Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1942-11-22
Sees Inefficieney to Blame
For Rotioning Difficulties
By OWen L.. Scott.

ahead for this country's civilians. Among
them will be food trouble, fuel trouble,
manpower trouble and trouble over
civilian supplies in general.
These troubles are going to be worse
| than they should have been. The reason
| is that Government interfered with the
normal functioning of supply and de-
mand as it reacts upon prices-some-
thing that must be done in modern war
| and then did not do the efficient job OF
managing that must be done when auto
| matte market controls are removed.
The result can be serious situation in
many lines, much more serious than
would have been the case had the
| officials responsible done more efficient
| job of managing.
| In the case Of fuel oil for homes in
| the East, there is to be something ap-
preaching a crisis, particularly If the
present winter proves to be cold one.
! It may be necessary to reduce the
amount of oil delivered to civilian con-
sumers to half of that normally delivered.
A reduction of one-third is certain. Yet
this situation need not have been per-
mitted to develop in its present critical
form.
What has happened is that there has
been one of those internal struggles for
personal power between high officials.
In this struggle-betWeen Leon Hender-
son as civilian supply car and Secretary
Toly yootr
has shown enough interest in the civilian
consumer to take responsibility for safe
guarding his interests. The result is that
industry has been permitted to hoard
large amounts of fuel oil, and the Army
and Navy have been permitted to &C
cumuate stocks that may or may not be
larger than necessary. At the same time.
the flow of gasoline into the East has
been permitted to continue at level
that may be larger than absolutely
necessary.
Because nobody took hold of this situa-
ton with firm hand at time when 1t
might have been dealt with effectively,
millions of families are going to be cold
this winter In fact, there is likely to be
a good deal OF suffering that could have
been avoided.
In the case of food the story is pretty
much the same.
Here the struggle for personal power
has been among Leon Henderson as
price controller and Donald Nelson as
instrustrial moioilizer on the one side and
Claude Wickard, Secretary OF Agrl-
culture on the other. MI. Wickard has
been interested in getting the fullest
possible production of foodstuffs and in
working out a system of rationing that
will assure fairly even distribution OF
foodstuffs that are available.
Mr. Henderson and Mr.. Nelson have
been interested in the creation OF a new
food administration that would be under
their control. Mr.. Wickard Is willing to
60 along with a food administration,
but not under the wing of MI. Hender-
son and Mr. Nelson. Some officials eX-
press tSe opinion that rationing Of
meat, dairy products and other COM
modities has been delayed purposely by
the Office of Price Administration in
order to generate situation that would
lead to public demand for firm con-
troll of food distribution outside the De-
partment of Agriculture.
Whatever the purpose, it is true that
rationing of meat, decided upon many
weeks ago, is being delayed. AS result,
there is very uneven distribution Of
available meat supplies. In some parts
of the country it is next to impossible
to obtain bacon and difficult to obtain
beef, while with rationing fair portion
could be assured to everybody. The
problem Of meat supply is going to grow
very difficult in the months ahead.
The same is true of dairy products.
Local milk shortages are appearing in
many parts of the country, and they
are going to grow more acute. Butter
is to be scarce, and eggs may be. Yet
little effort is being made to deal with
these situations by assuring the public
that supplies that are available will be
distributed equitably.
Food problems are complicated by
several developments. One is the growth
of the Army. Another is the rising de-
mand for our Allies for food. A third
is the prospect that much food will have
to be diverted to Africa to feed popula-
tions that are joining up with our side
in the war. To top it off there is more
than an even chance that Italy is going
to be clamoring soon for chance to
get on the American bandwagon, and
food, offered in big quantities, will be
one of the enticements pulling her away
from her German alliance. This means
that there will be many demands on the
American food supply and that no per-
sonal struggles for power should be per-
mitted to compicate the problem Of
equitable distribution.
In the case of coffee there is a clear
illustration of the cause of many present
and developing troubles.
There had been rather large stocks Of
coffee in the United States. If those
stocks had been divided up evenly they
could have been used to supplement the
current supplies and all could have had
fairly adequate ration. Instead of
acting to freeze coffee stocks and to ra-
ton at time when supplies were ample,
Mr.. Henderson let it be known that
coffee would be rationed at some future
date
Naturally there was rush on the part
of hoarders to bug up all available cof-
fee. The result is that the selfish few
are protected while the masses of the
people are to be asked to get along on
cup day. That is the type of shotgun