MAPACA

Mid-Atlantic Popular &
American Culture Association

The American public strongly supported the income tax when it was first passed in 1913 as a means to adjust income disparities by targeting only the richest Americans. However, the introduction of the expanded income tax during World War II was a decisive moment in the economic history of the United States because it reconfigured financial relationships between citizens and their government in a dramatic way. The war clearly accelerated the need for vast funds to support burgeoning military demands. The income tax was broadened to include middle class Americans but there were complications because income taxes were not automatically deducted from wages. Individuals, not employers, were responsible for paying income taxes. As a result, the Internal Revenue Service and Treasury Department launched a massive public relations campaign in 1942 to provide information and to remind Americans that it was their patriotic duty to pay income taxes.

This paper analyzes the income tax advertising campaign. It examines the various strategies employed to motivate Americans to pay their taxes. This paper looks at multiple platforms such as pamphlets, posters, newspaper editorials, and newsreels as well as indirect appeals placed in comic books, cartoons, radio shows, and Hollywood films to remind Americans of their obligation to shoulder their fair share of the burden of financing the war.