US Supplemental Mileage Ration

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In May of 1942, the U.S. Office of Price Administration (OPA) froze prices on practically all everyday goods, starting with sugar and coffee. War Ration Books were issued to each American family, dictating how much any one person could buy.

The first non-food item rationed was rubber. The Japanese had seized plantations in the Dutch East Indies that produced 90% of America's raw rubber. President Franklin D. Roosevelt called on citizens to contribute scrap rubber, "old tires, old rubber raincoats, garden hoses, rubber shoes, bathing caps."

The OPA established the Idle Tire Purchase Plan, and could deny Mileage Rations to anyone owning passenger tires not in use. The national maximum "Victory Speed" was 35 miles an hour. "Driving clubs" or carpools were encouraged. A magazine ad declared, "Your Car is a War Car Now."

Gasoline was rationed on May 15, 1942 on the east coast, and nationwide that December. The OPA issued various stickers to be affixed to the car's windshield, depending on need. To get your classification and ration stamps, you had to certify to a local board that you needed gas and owned no more than five tires.

The 'A' sticker was issued to owners whose use of their cars was non-essential. Hand the pump jockey your Mileage Ration Book coupons and cash, and she (yes, female service station attendants) could sell you three or four gallons a week, no more. For nearly a year, A-stickered cars were not to be driven for pleasure at all.

The green 'B' sticker was for driving deemed essential to the war effort; industrial war workers, for example, could purchase eight gallons a week.

Red 'C' stickers indicated physicians, ministers, mail carriers and railroad workers, and incidentally, were the most counterfeited type.

'T' was for truckers.

The rare 'X' sticker went to Members of Congress and other VIPs.

by Paul DeLucchi