Evening star., 1943-01-02
Ex-Iowu Farm Boy Has Job Of Dividing
U. S. Food Into 13O Million Portions
BY ALFRED TOOMBS.

1oAu D. ItoWes WHO is dong
more toward changing the Nations
diet than even the man who invent
ed the hot dog. has been revising
his own eating habits.
Mr.. Rowe has learned how to eat
soup with his left hand while using
his right hand to figure out whether
13o, 100000 people should be allowed
to buy more canned corn than dried
peaches.
He is director of food rationing
for the ONCE of Price Administra-
ton. After the Food Administration
informs him how many edibles are
to be allowed the citizenry Mr.. Rowe
figures out system for dividing
up the total 10000 900 ways.
This is a task which is even more
complex than filling out your in
come tax. And it's going to get
worse for Mr.. Rowe as he gets along
with the job.
Sauerkraut VS.. Truffles.
He is the man who is going to
make the point rationing system
work-first when it is applied to
canned and dried foods and later
to meat. Mr.. Rowe is in charge of
the outfit which will decide what
point value is to be assigned to va
riouS kinds of food.
If Mr.. Rowe sets a high point
value on canned truffles and low
point value on sauerkraut, the
chances are that you are going to
eat the Sauerkraut-and skip the
truffles.
But I don't think you can shift
the point value of sauerkraut low
enough to make me eat it," says
Mr.. Rowe. Il just don't like it,"
Mr.. Rowe was born on an Iowa
farm and is the owner and proprie-
tor of real Iowa accent. He went
to Iowa State University and took
graduate work at the University of
Minnesota in economics.
Came Here With Brookings.
For six years he taught at the
Massachusetts, State College and
then came to Washington with the
Brookings Institution. Two years
ago, much against his will, he came
into the Government service to help
handle consumer problems.
Mr.. Rowe established the food sec
tion of the old OPACS and later
took over direction of food rationing
for OPA. Sugar and coffee are the
foods which were rationed first and
that was pretty simple job.
But when you get to rationing
most all of the food which goes to
the, people of this country, it is a
job comparable to mobilizing an
army" he says.
You can't leave these things un-
til the last minute. We started
year ago to plan food rationing.
Germany spent four years planning
it and England spent two years.
I'VE started last January-before
there was much talk about ration
ing. We felt that too much plan
ming had been done in this war on
the theory that things weren't going
to happen. We decided to make our
plans on the theory that food ra-
tioning was going to happen.
Food rationing had never been !
tried herein fact, it had never even
been thought of. We started with |
the simple Ration Book No. for
coffee and sugar. The public has
had several months of experience
with this and we think that so per
cent of the educational job has been
done.
Now all we have to do is get peo-
pie to understand point rationing
It's pretty simple"
Mr.. Rowe is managing to main
tain calm in the face of the huge
job he has to do. He lives his job,
seldom getting out of his Office for
lunch. He eats at his desk, working
at the same time.
He lives in Kenwood with his
wife Verna and two children, Mar
win, II, and Shirley Ann, Is. He
drives to work in a 10-year-old
midget auto, which puffs, chugs and
rattles like baby tank.
Among his favorite foods are
canned fruits-but he's not too wor-
ried about the prospects of rationing.
Il expect that I'll get enough to
eat, just as every one else will" he
says. "Thereu be food for sale in
the stores-and there's always the
opportunity for home canning"