Evening star., 1943-03-30
Civilians 10 GET
Larger Share
Of Meat Supply
Buying for Armed
Forces, Leose-Lend
Cut for Two Weeks

In move designed to build up
civilian inventories of meat, the
Agriculture Department has
suspended for two weeks the Or
der which required livestock
slaughterers to set aside certain
percentages of their output for
direct war purposes.
The Army. Navy and lease-lend
authorities, it was reported, have
agreed to adjust their meat pur-
chases during the next two weeks
to enable stores throughout the Ma
ton to balance their stocks with
the demands of rationing, follow
ing the unprecedented run on meat
last week.
Prentiss NJ Brown, OPA admin
istrator, said he believed there was
an adequate supply of meat in the
country to take care of civilian re-
quirements under the rationing pro-
gram, but that it would take sew
eral more days before all sections
could be furnished with sufficient
amounts and varieties.
Locally meat dealers and whole
salers were not pessimistic about
the supply, even though many shops
had been virtually cleaned out dur
ing the Friday and Saturday buy
ing rush. Most dealers believed To-
cal residents were supplied with
enough meat to tide them over the
next few days, by which time they
believed there would be enough
meat coming into the District to
satisfy the restricted demands.
Warning Is Issued.
Meanwhile, warning came from
Philip Raymond O'Btien, president
of the Chicago Board of Trade, in
letter to Senator Gillette, Democrat.
of Iowa. Mr.. O'Brien predicted food
riots would be a common occurrence
next winter unless the present
deplorable situation relative to price
ceilings is corrected" He said he
believed the American people want
to buy something when they go to
the store rather than be told that
nothing is obtainable at the ceiling
prices which are fixed by the OPA."
If the scant rations are necessary
now with the record production and
carryover from last year, how in
the name of common sense does
anyone figure that we will be able to
produce the necessities for the COM
ing year with the present deplorable
situation relative to these price
ceilings" Mr.. OBrien asked.
Similar criticim of the price CELL
ings was voiced here by Albert S.
Goss, master of the National
Grange, who urged that they be
eliminated. Mr.. Goss also recon-
mended that meat rations be re-
Stricted to less than the available
supply to allow packers to build up
stocks "all the way along the line -
Slow meat buying in the District
yesterday was in sharp contrast to
the crowds that stormed meat cor
ners during the last few days before
rationing began. Even though
many markets had only scant stocks
on hand, there were evidently few
persons without meat In the city.
Many Fail to Study Regulations.
In many instances, butchers re-
ported, customers had not taken the
trouble to acquaint themselves thor
oughly with the new regulations and
were content to let the butchers
themselves remove whatever GUAM
tity of coupons was required for
their purchases Some housewives,
however, showed they had studied
the point value chart for meats,
butter and allied products and had
already budgeted their families al
loWances.
Because the variety was limited
in most shops, it was difficult yes
terday to tell whether Washington
housewives hereafter are going to
be more interested in quantity or in
quality. The kinds of meat that
were once least desirable may be-
come those most heavily in demand
because of their low point values.
Because of this uncertainty some
wholesalers and retailers were re-
luctant to stock up too heavily on
any kind of meat, especially the
better quality of cuts, for fear they
would find themselves saddled with
perishable stocks which no one
would buy
In many sections local OPA
offices were acting to bring in emer-
gency shipments of meat to relieve
shortages, Officials here, however,
took no such steps after they learn
ed through survey last Saturday