National Archives and Records Administration
	Introduction
	This project began, as most adventures do, with an unanswered question. My parents had brought me and my brother as children to the Hoover Library in West Branch, Iowa. Of the many displays, I was most fascinated by the elaborately embroidered flour sacks. Flour sacks? Why would anyone decorate a flour sack? Spend loads of time and precious floss on such a project? I learned, of course, that the Belgian women had stitched these thank-yous to Hoover for his part in relieving a war-induced famine. But I did not fully realize the magnitude of Hoover's efforts, and my question was never completely satisfied -- until this project. This summer, in my perusal of what seemed like hundreds of linear feet of documents and other sources, I think I found the answer: Hoover initiated a relief effort that literally saved millions of people, a whole nation -- a whole culture -- from extinction. Such an extraordinary accomplishment deserved elaborate gratitude as exemplified, in small part, by those flour sacks. Of course, Hoover did not work alone. In the documentation of the Committee for Relief of Belgium is list after list of people who volunteered their time and/or money to save a people. In my research, some of those names became fascinating voices whom I've included in the "Hot Links" section of this project. For example, Maurice Pate, who eventually became head of UNICEF, has documented in his diary the daily difficulties of relief administrator. Charlotte Kellogg, in her book Women of Belgium Turning Tragedy to Triumph gives an eyewitness account of how the Belgian people used the relief in the day-to-day struggle of keeping alive. In addition, other stories surfaced. Elizabeth Norton, as a young woman traveling with her mother to Europe, in July, 1914 gives a fascinating account of Americans stranded in England as World War I began. Rose Wilder Lane (a writer friend of Hoover's, and yes the daughter of Laura Ingalls Wilder) wrote after WWI a serialized biography of Hoover for a magazine that has another perspective of Hoover's relief efforts. As a final comment in this introduction, let me underscore the point that my work is not that of a political analyst nor a presidential biographer. As a writer, I did strive for balance and fairness. Because of the Great Depression, my parents and friends' parents were not exactly enthusiastic supporters of Hoover, and I grew up with their perceptions. However, it is with a great deal of respect for Hoover's humanitarian relief work, not only during WWI but until his death in 1964, that I've written this unit. I hope that whoever uses this unit understands that respect. I would like to dedicate my work to my nieces and nephews Gus, Claire, Max, Tony and Julie, and to my students -- this is how I spent my summer vacation!
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