American Relief Administration (Post-WW1)

The American Relief Administration (post-WW1) is where Herbert Hoover made his political bones.

Executive Summary: Americans could buy food for their relatives in Europe; they gave the cash to their local bank, and the ARA would release a food parcel from their one of their warehouses in Europe.

Our self-explanatory postcard is a minor part of this effort.
What I find less-easily explained is what it was doing in a bargain box
Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

Two letters from ARA's Herbert Hoover "To the Bankers of America":

http://search.archives.jdc.org/mult...21_04392.pdf ... 19191227

http://search.archives.jdc.org/mult...21_04398.pdf ... 19200108

I love that "... on a thoroughly business basis ..." shtick.

http://www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ar.../tf9779p02m/ ... the ARA Europe archives (on microfilm) at the Hoover Institution

http://pdf.oac.cdlib.org/pdf/hoover/araeurope.pdf ... the 708p inventory of that archive



So where is Florian, now that we need him?







HU stamp 40f Reaper (no irony intended, one hopes)
Catalog codes:
Michel HU 250
Issued on: 1919
Expiry date: 1921-06-30
Perforation: 15
Printing: Typography
Size: 21 x 26 mm
Colors: Olive green
Face value: 40 Hungarian fillér
Print run: 496,000
Watermark: Wm. 7: Patriarchs cross

Hoover was a remarkable man who all too often gets a bad rap as president.

I have always believed that we in the US are a generous people. That is a very nice collection.

I thought it interesting that we let the relatives of Europe's starving masses foot the bill for their relief.

Just a few years later, we'd be letting the relatives of Japan's citizenry bear the brunt ...

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

The French recommendation, once the Communists seized control of Hungary, was to embargo food to the nation. I think Hoover was rather more sensible, if not humane.