---
title: He can do this --- but what can he do about this?
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/berryman-he-can-do-this-but-what-can-he-do-about-this-1940/
description: Split by a curved line, a man in a 'Citizen' hat holds a rifle tagged 'Selective Service' beside Uncle Sam, while on the other side Uncle Sam.
section: Collection
---

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3. He can do this --- but what can he do about this?

[![He can do this --- but what can he do about this?, 1940 US cartoon: Split by a curved line, a man in a 'Citizen' hat holds](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/berryman-he-can-do-this-but-what-can-he-do-about-this-1940.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/berryman-he-can-do-this-but-what-can-he-do-about-this-1940.jpg)

# He can do this --- but what can he do about this?

Split by a curved line, a man in a 'Citizen' hat holds a rifle tagged 'Selective Service' beside Uncle Sam, while on the other side Uncle Sam, seen from behind, faces a gate with a sign reading 'This essential war industries plant closed by strike'. The cartoon argues that the state can compel military service but not strike-bound defense work; the paired contrast presents one side of that question (card-stacking).

## Propaganda techniques used in this cartoon

[Card stacking](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/card-stacking/)

## Text on the object

Original (English) · read from the image, not independently checked

```
HE CAN DO THIS-----
CITIZEN
SELECTIVE SERVICE
THIS ESSENTIAL WAR INDUSTRIES PLANT CLOSED BY STRIKE
---BUT WHAT CAN HE DO ABOUT THIS ?
JIM BERRYMAN WASHINGTON EVENING STAR
```

[← Lady Godiva Rides Again Through Coventry's Streets](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/lady-godiva-rides-again-through-coventrys-streets-berryman-1940/) [Old Man '40 Wasn't All Bad →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/old-man-40-wasnt-all-bad-berryman-1940/)

## More propaganda examples that use the same techniques

- [Fragments of the Abydos king list from Ramesses II's temple, in the British Museum: rows of royal cartouches](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/abydos-king-list-ramesses-ii-temple-british-museum/) (New Kingdom Egypt · 0000 · Card stacking, Transfer)
- [Behistun (Bisotun) rock relief and trilingual inscription of Darius I: the king, two attendants and the bound rebel leaders beneath the winged figure of Ahuramazda](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/behistun-relief-darius-and-rebels-521bce/) (Achaemenid Empire · 0000 · Card stacking, Name-calling, Testimonial). Content note: Shows bound captives before the king, and the inscription records the mutilation and public execution of rebel leaders, as the king's own account.
- [Tomb of Darius I at Naqsh-e Rustam: the king in relief beside his inscription DNa, c. 490 BCE](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/dna-inscription-darius-i-naqsh-e-rustam-490bce/) (Achaemenid Empire · 0000 · Testimonial, Card stacking)
- [Line drawing of the Great Kadesh battle relief on the walls of the Ramesseum, from Breasted's History of Egypt](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/kadesh-relief-ramesseum-breasted-drawing-1275bce/) (New Kingdom Egypt · 0000 · Card stacking, Transfer). Content note: A drawing of an Egyptian royal battle relief showing Hittite soldiers and horses killed and drowned, as the king's monument presented the battle; it is a one-sided image made by the winning side's own account.
- [Persepolis, Apadana staircase relief: a figure with an animal from a procession of delegations, early fifth century BCE](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/persepolis-apadana-delegate-relief-500bce/) (Achaemenid Empire · 0000 · Card stacking, Manufactured consensus)
- [Alabaster relief, Assyrian troops storming a citadel, from Nineveh (reign of Sennacherib)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/relief-sennacherib-storming-citadel-nineveh-704bce/) (Neo Assyrian Empire · 0000 · Card stacking). Content note: An Assyrian palace relief of troops storming a fortified city, with a file of figures below; Assyrian royal reliefs and texts record killing, mutilation and deportation, shown as carved, with the historical context and scholarly dispute on the regime page.
- [Colour lithograph of the Latin text of the Res Gestae Divi Augusti on the wall of the temple of Roma and Augustus at Ancyra, with the heading in large letters (Perrot, Guillaume and Delbet, 1872)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/lithograph-res-gestae-ancyra-heading-0014/) (Roman Empire · 0014 · Card stacking, Glittering generalities)
- [Silver denarius of Vespasian, reverse IVDAEA with a trophy of arms and a seated mourning woman](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/denarius-vespasian-judaea-capta-0070/) (Roman Empire · 0070 · Card stacking). Content note: A Roman victory coin showing a mourning female figure as the personification of the conquered province of Judaea after the Roman suppression of the Jewish revolt; shown as struck, with the historical context on the regime page.