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The Friendship Train

In my previous post, I lamented the methods of the late Drew Pearson, a newsman who went over to the Dark Side and began using distortions, fabrications, and smears to achieve his goals. Sadly, he was an influential national figure through the years of the Depression, World War II, and beyond.

Also in that post, I lamented the rise of the successor to Drew Pearson’s legacy: the faux-news propaganda machine of the conservative right.

Taking Pearson’s example even further, the right wing has created an elaborate system that masquerades as journalism — the Fox News Channel, conservative talk radio, and an army of vitriolic conservative bloggers — and has used it with great success to rally and influence its base.

In this post, I want to set aside that unpleasantness and look at a more positive aspect of the Pearson legacy: the charitable project he organized after World War II known as “the Friendship Train.”

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After World War II, the U.S. government instituted the Marshall Plan, a massive initiative to help rebuild the economies of the European countries, including Germany. In spite of its humanitarian nature, the strategic goal of the Marshall Plan was to step in and help Europe before the communists did.

Whatever the motivation, the program was instrumental in the recovery, rebuilding, and modernization of Europe. But the program didn’t get underway until 1948. In the meantime, much of Europe was in ruins, and the population was in great need.

In early 1947, Drew Pearson went to Europe to report on post-war conditions. While there, he witnessed an incident in which the Soviet government was lavished with praise for donating a few boxcars of grain to help feed the hungry.

Pearson was annoyed to see the communists being lauded for a such a minor effort, and he knew American could, and soon would, do better. But the Marshall Plan was not yet underway.

Pearson returned to the United States with a frankly brilliant idea. He used his influence to launch a program that enabled ordinary Americans to make food donations and provide immediate food aid to Europe.

Under his proposal, a “Freedom Train” would travel from California to New York, stopping to collect donations from ordinary people in cities and towns along the way. When the train reached New York, the aid would be shipped immediately to Europe.

The idea was a huge success with the public. Newspapers around the country took up the cause and helped publicize it. In some places, communities competed to see which could generate more donations.

The Freedom Train left Los Angeles on November 7, 1947, carrying eight carloads of donated food and supplies. At stops along the route, it was met by cheering crowds. The train steadily picked up more cars.

Thanks to Pearson’s lobbying, no money was spent on logistics. All associated costs — transporting the goods by rail and truck, loading the ships for the voyage to Europe, even the use of the ships themselves — were covered by companies and unions.

Eventually, the Friendship Train split into three trains, each taking a different route. By the time they converged in New York, the effort had collected 270 train car loads of donated relief materials and food. The value of the donations was about $40 million.

When the donated goods reached Europe, they were distributed by American relief agencies, primarily church groups. Most of the aid went to France and Italy, but some also reached Germany, Austria, and Greece.

In France, 90 percent of the food went to children and orphans, 10 percent to the elderly. In Italy, 75 percent went to children and orphans, 25 percent to disabled veterans and the widows of veterans.

Pearson was on hand to see that America got the proper credit. He made speeches and gave interviews. He arranged for news coverage as trains fanned out in Europe to deliver the food. He sent American goodwill envoys to accompany the trains.

He also assigned teams of men to watch for theft and black market activity — and to guard against any communist plans, real or imagined, to interrupt the distribution.

Even though the Friendship Train was a sincere and valuable undertaking, it was admittedly a token gesture. In America, the trains went through only 11 states, and the effort wasn’t repeated.

But the world took note, and Pearson was nominated for a 1947 Nobel Peace Prize. He lost to the Quakers, a religious organization.

In fairness to the Quakers, they have a tradition of relief work dating back to the 17th Century; Pearson was a newbie.

Pearson deserves great credit for making the Freedom Train happen. He believed he could help the needy and at the same time, win friends for the United States. He was right.

In Europe, the Friendship Train relieved suffering and undoubtedly saved lives.

In America, it brought out the best in a great many ordinary people, in the country as a whole — and in Pearson himself.