Ration stamps printed, but not used, as a result of the 1973 oil crisis
Rationing is the controlled distribution of scarce resources, goods, or services, or an artificial restriction of demand. Rationing controls the size of the ration, which is one person's allotted portion of the resources being distributed on a particular day or at a particular time.
Rationing in the United States was introduced in stages during World War II, with the last of the restrictions ending in June 1947.[1] In the wake of the 1973 Oil Crisis, gas stations across the country enacted different rationing policies and standby rationing plans were introduced.
World War I
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The U.S. Food Administration managed the wartime supply and distribution of food, and promoted a voluntary austerity program that supported the war effort.
Although the United States did not have food rationing in World War I, it relied heavily on propaganda campaigns to persuade people to curb their food consumption. Propaganda was targeted disproportionally towards middle class white women and their organization provided some of the most substantial support to Hoover's program to limit consumption.[2] Women's groups, like the Women's committees of the State Council of Defense organized in a variety of ways to try to provide relief to the shortages. In Wisconsin, they organized to can and preserve the food that grew in the garden of unoccupied houses.[3] Some states also implemented their own programs to help conserve food which was limited due to the war. In Wisconsin, the Council of Defense asked wholesale bakers to sign a pledge guaranteeing they'd keep bread on the shelves for longer durations.[3]
World War II
We discovered that the American people are basically honest and talk too much.
In the summer of 1941, rationing in the United Kingdom increased because of military needs, and German attacks on shipping in the Battle of the Atlantic. The British government appealed to Americans to conserve food to help the UK. The Office of Price Administration (OPA) warned Americans of potential gasoline, steel, aluminum, and electricity shortages.[5] It believed that with factories converting to military production and consuming many critical supplies, rationing would become necessary if the country entered the war. The OPA established a rationing system after the attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December.[4]:133
Ration books, stamps, and tokens
An anti-hoarding, pro-rationing poster from the United States in World War II
The work of issuing ration books and exchanging used stamps for certificates was handled by some 5,500 local ration boards of mostly volunteer workers selected by local officials. Many levels of rationing went into effect. Some items, such as sugar, were distributed evenly based on the number of people in a household. Other items, like gasoline or fuel oil, were rationed only to those who could justify a need. Restaurant owners and other merchants were accorded more availability, but had to collect ration stamps to restock their supplies. In exchange for used ration stamps, ration boards delivered certificates to restaurants and merchants to authorize procurement of more products.
Each ration stamp had a generic drawing of an airplane, gun, tank, aircraft carrier, ear of wheat, fruit, etc. and a serial number. Some stamps also had alphabetic lettering. The kind and amount of rationed commodities were not specified on most of the stamps and were not defined until later when local newspapers published, for example, that beginning on a specified date, one airplane stamp was required (in addition to cash) to buy one pair of shoes and one stamp number 30 from ration book four was required to buy five pounds of sugar. The commodity amounts changed from time to time depending on availability. Red stamps were used to ration meat and butter, and blue stamps were used to ration processed foods.
To enable making change for ration stamps, the government issued "red point" tokens to be given in change for red stamps, and "blue point" tokens in change for blue stamps. The red and blue tokens were about the size of dimes (16 millimetres (0.63in)) and were made of thin compressed wood fiber material, because metals were in short supply.[6]
There was a black market in stamps. To prevent this, the OPA ordered vendors not to accept stamps that they themselves did not tear out of books. Buyers, however, circumvented this by saying (sometimes accurately, as the books were not well-made) that the stamps had "fallen out". In actuality, they may have acquired stamps from other family members or friends, or the black market.[7]
Most rationing restrictions ended in August 1945 except for sugar rationing, which lasted until 1947 in some parts of the country.[8][9]
Tires, gasoline, and automobiles
Tires were the first item to be rationed by the OPA, which ordered the temporary end of sales on 11 December 1941 while it created 7,500 unpaid, volunteer three-person tire ration boards around the country. By 5 January 1942 the boards were ready. Each received a monthly allotment of tires based on the number of local vehicle registrations, and allocated them to applicants based on OPA rules.[4]:133 There was a shortage of natural rubber for tires since the Japanese quickly conquered the rubber-producing regions of Southeast Asia. Although synthetic rubber had been invented before the war, it had been unable to compete with natural rubber commercially, so the US did not have enough manufacturing capacity at the start of the war to replace the lost imports of natural rubber, moreover, wartime synthetic rubber was significantly inferior in quality to natural rubber. Throughout the war, rationing of gasoline was motivated by a desire to conserve rubber as much as by a desire to conserve gasoline.[10]
The War Production Board (WPB) ordered the temporary end of all civilian automobile sales on 1 January 1942, leaving dealers with one half million unsold cars. Ration boards grew in size as they began evaluating automobile sales in February (only certain professions, such as doctors and clergymen, qualified to purchase the remaining inventory of new automobiles), typewriters in March, and bicycles in May.[4]:124,133–135 Automobile factories stopped manufacturing civilian models by early February 1942 and converted to producing tanks, aircraft, weapons, and other military products, with the United States government as the only customer.[11]
Henry Segerstrom in front of an automobile with "A" sticker in windshield showing lowest priority of gasoline rationing and entitled the car owner to 3 to 4 US gallons (11 to 15L; 2.5 to 3.3impgal) of gasoline per week
A national speed limit of 35 miles per hour (56km/h) was imposed to save fuel and rubber for tires.[10] Later that month volunteers again helped distribute gasoline cards in 17 Atlantic and Pacific Northwest states.[4]:138
To get a classification and rationing stamps, one had to appear before a local War Price and Rationing Board which reported to the OPA. Each person in a household received a ration book, including babies and small children who qualified for canned milk not available to others. To receive a gasoline ration card, a person had to certify a need for gasoline and ownership of no more than five tires. All tires in excess of five per driver were confiscated by the government, because of rubber shortages.
An "A" sticker on a car was the lowest priority of gasoline rationing and entitled the car owner to 3 to 4 US gallons (11 to 15L; 2.5 to 3.3impgal) of gasoline per week. "B" stickers were issued to workers in the military industry, entitling their holder to up to 8 US gallons (30L; 6.7impgal) of gasoline per week. "C" stickers were granted to persons deemed very essential to the war effort, such as doctors. Motorcycles had D papers and motorcycle users who were essential to the war got "M" papers. "E" and "R" stickers applied to small and heavy highway machinery, respectively. "T" stickers were made available for truckers. Lastly, "X" stickers on cars entitled the holder to unlimited supplies and were the highest priority in the system. Clergy, police, firemen, and civil defense workers were in this category.[12] A scandal erupted when 200 Congressmen received these X stickers.[13] Referring to the lowest tier of this system, American motorists jokingly said that OPA stood for "Only a Puny A-Card."
As a result of the gasoline rationing, all forms of automobile racing, including the Indianapolis 500, were banned. Sightseeing driving was also banned. In some regions breaking the gas rationing was so prevalent that night courts were set up to supplement the number of violators caught; the first gasoline-ration night court was created at Pittsburgh's Fulton Building on May 26, 1943.[14]
With the pending capitulation of Japan, the printing of ration books for 1946 was halted by the OPA on August 13, 1945. It was thought that "even if Japan does not fold now, the war will certainly be over before the books can be used".[15] After just two days, on August 15, 1945, Japan surrendered, and World War II gas rationing was ended on the West Coast of the United States.[16][17]
Posters with, 'When you ride ALONE you ride with Hitler!' were created to reinforce the message that it is the Americans patriotic duty to share rides to help the war cause.
From the time that the United States entered the war to the August 1945 Japanese surrender, there was a dramatic shift in behavior: Americans drove cars less, carpooled when they did drive, walked and used their bicycles more, and increased the use of public transportation. Between 1941 and 1944 the total amount of gas consumed from highway use in the United States dropped to 32 percent. The federal agency named the Office of Defense Transportation (ODT) was established during the war to focus on controlling domestic transportation and was responsible for collecting data, conducting research and analysis, setting goals for fuel consumption and helping determine rationing coupon values. ODT-imposed rationing of gasoline to civilians caused car owners to drive less, thus extending tire life and conserving fuel to maximize the oil and rubber available for military use.[18]
In January 1942 there was a study published by the Public Roads Administration that discovered that driving 35mph (56km/h) helped tires last four times as long than if the speed was 65mph (105km/h). In order to extend the lifespan of tires and reduce the use, the ODT contacted the governors of all the states to establish lower speed limits. In March of the same year to decrease the large amount of single occupied drivers, car sharing programs were encouraged for workplaces that had more than 100 employees from the ODT and the Highway Traffic Advisory Committee.[18]
Food and consumer goods
Civilians first received ration books—War Ration Book Number One, or the "Sugar Book"—on 4 May 1942,[19] through more than 100,000 schoolteachers, PTA groups, and other volunteers.[4]:137
An American child purchases a can of V8, handing the grocer his ration book.Point Rationing of Foods, a 1943 animated propaganda short directed by Chuck Jones
Sugar was the first consumer commodity rationed, with all sales ended on 27 April 1942 and resumed on 5 May with a ration of 1⁄2 pound (8oz; 227g) per person per week, half of normal consumption. Bakeries, ice cream makers, and other commercial users received rations of about 70% of normal usage.[19] Coffee was rationed nationally on 29 November 1942 to 1 pound (454g) every five weeks, about half of normal consumption, in part because of German attacks on shipping from Brazil.[20]
As of 1 March 1942, dog food could no longer be sold in tin cans, and manufacturers switched to dehydrated versions. As of 1 April 1942, anyone wishing to purchase a new toothpaste tube, then made from metal, had to turn in an empty one.[4]:129–130 By June 1942 companies also stopped manufacturing metal office furniture, radios, television sets, phonographs, refrigerators, vacuum cleaners, washing machines, and sewing machines for civilians.[4]:118,124,126–127
By the end of 1942, ration coupons were used for nine other items:[4]:138 typewriters, gasoline, bicycles, shoes, rubber footwear, silk, nylon, fuel oil, and stoves. Meat, lard, shortening and food oils, cheese, butter, margarine, processed foods (canned, bottled, and frozen), dried fruits, canned milk, firewood and coal, jams, jellies, and fruit butter were rationed by November 1943.[21] Many retailers welcomed rationing because they were already experiencing shortages of many items due to rumors and panics, such as flashlights and batteries after Pearl Harbor.[4]:133 Ration Book Number Five is a very rare ration book, only issued to very few people.[citation needed]
Medicines
Scarce medicines such as penicillin were rationed by triage officers in the US military during World War II.[22] Civilian hospitals received only small amounts of penicillin during the war, because it was not mass-produced for civilian use until after the war. A triage panel at each hospital decided which patients would receive the penicillin.
Gasoline rationing in the 1970s
Rationing policies were enacted in response to both the 1973 Oil Crisis and 1979 Oil Crisis and policies varied by states. In California, even-odd rationing systems were created which alternated which day even and odd numbered license plates could get gas.[23] Gas stations throughout the country shortened their hours and on some days only served emergency vehicles. These policies were often met with hostility from consumers. In Baltimore, it peaked in February 1974 with gas station lines up to 5 miles long and violent threats made towards gas station owners.[24]
After the 1973 embargo, debates began over the necessity of gas rationing and rotation plans. President Richard Nixon reacted by creating the Federal Energy Office (FEO) which created a rationing plan that involved printing out 4.8 billion rationing coupons that were to be distributed to driver's license holders with the availability of mass transit being taken into account.[25] In 1975, Congress passed the Energy Policy and Conservation Act which required that rationing plans pass congressional review. The next plan to be submitted was President Gerald Ford’s before leaving office in January 1977.[25]
After assuming the presidency, Jimmy Carter withdrew Ford’s plan citing issues with the efficiency and implementation of the plan.[25] These plans faced scrutiny from the Chamber of Commerce, who stated in 1979 that they “opposed any form of rationing or allocation as solutions to current or future energy problems”.[26] Throughout the country, rationing plans were a point of contention. One Gallup poll in 1979 found that 40% of Americans polled favored a rationing program that would require Americans to drive one fourth less.[27] Initially, Carter's proposed plan kept the part of Johnson's plan that called for gas to be equally distributed by drivers licenses.[25] This drew widespread criticism because it didn’t factor discrepancies in the amount of gas needed in different areas. This criticism caused Carter to amend the plan, basing the allocation instead around historic consumption.[28] Another amendment was added at the request of the Republican opposition which would require a twenty percent shortage for 30 days in order to enact the plan.[29] This plan based around historic consumption succeeded in the Senate 58 to 39, but failed in the House 159 to 246.[30] After this failure, the Carter administration negotiated with congress which culminated in the Emergency Energy Conservation Act being signed into law which made it so Congress wasn’t required to approve the plan and instead could only vote to disprove the plan.[31] On July 30, 1980, Carter's plan was enacted and the United States had a standby plan for rationing Gasoline based around historic consumption with provisions around special usage for certain industries and a white market.[32]
The Office of Price Administration (OPA) was established within the Office for Emergency Management of the United States government by Executive Order 8875 on August 28, 1941. The functions of the OPA were originally to control money and rents after the outbreak of World War II.
The C-ration was a United States military ration consisting of prepared, canned wet foods. They were intended to be served when fresh or packaged unprepared food was unavailable, and survival rations were insufficient. It was replaced by the similar Meal, Combat, Individual (MCI) in 1958; its modern successor is the Meal, Ready-to-Eat (MRE).
The 10-in-1 food parcel, commonly known as the 10-in-1 ration, was a United States military ration issued during World War II. As its name implies, the 10-in-1 provided the needs of ten soldiers in a single ration package.
Rationing is the controlled distribution of scarce resources, goods, services, or an artificial restriction of demand. Rationing controls the size of the ration, which is one's allowed portion of the resources being distributed on a particular day or at a particular time. There are many forms of rationing, although rationing by price is most prevalent.
An energy crisis or energy shortage is any significant bottleneck in the supply of energy resources to an economy. In literature, it often refers to one of the energy sources used at a certain time and place, in particular, those that supply national electricity grids or those used as fuel in industrial development. Population growth has led to a surge in the global demand for energy in recent years. In the 2000s, this new demand – together with Middle East tension, the falling value of the US dollar, dwindling oil reserves, concerns over peak oil, and oil price speculation – triggered the 2000s energy crisis, which saw the price of oil reach an all-time high of $147.30 per barrel ($926/m3) in 2008.
A drop in oil production in the wake of the Iranian revolution led to an energy crisis in 1979. Although the global oil supply only decreased by approximately four percent, the oil markets' reaction raised the price of crude oil drastically over the next 12 months, more than doubling it to $39.50 per barrel ($248/m3). The sudden increase in price was connected with fuel shortages similar to the 1973 oil crisis.
Victory gardens, also called war gardens or food gardens for defense, were vegetable, fruit, and herb gardens planted at private residences and public parks in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and Germany during World War I and World War II. In wartime, governments encouraged people to plant victory gardens not only to supplement their rations but also to boost morale. They were used along with rationing stamps and cards to reduce pressure on the food supply. Besides indirectly aiding the war effort, these gardens were also considered a civil "morale booster" in that gardeners could feel empowered by their contribution of labor and rewarded by the produce grown. This made victory gardens a part of daily life on the home front.
Price controls are restrictions set in place and enforced by governments, on the prices that can be charged for goods and services in a market. The intent behind implementing such controls can stem from the desire to maintain affordability of goods even during shortages, and to slow inflation, or, alternatively, to ensure a minimum income for providers of certain goods or to try to achieve a living wage. There are two primary forms of price control: a price ceiling, the maximum price that can be charged; and a price floor, the minimum price that can be charged. A well-known example of a price ceiling is rent control, which limits the increases that a landlord is permitted by government to charge for rent. A widely used price floor is minimum wage. Historically, price controls have often been imposed as part of a larger incomes policy package also employing wage controls and other regulatory elements.
The Minister of Food Control (1916–1921) and the Minister of Food (1939–1958) were British government ministerial posts separated from that of the Minister of Agriculture. In the Great War the Ministry sponsored a network of canteens known as National Kitchens. In the Second World War a major task of the Ministry was to oversee rationing in the United Kingdom arising out of World War II. The Minister was assisted by a Parliamentary Secretary. The Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Food and Animal Welfare was appointed at the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs to ensure the continued supply of sufficient food during the Brexit process.
Rationing was introduced temporarily by the British government several times during the 20th century, during and immediately after a war.
A price ceiling is a government- or group-imposed price control, or limit, on how high a price is charged for a product, commodity, or service. Governments use price ceilings to protect consumers from conditions that could make commodities prohibitively expensive. Such conditions can occur during periods of high inflation, in the event of an investment bubble, or in the event of monopoly ownership of a product, all of which can cause problems if imposed for a long period without controlled rationing, leading to shortages. Further problems can occur if a government sets unrealistic price ceilings, causing business failures, stock crashes, or even economic crises. On the other hand, price ceilings give a government to the power to prevent corporations from price gouging or otherwise setting prices that create negative outcomes for the government's society.
The War Production Board (WPB) was an agency of the United States government that supervised war production during World War II. President Franklin D. Roosevelt established it in January 1942, with Executive Order 9024. The WPB replaced the Supply Priorities and Allocations Board and the Office of Production Management.
The term "home front" covers the activities of the civilians in a nation at war. World War II was a total war; homeland military production became vital to both the Allied and Axis powers. Life on the home front during World War II was a significant part of the war effort for all participants and had a major impact on the outcome of the war. Governments became involved with new issues such as rationing, manpower allocation, home defense, evacuation in the face of air raids, and response to occupation by an enemy power. The morale and psychology of the people responded to leadership and propaganda. Typically women were mobilized to an unprecedented degree.
Military chocolate has been a part of standard United States military rations since the original D-ration bar of 1937. Today, military chocolate is issued to troops as part of basic field rations and sundry packs. Chocolate rations served two purposes: as a morale boost, and as a high-energy, pocket-sized emergency ration. Military chocolate rations are often made in special lots to military specifications for weight, size, and endurance. The majority of chocolate issued to US military personnel is produced by The Hershey Company.
The Mountain Ration was a United States military ration developed for use by U.S. troops operating in high-altitude or mountainous regions of the European theatre of World War II.
The United States home front during World War II supported the war effort in many ways, including a wide range of volunteer efforts and submitting to government-managed rationing and price controls. There was a general feeling of agreement that the sacrifices were for the national good during the war.
The 1942 Indianapolis 500 was scheduled for Saturday May 30, 1942, at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. It was to be the 30th annual running of the famous automobile race. The race was canceled due to the United States involvement in World War II. In total, the Indianapolis 500 was not held from 1942 to 1945.
Petroleum has been a major industry in the United States since the 1859 Pennsylvania oil rush around Titusville, Pennsylvania. Commonly characterized as "Big Oil", the industry includes exploration, production, refining, transportation, and marketing of oil and natural gas products. The leading crude oil-producing areas in the United States in 2023 were Texas, followed by the offshore federal zone of the Gulf of Mexico, North Dakota and New Mexico.
The Soviet famine of 1946–1947 was a major famine in the Soviet Union that lasted from mid-1946 to the winter of 1947 to 1948. It was also the last major famine in Soviet history.
The Frangible Grenade M1 was a specially designed factory produced molotov cocktail created by the United States in 1942 as it entered World War II (1939–1945). It was designed to provide lightly armed personnel with simple, uncomplicated weapons that were easy to mass-produce. It provided a cheap stopgap means of knocking out enemy vehicles, clearing out strongpoints, and harassing or killing enemy personnel until more effective weapons could be produced and distributed. It was dubbed "frangible" because it was made from glass, which is brittle and easily broken.
References
↑ "Rationing". The National WWII Museum | New Orleans. Retrieved 2023-12-01.
↑ Associated Press, "Government Halts Printing Of Ration Books For 1946", The San Bernardino Daily Sun, San Bernardino, California, Tuesday 14 August 1945, Volume 51, page 2.
↑ A History of the Petroleum Administration for War, 1941-1945: U.S. Petroleum Administration for War, Washington, 1946. Washington: U.S. Govt. Printing Office, 1946. Page 289
1 2 Flamm, Bradley (March 2006). "Putting the Brakes on 'Non-Essential' Travel: 1940s Wartime Mobility, Prosperity, and the US Office of Defense". The Journal of Transport History. 27 (1): 71–92. doi:10.7227/TJTH.27.1.6. ISSN0022-5266. S2CID154113012.
↑ Kenneth V. Iverson and John C. Moskop, "Triage in Medicine, Part I", in Health Policy and Clinical Practice/Concepts, Volume 49, Num 3, March 2007, page 277, doi:10.1016/j.annemergmed,2006,05,019
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