Evening star., 1942-09-08
Fuel Oil Rationinq
Delayed by Inclusion
OF Midwest States
Wisdom Of Restricting
Areas With Very Few
Burners Questioned

The question of whether certain
States in the Middle West may bt
omitted from the order directing ra,
tioning of fuel oil in that area anc
the East is the last consequential
obstacle to assurance of the order
War Production Board sources sale
today.
Without naming the States ir
question, usually reliable source,
said "one or two" of them had very
few fuel oil burners and a decision
was needed as to whether it woulc
! be wise to impose rationing on ar
, entire State just to control a few
: burners.
: The order directing the rationing
Z which will be issued by WPB Chair
; man Nelson to the Office of Price
Administration and will specify the
area to be controlled, is expected
"very soon,' the WPB men said.
Coupon System to Be Adopted.
Mr.. Nelson has announced that a
coupon system of rationing will be
adopted, but the quantity of oil to
be allowed for each coupon and
pther like details will be determined
by the OPA. Spokesman for that
agency said they were well along"
! with their plans.
Reliable reports, current for "a
week at the OPA indicate that fuel
oil allocations may be cut by 25 or
80 per cent below normal.
First steps toward rationing of
fuel oil already have been taken by
Price Administrator Leon Hender-
son, He has drastically shaken up
the branch in his agency which had
charge of gasoline rationing and
created in its stead a new division
which has taken over this function,
and in addition the supervision over
"any fuel oil rationing activities un-
dertaken by OPA."
Acts to Boost Gas Supply.
AS Mr.. Henderson acted, Joseph
B. Eastman. director of the Office
Of Defense Transportation, revealed
he had moved to boost the supply
OF gasoline and other petroleum
products in the restricted areas, but
even so, his action is not expected
at OPA to preclude the rationing of
fuel oil or to raise the unit value of
gasoline rationing coupons.
What Mr.. Eastman did was to
oroer the railroads, effective Oc-
tober 10, to use their biggest tank
cars-those having a capacity of
T,000 gallons or more-to be used
In the East Coast service. allowing
those of smaller capacity to serve
those sections within 200 miles of
the point of origin. He confidently
predicted the shift would "step up"
the flow of petroleum products into
the Atlantic seaboard and ease the
gasoline and fuel oil shortage.
Mr.. Eastman, incidentally, urged
shippers and carriers to waste no
time" in shifting large tank cars in
the short-haul service to the long
hauls and expressed confidence the
change-over would be completed by
the time his order goes into effect.
Three Operating Branches.
The new OPA division in charge
of gasoline rationing as we'll as the
possible rationing of fuel oil &C
cording TO Mr.. Henderson, will have
three operating branches: A gaso-
line rationing branch, a fuel Oil ra-
tioning branch and an industry re-
lations branch.
Joel Dean, who was chief of the
former fuel rationing branch of
OPA, is director of the new divi-
sion. He had been in charge of the
gasoline rationing program since its
inception. An industrial engineer
and member of the faculty of the
University of Chicago, he came to
OPA in 1941 as price executive in
charge of the machinery branch.
Wallace S. Sayre, formerly one of
New York City's three civil service
commissioners, who was chief of
the operations section of the fuel
rationing branch, was appointed
assistant director. Others heading
UP the new division include John
r. Richards as chief of the gasoline
rationing branch, John G.. Nepkom
as chief of the fuel rationing branch,
and Paul r. Baugh as chief Of the
industry relations branch.
All three had been connected with
OPA before Mr.. Henderson's reor-
Eanization order-Mr Richards as
associate price executive of the ma
chinery branch, Mr.. Neukom as
chief of the operations section of
the fuel rationing branch, and Mr..
Baugh ss head of the trade relations
activities in the fuel rationing
branch,