The daily monitor leader. [volume] (Mount Clemens, Mich.) 1942-19??, 1942-05-18
By PETER EDISON
Monitor-leoder Washington
CORRESPONDENT

mira OF me american nOtOT-
lists who ore having to get
along under gas rotionin9 are
just q whisper. Extension Of gas
rotionine 10 other areas is not
Necessary from q petroleum
point Of view, according to Pc
troIeum Co-ordnotor Harold
L. Ickes, though from the rub
Der conservation point Of view
il may be necessary TO limit
gas consumption all over the
country. Just listen if thot
should ever happen.
But gasoline and tires and
automobiles and sugar ond BIZ
cycles aren't the only things
that can be rotioned, and type
writer's, kitchen stoves, wosh-
ing machines, rodios, refrig-
orators, new houses and such
items ore not the only ones on
which production can be troz-
en- with rotioning the eventual
result.
It would be q foIIocy TO say
that the bock-room boys Of the
Office Of Price Administration
have q lot Of R-doys marked
on the calendars, with new
plans all drown up and ready
10 issue for rotionino holt the
commodities in the store, or
even q quarter Of them or ! per
cent. Officially, OPA won't
even admit thot it knows the
dote for the second sugar re-
gistrotion. Nor is the form Of
the next rotionine book decid-
ed on, nor the quantity Of
gasoline to be allowed in the
rotioning areas otter July |.
The policy now is to see how
gasoline and sugar rotioning
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 O list Of
items that might be rotioned
would simply be to stort O lot
Of runs on the stores, and that
IS Just what must be avoided.
Almost every shortage that has
b en- specifically mentioned
thus for hos brought on one Of
these buying sprees, as, for
example, the silk stocking and
razor blade stompedes. 1t
would be naive indeed. how
ever, to think for q minute thot
the United States could get
through the war with no more
rotioninq.
LINE UP AGAIN
You can therefore expect to
stand in line every SO often for
another registration. II the
next rotioning book we're to be
issued Immediately, standing
in line might not be necessary
for the names ond addresses
OF oil sugar consumers we're
taken on thot first registration
and new books could be moiIed
out. But if the next registration
isn't called for six months or
so, there will have been SO
many shifts in the population
that the first sugar re9lstro-
ton will be worthless. You may
therefore solely reconcile your
self to registering for some
thing or o he r every few
months, for the duration Of the
war.
One idea is that the next
ration book might contoin O
lot Of vori-colored coupons, IS
sued in blank. And then on
some day when you we're Ieost
expecting it - surprise you
would be told thot hereafter
the n orvord crimson cou-
pons would be good for Hor-
word beets, while the Navy
blue ones would be good for
fish.
In trying TO compute where
rotioning must be applied, the
simplest calculation is to toke
the amount Of oil the goods Of
any given group and divide
that quantity by the number Of
people it must be shared by.
II it is an item to be consur-
ed only in the United Stotes,
divide by 80 million. If it
must be shared by Greet Brit
ain, divide by l64 million. II
il must be divided among all
the United Nations, divide by
800 million.
After thot, there ore sew
eroI kinds Of rotionine thot
may be applied, for the type Of
rotionine that fits outos and
tires where issuance is bosed
on demonstrated essential use,
is entirely different from ro-
tiOpip1 c,Ioor which everybody