Now, as Never Before (1943), the Red Cross War Fund's blank progress gauge

Now, as never before is a fundraising sheet for the American Red Cross 1943 War Fund. Beside a red cross and the words "Give more" and "Give double," an empty gauge marked from 10 to 90 percent waits for a local campaign to fill it in. Two War Production Board seals sit on the sheet (NAID 515087).

A chart left blank on purpose

This poster was printed unfinished on purpose. The archive describes a large thermometer-style gauge with marks from 10 to 90 percent and no figures of its own, left for a local campaign to fill in.

NOW-AS NEVER BEFORE

GIVE

MORE

[red cross]

GIVE

DOUBLE

RED CROSS 1943 WAR FUND

90%

[...]

10

WAR PRODUCTION BOARD (seal, left)

WAR PRODUCTION BOARD (seal, right)

The crowd as the argument

The archive tags one technique, bandwagon. The gauge does the persuading: once filled in, it shows the community's running total, and each reader is invited to join it. The words ask for more and then for double, without saying double of what. No use of the money appears on the sheet.

A public tally is a form of social pressure. The donor still chose. The record's purpose field reads "Fundraise," and the Red Cross was asking for gifts, not collecting a levy.

A charity under federal seals

The issuer type in the record is "Mixed." The campaign is the Red Cross's, but two War Production Board seals flank the sheet, and the National Archives holds it with the government's World War II posters. Why the seals are there goes unexplained. On the paper, a private appeal carries a federal agency's mark, and nothing on it says where the charity ends and the agency begins.

Sheets from other private wartime organizations on this site include the Red Cross Blood Donor Service's Lives Saved by Plasma, Russian War Relief's Write to Russia, and United Czechoslovak Relief's Help Czechoslovakia. Government borrowing from the same public in the same year is on the war bonds hub.