President Franklin Roosevelt created the Office of Price Administration in August 1941. Its main responsibility was to place a ceiling on prices of most goods to prevent wartime price gouging and to limit consumption by rationing.
Everyone, including children, was issued a ration book, each of which had a certain number of rationing points per week. Meat and processed foods, vital for soldiers abroad, had high points. Fresh fruit and vegetables had no points.
Shortages of essential war materials such as rubber, gasoline and sugar were initially anticipated, but soon rationing grew to include food as well as fuel and sugar. Most commodities were removed from rationing by the end of 1945. The exception was sugar, which continued to be rationed into 1947.
The reason for sugar-rationing was fairly well known to the American people. Japanese occupation of the Philippines had cut off the supply formerly received from that source. Sugar cargoes from Hawaii were cut almost in half by the need to conserve shipping and by the diversion of labor to military work. Considerable amounts of sugar were used to meet minimum requirements of other nations fighting the Axis (coalition headed by Germany, Italy and Japan that opposed the Allied powers in World War II), and some were sent to Mediterranean countries and the near East to replace supplies formerly received from Japan.
WAR RATION BOOK 1 – Issued May 4-7, 1942
Stamps #1-4 - Each stamp was worth 1 lb. of sugar and was given a designated two-week period during which it must be used.
#5-6 - 2 lbs. of sugar each, valid for a 4-week period.
#7 - bonus of 2 lbs. of sugar for use between July 10-Aug. 22, 1942.
#13 - 5 lbs sugar for 2 2/3 months expiring on Aug. 15, 1943.
#14 - 5 lbs sugar for 2 1/2 months Aug. 16-Nov. 1, 1943.
#15-16 - 5 lbs of sugar each, for home canning.
#17 - 1 pair of shoes.
#18 - 1 pair of shoes between June 16-Oct. 31, 1943.
#19-28 - coffee stamps, valid for 1 lb. of coffee each for five weeks.
WAR RATION BOOK 2
All stamps were to be used on the point system.
Blue stamps were used for processed foods, red stamps for meats and fats.
Stamps A, B and C were to be used only during Mar. 1943.
Stamps D, E and F were used between Mar. 25-Apr. 30, 1943.
WAR RATION BOOK 3
Distributed May 20, 1943, the coupons were used for food and other commodities. Valid September 1943, it included eight pages of stamps, four for meat rationing, and four for a clothing which was never validated. Later, they were validated for shoe rationing.
WAR RATION BOOK 4
Distributed in late 1943, the coupons were used for food and other commodities. Stamps were used on the point system.
Ration book four was printed in red, blue and green. Each stamp was illustrated with a military symbol such as a naval ship, airplane, tank, gun, horn of plenty or torch of liberty, adding a patriotic flair. It also introduced red and blue cardboard tokens, each valued at one point, to be used as a change for ration coupon purchases. Before the use of tokens, people had to present the exact number of points for the purchase of merchandise or forfeit the difference. For example, if a can of corn was listed at seven ration points, and the purchaser had only a 10-point stamp left for the week, she would lose three ration points as part of the purchase. When tokens came into use, the purchaser could receive three tokens, each worth one point, in exchange. An advantage of tokens was that they never expired, while the stamps did. Ration book four also included "spare" stamps that were occasionally validated for the purchase of five extra pounds of pork.
Join us next week for more Suwannee County History and be sure to like our Facebook page!
Susan Coleman Fennell is a part of the Suwannee County Historical Commission & Museum located at 208 Ohio Avenue North in Live Oak. She may be reached at suwanneehistorical@gmail.com.