Nearly every human being in Great Britain got the Message of Thrift that week.  Boy Scouts and Girl Guides went from house to house bearing copies of the various kinds of instructive literature that had been prepared for the campaign.  Typical of the thoroughness of the detail is the fact that in Wales all this material was printed in the Welsh language.  The only country where no special efforts were made was Scotland, where to preach thrift is little less than an insult.

For seven days and nights the almost incessant onslaught was kept up.  When the smoke cleared and the count was taken, it was found that 3,000,000 Certificates had been sold during the week while the total for the month was 10,700,000.

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.  The first issue appeared on September first and included such timely articles as “The Might of a Mite,” a lesson in penny building:  “The Final Mobilisation,” which showed how the last L100,000,000 would win the war:  a third article explained the Economy Exhibition now being held all over Great Britain as part of the Thrift crusade.  There was also an article on the War Saving movement by Reginald McKenna, Chancellor of the Exchequer, and a very illuminating appeal, “Every Household Must Help Win the War.”