[Rationing, Why and How]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

OFFICE OF PRICE ADMINISTRATION
WASHINGTON, D. C.
RATIONING
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J^ATIONING is something we have read about since war broke out in Europe in 1939. The Germans began rationing butter, sugar, fats, and other articles a few days before their soldiers invaded Poland. England came around to it later. Every belligerent country, in fact, has made rationing a part of its war program.
But though they observed rationing abroad, most Americans felt sure it couldn’t happen here. We had so much of everything: food—more than we could eat; cotton and wool— more than enough for the clothes we wear; automobiles— more than any other country in the world; gasoline—plenty to run our cars all we wanted to. We had a wealth of goods all around us—and we were smug about it.
But when war came to us so did rationing. We no longer can get new tires just because we want them and have money to buy them. Most of us cannot buy a new car. We have to carry stamps to the grocer to get sugar and we cannot get more than a set amount. We will have to go without many other of the good things whose abundance we have been accustomed to take for granted.
What has happened? What does it all mean? Among a people who own the richest land on earth, it is natural that rationing should seem strange. It is something new to America. It has come upon us so fast that many of us have felt its effects before we were sure of its meaning, its purpose, its method.
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What Is Rationing?
First, let’s be sure what rationing is not. It is not starvation, long bread lines, shoddy goods. Rather, it is a community plan for dividing fairly the supplies we have among all who need them. Second, it is not “un-American.” The earliest settlers of this country, facing scarcities of food and clothing, pooled their precious supplies and apportioned them out to everyone on an equal basis. It was an American idea then, and it is an American idea now, to share and share alike—to sacrifice, if necessary, but sacrifice together, when the country’s welfare demands it.
The fact is that, when war upsets our regular economy, rationing is the one measure the Government can take to insure equal opportunities for all citizens without exceptions to obtain the necessities of life. A man with a million dollars in the bank, for example, cannot buy more sugar than the person with no more than the price of one ration allowance in his pocket. An old friend of the grocer cannot obtain a greater share than the war worker who has just arrived in town. Everyone is equal in this “partnership in the greatest undertaking of our American history.”
Germany was quick to adopt rationing as a weapon of war. It recognized that rationing means fairness; that it would help keep up public morale. And, in a nation which even in peacetime regiments the entire economy, it was not difficult to establish rigid controls over the supply of consumer goods. The mechanism was already created; it merely had to be set in motion. That it operates under the Nazis’ usual method for obtaining “cooperation”—the violator of a ration law is put to death—is another matter.
In a democracy, government controls are relatively novel. Even more important, wartime economic controls are made effective mainly by popular support and participation. In England, for example, the Government was slow to institute rationing, and the delay resulted in injustice for millions of consumers. At one time there would be a great abundance of an article; at another time there would be severe scarcity.
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Prices of essential goods went up, imposing undue sacrifices on the poor. There were runs on scarce commodities, and there was some hoarding.
England has since instituted rationing on a broad consumer front, and most of these evils have been eliminated. Rationing, Britons know from bitter experience, is a blessing in war times.
But some Americans may still question the need for rationing in this country—the land of plenty. We have never had to do it before on such a wide scale.
Why Rationing?
There are two basic reasons for rationing in the United States now:
1.	We no longer have an abundance of many articles which we once produced in great quantities; we no longer have plenty of raw materials from which some of those goods are made. There is not plenty of sugar. Our supply of rubber is practically cut off. Our supply of new automobiles is cut off. We need every scrap of copper, iron ore, zinc, mercury, and dozens of other minerals we can possibly lay our hands on. We do not have a plenty of them.
2.	In wartime we must decide whether we want to use our resources for the normal requirements of the civilian population or whether we want them to produce guns, tanks, ships, and planes for our soldiers and sailors. That decision has been made. The American public is determined to beat the Axis. It wants ships, planes—all we can produce of them. Americans are ready to deprive themselves of many things in order that there should be plenty of tools and machines for our military forces.
That is our policy. It is a policy of “first things first.’’ We can do without refrigerators, automobiles, and all the shining gadgets that American industry produced in such magnificent abundance. We must have the weapons if we are to maintain our freedom. With that decision made, the next step is to distribute the burdens fairly among all the people.
Rationing, or universal sharing, is the way to do it, We
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have never had it before because we have never been in a war like this one. We have never had to fight in the four corners of the earth. This is total war.
An equally important reason for the necessity of rationing is that we are now more dependent on overseas sources for certain supplies than ever before. We, as a Nation, cannot live isolated lives. We shop all over the world. And our life lines have never before been subject to such ruthless attack. We have large fields of sugar cane here at home but we must normally depend for large quantities of sugar on the West Indies, Hawaii, the Philippines. We buy wool from Australia and the Argentine. Rubber and tin come from the East Indies. Tea comes from Ceylon. These are only a few examples of our dependence on foreign countries for many of the things we use in everyday working and living.
In peacetime we took these things for granted, and we could afford to do so. The oceans hid no lurking submarines; international trade flowed freely. Now our enemies have engulfed distant lands that were our reservoirs of vital raw materials and food products. They have choked off many of the sea lanes and sunk our merchant ships and their cargoes.
What has happened to a few typical commodities since the Axis attack shattered peacetime trade and production?
Rubber. Our principal source of rubber was cut off when the Japanese invaded Malaya and the East Indies. Approximately 93 percent of our supply came from the East Indies area. This means that until our synthetic rubber plants can be established—or we win the war—we must get along on our reserve stocks. We must run a war with what we have on hand, and today’s mechanized war requires rubber in enormous quantities for transport trucks, tanks, planes, and battleships.
That is why we can no longer afford to use any of our rubber reserve for ordinary civilian demands—for passenger car tires, for example, which normally absorb 75 percent of our imports.
How much rubber is consumed by the modern implements of war? Here are a few astounding facts: a 4-motor bomber requires as much rubber as 3 dozen passenger cars; a battle
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ship uses more rubber than 4,000 automobiles. Every automobile tire that we don’t make will give us rubber for 8 gas masks; 3 unbuilt passenger cars will put wheels on a 37-mm. antiaircraft gun.
By rationing the stock of tires on reserve we can prevent skyrocketing of prices, hoarding, and, most important, we can see that the limited supply we have is used to the greatest public advantage.
Automobiles. The shortage of passenger automobiles and trucks is a little different. We could have these vehicles as usual—if we did not have to convert the automobile and truck plants to the manufacture of planes and tanks. But today that’s what we need—more and more of them. And so our great manufacturing companies are making planes and tanks, and not automobiles and trucks. The steel, copper, aluminum, and other materials that were used for the production of consumers’ durable goods—automobiles, washing machines, refrigerators, etc.—are now used for the production of the machines of war.
That is why we have to be careful about the half million new cars still in the hands of manufacturers and dealers. If sold without restriction these cars would soon be in the hands of the highest bidders—who in many cases might not be the people needing them most for the service of the community. Through rationing, however, the Nation is able to reserve these few new cars for those who must have them to execute vital services. And such servants of the community pay an established price for the cars they are allowed to buy.
Sugar. We are now beginning to ration our first article of food—sugar. The sugar shortage differs from both the tire and the auto scarcities. Tires and passenger automobiles are no longer being manufactured, but sugar will continue to be refined for the home front as well as the military front. And while only a few can now get tires and cars, everyone will be entitled to some sugar.
But what is the sugar situation?
The average American, according to Government estimates, consumed about 114 pounds of sugar in 1941.
One-third came from beet and cane fields in this country.
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One-third from the West Indies—Cuba and Puerto Rico. Almost one-third came from Hawaii and the Philippines.
This year we will not get any sugar at all from the Philippines. Sugar fields there are in Japanese hands. We will not get our usual supply from Hawaii because of the shortage of ships. We need all the ships we have for the grim tasks of war. American soldiers in Iceland, Greenland, Australia MUST be supplied with all the thousands of things they need. It will even be difficult to get anywhere near our normal sugar tonnage from nearby Cuba—because of the lack of ships and because of the Nazi submarine attacks on coastal shipping in the Atlantic.
Rationing guarantees our share. We should be thankful for the fact that—even in time of war—America is still relatively a land of plenty. An Italian, for example, gets less than a quarter of a pound of sugar a week. The Japanese war lords grant their people even more scanty rations—one-fifth of a pound of sugar per person each week. Among our Allies, Russians get only a fraction of the amount we are receiving; the British people are allowed to buy about half a pound per week, but chocolate, pastry, and soft drinks are almost unobtainable.
Gasoline. There is no shortage—but, there is a lack of transportation. Normally, 95% of the petroleum used in the east is brought in by tanker. Today, submarines are sinking these tankers at an accelerated rate. Also, tankers are being used to transport gasoline and oil to our fighting men. Overland transportation facilities are being used to help overcome this shortage, but at present they are bringing in only about half our normal supply. Thus, rationing is the only way to assure everyone a fair share of our limited gasoline supply.
How Rationing?
Establishing rationing as a policy is one thing. Very few Americans are likely to object to rationing on principle. Obviously, however, putting it into practice and making it work is another. HOW is it to be enforced? What machinery is to be used?
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RATIONED SUGAR Eid
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Rationing is administered by the Office of Price Administration. The Congress of the United States has empowered the President to allocate supplies in order to further the war effort, and to ration any commodity if the need arises. The President has delegated these powers to the War Production Board under Donald Nelson, which in turn has made the Office of Price Administration, under Leon Henderson, responsible for the administration of rationing.
The headquarters of the Office of Price Administration is located in Washington, but, of course, any program that directly affects the 132,000,000 consumers in America cannot be conducted solely from offices in the capital. Effective administration of rationing calls for a large field force and OPA has such a force. There are, first of all, eight regional offices located in key cities. These offices supervise all activities of the Office of Price Administration in their areas, which usually embrace two or mote States each. From these regional offices branch the State rationing administrations, each of which is headed by an administrator. His job is to set up local rationing boards in every community in his State and to supervise their operations.
The most strategic position, obviously, is occupied by the members of the 8,000-odd local rationing boards—by the public-spirited citizens in the community who agreed to give their time and energies to administer the rationing program in all the cities, towns, and rural communities of the Nation. There are more than 24,000 of them with three members to a board. Their task is not an easy one—nor always a pleasant one. It is not pleasant to have to say “no” to an applicant for a new tire or car who may be one’s personal friend and neighbor. Yet they must do it all the time.
All rationing will be administered by this organization, and the procedure will follow the same general pattern, even when details in the handling of various commodities will necessarily differ.
This brief explanation of the administrative structure should demonstrate what the Office of Price Administration is doing to assure the consumer a fair share of those commodities which have dwindled in quantity because of war
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needs. To see how this mechanism works, take sugar as an example—the first foodstuff to be rationed.
When the War Production Board found out after our entrance into the war that our sugar supplies would decline, it asked the Office of Price Administration to assume the tremendous job of rationing. A lot of work—more than most of us can possibly realize—had to be done in a hurry. A lot of facts had to be gathered, regulations drawn up, plans formulated, a vast registration machinery constructed. The job of printing all the forms, regulations, and instructions taxed to the limit the resources of the Government Printing Office, the world’s largest printing establishment, and of many private plants. Dozens of men put in 15 and 16 hours a day for weeks on end before War Ration Book One was ready for distribution to the 132,000,000 inhabitants of the United States.
Men in the Office of Price Administration, in the meantime, were working night and day. All the school superintendents in the country—close to 9,000 of them—were mobilized for the registration program. The next step was to enlist the 1,250,000 public school teachers of America to register the civilian population and to distribute War Ration Book One. May 4, 5, 6, and 7 were selected as the days for Americans to go to the elementary schools of the Nation to receive their War Ration Books.
After that, every housewife, family head, or individual equipped with one War Ration Book for each member of the family could go to any grocery store and get his or her share of sugar under the rationing program.
Every Book-bearer was informed that each of the 28 stamps in the Book is good for a ration of sugar during a specified period of time.
He was also told that the stamps are good only during the set period. They cannot be saved up indefinitely in order to make a large purchase, for the grocer, too, is strictly limited in his stock. He gets supplies on the basis of the stamps which he collects from consumers and pastes on a sheet. When he has 100 cancelled stamps, he takes the sheet to his wholesaler, who exchanges it for a corresponding amount of new
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RATIONING—/wtV
HOUSEWIFE registers at SCHOOLHOUSE and receives WAR RATION BOOK NUMBER ONE.
HOUSEWIFE takes RATION BOOK to STORE, tears out STAMP in presence of STOREKEEPER, and receives HER SHARE.
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sugar. The wholesaler in turn uses these sheets of cancelled stamps to get a certificate which he gives to the distributor in exchange for new supplies. And so it goes until the refiner is reached, who,must have the correct number of stamps for all the sugar he is permitted to process.
The chain of control is complete and logical. If it is found that the refiners have a supply of sugar beyond that which they have distributed in exchange for stamps—that, in other words, they are building up a reserve—the Office of Price Administration may decide that the size of the consumer’s ration can be increased for the next period. On the other hand, if the reserve supply shrinks dangerously low, OPA might have to cut the size of the ration. It is extremely unlikely, however, that rations will ever fall below half a pound per person per week.
In either event, everyone shares, or sacrifices, alike.
Where does the local rationing board fit into this plan? The school teachers and school authorities, by helping out in the important job of registering consumers, relieved the rationing boards of one task. It was a big job—too big, in fact, for the local boards which operate on a volunteer basis and have the aid of very small clerical staffs.
But the rationing boards picked up right where the school people left off. Persons unable for some good reason to register on the scheduled days go to their rationing boards to apply for their Ration Books. Housewives who need sugar for canning apply to the rationing board. Anyone, in fact, from a dealer to a baker or keeper of a boarding house must take his problem to the rationing board. All complaints are filed with the rationing board.
In short, the consumer should take any questions about rationing—whether it be about sugar, tires, automobiles, typewriters, or anything else on the rationing list—to his local rationing board. If the answer isn’t at hand, it will be obtained from the State rationing administrator, or from Washington.
Such is the general plan the Government has set up to assure every consumer in America his legitimate share of the goods which war needs have made scarce.
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The hoarder has no place in such a plan. There is no way for him to lay up excessive supplies in his pantry or his basement. But why should he? Why should he hoard sugar when he knows that he can get enough to meet his needs next week, or whenever the next rationing period comes around—that his share is being safeguarded for him by a logical system of control?
Americans know that they must save sugar wherever possible. They will waste none; they will not attempt to live up to their ration but rather to live well within it. Regardless of the size of the ration they will try to use less sugar, and more sugar substitutes. As an aid in sugar saving, home economics experts in Washington have prepared a booklet of useful sugarless, or sugar-saving, recipes. Copies can be obtained free of charge by writing to the Consumer Division of the Office of Price Administration in Washington, D. C.
Here are a few suggestions:
Try using less sugar in your coffee and tea. Above all, don’t leave any unstirred at the bottom of the cup.
Substitute fresh fruit desserts for those requiring sugar sweetening.
Remember dried fruits, like raisins, dates, figs, prunes, peaches, and apricots, are rich in sugar and can be used to sweeten breakfast cereals.
Use fresh fruits, which have sugar content.
Americans do not want to have a bright surface put on a gloomy picture merely for the false comfort it might bring. Throughout their history they have demanded to know the reality so that they might face it intelligently. The reality of sugar rationing and of all kinds of rationing is that it is a grim business—a sacrifice, a tightening of our belts so that there may be more and better weapons to destroy the menace which confronts this country. The stakes in this test are high. If we lose, we lose our freedom, our standard of living, and, many of us, our very lives. Americans have never failed in the past. They will not fail now.
U. S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE: 1942
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RATIONING meank
SHARE and SHARE ALIKE
aww.aw aw aa,aw ■ A.a ■ u ■ ata ■ am	PENALTY FOR PRIVATE USE TO AVOID
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Washington, D. C.
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