World War I, U.S. Relief in

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WORLD WAR I, U.S. RELIEF IN

WORLD WAR I, U.S. RELIEF IN. Relief in Europe by U.S. agencies during World War I extended from 1914 through 1923, but several agencies continued special projects after 1923. During the war and into the period of reconstruction, organizations for aid to the wounded, refugees, children, and war widows provided relief mainly in Allied countries. With the exception of the Commission for Relief in Belgium (1914), the period of mass relief occurred after the armistice of November 1918, when government finance, cash sales, and benevolence poured millions of tons of supplies into Central and Eastern Europe where 200 million people were in need. This American intervention in the Pacific contributed greatly to the rehabilitation of Europe and particularly helped the new states formed by the peace treaties to become established. Benevolence, through the American Relief Administration (ARA) alone, amounted to $134 million after the armistice, and total supplies to more than $1 billion. Americans sent about $6 billion worth of food and other supplies to Europe during 1914–1923. U.S. government subsidies and loans for supplies amounted to $624 million during the armistice, and contributed $81 million to reconstruction and relieving the Russian famine.

Congress created the ARA early in 1919 to administer an appropriation of $100 million for European relief to be partially repaid by the countries aided. Herbert Hoover, U.S. food administrator, went to Europe in November 1918 to determine need and initiate relief, and soon became director-general of relief for the Allies under the Supreme Economic Council. He formed and directed the ARA to carry out the American share of the program. The United States provided 80 percent of the supplies that the ARA, Allied commissions, foreign governments, and private agencies distributed. The Food Administration created the machinery for purchase and transport of supplies and the ARA formed local committees for distribution, with final control in American hands; the ARA also encouraged both governments and citizens to donate services. In all, twenty-one countries received more than 4 million metric tons of supplies. The original U.S. appropriation excluded enemy countries, but their condition was so desperate that Americans adopted special finance arrangements with them (Joint Allied Finance, U.S. loans to Allies, and cash payments by enemy states). After the Allies relaxed their blockade, from February through July 1919, $282 million worth of supplies went to Germany and $98 million to Austria. The ARA instituted child feeding, transported or allocated food for private agencies, and transmitted $6 million in cash from individuals or groups in the United States to persons in Europe. At liquidation of the armistice program on 30 June 1919, the ARA had delivered 1,728,000 metric tons of supplies at an operating cost of less than 1 percent of sales value, and returned $84 million of the congressional appropriation to the U.S. Treasury in foreign government obligations.

Thereafter, the ARA operated as a private agency, although it administered three other congressional appropriations: one (1920) for sale of flour on credit; and two (1921–1922) for famine and medical relief in Russia. It cooperated closely with other agencies and, in 1920– 1921, with eight others this European Relief Council (ERC) raised $29 million in the United States for children's relief. It fed some 8 million children, entered refugee work, aided in the control of epidemics, provided relief to special groups, and delivered $22 million worth of food purchased in America for persons or groups in Europe. In 1921, it made an agreement with the Soviet government for famine relief, under which most of the American agencies worked. At the peak of this relief (1921–1923), it fed some 10 million Russians, delivered large shipments of seed grain, food packages, and bulk sales, and operated a medical unit that inoculated 8 million persons suffering through epidemics and delivered $3 million worth of Red Cross supplies to 14,000 Russian hospitals and institutions.

Overseas, the American Red Cross spent 56 cents on each dollar collected during 1914–1919, and some $200 million altogether in Europe during 1914–1923. It focused on medical relief, health service, and control of postwar epidemics, but also engaged in child care and refugee work, allocated funds or supplies (clothing and medical) to other agencies, and operated units in twenty-four countries in 1919. In addition to its service in Russia during the 1921–1923 famine, it worked in Russia and Siberia during 1917–1918.

The American Friends Service Committee (Quakers) was formed after U.S. entry into the war, although American Quakers previously had worked with British Quakers in war relief. They sent small units wherever the need was greatest, and they were among the first to reach enemy territories. The American Friends' greatest achievement was feeding children in Germany in 1919–1922, where they distributed $9 million worth of relief, with about $6 million allocated by the ARA or ERC. The Friends raised more than $1 million from German Americans, and upon withdrawing in 1922 provided another $4 million for feeding German children through 1924. They were also active in Poland, Austria, Serbia, Yugoslavia, and Russia.

The Jewish Joint Distribution Committee formed in November 1919 to distribute relief funds for American Jewish societies and by the end of 1926 had spent $69 million abroad. It distributed through other organizations until 1920 and worked closely with the ARA through 1923, sending a vast number of food packages and bulk sales to Poland, Austria, and Russia. In 1920, the Jewish Distribution Committee began its own medical work and reconstruction, and, in 1921, began refugee and child care, repatriation, and cultural work in twelve European countries besides Palestine, continuing much of this after 1923.

Near East Relief derived from a committee organized in 1919 by Henry Morgenthau, U.S. ambassador to Turkey, for Armenian-Syrian relief, and distributed most of the American relief in Near East countries. The ARA, Red Cross, and others made large allotments to Near East Relief, which, during 1919–1923, distributed some $28 million in supplies—$16 million from government credits and the rest from benevolence. It did refugee and resettlement work; child care and child placing, especially of orphans; and continued after 1923, raising funds by its own American campaigns.

Other organizations, notably the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) and the Young Women's Christian Association of the United States, gave large amounts of relief to all European countries, often for special groups such as students or the intelligentsia. The Federal Council of Churches, Knights of Columbus, and National Catholic Welfare Council were members of the ERC, and three foundations—the Rockefeller Foundation, Laura Spelman Rockefeller Memorial, and Commonwealth Fund—made large gifts to the ARA and other agencies for children's relief or special purposes.