Content note: Painted illustration of a German soldier with a raised bayonet on a street corner, with a swastika eagle badge and Iron Cross. This object is shown as it was published. Why
Our street corners must not be next!
Company-sponsored sheet showing a helmeted German soldier with a raised bayonet at a corner under a street sign reading 'Rue St. Etienne', a large white V painted on the brick wall behind him. The tell is the text box: 'The enemy now is nearer than you think' and 'the time is short' pair an invasion image with a call to work harder, a fear-appeal, closed with 'priceless freedom'.
Propaganda techniques used in this advertisement
- Date
- 1941
- Period
- Second World War
- Made by
- Gilbert Paper Company, Menasha, Wisconsin (artist McCale)
- Region
- North America
- Country
- United States
- Medium
- Advertisement
- Issuer type
- Corporation
- Regime
- Roosevelt Administration
- Leader
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Mobilize or secure compliance
- Themes
- Home front, Economy and finance, War and the military
- 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)
Gilbert Paper Company, Menasha, Wisconsin (artist McCale). National Archives and Records Administration, RG 44, 44-PA-1493 (NAID 515158).
Text on the object
Rue [partly cut off] St. Etienne Our street corners must not be next! • The grim spectre of conquest hangs over the entire world—make no mistake about that. The enemy now is nearer than you think . . . more desperate, more deadly than you know! We, right here in America, are in grave danger of losing everything for which our fighting forces have died since 1776. Complacency and cocksure over-confidence are tragic handicaps to the tremendous goals we have set . . . the great superiority we must attain. We must work as we never before have worked . . . each of us—right now. We must fight as we never before have fought . . . each of us—right now. We must pledge, sacrifice, sweat and toil. We must dig deeper, harder, longer. Only steadfast purpose can bring victory. Only victory can save our priceless freedom. But remember . . . the time is short! GILBERT PAPER COMPANY • MENASHA, WISCONSIN [signature: McCale] [imprint, lower right of text box: Litho. in U.S.A.]
