All Rents Under Federal Control (1942), the OPA's Kitsap County rent notice

A 1942 Office of Price Administration notice tells tenants in Kitsap County and parts of King and Pierce Counties, Washington, that all rents for living quarters are under federal control and that they should not pay more than the rent of April 1, 1941 (NAID 513774).

What the notice says

This is a notice, not a picture. The archive describes it as text only, in red and black, with the rule set in the largest red type. It names an area, a cutoff date, an exception and an office to call.

ALL RENTS

For Living Quarters in:

Kitsap County and those parts of King and Pierce Counties west of Snoqualmie National Forest are under Federal Control

Unless the building was newly built or substantially altered since April 1, 1941, the General Rule tenants should follow is:

DO NOT PAY MORE THAN THE RENT OF APRIL 1, 1941

For Further Information Consult ALFRED E. HARSCH

Area Rent Director, Room 1160, White-Henry-Stuart Building, Seattle

[imprint: U.S. Government Printing Office : 1942—O-469315]

[imprint: OFFICE OF PRICE ADMINISTRATION]

Who issued it

The imprint names the Office of Price Administration, and the Government Printing Office job number dates the printing to 1942. The National Archives holds it with the World War II posters. The archive files it under the home front and the economy, aimed at the domestic public, with the purpose of mobilizing or securing compliance. The record gives no print run and no posting dates.

How to read it

Card stacking is the archive's tag, and it calls the technique faint. That is fair. The sheet states a rule, gives the exception for new or altered buildings, and names the official who answers questions, with his room number. A reader could check every claim on it.

What it does not do is argue. It does not say why rents were frozen, or what a landlord could do if he disagreed. The words "under Federal Control" are the whole case. A free reader can ask the question the notice skips: a price ceiling on a private contract is a large use of power, and the sheet assumes rather than explains it. It does tell the tenant exactly what the government expected and whom to ask.

The Office of Price Administration also made posters that argued for its rules, such as Rationing Safeguards Your Share and the 1943 Rationing Means a Fair Share for All of Us. The Roosevelt administration essay sets out which wartime offices held which powers.