OFFICE OF PRICE ADMINISTRATION, LATAH COUNTY, IDAHO

Records, 1942-1945
22 Cubic Feet

The records of the Office of Price Administration, Latah County, Idaho, were donated to the University of Idaho Library by the OPA in 1945. They were processed by Judith Nielsen in February 1985.

THE OFFICE OF PRICE ADMINISTRATION

The authority to ration scarce commodities was delegated by Congress to the President under the Second War Powers Act, and delegated by the President to the three supply agencies: the War Food Administration handled foods, the Petroleum Administrator for War controlled petroleum products, and the War Production Board covered all other commodities. These agencies were responsible for supplying military needs and for controlling civilian production and allocation. When they found consumer rationing was necessary to insure fair distribution of consumer goods, the Office of Price Administration was directed to implement the rationing. There were four types of rationing used, depending on the commodity: point rationing for food, uniform coupon rationing for shoes and sugar, differential coupon rationing for fuel oil and gasoline, and certificate rationing for automobiles and rubber boots.

In 1944 the Moscow OPA office was designated a "record board," one of the few boards in each of the nine regions in the U.S. to be so designated. This insured that the Latah County records would be preserved for future historical use. In a letter to Belle Sweet, University of Idaho Librarian, dated March 7, 1945, Robert E. Stone, Historical Branch, Office of Price Administration, said, "We in the Office of Price Administration. believe that the records of the local boards contain information about people and the way they lived during the war years, and the distribution of commodities and prices which economists, sociologists, and students of public administration in institutions like yours may wish to study in the years to come."

The Boise and Twin Falls boards were also designated record boards and their records were to have been deposited at the University of Idaho, but in December 1945 Belle Sweet received a letter from H. J. Walker, District Price Board Executive in Boise stating that he had received instructions from the national office to discontinue Boise and Twin Falls as record boards and consequently the records had been destroyed.

Milburn Kenworthy was chairman of the Latah County Ration Board, which was located in the Moscow City Hall, from 1942 until its dissolution in 1945.

SCOPE AND CONTENT

The records of the Latah County Branch of the Office of Price Administration span the years 1942-1945. Included are individual applications for men's rubber boots, transport and non-highway gasoline, fuel oil, and automobile tires, papers dealing exclusively with fuel oil, applications for special mileage rations -- either for medical purposes or military furlough, food ration cards, and applications for war ration books. Also included are examples of ration stamps and purchase permits, a variety of printed material, four film strips and ten phonorecords.

ARRANGEMENT AND DESCRIPTION

The processed records of the Office of Price Administration, Latah County, retain the original order of the records as received. Although each individual had at least one file folder for his applications, these were refoldered into larger groups, retaining the original alphabetical order.

The applications in the fuel oil series are alphabetical, the remainder are arranged by subject and retain the folder headings assigned by the OPA. The Special Mileage Rations are separated by medical and military need, with each having its own alphabetical arrangement. Food ration cards are arranged by town, then alphabetically, while the applications for war ration books are in one alphabetical file. Ration coupons are separated by type as are the blank forms. Each title in the publications series has its own folder; the regulations are separated by subject, and the audio-visual material by type.

Approximately 12.5 linear feet of official government regulations and news letters were removed from this group and offered to the Government Documents Department of the University Library.

SERIES LIST

	Containers
I. Applications, 1942-1945	1-14
II. Fuel Oil Papers, 1942-1945	14-15
III. Special Mileage Ration, 1942-1945	15-16
IV. Food Ration Cards, 1942-1945	17
V. War Ration Book Application Cards, 1942-1945	18-20
VI. Coupons, Permits, and Publications, 1942-1945
	A. Ration Coupons and Purchase Permits	21
	B. Blank Forms	21
	C. Publications	21
	D. Regulations	21
VII. 	Audio Visual Material, n.d.
	A. Filmstrips	21
	B. Phonodiscs	22

INVENTORY

OFFICE OF PRICE ADMINISTRATION

Box Folder Description Items

I. Applications, 1942-1945

1	1-21	Aa-Ce	2229
2	22-42	Ch-Dz	2008
3	43-63	Ea-Gk	1873
4	64-83 	Gl-Hz	1816
5	84-99	Ia-Kasp	1557
6	100-117	Kass-Lewis, D	1705
7	118-135	Lewis, E-MCK	1771
8	136-153	McL-Nelson, H	1813
9	154-171	Nelson, I-Peb	1943
10	172-186	Pec-Rem	1634
11	187-204	Ren-Sg	1883
12	205-222	Sh-Tz	1880
13	223-237	Ua-Whitm	1574
14	238-245	Whitn-Zz	836

II. Fuel Oil Papers, 1942-1945

14	246-259	Alphabetical Files A-N	776
15	260-267	Alphabetical Files O-Z	337
	268-269	Correspondence	123
	270	R 1101 Private Dwelling	4
	271	R 1101 Other than private premises	142
	272	Auxiliary Applications	3
	273	Reports of Stoves removed from rationing	14
	274	Fuel Oil Exchange Certificates	12
	275	Lost coupons, Fuel Oil	3
	276	Fuel oil transfers from Latah County	2
	277	Canceled and duplicate applications	25
	278	One gallon fuel oil inventory coupons issued	35
	279	Fuel oil bail outs	103
	280	Fuel oil document register	107

III. Special Mileage Ration, 1942-1943

15	281-289	Medical A-I	1040
16	290-299	Medical J-Z	1438
	300-307	Military Furlough A-Z	1639

IV. Food Ration Cards

17	308-310	Moscow	2875
	310	Avon, Bovill, Deary	605
	311	Genesee, Harvard, Juliaetta, Kendrick	1110
	312	Potlatch, Princeton	940
	313	Troy, Viola	625

V. War Ration Book Application Cards, 1942-1945

18-20	 ---	A-Z	18,900

VI. Coupons, Permits, and Publications, 1942-1945

A. Ration Coupons & Purchase Permits

21	314	Food	9
	315	Fuel Oil	29
	316	Gasoline & Mileage	43
	317	Shoes & Boots	11
	318	Stoves	6
	319	Transportation (Cars, Bicycles, Tires)	6
	320	Typewriters	3
	321	War Ration Books	4

B. Forms

	322	C, M, & 0 Series (Idle Equipment, Inventory and Attendance Reports)	10
	323	R 47 - R 323 (Tires, Ration documents, Food)	26
	324	R 500's (Gasoline & Mileage)	66
	325	R 1100's (Fuel Oil)	26

C. Publications

	326	Community Service Program, 1945	23
	327	Leaflets, 1944-1945	18
	328	Information Manuals, 1943-1945	2
	329	Point Value Charts, 1944	4
	330	Pre-views (Spokane), 1945	1
	331	The Price Panel (Seattle), 1943	3
	332-333	News Letter (Region 8, San Francisco), 1943-1945	101
21	334	Ranch News (Region 8, San Francisco), 1945	2
	335	News Letter (Denver), 1942-1943	5
	336	Transport Committee News, 1945	1
	337	Volunteers, 1945	4

D. Regulations

	338	General Information, 1942-1945	16
	339	Administration, 1942-1943	37
	340	Banking, 1942-1943	6
	341	Bicycles, 1942	15
	342	Clothing (including rubber boots and shoes), 1942-1945	6
	343	Coffee, 1942-1943	20
	344	Food, 1942-1945	73
	345	Fuel Oil, 1942-1943	35
	346	Mileage, 1942	3
	347-348	Tires, 1942-1945	82
	349	Typewriters, 1942	14

VII. Audio Visual Material

A. Filmstrips

	350	OPA Reports to Congress, March 1945	1


	352	The Black Market in Gasoline, n.d.	1
	353	Rent Rackets, n.d.	1

B. Phonodiscs (12 inch)

22	---	"O.P.A. Fighting for tomorrow," n.d.	10

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