Future U.S. progress depends on our keeping alive the American system of free workers and free enterprise

Stylised city of towers, a park with a flag and a busy road under red sky, with a text asserting that U.S. progress depends on 'free workers and free enterprise pulling together for the good of all'. The tell is glittering generalities: broad positive terms ('free', 'good of all') with no specific measure or request.

Propaganda techniques used in this poster

Glittering generalities

Date: 1941
Period: Second World War
Made by: Think American, Kelly-Read & Co. (artist C. R. Miller)
Region: North America
Country: United States
Medium: Poster
Issuer type: Corporation
Regime: Roosevelt Administration
Leader: Franklin D. Roosevelt
Audience: Domestic public
Purpose: Persuade or win support
Themes: Economy and finance, Home front, Labor
Event: World War II
Regime: Roosevelt administration
Leader: Franklin D. Roosevelt
Source: Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
Source: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, Record Group 44, World War II Posters, retrieved October 4, 2026
Rights: Public domain (U.S. government work)
Think American, Kelly-Read & Co. (artist C. R. Miller). National Archives and Records Administration, RG 44, 44-PA-849 (NAID 514343).

Text on the object

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

Future
U.S. progress
depends on our
keeping alive the
American system of
free workers and
free enterprise—
pulling together
for the good of all.

[signature:] C X R
MILLER
[imprint:] THINK AMERICAN REG. U.S. PAT. OFF. [illegible]
[imprint:] COPYRIGHT — KELLY-READ & CO., ROCHESTER, N.Y.

Part of the imprint line is faint.