America's Heart

The Friendship Train (TIME, Nov. 17) rolled on last week, its chain of boxcars lengthening like a giant beanstalk. It rumbled down the eastern slope of the Great Divide and over Midwestern plains. At city and whistle stop alike, additional cars bulging with food were hitched up. At week's end, the train had 207 cars, and it had still not reached New York, where a huge end-of-the-line contribution for Europe's hungry was already waiting.

Yet the Friendship Train was only a klieg-lighted symbol of year-round generosity. Since January, individual U.S. citizens have been voluntarily giving more than $12 million a month for European relief through private agencies. Out of human sympathy, plain Americans were giving plenty of evidence that their hearts were as big as their purses.

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