Herbert Hoover and a Locker Room Expression
Belgium is one of the smallest and most densely populated nations in Europe. It is snugged between France, the Netherlands and Germany with the North Sea forming its northern border. Belgium’s population is educated, intelligent, refined and ostensibly neutral. But, in 1914 its children were starving to death. During World War I Belgium fell to Germany, which refused to feed Belgian’s civilians. You don’t have to carry a gun to die in war, and children are the easiest and most quickly dismissed victims of all. In London an American businessman had already launched and administered a successful effort to bring relief to Americans trapped in England at the beginning of the war. He was respected and liked, though his social skills were sometimes thin or absent entirely (when he grew weary of the chatter at a dinner party he would simply find a quiet room, pick up a book and start reading). He was well known as a good judge of character, a creativ...