A poster that couldn't be published today

This is a vintage poster from my collection that is up for auction on eBay right now. Here’s the description that accompanies the listing:

Promoting the Second Liberty Loan of 1917, this iconic poster features a grandmotherly type who is entreating citizens to buy bonds to help finance America’s participation in World War I.

If this poster was to be published today, the Huffington Post would run an article labeling it sexist, exclusionary and, quite possibly, racist. Thousands of readers would post snippy anonymous comments underneath the article, questioning not only the poster's headline but the need to raise public money for anything other than the social causes they personally champion.  

Women’s rights organizations would send spokeswomen onto cable TV news shows to remind viewers that women serve in the military in addition to “America’s sons” who are featured in the headline. One of them would get in a shouting match with Ann Coulter on the Fox News Network, generating a clip that would dominate the news cycle for the next 24 hours. Gloria Allred would hold a press conference in which she tried to associate herself with the controversy. 

Members of the Congressional Caucus for Women’s Issues would demand hearings in which the artist who drew the poster, the copywriter who wrote it, the printer who printed it, the paper merchant who supplied the paper, the president of the mill that produced the paper, the tree farmer who provided the trees whose wood fibers were used to make the paper, as well as the bureaucrat in the Treasury Department who approved the layout in the first place, would be summoned to testify. The reputations of all would be destroyed and they would lose their jobs. 

The U.S. Senate would introduce a bill demanding that the entire print run be recalled and shredded. Republican members of the House of Representatives would insist that the House’s version of the bill include legislation repealing the Affordable Health Care Act. President Obama would go on the road, holding town meetings at which he defended his signature accomplishment, questioning the sanity of those who oppose it.

In the meantime nobody would buy War Bonds, the country would run out of money to finance the war effort, and our foe would overtake us. 

A three-quarter inch piece of paper is missing from the margin just above the “W” in “Women” and there are a few light surface scratches but otherwise this poster, which is linen-backed, is perfect. Artist: R.H. Porteous. Size: 20 1/4” x 30.”