Imperial Valley press., 1942-12-24
CAPITAL TALKS
by
Peter
Edison

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AS inevitable shortages of more
and more food products become APP
parent. you might as we'll know
that preparations are already being
made by Office of Price Admins
tration for the printing and iSSu-
ing of War Ration Books Nos. 3. 4,
and 5. Plans cont go beyond Book
5-yet-but this first series of five
books will provide the hundred bill
lion or more coupons for the ra-
! tioning of a number of additional
items during the next year or SO.
Just how many OPA isn't telling,
| if it knows.
War Ration Book No. 2. which
you will sign up for some time
between the middle and the end
Of January. is just the Begin
ming of rationing. II will be
good for only two commodities,
one of which will be meat. OPA
can't say what the other will be.
/ for even if il knew. il wouldn't
be wise to give that advance
warning to the stores or the GUS
toners. Book No. 3 will be con-
siderably thicker than Book No.
2. meaning it will be good for
more than two commodities.
Books 4 and 5 may be still
thicker.
The routine for getting Ration
Book No. has been simplified as
much as possible. All you will have
to do is produce your Ration Book
No. |, now used for sugar and cof-
fee. The data on the cover of Book
No. will be copied off on Book No.
2. You'll sign your name. The ra-
ton board clerk will tear one Speci-
fled stamp out of Book as a re-
ceipt for having issued you Book
No. 2.
A VAST TASK
The amount of sweat. toll and
tears that go into one of these ra-
tioning programs is almost unbe-
lievable. There is considerable
beefing now because rationing of
meat is not yet in effect, though the
shortage is actually here. But the
only reason compulsory meat ra-
tioning is not vet in effect is that
the OPA boys haven't been able to
figure out all the angles.
Planning the meat ratiOning
program has been in charge of
John j. Madigan. University of
Colorado boy who learned the
meat business the hard way. That
is, he went to work for Armour
in Chicago after he had grad
uated from the Harvard School of
Business Administration and done
three years extra research work
which won him a doctors degree
i'm commercial science. But for
the last eight or nine years he
has been running slaughterhOuses
and stockyards and meat distrib-
utiOn centers from st. Joseph,
Mo-, to New York, so he knew
his butchering.
Meat rationing was first official.
..ly mentioned out loud last Au-
/ gust 81 when the Department of
Agriculture said it would be set up
in about four months. That was
an optimistic guess. 1t will take at
least five months to get everybody
/ set, maybe longer. No one is men,
tioning any specific date as yet, nor
is there any assurance that the two
! and-a-half pounds per person per
week will be the fixed ration.
Department of Agriculture cut
quotas of beef to 30 per cent, then
10 per cent of civilian consumption
| in l941 for the three months period
ending December 81. Butchers and
| consumers bought ahead. figuring
the cut was meaningless and that
they'd be given more when the
quota ran out. They're finding out
how wrong they were.
| THE CHICAGO METHOD
Butchering technique has had to
be standardized on what's known
as the Chicago method. with 10
primal cuts for wholesalers. This
won't affect the cuts which the con-
SUmer buys, except that the armed
services will get the best primal
cuts. Price ceilings had to be work.
ed out for all the meats to be ra-
toned beef, veal, pork, mutton
and lamb.
Printing Ration Book No. has
been the worlds biggest printing
job. To provide one book for 134
million people. $50 million books
had TO be printed. II took month
to make lie safety paper and
another month to print. Prac-
ticaIIv every press capable of han
ding piece of the job was put
to work on 24-hour basis. The
books would fill three 40-car
trains.
The point system had to be work
ed out, with assigned point VAL
ues for every cut Of meat. And
finally, the ration banking system
tried in the Albany area had to be
perfected ana spread to the entire
country 50 that the retailers would
have some medium of exchange
for the 1924 100000 co,Incns they'll
collect from Book alone.
This should give you an idea of
the headaches involved.