The article was quoted from the American Bee Journal and regardless of one's opinion of "An official in the Office of Price Administration," the fact remains that beeswax production was ramped up for World War II.  And— following the war there were a lot of people with a lot of hives and the prices fell precipitously with the evaporation of the demand. 

Here's another example of the need of beeswax in the war effort.

Venereal diseases and their control have been a very serious problem with us. In the Navy prior to World War II, venereal diseases have usually held first or second place as a cause of morbidity and as a cause of loss of manpower due to illness.  Early in the war we were losing the services of a great many men as a result of infections contracted along the border here. Those men were very badly needed to help fight the war.

This then brings us to where we were with the sulfonamides a few years ago and raises the question of whether syphilis and gonorrhea may not be prevented by using penicillin as a prophylactic agent. If these experiments on rabbits can.be translated to man on an equal dosage per kilogram basis, then it might be possible to abort early syphilitic infection in man by 15 to 50 thousand units of penicillin given as a single intramuscular injection in peanut oil and beeswax to the average adult if given within the first 4 days after exposure. Or a single injection of 10 times this if given within the first 1 or 2 weeks after exposure.

In 1943, a systematic study of penicillin in the treatment of syphilis was organized under the auspices of the Committee on Medical Research of the Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD). A Penicillin Panel was appointed by the Subcommittee on Venereal Disease, National Research Council. 

Because of the exigencies of the war, the necessity of determining a short, safe, and effective method of treatment for early syphilis for immediate application in the field was obvious. Moore wrote, “The urgency of the military situation did not permit that the application of penicillin in the treatment of syphilis in human beings be postponed until all available information could be had from experimental animals.”

Pointing to the problems of special importance to the Armed Forces, he added that controlled studies in treatment would be reserved for early syphilis and neurosyphilis whose "results would be readily measurable." 

The factors explored were (1) duration of therapy, i.e., four, eight, and 15 days; (2) dosage, within the 40-fold range of 0.06-2.4 × 106 units; (3) interval between injections, i.e., from 3 to 6 hr; (4) combination of penicillin with other agents, i.e., arsenic, bismuth, and fever; and (5) effect of delayed absorption, i.e., penicillin mixed with peanut oil and beeswax (POB). 

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