“Pave the Way to Victory; Buy Victory Bonds.”
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division

Throughout Massachusetts, communities created “War Chests” to channel donations to the war effort. In Lynn, “the War Chest work was great, and resulted in much good. The following organizations made up the “Chest”: Young Men’s Christian Association, Red Cross Society, Knights of Columbus, and Salvation Army…The exact amount of money raised by this budget is not yet audited, but the author personally knows that it runs into tens of thousands of dollars, and all was placed where it would supposedly do the most good. “

Buckley’s Newsroom window display, Chicopee, Mass.
Russ H. Gilbert photographic collection, 1917-1922. Chicopee History Room, Chicopee Public Library

Residents also volunteered their time, often working closely with the Red Cross. As one example, “[t]he work of the women in Swampscott in the support of the Red Cross is beyond praise … When the final record is made, Swampscott will not be ashamed at the total footings in men and money and time expended in the great conflict which sought the further extension of freedom and world-wide democracy.” Meanwhile, Saugus “went ‘over the top’ as the act of over-paying and raising more men than was required was called. The work of Red Cross Chapter, sale of Liberty Bonds, and other measures intended to further on the cause of the war, were strictly attended to in Saugus between April, 1917, and 1919.” The Lynnfield Center Red Cross was a live wire during the war period, contributing through garment making, production of surgical dressings, food conservation, and the “Liberty Loan drive.”

Boy Scouts with sweaters presented to each of the drafted men, Lynn, Mass.
Lynn Public Library

Citizens of all ages got involved in the war effort. The children of Lynn offer a prime example of how children participated in this effort.“All through the schools was a united effort to ‘help win the war.’ The children bought war stamps and Liberty bonds to help finance Uncle Sam, they joined the Red Cross and spent their time and money to send help to our soldiers amid the sufferers over seas. They forgot the playground and often neglected their lessons in their zeal to do more. Knitting, that had become a lost art, was revived again, and … some of our teachers and pupils found they could knit sweaters and comforters and stockings while carrying on their class recitations.”

Lynn school children with handknit sweaters
Lynn Public Library

“Little primary girls learned to knit at school and then- went home and taught their mothers; the boys learned to knit and stayed in from recess to finish another sweater for the soldiers.” The American Red Cross presented the sweaters to the troops at City Hall , then accompanied them to their departure point at the Lynn Depot. “To give to the soldiers with your own hands the sweaters those hands had made, each with the name and address of the maker pinned to it and asking the soldier to write a letter from camp, then to march beside your soldier through the streets to the depot … and to wave goodbye to your soldier as the train pulled out, those were experiences never to be forgotten.”

Some schools organized volunteers to “roll bandages and make other hospital supplies.” They also made clothing for orphans in France and Belgium. In order to pay for the increasingly costly wool an other materials, the children “had cake sales, candy sales, junk sales, and the classes got up original ’shows’ after school with home talent and ten cents admission, or larger evening affair in the school halls or the home parlors and dooryards.”

Pupils from the Whiting Grammar School, Lynn, Mass.
Lynn Public Library

A report on the efforts of Beverly’s schoolchildren noted that “during the recent World War period, the school children here did good work, nearly one thousand caring for gardens, the same being known as ‘War Gardens.’ They formed pig and poultry clubs, and also gathered peachstones and nut shells, for making carbon for gas masks; more than a half ton was shipped from Beverly among the first requisitions made by the government.”

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