A 1944 Office of Price Administration poster, distributed by the Office of War Information. An Uncle Sam figure points at the viewer and asks two things: pay no more than ceiling prices, and volunteer for Price Panel work, which the sheet calls "the friendly, neighborly way" to help retailers keep to the ceilings (NAID 513811).
Two requests
Uncle Sam points out of the sheet in the familiar pose. The headline puts the words in his mouth. Under it are two bullet points, one for every shopper and one for the reader with time to give.
HELP ME KEEP PRICES DOWN
• Pay no more than Ceiling Prices
• Volunteer for Price Panel work
The Price Panel is the friendly, neighborly way to help retailers observe price ceilings. We need your spare time.
See phone book—"War Price and Rationing Board" or "U.S. Govt."
DISTRIBUTED BY OWI FOR OFFICE OF PRICE ADMINISTRATION
Issued by
The credit line says the Office of War Information distributed it for the Office of Price Administration, and the Government Printing Office imprint dates it to 1944. Its archival home is Record Group 44, World War II Posters, 44-PA-361 (NAID 513811). FRAME tags transfer, for the national figure, and plain folks, for the "friendly, neighborly" wording.
What a Price Panel did
The poster does not explain the panel beyond one sentence. Two other OPA sheets in the FRAME snapshot fill it in. How to Keep Your Food Bill Down walks a shopper through the steps: clip the OPA price list from the newspaper, compare it with shelf prices, and if overcharged, mail an itemized slip to the local rationing board. At the board, the leaflet explains, a price panel studies the case and asks the retailer to comply, and the OPA takes legal action if it has to. It also gives the maximum penalty for wilful violators, one year in jail and a $5000 fine. The 1944 sheet It May Not Be Enough speaks for the agency's local helpers in their own voice: "Most of us are unpaid volunteers."
Reading it
Two things are true at once. Volunteering for a Price Panel was civic work freely given. People gave spare hours to a local body that answered complaints, and the poster asks for them openly, with a phone listing. That is self-government at the scale of a town.
The panel's subject did not volunteer. The grocer whose prices it studied had a federal ceiling on his goods and a federal penalty behind it. "Friendly, neighborly" describes the manner the agency wanted. The power underneath was the government's. A neighbor asking a neighbor to comply, with legal action as the next step, is still enforcement. The poster is honest about the request and quiet about that second half.
For the shopkeeper's side of the same system, see the OPA banner Our Ceiling Price List: We Post 'Em, You Check 'Em, and the rationing and price control hub for the rest. A rent notice from the same agency, All Rents Under Federal Control, names the area rent director by room number.
Sources
- FRAME object record, Help me keep prices down, 1944. Office of Price Administration (distributed by Office of War Information). 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-361, NAID 513811, retrieved by the archive 4 October 2026.
- FRAME object records, How to Keep Your Food Bill Down (Office of Price Administration) and It May Not Be Enough (Office of Price Administration, 1944), as transcribed.
