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
- Date
- 1943
- Period
- Second World War
- Made by
- Office of Defense Transportation (distributed as OWI Poster No. 74)
- Region
- North America
- Country
- United States
- Medium
- Poster
- Issuer type
- State
- Regime
- Roosevelt Administration
- Leader
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Mobilize or secure compliance
- Themes
- Home front, Economy and finance
- 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)
Office of Defense Transportation (distributed as OWI Poster No. 74). National Archives and Records Administration, RG 44, 44-PA-360 (NAID 513810).
Text on the object
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
