# "If Hitler and *** had made that trip" (1942), Carl Rose's Philco sheet

A 1942 Philco Corporation sheet drawn by Carl Rose quotes British Minister of Production Oliver Lyttelton after a tour of American war plants. A large hand holding a knife marked "Made in U.S.A." looms over caricatured Hitler, a Japanese officer and a third Axis figure (NAID 514476).

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- "If Hitler and *** had made that trip" (1942), Carl Rose's Philco sheet

      I can't help but feel that if Hitler and *** had made that trip with us through those plants

      "If Hitler and *** had made that trip" (1942), Carl Rose's Philco sheet
      Carl Rose's 1942 Philco sheet quotes Oliver Lyttelton on American war plants above a "Made in U.S.A." knife and caricatured Axis leaders. NAID 514476.

## Techniques named on the archive record

TestimonialName-calling
      Date1942Made byPhilco Corporation (drawn by Carl Rose)MediumAdvertisementCountryUnited StatesRegimeRoosevelt AdministrationNARANAID 514476; 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) Philco Corporation (drawn by Carl Rose). National Archives and Records Administration, RG 44, 44-PA-969 (NAID 514476).
      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

  A 1942 Philco Corporation sheet drawn by Carl Rose quotes British Minister of Production Oliver Lyttelton after a tour of American war plants. A large hand holding a knife marked "Made in U.S.A." looms over caricatured Hitler, a Japanese officer and a third Axis figure (NAID 514476).

## What the sheet prints

Content note: the Axis figures are drawn as grotesque caricatures, and the quoted line is about cutting throats. The archive's content note says both, and they are described here as printed.

The archive describes a large hand, a star on its cuff, holding a knife over a shipyard and a sky of aircraft. Caricatured Hitler, a Japanese officer and a third Axis figure recoil from it. Smoke spells out three words.

"I can't help but feel that if Hitler and *** had made that trip with us through those plants, they would *** cut their throats ***"

-Oliver Lyttelton, British Minister of Production, after his recent tour of America's War Plants.

[smoke lettering:] Tanks Guns Men

[on knife:] MADE IN U.S.A.

[imprint:] DRAWN FOR PHILCO CARL ROSE

[imprint:] Copyright 1942-Philco Corporation

The archive's reading of the image, marked not independently checked; the asterisks are as transcribed, and the quotation's line breaks are joined here. Full record at propagandaarchive.org. NAID 514476, local id 44-PA-969, Record Group 44.

## Who made it

The imprint says the drawing was made for Philco by Carl Rose and copyrighted by Philco Corporation in 1942. The archive classes it as an advertisement from a corporation, aimed at the domestic public. The National Archives holds it with the World War II posters in Record Group 44. No print run is recorded, and the record does not say where it was posted.

## How to read it

The archive tags two techniques. The first is testimonial: a named foreign minister, on a tour of American plants, vouches for their output. The sheet prints his words with asterisks where parts are left out. The reader cannot tell what was cut or why, and the source of the quotation is given only as "his recent tour." That is a thin citation for the line the whole sheet rests on.

The second is name-calling, carried by the drawing. The enemy leaders are grotesques, recoiling from the hand and its knife. The record names no Philco product on the sheet. What it sells is Philco's place in a production effort, set beside a foreign official's praise.

A private company was free to say this, and it signed its name. That is the difference between this sheet and an anonymous one: a reader knew who was speaking. Other company sheets on the site include the Douglas Jap Trap and the Seeburg scrap poster. The Roosevelt administration essay notes that not every item in the wartime file was a government product, and the anti-Nazi propaganda hub collects more sheets aimed at Hitler's regime.

## Sources

- FRAME object record, I can't help but feel that if Hitler and *** had made that trip with us through those plants, 1942. Philco Corporation (drawn by Carl Rose).

- U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, Record Group 44, World War II Posters, 44-PA-969, NAID 514476, retrieved by the archive 4 October 2026. Rights as recorded: public domain (U.S. government work).

Canonical: https://americanpropaganda.org/collection/heel-hitler-philco-1942/