---
title: Sugar Means Ships
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sugar-means-ships-1918/
description: A woman in a flowered hat sips through a straw from a tall glass while ships labelled 'Sugar' spiral away from her toward a smoking shore marked 'War.'
section: Collection
---

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3. Sugar Means Ships

[![Sugar Means Ships, 1918 US poster: A woman in a flowered hat sips through a straw from a tall glass while ships labelled](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/sugar-means-ships-1918.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/sugar-means-ships-1918.jpg)

# Sugar Means Ships

A woman in a flowered hat sips through a straw from a tall glass while ships labelled 'Sugar' spiral away from her toward a smoking shore marked 'War.' Text states that 400 million pounds of sugar for beverages were imported in ships last year and that every ship is needed to carry soldiers and supplies now. The tell is the single selected figure connecting a drink to shipping capacity, with no wider supply data given.

## Propaganda techniques used in this poster

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

## Text on the object

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

```
UNITED STATES
FOOD ADMINISTRATION

WAR
[cloud lettering: HURRY]
[ship hull labels: SUGAR; SOLDIERS; SUPPLIES]

Sugar means Ships

The Consumption of
Sugar Sweetened Drinks
Must be Reduced.

For your beverages 400 million lbs. of sugar
were imported in Ships last year. Every
Ship is needed to carry soldiers and supplies now.

E. Fuhr

The Grey Printing Company
```

'SUGAR' appears on the hull of several ships and 'SOLDIERS' and 'SUPPLIES' on others in the drawing; 'HURRY' appears small in the smoke. 'E. Fuhr' is the signature; the tiny printer's line at lower left reads approximately 'The Grey Printing Company' and the spelling is uncertain. A boxed 'D' monogram appears at left.

[← Stemt Rood! Kiest de kandidaten der Soc. Dem. Arb. Partij (Vote Red! Choose the candidates of the Social Democratic Workers' Party), poster by Albert Hahn](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/stemt-rood-sdap-hahn-1918/) [Sugar Means Ships: Every Spoonful, Every Sip, Means Less for a Fighter →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sugar-means-ships-1918-512563/)

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