# Is Your Trip Necessary? (1943), the Office of Defense Transportation's crowded coach

Is your trip necessary? is OWI Poster No. 74, issued in 1943 for the Office of Defense Transportation. A photograph of a packed railway coach, with civilians, children and uniformed servicemen, sits under the question and the line "Needless travel interferes with the war effort" (NAID 513810).

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      Is your trip necessary? Needless travel interferes with the war effort

      Is Your Trip Necessary? (1943), the Office of Defense Transportation's crowded coach
      OWI Poster No. 74 (1943) for the Office of Defense Transportation: a packed railway coach and the question "Is your trip necessary?" NAID 513810.

## Techniques named on the archive record

Fear appealTransfer
      Date1943Made byOffice of Defense Transportation (distributed as OWI Poster No. 74)MediumPosterCountryUnited StatesRegimeRoosevelt AdministrationNARANAID 513810; 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) Office of Defense Transportation (distributed as OWI Poster No. 74). National Archives and Records Administration, RG 44, 44-PA-360 (NAID 513810).
      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

  Is your trip necessary? is OWI Poster No. 74, issued in 1943 for the Office of Defense Transportation. A photograph of a packed railway coach, with civilians, children and uniformed servicemen, sits under the question and the line "Needless travel interferes with the war effort" (NAID 513810).

## What it shows

The picture is a photograph, not a painting. A railway coach is full: civilians, children, and men in uniform. A question heads the sheet, and a red banner carries the answer the poster wants.

IS YOUR

TRIP NECESSARY?

NEEDLESS TRAVEL

interferes with the War Effort

OFFICE OF DEFENSE TRANSPORTATION

OWI Poster No. 74. Additional copies may be obtained upon request from the Division of Public Inquiries, Office of War Information, Washington, D. C.

[imprint:] U. S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE : 1943—O—533555

Transcription in the FRAME record, read from the image and not independently checked. Full record at propagandaarchive.org. NAID 513810, local id 44-PA-360, Record Group 44.

## Who issued it

The sheet names the Office of Defense Transportation and carries the Office of War Information's number 74 with its standard line offering more copies from the Division of Public Inquiries. The printing office job number dates it to 1943; the copy is at the National Archives in Record Group 44. The archive classes the purpose as mobilizing or securing compliance, under the home front and the economy. No photographer or print run is recorded. The archive also holds a second Office of Defense Transportation sheet asking the same question, "Millions of troops are on the move... Is YOUR trip necessary?"

## How to read it

Fear appeal and transfer are the two tags in the record. The men in uniform carry the claim: every seat a civilian takes is a seat they might need. The poster offers no numbers, and the archive notes that none are given. It works by a question and the pressure behind it.

A question is the right grammatical form here, and that matters. The poster does not forbid travel. It asks each reader to judge his or her own trip, and leaves the decision there. That is a request to a free citizen, not an order. The weak point is the missing evidence. A reader is asked to accept that "needless travel" hurts the war without being told how much, or what counts as needless. The judgment is handed to the citizen, but the facts to make it with are not.

Other OWI sheets of 1943 asked for restraint in daily life, such as Use It Up - Wear It Out - Make It Do!. The Office of War Information hub and its poster index list more numbered sheets.

## Sources

- FRAME object record, Is your trip necessary? Needless travel interferes with the war effort, 1943. Office of Defense Transportation (distributed as OWI Poster No. 74).

- U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, Record Group 44, World War II Posters, 44-PA-360, NAID 513810, retrieved by the archive 4 October 2026. Rights as recorded: public domain (U.S. government work).

Canonical: https://americanpropaganda.org/collection/is-your-trip-necessary-1943/