November 10th, 1942A doubling of the weekly tea ration to one ounce a person for the Christmas period in 1942 prompted this editorial about rationing and its inevitable corollary, the black market. – JOE JOYCE
WE TRUST that the Minister for Supplies [Seán Lemass] has sound evidence for his belief, reported in this issue, that the “black market slowly is being throttled”.
An underground- or under-counter-traffic of this kind is the most difficult of all crimes to trace and punish, because it enjoys public support.
When a customer makes his way to the black market, he goes there because he wants something that he cannot obtain by the ordinary process of trade; so long as he gets it, he is willing to be fleeced, and he certainly will not betray the vendor who has “obliged” him
The position sometimes is said to be that which prevailed in the United States during the operation of [prohibition]. Then every American’s hand was against the law, and in league with the “bootlegger”.
The comparison, however, is not exactly fair. The prohibition of liquor was enforced upon the huge population of the United States by a minority of extremists, taking a very subtle advantage of certain electoral anomalies; the prohibition of illicit trading in the essentials of life is a stark necessity to this country of ours: it is, indeed, an act of simple justice. Let us take an example. Yesterday it was announced that the tea ration will be doubled during the few weeks of the Christmas season.
This increase is possible only because a “small reserve pool” of tea has been accumulated; and Mr. Lemass has said that the ration will be increased as often as a similar accumulation occurs. We do not profess to know the quantity of tea that is offered weekly or monthly for sale on the black market at a prohibitive price, but we would not be surprised to learn that it could furnish an occasional, pleasant bonus upon the normal ration. For the sake of a number of greedy entrepreneurs, large and small, and of a lamentably larger number of citizens who care nothing for the public weal so long as they can obtain a little more for themselves, thousands of decent people must suffer. It is hardly strange that a sense of discontent is aroused, or that the activities of the Department of Supplies enjoy the strong support of all honest citizens. Unfortunately, too many citizens are dishonest. No other adjective will suit. They would be horrified to hear it applied to themselves; yet the fact remains that there is little or no moral difference between the citizen who commits an open robbery and the citizen who deprives the community of tea, or bicycle tyres, or petrol, or anything else that might go to improve its lot. There are readers of this newspaper who traffic in the black market as purchasers. There are others – substantially fewer in number – who traffic in it as vendors.
Their guilt is even worse, and we can only hope that they will suffer for their offence against honour and patriotism.
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