Post WWII Recovery

When WWII ended we set about putting Germany and the rest of Europe back on its feet. The initial effort was the Marshall Plan circa 1948. Soon after, Drew Pearson, a prominent columnist of the day inaugurated the Friendship Train - starting out on the west coast and picking up boxcars of food all along the way. One segment of this train arrived in Philadelphia to be loaded on our vessel S.S. AMERICAN LEADER which for this voyage was named the FRIENDSHIP with a large banner on her side. Next came the charitable organizations - notably C.A.R.E. who leased their own pier on the Delaware River and we once put our ship in there to lift 100,000 CARE packages. Over the years you could follow the geo-political scene by observing where the CARE packages went - 1940s to Europe - 1950s to Korea - 1960s to Southeast Asia. Other religious groups followed - Catholic Relief - Lutheran Relief, Church World Service, etc. One of the most memorable was a group from the midwest who set about to replenish the herds of cattle that had been decimated by the war. We had the S.S. AMERICAN IMPORTER  outfitted with stalls and every six weeks she would load approx. two dozen head from N.Y. to Germany. It was known as the "Heifer Project". If a calf was born intransit they paid half fare.
And if we lost one during the voyage we had to produce the ear. During this time the New York port went on strike and we in Philadelphia were open. We were told that WE would be handling the next move of cattle and we city boys were shaking in our boots. Then our livestock manager came down from New York to handle the U.S.D.A. - pens - corral - hay - attendants etc and saved us. More on him in a later posting.
tjs
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