Evening star., 1942-03-12
Sugar Ration System
To Permit Purchase
AT Any Grocery
U. S. Citizen, Unlike
Briton, Not to Be Tied
To Certain Retailer

The Office of Price Administrator
possibly trying to make Mr.. and
Mrs. John @. Public feel little
better about the forthcoming sugar
rationing program - today COM
pared its prepared plan with the
system established in Britain.
The agency said its rationing pro-
gram is designed to speed equitable
distribution, leaves the consumer
free to buy where he phases and
differs greatly from the system
established In Britain, where gov
ernment controls operate all the
way down.
In England the government buys
all the sugar and all other imported
commodities as we'll The govern
ment sells to the wholesalers, who
supply the retailers, who sell to the
ultimate consumers.
But the British retailer is attached
to specific wholesaler and the in
dividual consumer Is registered to
specific store. He may not buy else
where for year, although he may
change retailers by proving due
cause.
Consumer Submits Stamps.
In the United States. when sugar
rationing starts, you will simply
patronize the retailer of your cur
rent choice and tear out the proper
number Of stamps in his presence.
The amount of sugar you get may
be varied by o. P. A. from week to
week. or from month to month, de-
pending upon availability Of sup
plies.
To emphasize the need for ra-
tioning, o. P. A. said the program
is necessary to make sure that
every citizen shares equally in a
supply limited because Far Eastern
import sources have been cut off
or curtailed, and because alcohol
from sugar cane goes increasingly
into smokeless powder for guns.
fabric dope for aircraft "and other
things we need for victory"
Americas rationing plan. like
Britain's, is designed to insure fair
and equal treatment for every citi-
zen," o. P. A. said, but at the
same time it leaves the citizens free
to take their stamps where they
please and use their sugar as they
please. 1t is not impossible to
visualize the boarding house mis-
tress taking a table vote on whether
or not stamps shall go for a lemon
chiffon pie"
Although dates have not been set
for the sugar-rationing registration,
the o. P. A. program calls for dis
tribution Of ration books for a popu-
lation in excess of 131 100000 to be
completed in four-day period. The
registration will take place in 245.-
900 schools throughout the land.
IS Minutes Per Individual.
As finally set up, the program
will begin with some 10000 drop
shipments Of ration books and forms
and instructions to county depots
which in turn will distribute them
to registration sites. Experimental
tests have shown that it will re-
quire about Is minutes to register
an average single applicant, and
that the time consumed for an ap-
plicant representing a family unit
was the basic Is minutes, plus three
minutes for each additional appli-
cation.
Here are a few facts gathered by
o. P. A. officials which empha-
size the importance of sugar to
the Nation:
Every time 16-inch gun is fired,
it eats up the distilled product of
a fifth of an acre of sugar cane.
A thousand field pieces in an
hours firing will burn up as much
sugar as could be refined from
field two-thirGs of a mile square.
When you save nine-tenths of
pound of sugar, you have saved the
equivalent of enough sugar alcohol
to make, together with nitric acid
and ordinary gun-cotton, a whole
pound of smokeless powder.
Cane sugar molasses is one of the
best sources Of first-class ethyl al
cohol-and we make Smokeless
hi