---
title: Ça ne vaut rien du tout si ça vient trop tard! [It's worth nothing at all if it comes too late!]
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/canada-ca-ne-vaut-rien-si-ca-vient-trop-tard-french-1942/
description: A painted hand reaches up from a stormy sea toward a lifebuoy that is still out of reach, above a French text urging Canadian war workers to produce more.
section: Collection
---

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3. Ça ne vaut rien du tout si ça vient trop tard! [It's worth nothing

[![Ça ne vaut rien du tout si ça vient trop tard! \[It's worth nothing at all if it comes too late!\], 1942 Canada poster](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/canada-ca-ne-vaut-rien-si-ca-vient-trop-tard-french-1942.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/canada-ca-ne-vaut-rien-si-ca-vient-trop-tard-french-1942.jpg)

# Ça ne vaut rien du tout si ça vient trop tard! [It's worth nothing at all if it comes too late!]

A painted hand reaches up from a stormy sea toward a lifebuoy that is still out of reach, above a French text urging Canadian war workers to produce more. The drowning hand makes the cost of delay concrete (fear-appeal), and the closing line 'Il ne faut pas que des braves meurent par MA faute', with MA enlarged, places personal blame on the individual reader (identity-fusion).

## Propaganda techniques used in this poster

[Fear appeal](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/fear-appeal/) [Identity fusion](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/identity-fusion/)

## Text on the object

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

```
ÇA NE VAUT RIEN DU TOUT
si ça vient trop tard!

Les plans établis pour la production de guerre sur
ce continent sont formidables. Vers 1945, la
production d'avions, de tanks et de munitions sera
phénoménale.

Si ce n'est pas trop tard!

En ce moment, les usines canadiennes produisent
à plein rendement. Elles font de leur mieux pour
combler les vides dans les lignes de défense des
Alliés. Un flot d'approvisionnements et de
machines de guerre se dirige continuellement du
Canada vers la Grande-Bretagne, la Russie, la
Chine et l'Afrique du Nord. C'est aux Canadiens
de faire en sorte que leurs usines et leurs fabriques
produisent encore plus—et toujours plus. La
provision doit s'accroître chaque jour.

Si l'ennemi n'était qu'à cinquante milles d'ici,
pourriez-vous faire plus que vous ne faites actuellement? Si vous entendiez déjà le roulement des
canons ennemis, travailleriez-vous plus longtemps,
plus fort et plus assidûment?

Là-bas, au front, de braves jeunes gens
demandent à grand cris: "Pour l'amour de Dieu,
donnez-nous des avions, des tanks et des canons."
Qu'il ne soit pas dit que ces avions, ces tanks et
ces canons sont arrivés trop tard parce que vous
n'avez pas fait tout votre possible.

IL NE FAUT PAS QUE DES BRAVES MEURENT PAR MA FAUTE

Ce message est publié par le Ministère des Munitions et Approvisionnements du Canada
[signature and date at lower right of painting:] [illegible] '42
```

English translation (machine translation by Claude, not verified by a fluent reader)

```
IT'S WORTH NOTHING AT ALL
if it comes too late!

The plans drawn up for war production on this continent are formidable. By 1945, the production of aircraft, tanks and munitions will be phenomenal.

If it is not too late!

At this moment, Canadian factories are producing at full capacity. They are doing their best to fill the gaps in the Allies' lines of defence. A stream of supplies and war machines is flowing continually from Canada to Great Britain, Russia, China and North Africa. It is up to Canadians to see that their plants and factories produce still more, and always more. The supply must grow every day.

If the enemy were only fifty miles from here, could you do more than you are doing now? If you already heard the rumble of enemy guns, would you work longer, harder and more steadily?

Over there, at the front, brave young men are crying out: "For the love of God, give us aircraft, tanks and guns." Let it not be said that these aircraft, tanks and guns arrived too late because you did not do everything you could.

BRAVE MEN MUST NOT DIE BECAUSE OF ME

This message is published by the Department of Munitions and Supply of Canada
[signature and date at lower right of painting:] [illegible] '42
```

[← 'BUT if you continue to resist...' (Japanese leaflet to Australian troops)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/but-leaflet-australian-troops-1942/) [Danke Schön! "Thanks for the Tip-off" →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/canada-danke-schon-thanks-for-the-tip-off-1942/)

## More propaganda examples that use the same techniques

- [Miniature of Pope Urban II at the Council of Clermont, Les Passages d'outremer (BnF Fr. 5594, fol. 19r)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/passages-doutremer-council-of-clermont-colombe-1474/) (France · 1474 · Testimonial, Fear appeal). Content note: Medieval religious imagery and a French text describing alleged killings and captivity of eastern Christians, as used to argue for the First Crusade; the text is shown as written.
- [Anacoana fut pendue sans raison (engraving in Le miroir de la cruelle et horrible tyrannie espagnole)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/anacoana-hanged-miroir-tyrannie-espagnole-1620/) (Dutch Republic · 1620 · Fear appeal, Name-calling). Content note: Engraving of a hanged, bare-breasted Taino woman, burning huts and people being killed by Spanish soldiers.
- [Der Warner (broadsheet lampoon on the Jesuits after Breitenfeld and Rain)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/der-warner-anti-jesuit-broadsheet-1632/) (Holy Roman Empire · 1632 · Scapegoating, Fear appeal)
- [Sans-Culottes, feeding Europe with the Bread of Liberty (James Gillray)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sans-culottes-bread-of-liberty-gillray-1793/) (Kingdom of Great Britain · Jan 12, 1793 · Fear appeal, Name-calling)
- [Proclamation de Sonthonax en créole, Cap-Français (Proclamation of Commissioner Sonthonax in Creole)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sonthonax-proclamation-creole-1793/) (France · Aug 29, 1793 · Fear appeal, Scapegoating). Content note: Colonial-era proclamation on slavery and emancipation in Saint-Domingue; speaks of slaves, whips and 'Nègues' in period terms.
- [Gazette of the United States, "The Jeffersoniad" no. VIII, 14 August 1800](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/gazette-us-jeffersoniad-1800/) (United States · Aug 14, 1800 · Name-calling, Fear appeal)
- [Tyrants Prostrate, Liberty Triumphant (pro-Polk cartoon on Dorr), 1844](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/tyrants-prostrate-liberty-triumphant-polk-1844/) (United States · 1844 · Name-calling, Fear appeal). Content note: Speech balloons contain anti-Catholic and nativist wording ('the ruins of Popery') in the mouths of the Whig figures, written by a Democratic cartoonist and shown unaltered.
- [Brolej Žemajčiaj! (Brothers Samogitians!): hand-painted broken-cross poster](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/brolej-zemajciaj-broken-cross-1862/) (Russian Empire · 1862 · Fear appeal, Transfer)