JKB: Automobile Drivers Do Your Bit. Drive a Motor Truck for Uncle Sam. ca. 1918. Newly minted sergeant strikes a nonchalant pose While standing with one hand on his hip and the other resting on the top of his truck’s front fender. He has reason to be so relaxed. The army, according to the poster’s detailed text, has made him one hell of a deal. He doesn’t, for instance, have to drill with rifles, perform guard duty, or perform any other purely military duties except in times of emergency. Such was the need for army truck drivers during our 19 months fighting World War I, that the army was very generous with a recruit’s benefits. These included starting your service with the rank of sergeant, $36 a month in pay, as well as rations, quarters, clothing, fuel, bedding, and medicine. For some reason, perhaps it was done at the time, the chevrons on his Doughboy’s uniform are inverted? Behind his imposing figure the artist has drawn an army camp replete with large, white conical tents, the Stars and Stripes stretched taught in the wind and a lone sentry performing the disagreeable guard duty from which the newly recruited drivers will be excused. This poster was probably plastered up in New York City because it gives the address of the nearest recruiting station as located at the corner of 58th Street and Fifth Avenue here in old New York. The star of this recruiting poster, however, is the truck on which his hand is resting. Although I don’t know much about antique trucks, I think that this vehicle, is a Jeffery Quad. Even before World War I started, the U. S. Army needed to replace the four-mule teams used to haul 1 ½ loads with a reliable truck. The one they chose, the Jeffery-Quad, had a revolutionary approach to four wheel driving. It had power to all wheels and brakes on all four wheels a well as a limited slip differential on both front and rear axles. Its high center of gravity allowed it to clear obstacles that would have stopped other vehicles, especially when moving across soft, uneven ground. This just the type of terrain you would expect to find at the Western Front. This a really detailed poster. It shows, for instance, the under carriage in detail as seen from the truck’s front end. For anyone interested in historic vehicles and their different parts, this is a fascinating piece.
