheless, the worldly Life magazine offered the print to its subscribers as an artwork suitable for framing.