”;Back in the Day,”; appearing every Sunday, takes a look at articles that ran on this date in history in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin, Hawaii's oldest continuously published daily newspaper. The items appear verbatim, so don't blame us today for yesteryear's bad grammar.

Gas shortage drives motors from streets

The lowly truck has come into its own!

Today, due to the gasoline shortage, it is taking precedence over the high and mighty passenger car. The Standard Oil Co. is doling out quantities of gasoline to the commercial trucks, while passenger cars are being sent off with slim supplies of the precious fluid.

“;Nothing new to report this morning,”; remarked J. F. Jeffries, manager of the Standard Oil Co.'s branch here, when questioned as to the outlook in the gasoline famine.

Fewer automobiles were on the highways and byways of Honolulu today. The usual train of cars down Kalakaua avenue and Beretania street was missing. The usual long line of motor cars on the homeward route last evening was likewise missing. The streets are almost deserted of motor traffic, comparatively speaking, and the street cars are correspondingly crowded.

No messages have been received from the coast as to the possibility of a tanker arriving before that scheduled for August 17.

Complaints have reached City Attorney Heen to the effect that dealers in gasoline, especially proprietors of service stations, are taking advantage of the shortage to boost their rates sky-high. The attorney states that the only remedy for this situation was for the city to cancel the licenses of these profiteers.

There will be no increase in automobile rates during the gasoline shortage, service car drivers affirmed today. Distillate, a fuel of lower grade than kerosene, is being mixed half and half with gasoline, and used in automobiles by the Bishop Park auto stand. It was said that the same results are being obtained but with slightly increased accumulation of carbon in the cylinders. The distillate is sold for 16 cents a gallon.