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President Hoover Thanks Journalist for Report on Relief in Russia Post WWI
President Hoover Thanks Journalist for Report on Relief in Russia Post WWI
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Description:

Hoover Herbert

President Hoover Thanks Journalist for Report on relief in Russia Post WWI

 

Typed Letter Signed, to Arthur Ruhl, December 19, 1923, Washington, D.C.  1 p., 8" x 10.5," near fine.

 

Complete Transcription

Department of Commerce

Office of the Secretary

Washington

                                                                        December 19, 1923

Mr. Arthur Ruhl

45 West 11th Street

New York City

 

My dear Ruhl:

            I am greatly obliged indeed for your letter on the situation in Russia. It relieves my mind somewhat as to the attitude of former employees of the American Relief Administration.

            I hope that if you are coming to Washington soon I can have an opportunity for a talk with you.

                                                                        Yours faithfully

                                                                        Herbert Hoover

 

Historical Background

On February 24, 1919, the U.S. Congress formed the American Relief Administration (ARA) with a budget of $100 million, supplemented by another $100 million in private donations. From 1919 to 1922, the ARA delivered more than four million tons of supplies to twenty-three war-torn European countries.

 

In 1921, after a famine in Russia, the ARA negotiated with the Soviet government to provide relief supplies. Congress appropriated $20 million through the Russian Famine Relief Act of late 1921. The ARA provided supplies to Russia until June 1923. At its peak, the ARA employed 300 Americans and more than 120,000 Russians to feed 10.5 million people daily. The director of the ARA’s Russian operations was Col. William N. Haskell (1878-1952). The medical division of the ARA also helped overcome the typhus epidemic in Russia at the time. Journalist Arthur Ruhl served as an ARA inspector in Russia from 1921 to 1923.

 

Herbert Hoover (1874-1964) was born in Iowa into a Quaker family, but both of his parents died before he was ten years old. After living with relatives in Iowa and Oregon, Hoover became one of the first students to attend newly established Stanford University, from which he graduated in 1895. Hoover worked as a mining engineer in California, Australia, and China. He became an independent mining consultant in 1908 and traveled the world until the outbreak of World War I, building his reputation and fortune. When the war began, he helped organize the return of 120,000 Americans from Europe and spearheaded humanitarian relief efforts in Belgium, from his administrative base in London. After the United States entered the war, President Woodrow Wilson appointed Hoover to head the U.S. Food Administration. He lobbied for the job and agreed to accept no salary. After the war, the U.S. Food Administration became the American Relief Administration, which, at its height, fed 10.5 million people daily. Elected President of the United States in 1928, Hoover took office less than eight months before the Wall Street Crash of 1929 plunged the nation into the Great Depression. Franklin D. Roosevelt defeated Hoover’s 1932 bid for reelection.

 

Arthur Brown Ruhl (1876-1935) was born in Rockford, Illinois, and graduated from Harvard University in 1899. While at Harvard, he wrote for The Advocate and Lampoon, and ran on the track team. After he graduated, the New York Evening Sun employed him as a reporter, and he was soon published in Century Magazine, Harper’s Magazine, and Collier’s Weekly.  He traveled widely and wrote on a wide variety of topics, from sports to theatre to politics. He wrote about Latin-American affairs and was an authority on international relations. He wrote about a Mexican revolution, a volcano erupting in South America, the German and Turkish lines at Gallipoli, the world heavyweight boxing match in Reno, theatres in Moscow, a George Gershwin concert, the Wright Brothers’ experiments with flight, and many other topics. He died in Queens from pneumonia, contracted ten days earlier. He married Zinaida Yakovnchikoff (1904-1952), who was born in Russia and spoke German, in 1926, in Berlin, Germany. They had one son Arthur Paul Ruhl (1929-1997).

 

 

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