FOOD: Decontrolled

The housewife’s problems changed. Last week, before a Republican Congress could do it, the Department of Agriculture ended sugar rationing for consumers. The housewife could tear up her tattered ration books, look her grocer in the eye, demand five, ten, or 20 lbs. of sugar. Price controls were kept. But how long she could expect to get all the sugar she wanted was something else. Unless human nature had changed since the days of the war’s black markets, many still-rationed bakers, candymakers and other industrial users would soon be bidding heavily for her supplies.

The housewife’s relations with the butcher, meanwhile, deteriorated. The price of unrationed, uncontrolled meat took off and soared to higher altitudes. The butchers were just as unhappy as the housewives (see BUSINESS).