More PSA Fun with Green Arrow

From All-Star Comics #50, December, 1949-January, 1950



Of course, Green Arrow was already wearing a red feather in his cap, but notice how much more prominent it is in this feature!

For those of you not around in the 1950's (myself included) this PSA probably needs a little explanation. According to the November 10, 1952 issue of Time Magazine:

Amid the din of election, some 1,600 American communities spread across the 48 states did not forget another autumn campaign: the annual Red Feather drive for charity. Two million volunteers, under the national leadership of Community

Chests and Councils of America, Inc., are ringing doorbells, drumming up donations. The Red Feather campaigners expect to raise $250 million for 1952, bettering last year's mark by $10 million.

The Community Chest collections are a typical voluntary American enterprise. Denver began them in 1887, when ten charitable agencies united for one efficient fund-raising and fund-sharing drive. New Orleans in 1928 added the red feather as the symbol of united giving ("a feather in your cap"). Today, the millions contributed to well-organized community chests are distributed among some 17,000 services. Among them: Y.M.C.A., Y.W.C.A., Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, Visiting Nurses, Salvation Army, settlement houses, neighborhood centers, etc. Since the Korean war, one of the Red Feather agencies is the United Defense Fund, which includes such servicemen's agencies as the U.S.O.

So, basically Green Arrow is asking everybody to do their part and contribute to the greater good of their communities, thus starting down the slippery slope of checkbook, tax -and-spend liberalism that would become the hallmark of his career, eventually ending up as a left-leaning, counter-culture radical, espousing an end to the "establishment" and writing off his numerous debaucheries as "free love".