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Competition of Benefactors: Herbert Hoover, Emile Francqui and the Remodelling of Belgian Higher Education after the First World War

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 February 2025

Kenneth Bertrams Open the ORCID record for Kenneth Bertrams [Opens in a new window]
Kenneth Bertrams*
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Department of History, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Bruxelles, Belgium
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[email protected]
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Abstract

The Commission for Relief in Belgium (CRB), established in October 1914 and overseen throughout the war by Herbert Hoover, played a pivotal role in saving millions of Belgians and hundreds of thousands of French from starvation. The proposed article aims to address this gap by examining the phenomenon of an ambivalent, even asymmetrical, diplomacy of gratitude. Herbert Hoover and his Belgian counterpart (and humanitarian rival), the financier Emile Francqui, had initially devised a strategy of remembrance of their wartime collective action, which centred on children, youth and higher education. Nevertheless, while their endeavour to establish a unified Belgian-American foundation ultimately failed due to their diverging postwar agendas, the dominant narrative of US aid encountered mounting opposition within Belgian political and academic circles. In the context of competing national memories and shifting feelings of gratitude, American philanthropy played a seminal role in the co-construction of modern higher education infrastructures in Belgium.

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Contemporary European History , First View , pp. 1 - 14
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Copyright © The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press

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References

1 Chambre des représentants, Annales parlementaires, 10 Sept. 1919, 1517.

2 Hoover to Delacroix, 28 Aug. 1919, Hoover Institution Library and Archives (HILA), Records of the Commission for Relief in Belgium (CRB), 6/30. Reproduced in George I. Gay (with the collaboration of Harold H. Fisher), eds., Public Relations of the Commission for Relief in Belgium (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1929), vol. 2, 208.

3 The expression is from Zunz, Oliver, Philanthropy in America. A History (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2012), 111Google Scholar.

4 Nash, George H., The Life of Herbert Hoover: Master of Emergencies, 1917–1918 (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1996), 462–63Google Scholar.

5 Curti, Merle, American Philanthropy Abroad (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1963), 231Google Scholar.

6 ‘Everything is stuff to be given away and repaid’: Mauss, Marcel, The Gift: Forms and Functions of Exchange in Archaic Societies (Glencoe: The Free Press, 1954), 12Google Scholar. For an original application of Mauss’ premises to the study of international relations, see Dillon, Wilton S., Gifts and Nations (New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers, 2003)Google Scholar.

7 Branden Little, ‘Commission for Relief in Belgium (CRB),’ in 1914–1918-Online. International Encyclopedia of the First World War, eds. Ute Daniel, Peter Gatrell, Oliver Janz, Heather Jones, Jennifer Keene, Alan Kramer and Bill Nasson (Berlin: Freie Universiteit, 2017); Hertog, Johan den, ‘The Commission for Relief in Belgium and the Political Diplomatic History of the First World War,’ Diplomacy & Statecraft 21 (2010): 593–613CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Druelle, Clotilde, Feeding Occupied France during World War I: Herbert Hoover and the Blockade (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019)CrossRefGoogle Scholar. See also Thomas D. Westerman, ‘Rough and Ready Relief. American Identity, Humanitarian Experience, and the Commission for Relief in Belgium, 1914–1917’ (PhD thesis, University of Connecticut, 2014); Branden Little, ‘Band of Crusaders. American Humanitarians, the Great War, and the Remaking of the World’ (PhD thesis, University of California, 2009); Ryan Thomas Austin, ‘Creating a “Piratical State Organization for Benevolence,” the Commission for Relief in Belgium: 1914–1915’ (PhD thesis, Iowa State University, 2009).

8 Piller, Elisabeth, ‘Beyond Hoover. Rewriting the History of the Commission for Relief in Belgium (CRB) through Female Involvement,’ The International History Review 45 (2023): 202–24CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

9 The historiography extending the humanitarian enterprise of the First World War to non-American actors is in full swing. See Kruizinga, Samuël, ‘Neutral Protectors. The Comité Hispano-Néerlandais and the Fight for Belgium, 1917–1918,’ The International History Review 46 (2024): 408–25CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Proctor, Tammy M., ‘An American Enterprise? British Participation in US Food Relief Programmes (1914–1923),’ First World War Studies 5 (2014): 29–42CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and the contributions gathered in Piller, Elisabeth and Wylie, Neville, eds., Humanitarianism and the Greater War, 1914–24 (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2023)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

10 Ranieri, Liane, Émile Francqui ou l'intelligence créatrice (Paris: Duculot, 1985), 98–102Google Scholar; Nash, George H., The Life of Herbert Hoover: The Humanitarian, 1914–1917 (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1988), 25–26Google Scholar. See also Sophie De Schaepdrijver, ‘A Civilian War Effort: The Comité National de Secours et d'Alimentation in Occupied Belgium, 1914–1918,’ in Remembering Herbert Hoover and the Commission for Relief in Belgium: Proceedings of the Seminar Held at the University Foundation on 4 Oct. 2006 (Brussels: Fondation Universitaire Stichting, 2006), 24–37.

11 Johannes Paulmann, ‘The Dilemmas of Humanitarian Aid: Historical Perspectives,’ in Dilemmas of Humanitarian Aid in the Twentieth Century, ed. Id. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016), 28–29.

12 See also Antoon Vrints, ‘Beyond Victimization: Contentious Food Politics in Belgium during World War I,’ European History Quarterly 45, no. 1 (2015): 83–107.

13 In line with Charles S. Maier's pioneering study Recasting Bourgeois Europe: Stabilization in France, Germany, and Italy in the Decade after World War I (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1975). See also Tomás Irish, Feeding the Mind. Humanitarianism and the Reconstruction of European Intellectual Life, 1919–1933 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2024).

14 George I. Gay, The Commission for Relief in Belgium: Statistical Review of Relief Operations (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1925), vol. 2, 6–7. See also George H. Nash, ‘Herbert Hoover's Contribution to the Reconstruction of Belgium after World War I,’ in When the Guns Fall Silent, eds. Pierre-Alain Tallier and Patrick Nefors (Brussels: Archives Générales du Royaume, 2010), 377–78.

15 Pierre Purseigle, ‘“A Wave on to Our Shores”: The Exile and Resettlement of Refugees from the Western Front, 1914–1918,’ Contemporary European History 26 (2007): 427–44; Michaël Amara, ‘La propagande belge et l'image de la Belgique aux États-Unis durant la Première Guerre mondiale,’ Revue Belge d'Histoire contemporaine 30 (2000): 173–226.

16 Gay, Public Relations, vol. 2, 183; Tracy B. Kittredge, The History of the Commission for Relief in Belgium, 1914–1917 (n.p.: n.d.), 236.

17 Ibid., 183–85.

18 See Ellis W. Hawley, ‘Herbert Hoover, the Commerce Secretariat, and the Vision of an “Associative State,” 1921–1928,’ Journal of American History 61, no. 1 (1974): 116–40; Melvyn P. Leffler, ‘Herbert Hoover, the “New Era,” and American Foreign Policy,’ in Herbert Hoover as Secretary of Commerce: Studies in New Era Thought and Practice, ed. Ellis W. Hawley (Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 1974), 148–82.

19 Gay, Public Relations, vol. 2, 269.

20 Peter Scholliers, ‘The Policy of Survival: Food, the State and Social Relations in Belgium, 1914–1921,’ in The Origins and Development of Food Policies in Europe, eds. John Burnett and Derek J. Oddy (Leicester: Leicester University Press, 1994), 39–54; Gay, Public Relations, vol. 2, 195.

21 Rapport général du Comité National de Secours et d'Alimentation, 1 Dec. 1914, Archives Générales du Royaume, Brussels (AGR), CNSA, 9/21.

22 Gay, Statistical Review, vol. 2, 6. See also: Ranieri, Francqui, 159.

23 Francqui to Hoover, 6 May 1916, 1916, HILA, CRB, 13/21; Francqui memorandum no 36 to Hoover, 16 June 1916; HILA, CRB, 13/22.

24 See Hoover's correspondence with van de Vyvere in HILA, CRB, b65, f2. See also Nash, Hoover the Humanitarian, 205–6.

25 Hoover memo to van de Vyvere, 15 July 1916, reproduced in Gay, Public Relations, vol. 2, 185–86.

26 Liliane Ranieri, ‘La lente gestation de la Fondation Universitaire, vue à travers les archives américaines,’ Annales de la Société Royale d'Archéologie de Bruxelles 58 (1981): 103–20, here 105–6; Ranieri, Francqui, 293–94; Nash, Hoover the Humanitarian, 205–6.

27 See Tamson Pietsch and Meng-Hsuan Chou, The Politics of Scholarly Exchange: Taking the Long View,’ in Global Exchanges. Scholarships and Transnational Circulations in the Modern World, eds. Ludovic Tournès and Giles Scott-Smith (New York: Berghahn, 2010), 33–49; Thomas J. Schaeper and Kathleen Schaeper, Rhodes Scholars. Oxford and the Creation of an American Elite (New York: Berghahn, 2010).

28 Both Ranieri and Nash draw on Whitlock's diary: Brand Whitlock, The Letters and Journal of Brand Whitlock (New York: Appleton, 1936), vol. 2, 283.

29 On wartime study committees, see Fernand van Langenhove, L'action du gouvernement belge en matière économique pendant la guerre (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France), 1927: 117–18.

30 René Sand to Millard K. Shaler, 6 Feb. 1920, Archives of the Belgian American Educational Foundation, Brussels (ABAEF), 9.1.1, Summary of the Proceedings of the Temporary Commission of the University Foundation in Belgium.

31 Ladeuze, ‘Journal du Recteur,’ 25 Apr. 1916, Leuven University Archives (LUA), Paulin Ladeuze Files, X4-15, tome 1, 82–2bis.

32 Hoover to van de Vyvere, 18 July 1916, HILA, CRB, 7/26, also reproduced in Gay, Public Relations, vol. 2, 204–7 (quote, 206).

33 Hoover memo to Francqui, 17 July 1916, 7/26; Francqui memo to Hoover, 4 Aug. 1916, HILA, CRB, 13/24.

34 Francqui to Baron Eugène Beyens, 3 Aug. 1916, HILA, CRB, 13/24.

35 Summary of the Proceedings of the Temporary Commission of the University Foundation in Belgium, undated, ABAEF, 9.1.1.

36 See Kruizinga, ‘Neutral Protectors,’ 408–25.

37 Francqui to Hoover, 23 Dec. 1918, HILA, CRB, 14/6.

38 Gay, Public Relations, vol. 2, 187–90.

39 Hoover to Francqui, 21 Aug. 1919 and Francqui to Hoover, 28 Aug. 1919, HILA, CRB, 14/8.

40 Francqui to CRB-London office, 8 Sept. 1919, HILA, CRB, 14/8; CRB-London office to CRB-New York, 13 Sept. 1919; HILA, CRB, 4/4; Ranieri, Francqui, 301–3; and Nash, ‘Herbert Hoover's Contribution,’ 382–83.

41 See note 2.

42 Quoted in Nash, ‘Herbert Hoover's Contribution,’ 384.

43 Els Witte, Jan Craeybeckx and Alain Meynen, Political History of Belgium from 1830 Onwards (Brussels: ASP, 2009), 146–47.

44 Chambre des représentants, Annales parlementaires, 24 June 1920, 1776.

45 Ibid., 1789.

46 Ibid., 1788–89.

47 Ranieri, ‘La lente gestation,’ 113–15.

48 Tuck to Francqui, 24 Oct. 1919, ABAEF, 1.11.1; Tuck to Kellogg, Rickard, and Gray, 27 Oct. 1919, ABAEF, 9.1.1.

49 Francqui to Hoover, 7 Nov. 1919, HILA, CRB, 14/8.

50 Kenneth Bertrams, ‘The Domestic Uses of Belgian-American “Mutual Understanding”: The Commission for Relief in Belgium Educational Foundation, 1920–1940’, Journal of Transatlantic Studies, 13, 4 (2015): 326–43.

51 CRB Directors’ meetings (1917–1920), 26 Nov.1919, Herbert Hoover Presidential Library, West Branch (HHPL), Belgian American Educational Foundation Collection (BAEF), 274.

52 Nash, ‘Herbert Hoover's Contribution,’ 386–87.

53 Hoover to Francqui, 21 Aug. 1919, HILA, CRB, 14/8.

54 Edgar Rickard to Francqui, 11 Mar. 1920, ABAEF, 8.1.2, also reproduced in Gay, Public Relations, vol. 2, 210–11; Nash, Hoover the Humanitarian, 205.

55 Extracts from Dr. Rose's Log of a Journey to Europe, undated (12–14 Jan. 1920), Rockefeller Archives Centre (RAC), Rockefeller Foundation records (RF), Projects, RG 1, SG 1.1, 707A.

56 Conference with Dr. Vernon Kellogg, Sept. 1919, RAC, RF, Projects, RG 1, SG 1.1, 700A (Medical Sciences Europe).

57 See Kenneth Bertrams, ‘De l’action humanitaire à la recherche scientifique, Belgique : 1914–1930’, in Ludovic Tournès, ed., L’argent de l’influence. Les fondations américaines et leurs réseaux européens (Paris: Autrement), 2010, 45–63.

58 CRB Brussels office to CRB New York office, 14 Feb. 1920, ABAEF, 11.2.1.

59 Cattier to Hoover, 30 Jan. 1920, ABAEF, 9.1.2.

60 Hoover to Delacroix, 10 Dec. 1919, reproduced in Gay, Public Relations, vol. 2, 209–10. Delacroix’ reply, 9 Feb. 1920, ABAEF 8.1.2.

61 Francqui to Hoover, 28 Mar. 1920, HILA, CRB, 14/9; Rickard to Francqui, 11 Mar. 1920, ABAEF, 8.1.2.

62 Galpin to Sand, 25 July 1921, HHPL, BAEF, 193.

63 Galpin to Shaler, 21 Apr. 1920, ABAEF, 8.1.2.

64 Biographical Directory Belgian and American CRB Fellows, 1920–1950 (New York: BAEF, 1950), 201, 214.

65 Héger to Tuck, 29 Oct. 1919, ABAEF, 1.11.1.

66 Galpin to Shaler, 21 Apr. 1920, ABAEF, 8.1.2.

67 Shaler to Hoover, 27 Sept. 1920, ABAEF, 9.1.3.

68 In 2020, the Belgian American Educational Foundation, as the CRB Educational Foundation was renamed in 1938, had sent overseas more than 5000 students and researchers during the first hundred years of its existence. The asymmetry of the exchange increased over the years: Belgian fellows account for c.80 per cent of the alumni. See See Liesbet Nys, Kenneth Bertrams and Kaat Wils, eds., The Belgian American Educational Foundation: A Century of Transatlantic Scientific Exchange, 1920–2020 (Leuven: Leuven University Press, forthcoming); Lonnie R. Johnson, ‘The Fulbright Program and the Philosophy and Geography of US Exchange Programs since World War II,’ in Ludovic Tournès and Giles Scott-Smith, eds., Global Exchange. Scholarships and Transnational Circulations in the Modern World (New York: Berghahn, 2017), 173–87

69 Gay, Public Relations, vol. 1.

70 Bertrams, Kenneth, Coupain, Nicolas and Homburg, Ernst, Solvay: History of a Multinational Family Firm (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013), 241CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

71 Memorandum of Agreement between ULB and CRB Educational Foundation, 18 Nov. 1922, HHPL, BAEF, 341.

72 A Letter from Wickliffe Rose, 18 Jan. 1920, RAC, RF, Projects, RG 1, SG 1.1, 707A.

73 Smith to Rickard, 26 July 1922, HHPL, BAEF, 199.

74 Rickard to Hoover, 24 June 1923, HHPL, BAEF, 268. See also Proctor, Tammy M., ‘The Louvain Library and US Ambition in Interwar Belgium,’ Journal of Contemporary History 50, no. 2 (2015): 147–67CrossRefGoogle Scholar, here 151–52.

75 Zunz, Philanthropy, 106–14. For a broader picture, see Piller, Elisabeth M., ‘The Transatlantic Dynamics of European Cultural Diplomacy: Germany, France and the Battle for US Affections in the 1920s,’ Contemporary European History 30 (2021): 248–64CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

76 Kellogg to Hoover, 14 July 1925, ABAEF, 9.4.3.

77 Galpin to Kellogg, 2 Mar. 1926, HHPL, 197.

78 Galpin, ‘Memorandum,’ 30 Mar. 1927, HHPL, 188/5.

79 Minutes of the CRB Educational Foundation Annual meeting, 23 Feb. 1926, HHPL, 345/1.

80 ‘Les origines de la Fondation Universitaire,’ Unsigned document attributed to Emile Francqui with a handwritten note by Félicien Cattier, undated [ca. Jan. 1921], Archives of the University Foundation, Brussels.