Imperial Valley press., 1942-11-25
CAPITAL TALKS
by
Peter
Edison

! lantlc SeaDOald states mas come so
! close TO breaking down in the last
few weeks that il amounts To a ma
| tlonal scandal.
An estimated 25 million gallons
OF gas a day have apparently been
going into black market sales thru
out this area. sold with bootlegged
coupons. and the only thing which
| is saving the situation is the ex-
piration OF the present system OF
rationing on Dec. /, with the i'm
| position of new restrictions, includ-
| ing the lowering of the basic A
ration from four to three gallons
IL Is eastern states. will plug the
leaks
Experience with gasoline ~
tioning thus far has made IL
pear that the success OF III
tioning program in gen IS
! going to depend on the . of
ratiOning officials to de Dn-
trols faster than the r.
centage of cheap chisel u Ie
! United States can devils .= >
beat them.
| Estimates of the amount O
! line which the 8.5 million civI.
motor vehicles in this l7-state are
should consume under existing ra-
| tioning were placed originally at
! 100000 barrels a day. Instead of
| that. consumption has been at the
Iate CT $4,000 barrels 4 day. The
difference, 10000 barrels, figures
| out to the colossal leakage of 2.5
million gallons a day. Every trans
portation facility available has been
used to keep deliveries from the
refinerieS at the $4,000 barrel per
day figure, but since it has been
impossible to ship in that much gas
from outside the area. the net re-
suit has been tremendous decrease
IL eastern reserve stocks Of petrol
cum products.
The LEAK: S BOOKS
Principal source of the leakage
has been the s. or Service coupon
book which goes into the discard
on Dec l. The way this has worked
out is that operators of trucks, cabs
and similar vehicles entitled to S
or unlimited rations, knowing that
they could get additional rations
when one book was used up. have
been profering whole pages of cou-
pons or even entire S books to
crooked gas station operators for
whatever price they could get.
The outlaw station operator,
l., nf
pOns on hand, was then in 4 pO-
sition to offer his friends or old
customers gasoline in excess of
their REGULAR A, b, or c ratiOnS.
And as each S. coupon has been
good for five gallons of gas, this
business with boOtlegged coupons
has been flOuriShing. All the sta
ton operator has had to do to get
additional gas has been to turn in
coupons to the distributor, SO the
procedure has been easy and as
far as the bookkeeping is con-
cerned, perfectly regular
Abolition of the S book system
on Dec. l has served to speed up
the disposition of S book coupons
in the past few weeks. knowing
that they could not possibly use
ND all their S book coupons be-
fore that date, S book holders have
found ready market for their eX-
cess rations.
1HE PLUG: T BOOKS
To stop this practice in the fu-
ture, it is hoped that the new 7
OF Transport mileage ration s'stem
going into effect Dec. l will do
the trick. To get T book, the
operator of a commercial vehicle
must first get his Certificate of
War Necessity. In making appli-
cation for the certificate, the oper-
ator must specify how many miles
Of driving are essential for the
operation of his business for a
three month period. He will Chen
be issued a T book containing cou-
pons for only enough gas to operate
over this essential mileage. Extra
coupons will be torn out Of Che book
before it is delivered TO the operator
to make sure he does not dispose Of
the extra rations himself.
The second new regulation
which it is hoped will Stop the
boOtlegging of coupons will come
through the requirement in cf-
feet on Nov. 81. that all coupons
must have the car license mum
| Der written OH the back.
Office Of Price Administrators
sac experience with the S D9sl.
racket marks the second major
change which has had to be IL
stituted to make gas rationing
workable. First was the racket
over the x. or unlimited gas "a
ton card. The two ear-brCak-
downs have been no fault Of the
rationing systems themselves bit
OF the small percentage Of pco-
rle who won't play fair.
WASHINGTON NOTS
OPA will not ration the 100000
used cars now on sale . . Car
dealers are not permitted to add
storage charges to prices Of new
cars being rationed . ONLY 300
coo ice boxes and no mechanic
.efrigerators will be marHf ~
! for civilians next year g.. cox
discs for bottle caps are nv s1|"
control A drive Is en- 70 redlca
America'S 50O million ton qNnI. |