WWII War Ration Books

I've established an online registry of war ration books issued during
World War Two (1942-1945). This fully searchable index includes images
of the various stamp books used by families during wartime.

Anyone can contribute items to the registry, either by sending images,
photocopies or the original documents. And images already posted online
can be registered for inclusion into this new index.

For more information visit http://www.ration-books.com/ or
http://www.genealogytoday.com/guide/...ion-books.html

Thanks for the pointer. It brought back memories!

I was befuddled by the instructions. How did the barely literate
manage?

Cubdriver wrote:
I was befuddled by the instructions. How did the barely literate
manage?

I didn't visit this website, but in general neighbors and store clerks
helped out those who couldn't understand the instructions. In those
days quite a few Americans had only a limited education or were foreign
book. I'm sure in plenty of situations the complex instructions--that
changed often--were simply ignored.

Sadly, then as now were criminals who take advantage of folks' limited
English skills.

The FDR-Truman administrations got a bad rap from the complicated
instructions the government issued. I understand oil heat rationing
was based on a complex formula of house size, rooms, etc., instead of
simply allocating a percentage of last year's consumption.

FDR tended to use some New Deal lawyers and economists to develop the
rationing system. These people were ivory tower without real
day-to-day administrative experience. Truman inherited the mess.

The people were willing to tolerate the govt bureacracy during the
Depression and the War because they saw it as necessary to meet a real
national emergency. But once the war ended the people demanded the
immediate end of it. This caused a problem since rationing and price
controls were critically needed for about a year or so to prevent
runaway inflation in the postwar era. It would take time for domestic
supplies to come back up plus there were still many millions of
servicemen overseas who needed supplies and transport was tied up for
that.

Rationing was not only for the good itself, but the raw materials it
consumed, the factory in which it was made, the labor that made it, and
the transport to deliver it. Many times the public didn't understand
why a particular consumer product not related to the war effort was
rationed, but certain resources involved were diverted to war work.
The lack of transport was a key problem, and actually worse after the
war on account of the need to bring home servicemen all at once from
both coasts.

Richard Nixon worked as a govt bureacrat in economic control early in
the war and despised the experience. It helped shape his political
beliefs. He quit and joined the Navy. Made a fortune in poker.

On Tue, 10 Oct 2006 14:34:01 -0400, wrote:

I understand oil heat rationing
was based on a complex formula of house size, rooms, etc., instead of
simply allocating a percentage of last year's consumption.

What really blew me away was the bit about sugar rationing. First, you
were supposed to declare the sugar you had at home, whereupon the
clerk would rip out the equivalent number of coupons. I was alive
during WW2, and I don't believe that people were THAT much more honest
then than now. What planet were these rationeers living on?

Then you were to declare (this for home canners, who needed sugar to
put up preserves) how many people in your family, how many canning
bottles, etc etc. The only place this would work would be a small farm
community where everyone knew what Mrs. Neighbor did in the way of
preserving--just the sort of community where the ration board
(whatever) would be most likely to collude with friends and family.

According to the website, sugar continued rationing until 1947. I am
reasonably sure that is wrong: I was 15 in 1947 and had plenty of
opportunity to shop, given that my mother was in poor health. I do
remember meat rationing (lots of Spam), sugar rationing (lots of Karo
corn syrup), and butter rationing (lots of margarine to color) in the
fall/winter of 1945, after the war was over, perhaps even into the
start of 1946, but none after that summer. Perhaps sugar rationing was
lifted earlier in the Northeast than elsewhere?

In those days.... good grief, it was not that long ago. I remember it
and I was a child.


wrote:
Cubdriver wrote:
I was befuddled by the instructions. How did the barely literate
manage?

I didn't visit this website, but in general neighbors and store clerks
helped out those who couldn't understand the instructions. In those
days quite a few Americans had only a limited education or were foreign
book. I'm sure in plenty of situations the complex instructions--that
changed often--were simply ignored.

Sadly, then as now were criminals who take advantage of folks' limited
English skills.

The FDR-Truman administrations got a bad rap from the complicated
instructions the government issued. I understand oil heat rationing
was based on a complex formula of house size, rooms, etc., instead of
simply allocating a percentage of last year's consumption.

FDR tended to use some New Deal lawyers and economists to develop the
rationing system. These people were ivory tower without real
day-to-day administrative experience. Truman inherited the mess.

The people were willing to tolerate the govt bureacracy during the
Depression and the War because they saw it as necessary to meet a real
national emergency. But once the war ended the people demanded the
immediate end of it. This caused a problem since rationing and price
controls were critically needed for about a year or so to prevent
runaway inflation in the postwar era. It would take time for domestic
supplies to come back up plus there were still many millions of
servicemen overseas who needed supplies and transport was tied up for
that.

Rationing was not only for the good itself, but the raw materials it
consumed, the factory in which it was made, the labor that made it, and
the transport to deliver it. Many times the public didn't understand
why a particular consumer product not related to the war effort was
rationed, but certain resources involved were diverted to war work.
The lack of transport was a key problem, and actually worse after the
war on account of the need to bring home servicemen all at once from
both coasts.

Richard Nixon worked as a govt bureacrat in economic control early in
the war and despised the experience. It helped shape his political
beliefs. He quit and joined the Navy. Made a fortune in poker.