A Library of Congress record from around 1920 documents people in Poland waiting in line for tobacco rations. The photograph establishes the rationed item, the waiting group, place and approximate period, but not individual waiting times or quantities issued.
Tobacco was not food, yet scarcity required authorities or sellers to distribute limited stock in sequence. Its queue shows rationing order extending beyond basic necessities.
In the image, eligibility and position became scarcer than tobacco itself. When demand exceeded stock, the commodity arranged people into a line before it reached their hands.