( 194 ) 



where climatic conditions are more conducive to gardens and 

 orchards. 



Equal numbers of ration tickets do not result in equal 

 treatment or equal sacrifice. The sooner the nation changes 

 from "share and share alike from the cradle to the grave" to 

 rewarding people in proportion to their contribution to the 

 war effort, the better for all. 



Rationing Cannot Be Made Easy 



The difficulties of rationing are not imaginary. They are 

 very real. Even our simplified and streamlined system of 

 rationing butter, meat, fats, and cheese on a share-and-share- 

 alike basis is beset by innumerable difficulties. The consumer 

 does not group butter, lard, vegetable fats, and meat into one 

 category, as do the rationers. Butter is an expensive product 

 used to grease a cheap food, bread. Cooking fats are a some- 

 what less expensive product used to keep a very cheap food, 

 potatoes, from sticking to the skillet. Meats are high-priced, 

 highly prized, and highly palatable food that supply pro- 

 teins and other nutrients to the diet. 



Obviously, complications will arise because of the diffi- 

 culty of substituting one of the rationed products for an- 

 other. When the nation finally goes on the bread standard, 

 as appears likely, someone will go without butter under this 

 program. 2 



The products have varying degrees of perishability. Meat 

 spoils quickly and becomes poisonous. Butter becomes rancid 



2 The first effect of rationing butter was to reduce the consumption of 

 bread. The one pat of butter allowed in the restaurant curtailed bread con- 

 sumption. The housewife, the guardian of coupons and the real rationer of 

 butter, contributed her bit. The husband and the children unknowingly cur- 

 tailed the consumption of bread because unbuttered bread is neither pleasant 

 to the tongue nor easy to swallow. Sooner or later the nation must increase 

 the consumption of grain directly, rather than indirectly by feeding it to live- 

 stock. The first effects of the rationing of butter were to decrease rather than 

 increase the consumption of wheat in the form of bread. 



