The big if in the oil situation last week was whether the railroads can step their oil deliveries to the East up another 200,000 barrels a day, average 1,000,000 barrels a day through the winter. Railroad men were sure they could, and oilmen agreed that such a feat—when & if achieved—would make fuel-oil rationing unnecessary.
But President Roosevelt, his oil boss Harold L. Ickes and most oilmen "from Missouri," were taking no chances. The President warned the Eastern seaboard that householders had better prepare for fuel-oil rationing. Ickes went beyond words to action, halted all deliveries of heating oil until Sept. 15...