---
title: Put your muscle on a war basis! Sign up for a farm job
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/put-your-muscle-on-a-war-basis-1942/
description: A shirtless young man swings a pitchfork at a haystack against a yellow ground, under the headline 'Put your muscle on a war basis!' and the line 'Sign up
section: Collection
---

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3. Put your muscle on a war basis! Sign up for a farm job

[![Put your muscle on a war basis! Sign up for a farm job, 1942 US poster: A shirtless young man swings a pitchfork](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/put-your-muscle-on-a-war-basis-1942.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/put-your-muscle-on-a-war-basis-1942.jpg)

# Put your muscle on a war basis! Sign up for a farm job

A shirtless young man swings a pitchfork at a haystack against a yellow ground, under the headline 'Put your muscle on a war basis!' and the line 'Sign up for a farm job' at the local U.S. Employment Office. The technique is transfer: physical farm work is relabelled as a war contribution, with no enemy or threat shown.

## Propaganda techniques used in this poster

[Transfer](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/transfer/)

## Text on the object

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

```
Put your muscle
on a war basis !
SIGN UP FOR A FARM JOB
...at your local U.S. Employment Office
[imprint:] U. S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE: 1942—O—468382
[imprint:] WAR MANPOWER COMMISSION • WASHINGTON, D. C.
```

[← 'Put the squeeze on the Japanese' (Australian industrial-effort poster, General Motors Holden)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/put-the-squeeze-on-the-japanese-australia-1942/) [Putting on the screws →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/putting-on-the-screws-us-production-philco-1942/)

## More propaganda examples that use the same techniques

- [Fragments of the Abydos king list from Ramesses II's temple, in the British Museum: rows of royal cartouches](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/abydos-king-list-ramesses-ii-temple-british-museum/) (New Kingdom Egypt · 0000 · Card stacking, Transfer)
- [Clay cylinder with the Ehulhul inscription of Nabonidus, king of Babylon, describing work on three temples](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/cylinder-nabonidus-ehulhul-inscription-555bce/) (Neo Babylonian Empire · 0000 · Transfer)
- [Seated limestone statue of Hatshepsut as king, with feminine royal titles on the throne, reassembled from fragments broken up at Deir el-Bahri](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/hatshepsut-seated-statue-limestone-met-1458bce/) (New Kingdom Egypt · 0000 · Transfer, Testimonial)
- [Glazed-brick panel with a striding lion, from Babylon (reign of Nebuchadnezzar II)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/ishtar-gate-panel-striding-lion-nebuchadnezzar-ii-604bce/) (Neo Babylonian Empire · 0000 · Transfer)
- [Limestone relief block of Ramesses II wearing the White Crown, a jubilee relief from his temple at Herakleopolis](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/jubilee-relief-ramesses-ii-herakleopolis-met-05-4-256/) (New Kingdom Egypt · 0000 · Transfer)
- [Line drawing of the Great Kadesh battle relief on the walls of the Ramesseum, from Breasted's History of Egypt](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/kadesh-relief-ramesseum-breasted-drawing-1275bce/) (New Kingdom Egypt · 0000 · Card stacking, Transfer). Content note: A drawing of an Egyptian royal battle relief showing Hittite soldiers and horses killed and drowned, as the king's monument presented the battle; it is a one-sided image made by the winning side's own account.
- [Gypsum alabaster slab inscribed in cuneiform, from Nimrud (Kalhu), reign of Ashurnasirpal II](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/nimrud-slab-ashurnasirpal-ii-inscription-883bce/) (Neo Assyrian Empire · 0000 · Transfer, Glittering generalities)
- [Egyptian alabaster jar inscribed with the name of Xerxes the Great in four languages (Old Persian, Elamite, Babylonian, Egyptian), 486 to 466 BCE](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/xerxes-jar-four-languages-486bce/) (Achaemenid Empire · 0000 · Transfer)