# America Arms!, a Civil Service Commission job notice for the defense program

America arms! For national safety is a 1941 U.S. Civil Service Commission recruiting poster printed by the Government Printing Office. A drawn hand turns a red micrometer over silhouettes of a battleship, a tank, a bomber and a carrier, and the text lists the skilled trades and professions the federal government wanted (NAID 513788).

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      America arms! For national safety. Defense program has urgent need for specialized workers

      America Arms!, a Civil Service Commission job notice for the defense program
      A 1941 Civil Service Commission poster sets a hand on a micrometer over warship silhouettes and lists the machinists and engineers wanted. NAID 513788.

## Techniques named on the archive record

Glittering generalitiesCard stacking
      Date1941Made byU.S. Civil Service CommissionMediumPosterCountryUnited StatesRegimeRoosevelt AdministrationNARANAID 513788; Record Group 44SourceIdentified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they areSourceU.S. National Archives and Records Administration, Record Group 44, World War II Posters , retrieved October 4, 2026SourcePublic domain (U.S. government work) U.S. Civil Service Commission. National Archives and Records Administration, RG 44, 44-PA-341 (NAID 513788).
      Object, image, and catalog record from the FRAME archive. Text on this page is CC BY 4.0. Image rights are as the archive records.

      Full record at propagandaarchive.org

  America arms! For national safety is a 1941 U.S. Civil Service Commission recruiting poster printed by the Government Printing Office. A drawn hand turns a red micrometer over silhouettes of a battleship, a tank, a bomber and a carrier, and the text lists the skilled trades and professions the federal government wanted (NAID 513788).

## A hand on a gauge

The image is a single drawn hand turning a red micrometer gauge. Under it, in silhouette, are a battleship, a tank, a bomber and an aircraft carrier. The suggestion is that precision work ends up in the machines of war. Red type picks out the words "urgent need" and the trades the government wanted, and the rest of the sheet is a job notice.

AMERICA ARMS!

FOR NATIONAL SAFETY

DEFENSE PROGRAM HAS URGENT

NEED FOR SPECIALIZED WORKERS

The Federal Civil Service offers unusual opportunities for well trained men to secure good jobs in the Federal Government and serve their country in the national emergency. Among those especially needed are certain skilled tradesmen such as machinists, toolmakers, diemakers, and aircraft mechanics. [...] See the Local Civil Service Secretary at any first- or second-class post office for full information and application blanks.

U. S. CIVIL SERVICE COMMISSION, Washington, D. C.

Transcription in the FRAME record, read from the image and not independently checked; cut marked [...]. Imprint: U. S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE : 1941-O-[illegible]. Full record at propagandaarchive.org. NAID 513788, local id 44-PA-341, Record Group 44.

The cut sentence names the others also wanted: engineers of all kinds, inspectors of engineering materials, economists, draftsmen, chemists, nurses and radio technicians.

## A job ad with a flag on it

The FRAME catalog tags glittering generalities and card stacking, and calls the technique faint. The generalities are "national safety" and "unusual opportunities." The card stacking is in what the sheet lists: the benefits of the work and none of its terms. There is no pay scale, no examination requirement, no length of appointment. The purpose is recorded as "Recruit."

Seen plainly, this is a want ad from an employer that happened to be the federal government. It offers "good jobs," asks people to apply at the post office, and leaves the choice to them. That is as voluntary as wartime mobilization gets. Paying skilled people to do skilled work is the free-labor way to staff a defense effort.

The wording has a limit. It asks for "well trained men," although nurses appear in the list. The record does not say whether women applied under this notice.

The same year's call for inventors from the Commerce Department, Invent for Victory, asked for ideas instead of labor. For the federal offices of the period, see this site's Roosevelt administration essay.

## Sources

- FRAME object record, America arms! For national safety. Defense program has urgent need for specialized workers, 1941. U.S. Civil Service Commission.

- U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, Record Group 44, World War II Posters, 44-PA-341, NAID 513788, retrieved by the archive 4 October 2026. Rights as recorded: public domain (U.S. government work).

Canonical: https://americanpropaganda.org/collection/america-arms-civil-service-1941/