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
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).
