Office of Price Administration

Office of Price Administration (OPA), U.S. federal agency in World War II, established to prevent wartime inflation. The OPA issued (Apr., 1942) a general maximum-price regulation that made prices charged in Mar., 1942, the ceiling prices for most commodities. Ceilings were also imposed on residential rents. These regulations were gradually modified and extended by OPA administrators—notably Leon Henderson (1941-42), Prentiss H. Brown (1943), and Chester B. Bowles (1943-46)—until almost 90% of the retail food prices were frozen. Prices continued to rise, however, and new drives to secure compliance resulted; ultimately the OPA succeeded in keeping consumer prices relatively stable during the remaining war years. Besides controlling prices, the OPA was also empowered to ration scarce consumer goods in wartime. Tires, automobiles, sugar, gasoline, fuel oil, coffee, meats, and processed foods were ultimately rationed. At the end of the war rationing was abandoned, and price controls were gradually abolished. The agency was finally disbanded in 1947.

Office of Price Administration (OPA), US civilian agency established under Leon Henderson in August 1941. It was the successor to, and had the same function as, the Office of Price Administration and Civilian Supply, which had been formed under Henderson in April 1941 to prevent spiralling prices, rising costs, profiteering, and inflation. It controlled prices in the shops, issued ration cards to every citizen, froze rents in some areas, and introduced rationing of scarce commodities. Lack of rubber made car owners early victims of its powers, with the sale of tyres being strictly controlled; but petrol was not rationed until December 1942. Sugar was rationed from April 1942, shoes from February 1943, and the OPA made sure that meat rationing was fair when it was introduced in March 1943 by issuing a 40,000-word document on how it should be distributed and sold. But unlike the UK, where rationing laws were strictly enforced, black marketeers and violators of OPA restrictions were lightly dealt with in the courts: only 1.5% of prosecutions resulted in prison sentences. However, in its policy of price control the OPA was much more successful and received full public support. Compared with the UK, where rationing lingered on until the early 1950s, the OPA ended controls swiftly in the USA. On 16 August 1945 it removed them from petrol, fuel oil, and processed foods, and by the end of the year very few remained. See also USA, 2.