Rationing on the Homefront, Part 2

In today’s post we’re taking a look at some of the popular ad campaigns about rationing in WWII. These focused on public awareness of and participation in the war efforts. All the characters in A Season for the Heart would have been very familiar with these.

Do With Less, So They’ll Have Enough

The military needed more than guns and ammunition to do its job. Soldiers, sailors, Marines, and airmen had to be fed. The Army’s standard K ration included chocolate bars and chewing gum, which were produced in huge numbers. Sugar cane was needed for these items and also for producing gunpowder, dynamite, and other chemical products. Consequently, cocoa and sugar were rationed to civilians, along with many other foods such as meat and coffee. Local rationing boards issued coupons to consumers that entitled them to a limited supply of rationed items.

Food for Victory

To help offset the hardships of rationing, the government launched a “Food for Victory campaign that encouraged civilians to conserve and also produce more food. Growing your own vegetables and fruits and eating leftovers became a patriotic duty. Victory gardens were soon widespread, growing on farms, in backyards, on city rooftops, in window-boxes, on public lands and parks, and in vacant lots. Home canning became popular, and Victory Cookbooks offered recipes and tips for making the most of rationed foods. 

By the time the war was over in 1945, American Victory Gardeners had grown between 8 and 10 million tons of food. Victory Gardens freed up agricultural produce, packaging, and transportation resources for the war effort and helped offset shortages of agricultural workers. The program fostered morale, patriotism, and a sense of community as well as improving the health of participants through improved nutrition and physical activity. 

Make It do or Do Without

War production created shortages of many critical supplies. For example, canteens are standard military equipment. Millions were produced during the war, most made of steel or aluminum, metals that were also used to make everything from ammunition to ships. Copper was another key metal used in many war-related products. 

To meet the demand for metals and many other needed products, Americans salvaged scrap from basements, backyards, and attics. Old cars, bed frames, radiators, pots, pipes, tin, rubber, nylon, rags, paper, silk, and string were just some of the items gathered at “scrap drives” throughout the United States. In 1943 the US Mint started making pennies out of steel instead of copper and also removed nickel from 5-cent coins. 

Save Waste Fat for Explosives

One of the most important manufacturing priorities of World War II was producing ammunition for weapons. A key ingredient of explosives is glycerin. Americans were encouraged to save household waste fat, which was used to make it. 

Share Your Cars and Spare Your Tires

America’s military needed millions of tires for jeeps, trucks, and other vehicles, which required rubber, and lots of it. Japan’s invasion of Southeast Asia, cut the United States off from one of its chief sources of this critical raw product. The government addressed the rubber shortage in a number of ways. Synthetic rubber filled some of the gaps. Speed limits and gas rationing forced people to limit their driving, reducing wear and tear on tires. Civilians were encouraged to carpool and contribute rubber scrap for recycling.

Dollars for Defense

To help pay for the war the government increased corporate and personal income taxes and instituted a federal income tax with a system of payroll deductions. In 1939 fewer than 8 million people filed individual income tax returns. In 1945 nearly 50 million filed. The government also borrowed money by selling war bonds to the public. With consumer goods in short supply, Americans invested their money into bonds and savings accounts.

Rationing on the Homefront in WWII

Ration Book Application

In A Season for the Heart, readers are introduced to the rationing prevalent during WWII at the beginning of Chapter 1. Of course, the primary reason vital resources were rationed was because they were needed for the war effort. But maintaining public awareness of—and support for—the war and the men and women serving in the military was another important concern. I remember my mom talking about that issue, and not very positively! Rationing and price controls were effective tools, however, and quickly became part of everyday life. People learned to conserve and recycle goods and deal with shortages. 

Rationing was overseen by the federal Office of Price Administration (OPA) in conjunction with other war offices, including the Wartime Production Board (WPB). It was managed at the local level by volunteer rationing boards. People registered for and received their ration books at their local rationing board offices and could also apply for ration certificates or additional coupons.

The ration program had four systems.

1. certificate rationing (for items like tires, cars, and stoves that required applying for a certificate to buy)

2. differential coupon rationing (for things like gasoline and heating oil that some people needed more than others)

3. uniform coupon rationing (for things like shoes, sugar, and coffee rationed at fairly stable amounts per person)

4. point rationing (for items like meats and canned goods where supply and demand varied greatly).

WWII Ration Stamps

Rationed non-food items included tires, cars, bicycles, gasoline, fuel oil and kerosene, solid fuels like coal, stoves, footwear, and typewriters. Consumers had to present both the appropriate paperwork and the money to pay for these items.

Rubber was essential to the war effort. The military needed millions of tires for jeeps, trucks, and other vehicles. Tires required rubber. Rubber was also used to produce tanks and planes. But when Japan invaded Southeast Asia, the United States was cut off from one of its chief sources of this critical raw product. Consequently tires were the first product to be rationed in the U.S., beginning in January 1942, just weeks after the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Replacement tires could only be obtained through application to the local rationing boards, which issued certificates to those whose vehicles met the regulations. That included medical, fire, and police personnel, as well as the owners of buses for public transportation, trucks needed for delivering food and fuel, garbage trucks, and farm tractors.

Everyone else was allowed keep 5 tires–4 on their passenger vehicle, and one spare. Any extras had to be surrendered. Existing tires could only be patched or have the treads replaced, when needed, and speed limits were reduced to minimize wear on tires and brakes. Good, usable tires became so valuable that the boards warned car owners to keep track of the serial numbers on the tires they owned in case they were stolen.

Here's a short video about rationing on the homefront from YouTube. It's amazing what you can find there!

Of course, no system is perfect, and this one wasn’t either. Whenever the OPA announced that yet something else was going to be rationed, people flocked to the stores to buy up as much of it as possible, which led to shortages. Store clerks did what they could to prevent hoarding by limiting what they sold to individuals or by requiring people to return an empty container of the product before they were allowed to purchase a full one.

Black market trading, also mentioned in Chapter 1, involved virtually everything that was rationed. The OPA encouraged citizens to sign pledges promising not to buy any restricted goods without using ration points, and State legislatures passed laws calling for harsh punishment for those involved in black market operations. Nevertheless, there was soon a steady stream of hearings and arrests for both merchants and customers who skirted the law. 

In my next blog post, we’ll take a look at the practical aspects of rationing and other war efforts on the home front. Be sure to check back often for updates and news, drawings for freebies, recipes, and more!