---
title: Is your trip necessary? Needless travel interferes with the war effort
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/is-your-trip-necessary-1943/
description: 'Home-front travel-restraint poster: a photograph of a crowded railway coach of civilians, children and uniformed servicemen under the headline ''Is your'
section: Collection
---

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3. Is your trip necessary? Needless travel interferes with the war effort

[![Is your trip necessary? Needless travel interferes with the war effort, 1943 US poster: Home-front travel-restraint poster](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/is-your-trip-necessary-1943.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/is-your-trip-necessary-1943.jpg)

# Is your trip necessary? Needless travel interferes with the war effort

Home-front travel-restraint poster: a photograph of a crowded railway coach of civilians, children and uniformed servicemen under the headline 'Is your trip necessary?', with the red-banner line 'Needless travel interferes with the war effort'. The crowding and the servicemen carry the claim that civilian trips take space from the war effort; the appeal is a question plus implied pressure, with no figures given.

## Propaganda techniques used in this poster

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

## Text on the object

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

```
IS YOUR
TRIP NECESSARY?
NEEDLESS TRAVEL
interferes with the War Effort
OFFICE OF DEFENSE TRANSPORTATION
OWI Poster No. 74. Additional copies may be obtained upon request from the Division of Public Inquiries, Office of War Information, Washington, D. C.
[imprint:] U. S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE : 1943—O—533555
```

[← In the face of obstacles - Courage. Infantry. United States Army.](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/in-the-face-of-obstacles-courage-infantry-1943/) ["I've Found the Job Where I Fit Best!" →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/ive-found-the-job-1943/)

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- [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)
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- [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)