---
title: In time of war you are liable to punishment by death or imprisonment for not more than thirty years
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/in-time-of-war-you-death-espionage-law-1941/
description: 'Text-only legal warning in red and black type inside double borders: ''YOU'' and ''DEATH'' are set in very large red letters.'
section: Collection
---

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3. In time of war you are liable to punishment by death or imprisonment

[![In time of war you are liable to punishment by death or imprisonment for not more than thirty years, 1941 US poster](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/in-time-of-war-you-death-espionage-law-1941.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/in-time-of-war-you-death-espionage-law-1941.jpg)

# In time of war you are liable to punishment by death or imprisonment for not more than thirty years

Text-only legal warning in red and black type inside double borders: 'YOU' and 'DEATH' are set in very large red letters, with five numbered acts below that are said to carry the penalty. The tell is fear-appeal through typography, enlarging the second-person pronoun and the penalty, followed by a list of listed acts and 'Know the law for your protection'.

## Propaganda techniques used in this poster

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

## Text on the object

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

```
IN TIME OF WAR
YOU
ARE LIABLE TO PUNISHMENT BY
DEATH
OR IMPRISONMENT FOR NOT MORE THAN 30 YEARS
FOR
PERFORMING ACTS WITH INTENT TO INJURE
THE UNITED STATES OR TO THE ADVANTAGE
OF FOREIGN NATIONS. AS FOLLOWS:
1 Obtaining or helping to obtain vital information
concerning military installations.
2 Obtaining, willfully, photographs, blue-prints or documents.
3 Intrusting, willfully, information to unauthorized parties.
4 Permitting through gross negligence, military information
to be stolen or destroyed.
5 Disclosing information affecting national defense to a
foreign government or its agents.
KNOW THE LAW FOR YOUR PROTECTION
```

[← "I'm proud to work with 'em!" We're rollin' on to victory!](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/im-proud-to-work-with-em-victory-builders-1941/) [In war as in peace - this country is no stronger than our individual loyalty to it →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/in-war-as-in-peace-individual-loyalty-1941/)

## 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)