How To Get A Tire

In every U.S. city and town, a little group of citizens got to work on a delicate, ticklish, thankless job. They were the new tire-rationing boards, serving without pay, appointed to decide who should get new tires and who should go without.

To get one of the 356,974 tires available this month (normal monthly purchases: 4,000,000) the U.S. citizen must now beg it from his local board. He must fill out a blank as complete as an income-tax statement, proving that he is in one of the 17 essential categories (medicos, common carriers, wholesale delivery, public service, etc.), that he has a tire beyond repair or retreading, that he has no spares available, no other vehicles which he could use instead.

Since there are not even enough tires for all who can qualify under these rules, the boards will decide which applicants are socially most useful and must get tires, which ones can be fobbed off.

The tire boards will not deal with the average man, for no private motorist can buy a tire until the Far Eastern supply lines are opened. But the average man will be increasingly aware of the boards, as they take over rationing yet to come. They, or boards like them, will handle the rationing of new automobiles announced last week (see p. 61), the expected rationing of refrigerators, radios, metal furniture, many another item.

To most U.S. citizens, the local boards looked like the best way to handle a bad job. The citizen will present his problem to fellow townsmen who know him and his needs, the other fellow's too. It might have been worse. If the job were handled by. a centralized faraway bureau in Washington, with decisions wrapped in red tape, it certainly would be.

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