Here is a little info.
Friendship Trains were developed following world war II to enable farm
families beginning in the midwest to share farming commodities with communities
in Europe and Asia. It was part of the Christian Rural Overseas Program (CROP)
which was sponsored by Protestant Churches and the Roman Catholic Church.
The American people contributed forty million dollars worth of food for the
Friendship Train of 1947 to feed those in France and Italy who had been ravaged
by war and Nazi occupation. They gave from their own grain fields, dairy farms,
and kitchens. This gift-not the Marshall Plan, then being formulated-was a
genuine grassroots effort, a present from the hearts of a people who genuinely
cared. Drew Pearson (1897-1969), internationally known columnist, broadcaster,
humanitarian, and a 1919 graduate of southeastern Pennsylvania's Swarthmore
College, conceived the idea of the Friendship Train in October 1947. A severe
drought in 1947 compounded Europe's war misery. Flour for baking bread, a
staple in the diet of Europeans, was restricted to six ounces per day. If a
family needed several more ounces to bake something other than bread, it was
taken from their bread ration. Twenty farmers from the Midwest traveled at
their own expense to assess the situation, which they described as dire. When
Pearson wrote about the plight of Europeans in his Washington,D.C. newspaper
column, "The Merry-Go-Round," Americans responded. With astonishing rapidity,
the idea moved forward, under the sponsorship of the Citizens Food Committee.
The first boxcars left Los Angeles on November 7-just five weeks after the
concept was first announced. They crossed the country and collected filled
freight cars as they traveled. By the time the Friendship Train pulled into New
York on November 18, where ships to transport the donations waited in the
harbor, it had accumulated an astonishing seven hundred boxcars and tankers,
all laden with food, medicine, fuel, and clothing. Two years later, the French
people responded in appreciation by sending to America the "Merci Train,"
better known as the "Gratitude Train." Forty-nine boxcars filled with gifts,
some expensive, but most humble gifts from the hearts of a grateful nation.
These were not orginary boxcars, but the infamous "40 & 8" boxcars. American
soldiers in both World Wars remember being crowded either 40 men per boxcar, or
eight horses, to and from the front lines of the war. One French woman who had
nothing left after the rape of their country by the Nazis rushed forward when
one of the 40 & 8's was being repainted. She pressed her fingers into the wet
paint and said, "I have nothing left to give, so I will send them my
fingerprints. The simple, small gestures warmed the hearts of both Americans
and France. It was the finest hours of friendship with our old Ally. North
Carolina's "Gratitude Train" boxcar has been preserved and is on display at the
North Carolina Transportation Museum in Spencer. For more information on the
Merci Train, go to http:http://www.rypn.org/Merci/. An article about the
Friendship Train of 1947 and the Merci Train of 1949 will appear in the Spring
issue of "Pennsylvania Heritage" magazine, the historical publication of the
Pa. Historical and Museum Commission. Pennsylvania's Merci Train boxcar is also
featured on a Web page of the Pennsylvania National Guard Web site for Fort
Indiantown Gap, at:
http://sites.state.pa.us/PA_Exec/Military_Affairs/ftig/history/French%
20Gratitude.htm.
Bob
From: John D. Mitchell, Jr.
Subject: Re: [BRHSlist] Information Wanted on 1948 Abraham Lincoln Friendship
Train
Robert
The "Friendship Train" was a project to drum up
support for sending food to the starving peoples of
Europe after WW II. I have some info on it, but I
can't locate it just now. As I remember, each state
was supposed to send a boxcar of food products from
that state (48 cars), to be exported to Europe. The
railroads provided the cars (not all were "dolled up"
like the "Q" car) and provided free tranportation. The
AAR was involved. The train started on the west coast
and picked up cars, until it got on the east coast. I
think, it was sucessful and more than one train ran
later.
John
...[snip]...
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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