Boxcar Diplomacy

Boxcar Diplomacy is a true story about an event in 1947, when American families, town by town loaded a train full of food and sent it to Europe, which was struggling to recover from the devastation of WWII. This "Friendship Train," inspired by the nationally syndicated muckraking, peace loving, Quaker columnist, Drew Pearson, enjoyed a Hollywood sendoff on November 7, 1947. Klieg lights striped the night sky, dignitaries spoke, John Wayne, Elizabeth Taylor and a bevy of stars joined the festivities and a crowd of twenty-five thousand people cheered as eight boxcars chugged out of the station. As the Friendship Train crossed the country often in freezing temperatures, flag-waving Americans gathered to add a boxcar-or several-as bands played and parades marched up Main Street. So contagious was the idea, a second train, called the "Breadbasket Special" started in Texas and the first train was so heavy, it had to be split to cross the Continental Divide. By the time it arrived in the Midwest, one train had become four. Eleven days after its sendoff in California the Friendship Train arrived in New York, to be welcomed by 250,000 people. A few boxcars were loaded on barges to circle the Statue of Liberty; and in a parade up Broadway from the Battery to City Hall school bands played as scouts, police, and veterans led by American Legionnaires marched from the Battery to City Hall. In eleven days, this people-to-people, non-governmental effort had collected hundreds of boxcars of food from American pantries and fields to be shipped overseas. Fourteen months later, the people of France reciprocated with a Train of Gratitude. Dubbed the "Merci Train," France's thank you was a boxcar for every state in the Union, plus one to share between the Territory of Hawaii and Washington D.C. Each boxcar was filled with thousands of gifts ranging from toys, dolls, and postcards with heartfelt notes to magnificent paintings and sculptures, a Louis XV carriage, and one of the world's first motorcycles. The nuclear age had dawned, and an "Iron Curtain" was falling between the western democracies and the communist bloc to the east. Stalin was making the play to absorb Europe, which had experienced disastrous winter storms and withering summer drought and there wasn't enough food to feed the population. The Friendship Train could not feed many, but it could send a powerful message: You are not invisible. America cares. For that, and for so much more, France sent their heartfelt thanks in a boxcar that can be seen today in nearly every state.