Saving for War

by

Lauren Roberts

It baffled me at first, this savings bookmark, for two reasons: (1) it was a vintage British bookmark, and (2) it had a swastika imprinted near the top. Because the swastika symbol had been co-opted by the German Nationalist Party (later the Nazi party) in the 1930s, it was obvious this bookmark had to have been earlier than that, meaning of the World War I era. But my research into it went no further as I tucked the bookmark I had recently won in mid-2008 into the archival binder in which I had other banks and savings bookmarks.

Earlier this year I came across it again, and this time I decided to investigate this odd combination. One of the first people I contacted was Joe Stephenson of The Bookmark Society (UK). Joe proved a wealth of information and assistance, and I owe him a debt of gratitude for leading me on one of the most interesting bookmark research journeys I have encountered to date.

Those of us born in the post-WWII era probably know the swastika from its disreputable role as the Nazi Party symbol, but the truth is the swastika has an ancient and honored history. That it was used in the National Savings Movement during the first world war was no accident, but part and parcel of what it represented for centuries in various cultures and religions since the beginning of human-recorded time. Even artifacts such as pottery and coins from ancient Troy show the symbol, not surprising since it was considered to be a sign of good fortune or good luck. The word swastika originally comes from the Sanskrit svástika (“su” meaning good or well, “asti” meaning to be,”—svasti thus meaning well-being—and “ka” as a suffix that intensifies the verbal meaning so it can be translated literally as “that which is associated with well-being” or “thing that is auspicious”).

The swastika is an equilateral cross with its arms bent at right angles, in either right- or left-facing forms. Swastika-shaped ornaments date from the Neolithic period, and in certain religions (Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Mithraism) and in certain areas, predominantly in India and Indonesia, it remains a common symbol used as a geometrical motif and other times as a religious symbol.

Its appearance on artifacts is also common in Indo-European cultures such as the Indo-Aryans, Persians, Hittites, Slavs, Celts, and Greeks (where it was known as a gammadion). It has also been found on pottery made in Sintashta, Russia, in the early Bronze Age. In the later Iron Age, it can be found in the pottery and ornaments throughout the areas of Caucasus, Azerbaijan, and others. But in all of these the swastika is merely one of a series of similar symbols and does not appear to hold an unusual significance. As far back as the Neolithic period (7000-5000 BC), the Armenian culture used the swastika to represent their God, the sun in their architecture and decorative arts.

Ancient Greek architecture, clothing, and designs are replete with single or interlocking swastika motifs. They are also found, though rarely singly, in Greco-Roman, Romanesque, and Gothic art and architecture where they tend to be a repeated element in a border design.

In Finland the swastika was often used in traditional folk art products as well as a decoration or magical symbol on textiles and wood. It was also, from the first years of its existence to the end of World War II, the roundel (or circular shape) representing the Finnish Air Force.

In the 1800s, European countries, including those around Germany were growing and forming empires while Germany did not become a unified country until 1871. To counter that feeling of vulnerability, German nationalists began to use the swastika because of  its  ancient Aryan/Indian origins and history.  By the end of the century, the swastika could be found on nationalist German volkisch periodicals and was the official emblem of the German Gymnasts' League. By the beginning of the twentieth century, the swastika was a common symbol of German nationalism and could be found in a multitude of places.

It is, in fact, an incredibly common symbol throughout the world and human time. But it wasn’t until 1920, when Adolf Hitler, the person with whom it has since become most closely associated, decided that the Nazi Party (formerly the German Workers’ Party) needed its own insignia and flag, that the swastika began to take on a sinister meaning. Hitler’s choice of the swastika was based on two reasons he elucidated in Mein Kampf. First, the new flag has to be a symbol of “own struggle.” Second, it had to be “highly effective as a poster.” As Hitler saw it: “In red we see the social idea of the movement, in white the nationalistic idea, in the swastika the mission of the struggle for the victory of the Aryan man, and, by the same token, the victory of the idea of creative work, which as such always has been and always will be anti-Semitic.” And on August 7, 1920, at the Salzburg Congress, the flag became the official emblem of the Nazi Party.

But at the start of World War I, six years prior to its adoption by the Congress, the swastika was still the symbol of good fortune and well-being, strong and optimistic. Little wonder then that it became the mark of the War Savings Movement that was developed to help the British government raise money for the war effort.

To understand the movement is to delve not only into the history of warfare as practiced in the early twentieth century but to explore the role of consumerism and its opposing cousin, sacrifice, that together provided the impetus for the War Savings Committee and its decision to use the swastika as a symbol.

What became the National Savings concept began in Post Office Savings Bank Act of 1861 though it didn’t take off until the beginning of World War I. Prior to the outbreak of the first world war, England was in the grip of a consumer-focused mindset. Abundant employment and high wages were the norm, and the result was that though prices were rising in consequences real wages were for the first time well ahead of the rise in prices. The income of the average family was notably above that during the pre-war era.  Consumer goods of all kinds were selling. “Business as usual” was a popular catch phrase, and thrift was downplayed to such an extent it might well have been a vice. But when the Great War broke out, Britain was faced with the need for an army of millions instead of a peacetime army of thousands and recruitment began in earnest. The country was still the center of international trade, and the Treasury and finance interests initially focused on managing the delicate issues of credit and debit. Taxes were raised and a war loan of $1,750,000,000 was issued. But there was a question of how the necessary money would be raised over a long period of time. What Britain was needed was a program to convince its citizens that immediate self-gratification threatened the stability of the State itself, which could not use the same capital and labor to simultaneously produce the goods and services needed for the war and also the comforts and luxuries of the consumer goods market.

In November, 1915, a committee under the Chairmanship of Edwin Montagu, M.P., Financial Secretary to the Treasury, examined into the problem of securing the contributions of “the small investor” to war loans. The committee declared that saving was the essential things and that it was equally important that all classes and all income levels be included. They recommended the issue of “baby bonds” or as it came to be known, the war savings certificate—that is, Exchequer bonds in denominations of £5, in place of the previous minimum of  £100—and undertook a campaign of propaganda and organization to encourage this savings plan. The National War Savings Committee (formed out of a merger of two committees) for England and Wales, set up in February, 1916, and its counterpart, the Scottish War Savings Committee, set up a few months later, were the outcome. (Ireland was financially unable to participate.)

Its job was to raise money by convincing citizens that patriotism was not based on “business as usual” and that such thinking was actually incompatible with the setting free of labor from consumer goods to focus on essentials like munitions. The Committee’s job, therefore, was to convince the populace that lending £100 to the government was better than thus enabling the seller to pay £10 in taxes to the government.

The members of the National War Savings Committee began by explaining the meaning of savings, that it meant placing goods and services at the disposal of the government in increasing volume, growing production, and avoiding waste and unnecessary expenditure. In turn, those savings would provide more men for service, more munitions and agricultural goods, and more available transportation for the war effort—and this would all be done voluntarily. The central feature of the movement was its doctrine of “Goods and Services” that was used to attack the consumer mindset that “spending is good for trade”:

When it is said that the Government is spending £5,000,000 a day on the war, what is meant is that the Government must have, for purposes of war, goods and services to that amount. These goods and services have to be provided now. Those provided years ago and those going to be provided some day are of no use in the firing line. And if the Government is to have the goods and services now, civilians must go without many of the goods ands services they used to enjoy in times of peace. There is not enough available energy and labor in the country to produce both. The needs of the national cannot be met unless we save by going without the things that are not essential to health and efficiency.

The campaign opened with a big meeting at the Guildhall, London, on March 1, 1916. But progress was slow; the atmosphere unfriendly to war savings. There was a tendency to regard the appeal for economy as directed against “the poor,” even though the committee attempted to appeal to the whole nation without distinction of class.

The  idea, promoted though the posters, booklets, bookmarks and more, was that even children and the poorest workers (for whom fifteen shillings and six pence represented most of a week’s pay at that time) could save 6-penny stamps—each with a swastika—in installments, until they had enough to exchange them for a 15/6 War Savings Certificate if they let them run for the full length of time,  was the heart of the War Savings Committee campaign.

The War Savings certificates were issued in books. The cover had the name and address of the holder inscribed upon it so that its value belonged solely to that person. The certificate contained a small panel on its right side where the receipt for the purchase price was affixed at which point it became valid. The receipt was printed on green paper, and each receipt had a number which became the official number of the certificate. The certificate was registered at the money order department of the Post Office as belonging to the particular individual in whose name it was issued. The savings certificate formed the basis of the operations of the War Savings. associations, which were established under the auspices of local War Savings committees and affiliated to the National War Savings Committee.

The scheme of organization adopted aimed at the establishment of war savings associations. They collected small subscriptions from their members and used the proceeds to buy war savings certificates for eventual transfer to their members, in accordance with the model scheme framed by the National Committee. These associations were to be linked up to local War Savings Committees in each area, and through them, to the National Committee.

Associations could be formed by any number of people willing to work together, but most developed out of already formed groups in a community, a church, trade union, etc. But those in the workplace tended to object to joining when their employers might have access to the books—fearing that such a thing might diminish any claim they might make for increased wages—so the number of places where certificates could be bought were expanded to include licensed tradesmen and firms who resold the securities they had purchased with their own funds.

The work of organization took time. At the end of June, 1916, there were still fewer than 1,000 associations, but a year later there were nearly 30,000. By the end of May, 1917, there were approximately 35,000, about one for every 1,000 of the population.

Continual stimulation to save and to buy the certificates continued throughout the war by the use of multiple publicity methods. One way was through schoolchildren. In 1916, the Committee teamed up with local education authorities to distribute leaflets explaining the purpose of the associations and encouraging parents to join. Thousands of public meetings were held and lectures given; educational pamphlets dealing with the elements of economics were distributed; special campaigns were inaugurated; a system of commissioners and organizers in touch with headquarters kept closely in touch with the local committees; special organizations dealt with the army and the navy, munition works and other factories. The local authorities rendered invaluable assistance to the local committees by the loan of staff, the provision of office accommodation and in many other ways. The London and provincial press were consistently sympathetic to the movement and gave freely of their space to record its activities and assist its campaigns.

Printed materials exhorted people to save and invest in the State. According to an article in the April 1991 Bookmark Collectors’ Newsletter, these materials were of primary importance.

The Task of persuading ordinary men and women to invest in the new certificates was handed to voluntary local committees, who set up Savings Associations in schools, factories, offices and the like. . . . Local Associations were sent ‘A Sheet Showing the Printed and Other Matter Which the War Savings Committee has prepared to assist you in the Autumn Campaign’. Posters were, of course, (and continued to be) the main publicity medium, for ‘display in suitable prominent positions’, regularly inspected, since ‘a soiled or damaged poster detracts from its advertising value, and creates a bad impression on the public mind’.

There were also Lantern Lecture Slides, two New Cinema Films, paper bags carrying advertising—including one in Welsh—‘for shopkeepers desirous of helping the War Savings movement’, a ‘Bank Card’ for display in banks where the Certificates were on sale (TODAY is the day to buy War Savings Certificates), imitation sovereigns bearing the familiar St George on the obverse and the message ‘Buy £1 for 15/6’ on the reverse. In addition, a booklet was prepared, explaining how the new Certificates worked, for distribution through libraries, bookshops, etc. Most striking was the War Savings Symbol, the Swastika in a square flanked by chain links ‘an adaptation of the War Savings Coupon . . . a permanent symbol, or trade mark, and it will appear on all future National Savings propaganda. . . .

The sheet also carries a picture of the first three bookmarks available to the Associations: ‘Book-marks will be a conspicuous feature of this Autumn’s publicity. It is proposed to distribute these through the medium of public libraries and book publishers. They will constitute a telling yet economical form of advertising the War Savings movement, which combined with their utilitarian value should make them extremely popular’.

The campaign had been so successful that with the end of the war in sight in 1917 a separate committee was appointed by the National Committee to consider what facilities for saving should be provided for the small investor after the war. Since the habit of saving had become ingrained where before there had been none or little, it was felt that the State should continue to encourage such by preserving the savings machinery and recommending its permanent continuance (subject to modifications).

Armistice Day was November 11, 1918. Soon afterward, the association or savings clubs, were designated as the fundamental unit of the movement. Local committees elected representatives to a new body called The National Savings Assembly, which met twice a year to discuss questions related to the movement and, at one, to elect representatives to the National Savings Committee (which had dropped the word “War” from its title).In 1921, the National Committee formed a powerful body of government, corporation and savings organizations representatives to continue the work.

It may be surprising to learn that the swastika was still a major symbol of the movement into the 1920s. The reason was that few people in Britain recognized the swastika as the emblem of the Nazi Party. Occasionally it was seen in newsreels showing Hitler’s marching brownshirts, but the honorable history, especially in connection with the recent War Savings movement, overrode that for most people. Until Hitler came to power in 1930. At that point, the swastika went from being the emblem of a party to the emblem of a country. Within a few months of Hitler’s ascension, the National Savings Committee quietly dropped the swastika from its official publications but it still remained on the notepaper of some of the local committees as well as the central motif of the savings coupon.

In February 1934, the German Reichspost issued a new 8-pfennig stamp bearing a swastika design that bore a close resemblance to the coupon. And though a member of the Jewish community in London urged the Treasury to remove the swastika from the coupon, it was decided that a change was politically inopportune at that time because Britain was still trying to stay politically neutral towards Hitler’s Germany.  “We are not going to change anything just because somebody else chooses our design,” was the reason. But behind the scenes, some action was being taken. Gentle pressure was exerted on local savings committees to persuade them to cease using the swastika as the symbol.

Then in September 1938 a recommendation came down from the Southport Ratepayer’s Association that the swastika should be replaced by a portrait of Queen Elizabeth I or King George. The national press took up the story. The Committee, concerned, sought advice from the Treasury who in turn went to the Foreign Office who saw no reason the change the motif. The swastika, they said, appeared on the cover of all Rudyard Kipling's books and nobody objected to that, and they were more concerned with Neville Chamberlain’s attempts to save Europe.

But the Committee wasn’t soothed. After a short wait, they returned to the Treasury with a substitute design, noting “In the past few years there have been considerable rumblings of discontent about the (swastika) design, which has of course a very different significance now from that which it possessed of general good luck, when it was introduced in the war.” This time it was approved with  no delay.  No more swastika coupons would be printed, but existing stocks, estimated to last twelve more weeks, would be used up before the introduction of the new “Thrift” coupon. Their decision was fortuitous. Less than two weeks later, Hitler invaded Poland, and the swastika had taken on its new evil role in history.

It was an embarrassing time until the December 8, 1939 memo informing the staff at headquarters that the old stocks were depleted arrived. What had been a centuries-old symbol of good fortune had, in a short period of time, become instead the symbol of hatred and tyranny.  To this day the swastika has that reputation, which makes for some oddly interesting historical sidelights. Although no more swastika coupons were sold they were still valid for exchange into a Savings Certificates. Even in 1974 the National Savings Committee still frequently received swastika coupons for redemption, no doubt startling those descendants who found them in their parents or grandparents’ drawers. These debts were always honored.

Bookmarks continued to be issued all the way until the National Savings Committee (the post-war name) wound up in 1977. By that time, the emphasis had changed from small saver thriftiness to government funding on a large scale. More than sixty years of encouragement to save had left a permanent mark on the British populace, and for bookmark collectors, many types of savings bookmarks.

You would think the story would end there, but in 2006, another swastika controversy came to light. A customer of a local branch of NatWest Bank, which had originally opened in the early 1920s, noticed that the tiled floor was inset with the swastika. It blew up, and the local newspaper received letters accusing the bank of Nazi sympathies. The bank disagreed, noting “These symbols are an original feature of the building, which was created for the Manchester and County Bank in 1927. At that time, these symbols were commonly used for architectural decoration. In all these years this is the first complaint we have received about them. We have no intention of removing them.”

Bookmark specifications: War Savings Certificates (Series 1, No. 3)
Dimensions: 7" x 1 3/4"
Material: Paper
Manufacturer: The National War Savings Committee 
Date: November 1917
Acquired: eBay

Almost since her childhood days of Mother Goose, Lauren has been giving her opinion on books to anyone who will listen. That “talent” eventually took her out of magazine writing and into book reviewing in 2000 for an online review site where she cut her teeth (as well as a few authors). Stints as book editor for her local newspaper and contributing editor to Booklist and Bookmarks magazines has reinforced her belief that she has interesting things to say about books. Lauren shares her home with several significant others including three cats, nearly 1,300 bookmarks and approximately the same number of books that, whether previously read or not, constitute her to-be-read stack. She is a member of the National Books Critics Circle (NBCC) as well as a longtime book design judge for Publishers Marketing Association’s Benjamin Franklin Awards. Contact Lauren.