You Talk of Sacrifice…
Americans on the home front during the Second World War have long been depicted as cheerfully enduring the sacrifices necessary to keep what eventually became over 12 million men and women in uniform. Their willingness to do their part is a fact of history, but another overlooked fact is the extent of the black market dealing in rationed goods in the United States during the war.
In the United States, sugar, meat, and gasoline were the most often found items in the black market, and the illegal activity was extensive enough that the government funded a propaganda campaign to warn citizens away from black marketeers.
The Office of Price Administration (OPA) estimated the black market in the United States in 1943 to have exceeded $1 billion, and both meat and gasoline offered opportunities lucrative enough to attract the attention of organized crime, still suffering from the losses endured when Prohibition ended a decade before. That same year a writer for Colliers drove from Brownsville Texas to International Falls Minnesota, consuming 123 gallons of gasoline, without needing to use any rationing coupons. He even managed to acquire additional coupons along the way. When his story appeared in Colliers he was quickly removed from the list of eligible gasoline recipients by the OPA.
In addition to the black market purchase of rationed items, hoarding became a problem as the war ran on, especially of canned goods. To combat such activities the government responded with posters which appealed to patriotism and the conscience of individuals, asking them to compare the sacrifices asked of them with those being asked by the men and women in harm’s way overseas.
Despite the efforts to prevent black markets and other violations by the end of the war over 4,000 gasoline stations had lost their licenses to sell gas and oil due to participation in black market activities. More than 32,000 Americans lost their ration coupon books after being found guilty of violations of the rationing program.