Evening star., 1946-11-03


offered. She entered OPA early ir
its history.
i Many Errors Unintentional.
j Sometimes, she said, her pane
would encounter genuine chiseler
But most of the time the cited mer.
chants were eager to set themselves
right and charge what the regula-
tions called for.
With the food stores it usually
was the papa and mama" grocery
the little shop, that encountered the
trouble, because it often didn'1
understand what OPA wanted it te
do, she recalled. The chain stores
had price scales prescribed for them
by their legal staffs.
Mrs. Coppock will attend her last
panel meeting tomorrow night. al
the downtown board in the New
Municipal Building on E street be.
tween Third and Fourth streets
INV.
There was Mrs. Henry H. Lichten-
berg Of 1904 Macarthur Boulevard
INV, wife of a physician, also q
young mother of two children.
/ Made Food Surveys.
She volunteered in 1943 to make
food price surveys for an OPA
panel, and she gave vast number
of hours. altogether, to this work.
At first there was only Jimmy
Jimmy's now, but of course he was
la very little fellow early in the war
Louise, born in the middle of the
war, is today.
"You see,' Mrs. Lichtenberg said
it took some figuring for me to get
away for my rounds. had a laun-
dress who came one day week. ]
arranged for her to do the washing
and also watch Jimmy and later
Jimmy and Louise. 1t worked out
all right"
DR.. Lichtenberg, hard pressed by
the wartime shortage of civilian
doctors, had to have the car. So his
wife took streetcars and buses on
her rounds.
She found the work very interest
ing, she said. Most of the grocers
she interviewed were cooperative.
She would go in, show her badge,
wait until there was slack time
and then go over prices with the
storekeeper, Strengthening him out
If some were out of line.
Little Discourtesy Found.
In only one store she encountered
such discourtesy that she asked not
to be assigned to it again. But it
was a pleasure to go into most of
them.
"One storekeeper," she recalled,
was Mortified when I pointed out
that he was charging under the cell
ing for one item. He grabbed a
pencil and corrected that error"
But the thousands Of volunteer
housewives, who had a practical
knowledge of shopping to start with
and so proved invaluable to OPA,
were not the only citizens who
donated their services to this cause.
The men gave equally valuable help
OPA, in fact, depended on men in
most instances to give the technical
and expert advice which price panels
often needed.
Who but radio repair man could
be sure radio dealer was carrying
out all the OPA policies? Who but
an expert in textiles would know
whether a clothier was charging the
right prices for each type OF cloth
, ing. And it would take machlnlst
to tell whether certain tools were
what they purported to be and cost
what the dealer claimed.
Mem Volunteered, Too.
! Men gave as freely of their time
as women, and sometimes tina,
) meant neglecting their persona
: business, and often it curtailed theil
5 diversions.
: Probably John A. Moore, a hard.
ware and radio dealer, living at 226s
: Cathedral avenue NV, will get &C.
, uuainted with his family all ovel
: again, now that he won't have tt
/ preside over the combined panels
: of the largest remaining price boare
, in the city. The family consists o1
his wife and four children, ranging
in age from three months to sever
years.
! Mr.. Moore feels that the Wartime
. Price Control Act never could have
, been enforced without volunteers
:. In the first place, it would have
! taken a prohibitive number of PAID
workers.
A panel member always stepped
aside when he found a personal
i, friend cited before the board, Mr.
. Moore explained. This avoided en-
barrassment. The settlements which
/ the panels made by agreement with
} the offending dealer were entirely
: voluntary. If he didn't want to
abide by them, he could appeal tc
! the administration, and, if then nec-
essary. 60 into court. But this sell
| dom happened.
:. Specialist Volunteered.
! Ben d. Jerman of ISL Forty
] fourth stneet NV. was chief clerk
L with OPA and later price special
/ list in the District OPA office. Then