General Cable Corporation copyrighted this 1943 poster, signed e. c. beall. A naval officer holds a wounded, shirtless sailor before barbed wire, and an eight-line verse asks workers if they dare deny the fighting crew "THE HOURS OF STICKING ON YOUR JOB" (NAID 514103).
A wounded sailor over a poem
Content note: the painting shows a bleeding bullet wound.
A naval officer in a peaked cap holds a shirtless sailor who has been shot, with barbed wire behind them. That is the archive's account of the painting. Under it are two four-line stanzas, rhymed on alternate lines, all in capitals.
DARE YOU TO SAY OR THINK YOU DO NOT FEEL
THE BULLET THAT HAS PIERCED THE FLESH OF HIM
WHO FOUGHT SO GALLANTLY, WITH FIERY ZEAL,
WHILE THINKING NOT OF LOSS OF LIFE OR LIMB?
DARE YOU DENY TO THOSE WHO ENTER HELL,
FOR WAR IS HELL FOR ALL OUR FIGHTING CREW,
THE HOURS OF STICKING ON YOUR JOB? THINK WELL-
FOR-IF YOU DARE, THEN WE ARE LOST... AND YOU!
[imprint:] COPR. 1943 GENERAL CABLE CORPORATION
[signature:] e. c. beall
A company's poster
No government office appears on the sheet. The copyright belongs to General Cable Corporation, and FRAME types the issuer as "Corporation." The National Archives still holds it with the World War II posters in Record Group 44. The tombstone sets the audience as "Domestic public" and the purpose as "Mobilize or secure compliance," with labor among the themes.
So the voice is a company's. When the verse says "WE ARE LOST," the "WE" can be read as the nation, the fighting crew, or the firm. The poem does not choose.
Guilt in rhyme
The archive tags fear appeal and testimonial, and it points to the last line as the threat. The verse moves in three steps: feel the bullet, do not deny the crew your hours, and if you do, everyone is lost, you included. The word "DARE" appears three times, and each time it reads as a challenge more than a question.
What it never asks is why a worker might miss a shift. A War Production Board leaflet on this site, Days Off Cost Lives!, at least lists illness, accidents, housing, transport and child care among the causes before asking workers to cut voluntary days off. The General Cable verse treats every absence as a choice to let a sailor bleed. That is a harsh thing for a company to print for workers, and the verse offers no help with whatever kept them home.
Compare Absence Makes the War Last Longer, a 1943 bulletin board placard on the same subject with a sleeping cartoon man in place of a wounded one.
Sources
- FRAME object record, Dare you to say or think you do not feel, 1943. General Cable Corporation (artist signature: e. c. beall). Rights as recorded: public domain (U.S. government work).
- U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, Record Group 44, World War II Posters, 44-PA-625, NAID 514103, retrieved by the archive 4 October 2026.
