Back in my youth, I was told by someone (perhaps one of my schoolteacher aunts) that FDR favored having educators handle the rationing duties. He apparently felt that they were among the more trustworthy of society. I would LOVE to hear others’ comments as to the accuracy of this story.
I haven’t found anything that points to this. You look at the three people who headed the office of Price Administration which was directly responsible for rationing, and not an educator among them:
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[li] Leon Henderson: He was an economist and involved with the Russell Sage Foundation which is dedicated to research in Social Sciences. He seemed exactly like the right choice for the office. However, he was widely jeered by the American public. This probably more had to do with the fact that he was responsible for rationing and fighting inflation while America was not at war. He later was responsible for economic management of American occupied areas of Germany which he apparently handled quite successfully.[/li][li] Prentiss M. Brown: A politician with administrative and legal experience.[/li][li] Chester Bliss Bowles: A successful politician, businessman, and administrator[/li][/ul]
It looks like Roosevelt was mainly looking for people with economic experience (which would make sense) and later politicians who knew how to handle the PR aspects of the office.
The answer to this depends entirely on what the OP meant by “hand[ling] the rationing duties.” I don’t understand what this is supposed to indicate. As a nationwide system, rationing had to have many, many people involved in it at various levels of responsibility. We need a clarification or we’re just stumbling in the dark.
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Is this the column in question?
Thanks for your contribution! We have columns dating back many years, and it is appreciated if you put a link to the column you’re talking about.
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