The Waterbury Democrat., 1942-05-19

10S0A kitchsn stoves washing machines, radios, refriger. ators, new houses and such items are not the only ones on which production can be frozen with ra- tioning the eventual result.
 It would be a fallacy to say that the back-rono boys of the Ohice oi Price Administration have a lot oi Relays marked on the calendars with new plans all drawn up and ready to issue for rationing half the commodities in the store, or even a quarter of them or 1 per cent. Of1- cially, OPA won't even admit that it knows the date for the second sugar registration. Nor is the form i of the next rationing book decided on, nor the quantity of gasoline to be allowed in the rationing areas after July 1. The policy now is to see how gasoline and sugar ration ing work out, learn whatever les- sons there are to be learned from this experience and by thus feeling the way, go on from there.
 To announce now a list of items that might be rationed would sim ply be to start lot of runs on the stores, and that is just what must be avoided. Almost every shortage that has been spcidcally mentioned thus far has brought on one ot these buying sprees, as, for example the silk stocking and razor blade |Stampedes. It would be naive indeed, however, to think for minute that the United States could get through the war with no more rationing.
 LINE UP
 AGAIN
 You can therefore expect to stand in line every so often for another registration. If the next rationing book were to be issued immediately, standing in line might not be nec- essary, for the names and addresses of all sugar consumers were taken on that first registration and new books could be mailed out. But if the next registration isn't called for six months or so, there will have been so many shifts in the popula- ton that the first sugar regiStra- tion will be worthless. You may therefore safely reconcile yourself to registering for something or other every few months, for the duration of the war.
 One idea is that the next ration book might contain a lot of vari- colored coupons, issued in blank. And then on some day when you were least expecting it-Surprise! 1! you would be told that here after the Harvard crimson cou- pons would be good for Harvard beets, while the Navy blue ones would be good for fish.
 Tn trying to compute where ra- tioning must be applied, the sim plest calculation is to take the amount of all the goods of any given group and divide that quan- tity by the number of people it must be shared by. If 1t is an item to be consumed only in the United States, divide by 13O mill lion. If 1t must be shared by Great Britain, divide by 1894 mill lion. If 1t must be divided among all the United Nations. divide by 800 million.
 After that, there are several kinds of rationing that may be ap- piled, for the type of rationing that fits autos and tires where is- Suance is based on demonstrated essentia: use, is entirely different from ra.;cSing sugar, which every body is entitled to in about equal quantity.
 POINT
 SYSTEM
 There is a third form of rationing which the United States hasn't ex- perienced yet, but which the British can tell us all about, and which we may have to come to. This is the point system" It was devised to avoid regimenting sales of certain commodities too rigidly and to give purchasers bit or choice, in place of telling them, You WILL eat i2 cans of salmon in 1943," or You WILL buy a new vest and not a new overcoat."
 Under the point system, every consumer is given a book of stamps representing points, and every variety of canned fish or every item of clothing to be ra- tioned is given point value. A can of salmon 1 points, sardines 8 points, lobster l2 points, caviar 24 points, Supposing the canned fish allowance per person were set at 4e points per month, The purchaser could have his choice of one can of each, or l2 cans of salmon, or six cans of sardines, or two cans of caviar, or one can of caviar and two of lobster, depend' ing on his taste,
 Tn clothes, suppose you were allowed 66 points 9 year, as the British are, 4 suit would be worth 8 points, pants 8 points, skirt 6 points, and so on,
 Dollar prices of commodities make no difference under this point system, and as g matteF 0f fact, the point coupons make 2 kind Of second currency, 4 e2,le pair Of slaekg and R eg0 pair Of slaeks Is each worth eight points in the eyes ef the Fstlonlng board and . coupon book,
 One Of the nice things about the point system you might speculate on is whether the points should be salable, That Is, ig one consumer used up only 60 ef hls clothing book points, would he be neFmltv