THE HEMISPHERE: The Hungry

All along the West Coast, hunger was South America’s own preoccupation. Pointing up the irony West Coast people saw in Herbert Hoover’s food-hunting trek, a ragged, famished youngster in a Colombian cartoon begged for “a penny, madam, for the poor little European children who are so hungry!” Colombians, crimped by their ever-present transport problem, were forced to fly beef to their upland capital. At first they offered Hoover only coffee; later they considered relinquishing 8,000 tons of wheat promised by Canada. Ecuador, usually short on wheat, had a bumper rice crop; for 650,000 bags, which sell within Ecuador for $7 apiece wholesale, Hoover had to pay $10.25.

In Peru, housewives were being turned away from empty-shelved butcher and bakery shops; if the Government acceded to Hoover’s request for a 40% cut in local food consumption, it might well write its own downfall. By the time Hoover got to Santiago, he announced flatly that he expected no help from Chile.

But in cornucopia-shaped Argentina, the one great food-happy nation on the continent, Herbert Hoover’s spirits got a lift. At week’s end newly inaugurated President Juan D. Perón received him cordially, promised help. His reported measure of cooperation: 150,000 tons of wheat.