The Government Gets Tougher
In the weeks before Easter, the government took more direct measures. To free up wheat for shipment abroad, mills were ordered to increase the amount of wheat kernel in flour, which meant less wheat needed for each pound of flour produced. In the eyes of home economists, this improved the taste and nutritional value of a slice of bread, but consumers complained that it gave loaves an unappetizing grayish color. Many standard baking recipes had to be adjusted to account for the different properties of this flour. Mills created special names to differentiate the “emergency flour” from their usual snow-white refined product. In addition, Truman had ordered a 20 percent cutback in flour production to take effect immediately after Easter.
To relieve the butter shortage, the government banned whipping cream and mandated a cut in the butterfat content of ice cream, while increasing the subsidy payments on milk and butterfat. Newspapers the week before Easter reported on trade negotiations to resume the shipment of olive oil from Greece, Spain and the Middle East, complicated by the fact that price controls made oil importation uneconomical. The White House announced that Easter egg rolling would not be resumed this year and urged Americans to forgo the tradition of dyeing Easter eggs, which were far too valuable as food to waste as decoration during the current world crisis.