Gallon A Day

A bitter criticism of Canada's Prime Minister, shrewd, stuffy W. L. Mackenzie King, has been that he seldom does anything as much as half way. A classic example was given last week when the King Government's barrel-waisted Oil Controller George Cottrelle announced hopefully his plan to cut Canada's nonessential consumption of gasoline by 50%.

Effective this week, Canadian service-station operators will sell gas and oil--for cash--only between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. weekdays. On Sundays they will lock up their pumps and go walking. (Company credit cards are out, except for American tourists.) Gas prices were upped 1-c- per Imperial gallon. Conservation controls were slapped on wells in Alberta's lush new Turner Valley field, which supplies about 15% of Canada's consumption.

Other parts of the British Empire have long since rationed gasoline. Canada needs to cut gasoline consumption, which has risen 20% since the war started, because Britain requires not only more oil but also the tankers which formerly carried crude oil to Canada. But Canada's move was not rationing. It made gasoline only a little more difficult to buy. Like Secretary Ickes' efforts to scold the eastern U.S. into using less gasoline, it may have to be followed by real rationing.

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