---
title: An Urgent Plea to Tenants
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/urgent-plea-to-tenants-1941/
description: Red text-and-picture sheet addressed to apartment tenants. It states a critical shortage of waste paper, calls paper a 'Weapon of War' and lists military
section: Collection
---

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3. An Urgent Plea to Tenants

[![An Urgent Plea to Tenants, 1941 US poster: Red text-and-picture sheet addressed to apartment tenants](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/urgent-plea-to-tenants-1941.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/urgent-plea-to-tenants-1941.jpg)

# An Urgent Plea to Tenants

Red text-and-picture sheet addressed to apartment tenants. It states a critical shortage of waste paper, calls paper a 'Weapon of War' and lists military items made from it, then shows nine pictured salvage items (bags, boxes, rags, tin cans, fats). The technique is a selected list of uses presented as the reason to act, with the weapon-of-war label as the appeal.

## Propaganda techniques used in this poster

[Card stacking](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/card-stacking/) [Glittering generalities](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/glittering-generalities/)

## Text on the object

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

```
FROM THE SALVAGE DIVISION OF THE WAR PRODUCTION BOARD
AN URGENT PLEA
TO TENANTS:
There is a Critical Shortage of Waste Paper - More Critical than at any time since the War began! Waste Paper is a vital "Weapon of War". Bomb Bands, Shell Containers, Aircraft Signals, Ammunition Chests, Parachute Flares, Overseas Containers and other Military needs are made in part from converted Waste Paper. Don't destroy it! Don't throw it down the incinerator. Save it!
URGENTLY NEEDED FOR WAR PRODUCTION:
STORE BAGS
FLATTENED OUT BOXES
WRAPPING PAPER
CORRUGATED PAPER
NEWSPAPERS, MAGAZINES
WASTE BASKET PAPER
FLATTENED TIN CANS
RAGS
AND DON'T FORGET
FATS AND GREASES
[imprint:] WAR PRODUCTION BOARD
APPROVED BY WAR PRODUCTION BOARD. PAID FOR BY INDUSTRY.
```

[← Women! You are Needed in the National Fire Service](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/uk-women-you-are-needed-in-the-national-fire-service-1941/) [Liberdade política: a cada povo a liberdade de traçar o seu próprio destino (conforme a Carta do Atlântico) →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/us-liberdade-politica-kauffer-portuguese-1941/)

## 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)
- [Behistun (Bisotun) rock relief and trilingual inscription of Darius I: the king, two attendants and the bound rebel leaders beneath the winged figure of Ahuramazda](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/behistun-relief-darius-and-rebels-521bce/) (Achaemenid Empire · 0000 · Card stacking, Name-calling, Testimonial). Content note: Shows bound captives before the king, and the inscription records the mutilation and public execution of rebel leaders, as the king's own account.
- [Tomb of Darius I at Naqsh-e Rustam: the king in relief beside his inscription DNa, c. 490 BCE](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/dna-inscription-darius-i-naqsh-e-rustam-490bce/) (Achaemenid Empire · 0000 · Testimonial, Card stacking)
- [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.
- [Persepolis, Apadana staircase relief: a figure with an animal from a procession of delegations, early fifth century BCE](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/persepolis-apadana-delegate-relief-500bce/) (Achaemenid Empire · 0000 · Card stacking, Manufactured consensus)
- [Alabaster relief, Assyrian troops storming a citadel, from Nineveh (reign of Sennacherib)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/relief-sennacherib-storming-citadel-nineveh-704bce/) (Neo Assyrian Empire · 0000 · Card stacking). Content note: An Assyrian palace relief of troops storming a fortified city, with a file of figures below; Assyrian royal reliefs and texts record killing, mutilation and deportation, shown as carved, with the historical context and scholarly dispute on the regime page.
- [Colour lithograph of the Latin text of the Res Gestae Divi Augusti on the wall of the temple of Roma and Augustus at Ancyra, with the heading in large letters (Perrot, Guillaume and Delbet, 1872)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/lithograph-res-gestae-ancyra-heading-0014/) (Roman Empire · 0014 · Card stacking, Glittering generalities)
- [Silver denarius of Vespasian, reverse IVDAEA with a trophy of arms and a seated mourning woman](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/denarius-vespasian-judaea-capta-0070/) (Roman Empire · 0070 · Card stacking). Content note: A Roman victory coin showing a mourning female figure as the personification of the conquered province of Judaea after the Roman suppression of the Jewish revolt; shown as struck, with the historical context on the regime page.