Nobel Peace Prize Award for 1941 to 1946

About the Nobel Peace Prize Award from 1941 to 1946 including winners the International Red Cross and Mott, their works, and history.

PEACE

1941 No award

1942 No award

1943 No award

1944 International Red Cross

Work: War relief

1945 Cordell Hull (1871--1955), American

Work: Good Neighbor Policy toward Latin America

Nobel Laureate: Born in a log cabin in Overton County, Tenn., Hull began his education in a one-room schoolhouse and picked up a law degree at Cumberland University in 1891. Elected a Tennessee circuit court judge in 1901, he left the bench for the U.S. House of Representatives, where he served almost continuously from 1907 to 1931. He drafted the first federal income tax bill in 1913 and the inheritance tax law in 1916, both of which he favored as revenue sources over the outmoded tariff system. From 1933 to 1945, he served as secretary of state under Pres. Franklin Roosevelt. He championed free trade and forged lasting ties with Latin America. As early as 1942 Hull had drawn up blueprints for the United Nations, but was too ill to take part in the birth of that body after the war.

Nobel Lore: Since 1938, FDR had repeatedly pressed Nobel judges to honor his hardworking secretary of state, and this time they relented. Grateful for his wife's support over the years. Hull shared the prize money with her.

1946 John R. Mott (1865--1955), American

Work: Promoted "the Christian ideals of peace and tolerance among the nations"

Emily Balch (1867--1961), American

Work: Pacifism and relief work

Nobel Laureates: Born in Sullivan County, N.Y., Mott held a variety of leadership posts with the YMCA, and during W.W.I used that association to help POWs of all nationalities. A pioneer in ecumenicism, he became the first chairman of the International Missionary Council in 1921 and the honorary president of the newly formed World Council of Churches in 1948.

Born in Jamaica Plain, Mass., Balch became an economics professor and welfare worker. W.W.I drew her into the effort to keep the U.S. out of the war. She continued a pacifist thereafter, though she modified her position to condone defensive warfare during W.W.II. She succeeded Jane Addams as head of the women's peace movement. Nobel Lore: The selection of these relative unknowns evoked howls in Russia. Stalin had his heart set on seeing his friend Aleksandra Kollontai, 77, the world's first female ambassador, get the award for her part in ending the Russo-Finnish War.