Eleanor Roosevelt – My Day (1942)

283

November 25, 1942

Saybrook, Connecticut – (Tuesday)
Yesterday I had the pleasure of meeting all the ladies of the Cabinet at luncheon. We discussed some of the activities, or rather the curtailment of activities, in the social life of this extremely busy city. That took a rather small amount of time and so we found ourselves able to talk about many of the happenings of the day in the world at large. How avid we all are for war news, and how anxious we women are to feel that good news today means the war will not last long.

In the afternoon, Dean Grayson N. Kefauver, of Stanford University, came to see me about a proposal for the establishment of a joint commission of education in democratic societies, which he, Sir Ernest Simon and others are now discussing. It is a most interesting subject, and one which I think will take a good deal of thought in the development.

The President of Ecuador and his son spent the night with us. They arrived by air in time for tea. The President gave an official stag dinner in the evening and I attended a concert at Bolling Field. They are having a series of concerts and I had agreed, before I went away, to go as soon as possible and was very happy that I could do so last night.

I took the night train to New York City and the 9:00 a.m. train to Saybrook, Connecticut, to see my friends Miss Lape and Miss Read, before fulfilling a long-postponed engagement at Connecticut College.

On Saturday last, the first USO center in the United States for servicewomen of the United Nations was formally opened in Detroit, Michigan. The WAACs have a USO center in Des Moines, Iowa, but the one in Detroit is international because the Canadian servicewomen often spend their 48-hour weekend in Detroit. Of course, all the branches of military service in which women are now serving, will use this center, and the YWCA is very proud that their central branch building has been chosen to be the home of this new activity.

They tell me, with a great deal of pride, that this USO center will have everything which the men’s USO center has, plus a few feminine touches, such as a laundry, attractive curtains and bedspread in the rooms. The women directing this new center have had a great deal of experience, both in military circles and in war and peacetime work with the YWCA, and I look forward to having an opportunity to see this club the first time I am able to go to Detroit.

284

November 26, 1942

Washington –
I have a letter from someone asking why the President could not have cut out Thanksgiving this year, adding that there certainly is nothing for which to be thankful.

I grant you that there are some persons whom I can forgive for feeling that there is nothing this year for which they can give thanks. Even those, however, who are walking through the Valley of the Shadow, because people whom they love have left them here on earth, should stop and think before they do away with our Thanksgiving festival. That first festival, the first public rejoicing held in New England, was not without those who walked in the Valley of the Shadow too. One look at the old cemeteries will tell you that. But those pioneers gave thanks and we likewise may look about us and try to find the things for which we can give thanks today.

One of the things quite obviously is that we can wake in the morning, breathe thankfully and still say we are free men. We chose our form of government and through our franchise we have preserved it. Under it we have done many things which make our present crisis easier to face.

If the government had not trained our young people, we would lack many thousands of men to handle mechanical tools. If we had not given our young people a chance for better health and education, the caliber of our fighting forces would be far lower today. If we had not faced the social questions in the bad days through which we have passed and established old age pensions, help for the blind and the crippled, there would be many more men today with a heavier burden to carry and a less free mind with which to face a war.

If we had not put our financial house in order, we would not have earned the confidence we now enjoy in the financial world and which is making the carrying of our present burdens not an easy, but a possible task.

I can think of a thousand things in the past for which I am deeply thankful, but it is for the future really that I am most grateful – for the chance to try again to build a decent world; for the young people who are so much better educated in world affairs than we were twenty-odd years ago, and who have high hopes and visions, but who stand foursquare and face the realities of life.

I am grateful for the fact that my country is made up of many peoples; that I have an opportunity to show that I really believe that all men are created equal and that the “Last” Commandment: “Love thy neighbor as thyself,” really means what it says; for the fact that my boys are still alive; that other boys whom I love have not yet fallen on any field of battle; for my husband’s strength and for his belief in God. For all these things, dear God, I am most humbly grateful.

285

November 27, 1942

Washington – (Thursday)
I spent Tuesday afternoon and evening with the faculty and students at the Connecticut College for Women. They were a most interesting group, full of questions and keen to know all they could of what was happening in Great Britain. One girl asked me something I imagine comes up quite often:

Do the students of Great Britain accept the added physical education, which is now being given us, as a horrid necessity, or do they really feel it is important and enter into it with zest?

I assured her that it was quite well understood by students over there that the best possible physical condition was necessary, both for men and women. That they needed to know more about nutrition and far more about mental balance and the value of a trained and controlled mind as part of their entire physical well-being. There were many other very stimulating questions and I enjoyed my time with this group of young women very much.

Then, in New London, Connecticut, I visited the Catholic USO, which had been started as a Catholic Servicemen’s Club before the USO was organized. It was one of the biggest places I have been in. The lounge downstairs was full of men belonging to different services, talking, reading and playing the piano.

There was a mother’s room, where all the girls leave their wraps. A dance was going on upstairs, there was bowling in the basement and a really homelike kitchen, with a nice round table and three motherly women preparing coffee and cake for everyone. On the upper floor, there are sleeping accommodations for 50 boys, and they are nearly always filled.

We proceeded to another USO building, run by the Salvation Army in a government-built building. Here the major part of the attendance, which was not so very large, was watching a play given by local talent and which I thought was extremely well done. They have no sleeping accommodations – just a lounge, library and a big recreation room with a snack bar. Then we went to a bond rally, which I thought was highly successful. I took the train back to Washington at 11:30 p.m.

Wednesday was a fairly busy day here. I broadcast on the Farm and Home Hour program and made four recordings beforehand. I had several appointments in the morning and various others from 4:30 on in the afternoon.

On Thanksgiving Day we attended a service, at which there were a great many thankful hearts, and hopeful ones as well. A few friends joined us for luncheon at 1:00.

286

November 28, 1942

Washington – (Friday)
I am going to New York City today for a brief visit. I shall try to see a number of my friends who have been ill, and tonight I hope to go the theatre to see Thornton Wilder’s The Skin of Our Teeth. This will be the first play I have seen since I was in London, where I went to the theatre just once.

There one goes at 6:45 and has supper somewhere around 9:00 and returns home rather gropingly in the blackout. So I look forward to this evening, rejoicing that things are still so much pleasanter here.

I have a letter from which I want to quote:

Does it not seem to you that the hatred and resentment that is growing in the mind of everyone here on account of “rationing” as it is now being thrust upon the people is much worse?

People out in rural localities and small cities want to win this war, they all have sons or dear ones being killed – but they also know that taking their tire away from them and storing it (Heaven only knows where) to “rot” – until someone can do something about it – paying almost nothing for it, limiting their necessary activities, restricting them beyond all reason. The masses of people don’t like this nor feel it is necessary, and are doing plenty of thinking – each in his own way about it. One hears it from the colored porter, the clerk, the janitor – as well as from others. And they are all good Americans who are sacrificing to win this wicked war. They are the masses.

People everywhere are hoping that Congress will see that more investigation be given this tire and gas rationing, with a hope that the drastic thing can be done away with. Why is it that as soon as a man is appointed at Washington, he “becomes so drastic in his methods” and acts like all the other good Americans were “just dogs” to be kicked and hounded?

This letter is unsigned, so I cannot answer the writer directly. I want, however, to say publicly that I think it very curious that anyone should think that rationing was being done without adequate reasoning. People who believe that, must believe uninformed people who sometimes write in newspapers and magazines knowing little or nothing about the facts. They pay heed to some uninformed radio commentator or ordinary gossip among their acquaintances.

Your government, in which men of both political parties are now functioning and giving the best they know how to give, is being run with an eye to the future needs as well as present necessities. You, as a citizen, are frequently asked to have faith in your fellow human beings. Repeating stupid things such as this letter repeats, is disservice to the war effort and endangers the winning of the war. Your loved ones are fighting against an enemy who takes great joy in reading and hearing the type of thing the sort of person who wrote this letter spreads abroad.

287

November 30, 1942

Hyde Park, New York – (Sunday)
On Friday night we saw Thornton Wilder’s play The Skin of Our Teeth. Everybody around me at the end of the first act was asking:

What on earth is it all about? It is amusing, but what does it mean?

Gradually, as the play progressed, one began to understand that the whole panorama of human nature was being spread out before one, and the last act is very impressive.

I think this play would bear reading several times after it is seen. It seemed to me that Miss Tallulah Bankhead, Mr. Fredric March and Miss Florence Eldridge and, in fact, the whole cast, did a remarkable piece of interpretive acting. It is no easy play to act, because the actors have to be so different and put different types across to the audience. I would have doubted its popular success, but perhaps we all like to be mystified. Certainly, the audience is mystified through a good part of the play, and it surely is a popular success.

I had the great pleasure Saturday morning of spending an hour with Madame Chiang Kai-shek. I had never met her before, but I have admired her from afar for a long time. She is a very great personality, and I think as more people get to know her personally, she will do a great deal for her own nation here and for ours.

We have always been interested in China and the Chinese people and we have always patted ourselves on the back for what we gave to China. Perhaps, in the course of the next few years we shall understand that all relationships that are worthwhile are cooperative. You give more when you know how to accept in return.

A nation which recognizes what another nation has to contribute is naturally far more anxious to contribute the best it has to give. We have great things to contribute, we have also great things to receive from the Chinese.

One thing which Madame Chiang told me will interest the women of our country. She was talking to a wounded Chinese soldier who had just had his leg amputated and he said to her:

We are not fighting just for China alone, but for the liberation of all people who are downtrodden.

When a soldier in the ranks can cherish that ideal and feel that his own physical handicap is compensated because of the cause in which he fought, which is worldwide, then the cause is indeed a great one, and the rest of us throughout the world must be worthy of it.

I returned to the country in the middle of the afternoon and rejoiced all day in the blue sky and crisp, cold air, which gave a great sense of exhilaration.

288

December 1, 1942

Washington – (Monday)
Yesterday was a quiet day. On Saturday evening, one of our sons, who has just returned from a very long tour of duty, and his wife spent the night and we enjoyed hearing all about his adventures.

On Sunday, in Hyde Park, I tried to make many of my Christmas plans for the various places in which we celebrate the Christmas season. I enjoyed walking in the woods, though most of the leaves are now gone and one has to enjoy the winter beauty of bare trees. Today I am back in Washington holding a press conference, speaking on the radio with Mrs. Esther Tufty, lunching with the Women’s National Press Club, and doing various other things the rest of the day.

It is curious how just seeing people takes up a good many hours every day. One of the great opportunities afforded one living in the White House is the chance of knowing, seeing and talking with people who are doing things all over the world. At the same time, one may see a great many people who are keenly interested in activities on a national, state or local scale in our country.

I sometimes think one can have a better perspective of the range of human interests here than anywhere else in the world. It is true that in London, because of the influx of people from various conquered countries, you get a sense of touching closely the points of view of more European nations.

On the other hand, in this hemisphere, the Far East and the European Continents seems to touch each other more closely, and the North and South American people have a far more intimate relationship with each other. On the whole, I think one gets a more complete perspective here, if one wishes to have it, than anywhere else in the world.

This gives us, as a nation, a very great responsibility to prepare ourselves to understand and interpret to each other the various people who may meet here more easily than anywhere else in the world. It is a role which does not permit of isolationism in thought or deed, but which requires of us an ability to think and to feel with other nations, for we cannot interpret what we do not understand. I think this role is particularly fitted to the natural gifts of women and they should recognize their power and the responsibility which accompanies it.

289

December 2, 1942

Washington – (Tuesday)
Last night I went with Mr. and Mrs. Hopkins and Ambassador and Mrs. Litvinov to see Katharine Cornell’s very remarkable production The Three Sisters by Anton Chekhov. It was a little difficult for me to pull myself out of the present into the mood for real appreciation of the characters who performed their parts in a little Russian provincial town in the year 1900. Once the transition was accomplished, however, I was able to appreciate and enjoy this very fine performance.

I have today a long letter which brings up the whole question of what constitutes war work for women. I think we should face this question realistically and acknowledge the fact that the first thing every woman with a family has to do is to meet her family obligations. If her children have reached the age for school or college, and she has gifts which can be employed outside the home, she most certainly should employ them.

There are many women with younger children, who must have help in the home in order to do this, and who are thus enabled to work at some occupation for which they are trained, or are capable of undertaking. There are many women who are particularly gifted in performing household tasks, and that may be their best war work.

I know of many older women who are today relieving younger women by running their homes for them efficiently and well. These women would do, perhaps, a very inferior job in an office or factory, or even in some voluntary organizations, but here, in the work they know and like, they do superlatively good jobs.

This may be so of young women with a special gift and preference for this kind of work and, of course, there are things one can do in a home that bear on the war effort directly. Knitting, sewing and cooking for men in the armed forces can be done at home.

I know a great many people who dislike the thought of applying the word “servant” to people who perform household tasks. I, myself, would far rather look upon this work as a skilled occupation and consider all people thus employed as household operators who help the war effort in a most important way.

This presupposes that we look upon these workers in exactly the same way that we look upon any others – that they have standards of work and that the employers have standards for employment, and that both live up to their contracts whatever they may be. Basically, the most important thing to face is that, in war time, more than in peace time, each one of us should give the best we are capable of giving through the gifts we have. That may mean work in a home, factory, office or volunteer organization, but be sure it is the greatest contribution you are capable of giving to the war effort.

290

December 3, 1942

Washington – (Wednesday)
There is a little community service bulletin, number 128, which tells the story of a Sgt. Loque of the United States Army. A Puerto Rican and a resident of New York City, he fell on hard times, but finally came through successfully through his decision to serve his country.

I think it would give you a lift to read this story and to add to it a magazine article about “Phyllis.” I have spoken about “Phyllis,” one of our bombers, which I saw in Great Britain. I knew that her crew had told the story of her exploits, so when I came across this story the other day, I was much interested in reading it. It certainly is a stirring tale and I don’t wonder that the men love the plane.

I also enjoyed reading another article, “The Corvette on Convoy Duty.” It seemed more real to me since I examined one in Londonderry. These little ships do dangerous work and protect many a merchantman from the enemy lurking under the water.

On Monday afternoon, I received for the White House, some very lovely china plates. The makers have used American artists to decorate them and the set has on it the picture chosen as the winner of one of the Treasury Department’s advertisements. It shows Mount Vernon with a big American flag draped over one part of the background and is very colorful.

Yesterday I lunched with the Women’s National Press Club and had tea with the American Women’s Newspaper Club. Both asked me to talk about my trip to Great Britain. Since many of the people present belonged to my press conference and had several opportunities to question me on everything in which they were interested, I felt I was “carrying coal to Newcastle.”

Nevertheless, one of the reasons why I went to Great Britain was the hope of bringing back to this country a better picture of what has happened there. I have no idea of copying what they do, but I hope we shall use anything from their experience which may be useful in our own development.

We have been at war less than a year and it is perfectly obvious that we cannot expect to have had all the British people have already had. Some of their experiences may never come our way, but no one was ever hurt by more knowledge of what other people have gone through.

291

December 4, 1942

New York – (Thursday)
Tuesday afternoon I went to a sale for the benefit of Yugoslav prisoners of war. They had some very lovely embroideries and some charming little things bearing the Yugoslav emblem.

Yesterday morning, I had the pleasure of sitting in, for an hour-and-a-half, with the Women’s Advisory Committee of the War Manpower Commission. I hope, in answering their questions, I was able to tell them some things that will be useful to them in formulating their plans.

There is one thing which I should like to write a word about in this column, namely, that I find a number of people seem to consider that when I travel I do so for pleasure. Of course, we have all been asked to curtail as much as possible, travel which has no real purpose beyond passing enjoyment.

It is quite true that in all my traveling, I find many ways in which I enjoy myself, but no trip is undertaken without a serious object in view. For a number of reasons, many avenues in the war effort are closed to me, but certain avenues are open and I am using them as far as possible in ways I feel are useful.

I know many people will disagree with me as to what I think is useful. This must always be so, no matter what one does. However, one must live according to one’s own lights and use what poor talents one may have in the ways that are open.

I had the pleasure yesterday of seeing Judge Robert Marx, of Cincinnati, Ohio, for a few minutes and hearing about a charity which has been carried on in that city for 41 years. Every Thanksgiving they bring from every corner of the city and outlying neighborhoods, underprivileged and handicapped children, the number reaching into the thousands.

They give them a sumptuous Thanksgiving dinner, and then all those who need warm clothing for the winter receive an ample supply. Judge Marx’s face glowed as he told me the story. I must say that it is good to know that in these times of stress, we do not give up these charities, which mean so much to the children and to their parents.

I am here in New York City, where I attended last night a dinner in celebration of the 10th anniversary of the Neue Volkszeitung.

292

December 5, 1942

New York – (Friday)
Yesterday morning I attended a little ceremony. The Brooklyn Goodwill Welfare League, a group of women who have really done a remarkable piece of work in raising money and helping various war and local charities since the beginning of the war, named an ambulance they bought in memory of my mother-in-law. They would have liked to present it to the President, but it was not possible for him to give up the time, so he asked me to receive it.

The ambulance meets all the standard Army and Navy requirements and will serve shortly in some place where it can be of use to our Armed Forces.

This group seemed to me particularly active and energetic. I enjoyed very much being with them, and also seeing Mr. Newbold Morris again. He and I were the only speakers present.

From there I went to the College of the City of New York and spoke in the Great Hall to a gathering of students. At City College, they have the largest ROTC of any college in the country. It certainly was an impressive sight looking down on all those boys in uniform. They are so young and their responsibilities are so heavy.

The chairman of the meeting said to me afterwards that he felt it was not fair to say that the future lay in the hands of youth alone, that all of us together will have to carry the burden. I agree with him, of course, and I think we older people have the obligation to look at the future realistically, but it is much harder for us not to be tied to the past. Perhaps, our best function is to evaluate the past and to try to point out what things seem to us to have proved themselves valuable.

There was a small item in the paper this morning which filled me with horror. I noticed yesterday that in many parts of the country work had stopped for a few minutes while people prayed for the Jewish victims of Hitler’s cruelty. This morning I saw that, in Poland, it was reported that more than two-thirds of the Jewish population had been massacred.

There seems to be little use in voicing a protest, but somehow one cannot keep still when such horrors are going on. One can only pray that it will dawn upon Hitler that the Lord is not patient forever and that he who puts other people to death by the sword, is often meted out the same fate.

A number of people came to see me in the afternoon. I was glad to hear from Miss Alice Keliher, of some of the plans going forward for child care in New York City.

293

December 7, 1942

Washington – (Sunday)
I had a delightful luncheon on Friday with the New York Newspaper Women’s Club and then returned to my apartment in time to do two good hours of work. When I am not seeing a succession of people, it does seem easier to concentrate on writing an article, so Friday and Saturday afternoon I really felt I accomplished a good deal.

From London, we have just received a complete file of the Army newspaper, The Stars and Stripes, which became a daily while I was in Great Britain. Some of their reporters wrote about my trip, and one or two followed me around a good part of the time. Mr. Dorsey Fisher, of the United States Embassy, thought I would like to see the editions covering the days I was there and immediately after I left.

I think this paper is a very interesting and informative news-sheet. It carries on well the traditions begun in the last war by the paper which Mr. Alexander Woollcott edited, and on which Mr. Stephen Early and many other friends of ours worked.

Last night I returned to Washington, but there are a number of things which I did during the time I was in New York City, which I did not mention before. I was able to see Maxwell Anderson’s play, The Eve of St. Mark, and found it most absorbing.

It is curious how people are always impressed by the particular point in which they are interested. A friend of mine told me that this play taught the lesson of what unpreparedness cost us, and that never again must we allow ourselves to be unprepared in a military way. He is one of the people who hopes we shall always have universal military service for every boy during some period of his early life.

I feel that a period of service to the nation would be good for all of us, though I hope it will not be a purely military period. I have a great appreciation for the need for discipline and basic training in military methods, but above all, I believe we must develop the realization of every individual’s responsibility in a democracy for his government. To me any period of training should stress this very clearly and should include service to the community. I believe both boys and girls should receive such training.

Going back to the play, I felt that it brought out the value and importance of personal relationships in life. It showed that, in moments of crisis, the life one had lived at home, and the people one loved, not only helped one to the right decisions, but saw one through to the end.

I also was one of the panel for an International Student Service meeting at Hunter College last evening. It always is encouraging to find young people devoting their time to searching for their proper place in today’s difficult world.

294

December 8, 1942

Washington – (Monday)
Last evening, I had an hour’s visit with nine honor juniors of Colgate University, who have been using their last semester to study various government departments, with special emphasis on the activities of Congress. Dr. Paul S. Jacobsen Associate Professor of Political Science, and his wife, were with them as usual. I found them an extremely nice group of young boys.

They all expect to enter the service almost immediately, and this may be the last group Colgate will be able to send until the end of the war. These boys, I am sure, will profit by their experience, both now and in the after-war period. They were all very much impressed by the size of the job almost any government agency covers, and the fact that all the men they worked with seemed to know, not only their own particular job, but to have an understanding of its relationship to the other work being done in the Government.

Boys of this kind will be good material in our armed forces and will see that the toughening process which comes from thinking through problems will not be neglected while the process of physical toughening up is going on.

This is a busy day. A long meeting with the press this morning, then a talk with Miss Hilda Smith, who has been carrying on with the Workers’ Service Project in the Works Project Administration. She is gradually working out a program for the future which will be permanent and not of the temporary character that many Works Project Administration programs have been.

I am lunching with a friend and then going to a meeting with Charles Taft’s group in the Office of Defense Health and Welfare Services, so that they may ask me questions to find out whether I observed anything abroad of value to them.

I received a letter yesterday from a gentleman whose son I came to know on my trip across the water. He was a member of the crew that had taken one of our planes across and was returning to go on with his work. We talked of a great many things and he told me so much about his father that, on arriving home, I wrote his father of our meeting. One part of his answer is so typical of the American scene that I want to quote it here:

Knowing your wide interest in this melting pot which is our country, I’m going to enclose a business card and an advertising card of the small corporation of which I am a member.

Here we have a Bostonian with Irish and French Huguenot ancestors, a New Yorker who is proud to worship the God of his fathers as a Jew and an American, and a native of Barbados whose father was an English sugar planter and whose mother was Scotch. Our five associates – employees would not be the correct term – are likewise of diversified antecedents. Yet we work together in perfect harmony.

295

December 9, 1942

Washington – (Tuesday)
Yesterday afternoon Miss Frysinger and a group of women representing various organizations, such as the Associated Country Women of the World, came to tea with me and presented me with a symbolic can of plums from Great Britain. These plums were canned by no less a person than Queen Elizabeth herself. The can and machinery used in putting on the top were presented to the Women’s Institutes of Great Britain by the Rural Women of the United States.

This preservation of food for use in the home is something which our women on farms and villages understand very well. They were glad to be able to make some contribution to the women of Great Britain, who have not undertaken canning to this extent before. I was also presented by Mr. L. F. Holt, who is interested in promoting the use of apples from the State of Washington, with a little box containing 365 recipes on how apples may be used in the home day by day and meal by meal.

Before this group left me, Mrs. Patton and Mrs. Eisenhower came in to join us. It seemed a far cry from the campaign in North Africa, which naturally engrosses their interest, to a can of plums and the use of apples. However, when you live in the White House, you soon discover that life is made up of a variety of interests.

Today I am going to meet with Mrs. Woodward’s group at the Social Security Office to answer questions on anything they feel interests them in the British situation as I saw it. At noon, I am going for a few minutes to the meeting of the Community War Fund, which has made a wonderful record.

All day yesterday I was trying to think what the lesson of Pearl Harbor was for most of us in the United States. It seems to me that there would be very little point in celebrating this day as a holiday, but I think there is every reason for keeping this tragic day in mind.

First, we must try never to be unprepared again, either mentally or physically, to defend the things in which we believe. Peace is something we want to work for, day in and day out, but we want to work for it with the knowledge that only justice keeps the people of the world at peace.

Therefore, when injustices occur, we must always be sure of our position and be strong enough to defend it. This presupposes that the people of our country are going to know what they think is right. They will be mentally prepared at all times to face world problems to impose upon themselves the training necessary to be able physically to meet any need for action that may ever occur.

296

December 10, 1942

Washington – (Wednesday)
I have just received from the Prime Minister of the Republic of Poland, who is visiting in this country, a message transmitted from a secret radio station in Poland during the month of September and received in London. It reads, in part, as follows:

We send you in the name of the Polish women, sincere thanks for the imposing protest which you organized on the 30th of July against the German atrocities on the Polish women… We are enduring awful times here in Poland. We still deplore the loss of our dead in September 1939 and already the shadows of thousands tormented to death in concentration camps in Oświęcim, Ravensbrück, Oranienburg and other places hover around us.

But beyond the pain that stabs us, beyond the despair and longing after the dead, we are dominated by the consciousness that the struggle which we are carrying on will decide the existence of freedom, and no one can remain out of it. We Polish women have, therefore, all joined the ranks of subterranean struggling Poland, and together with our husbands, fathers, brothers and sons we will fight to the end with them. We are prepared either to win or perish… God grant that the sacrifices are the smallest and the sufferings of assaulted nations be reduced to naught.

What courage there is in a message of this kind! Listening to the messages sent from here last July, would have cost anyone discovered his life. Sending the reply to London was most dangerous and ten efforts were made before it was finally transmitted. These women, who are keeping alive their faith in freedom, in spite of such daily horrors as we can hardly conceive of here, are going to have a right to representation when the machinery for peace is built in the future. I am sure that Russian, Chinese and British women have earned and will demand that same right.

In the last peace conference, women had no such voice. In the coming one, women will have a right to a voice and they should be sure to prepare in advance so that their influence will be of the greatest value. The isolationists are preparing again to play somewhat the same role they played at the end of World War I.

They are idealists, but they do not want to pay the price of practical idealism or of peace for the world. They still believe that the United States can prosper all alone, can have peace all alone, can be a little island apart from the rest of the world.

Women are realists and I think they had better study these questions and come to their own conclusions. If they do, I am sure they will find that only cooperation and world understanding and concern for each other is going to keep peace through the years. I hope the women of the United States will awaken to the full sense of the influence which they can wield if they accept the responsibility which all power implies.

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297

So we clearly knew what hitler was doing.

So why then do TV shows (such as band
of brothers) show the soldiers being clueless as to what they are seeing when encountering a concentration camp for the first time in liberated lands?

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298

Not the full extent of it. We only saw glimpses by that point, and some civilians had doubts on the stories because of how German war crimes were reported in World War I.

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December 11, 1942

New York – (Thursday)
Yesterday Mrs. Martin Vogel came in to see me in Washington and told me the story of the work which her committee has done entertaining the servicemen in Washington. Theirs is a very personal service.

It began with about 35 hostesses. Some of them live in big houses, some in small ones, some of them want to keep open house and have one hundred or more servicemen drop in on Saturday or Sunday during certain hours. Others offer to have one or two men for a meal or a weekend.

Today she has over a thousand hostesses and the type of entertainment varies in just the same way. I think this type of personal contact is very valuable to a boy who is in Washington from some distant state. To go into a house and have a meal cooked by the mother of the family, to have a chance perhaps for a bath, a romp with some children, to sit around and read the papers or listen to the radio – this may be his first real touch of something homelike in months.

On the other hand, if the soldier happens to find himself one of many guests in a big house, with, perhaps, some well-known people there whom he has read about in the newspapers, he has a different sort of enjoyment. It’s stimulating, something to write home about.

These experiences may mean a great deal to a boy who has a day or two of leave in Washington far away from his home and his own people. Mrs. Vogel tells me that her committee makes an effort to send boys interested in music to places where they are apt to find other musical people, lawyers meet lawyers, etc. Although this is a highly personalized type of work, it has its own place and is of real value to the community.

At 9:15 yesterday morning, Mr. Aubrey Williams brought his regional directors in for a brief visit with me and I tried to tell them of things which I had seen or heard of in England that might have some bearing on their own work. At 12:30, I went to the Labor Department and lunched with the executive heads of the various divisions.

It seems as though my few weeks in Great Britain gave me an opportunity to see such a variety of activities, that when I go to the various groups in the government there are some new things to tell each of them which touch on their own particular work.

After leaving there, I went to the sale for Free French war prisoners. It was given by some American women of French origin living in this country. I also attended a sale for the British War Relief. At Christmastime these sales are very frequent and I find that during my absence this coming week I shall have to ask Mrs. Helm to attend one or two here, which I would go to if I were in Washington.

300

December 12, 1942

Boston, Massachusetts – (Friday)
On Wednesday evening, before leaving Washington, I attended the concert given by the Don Cossack Chorus. Unfortunately, I could only stay half an hour, since I had to be at the broadcasting station early to rehearse my broadcast. However, I enjoyed the concert very much while I was there. Afterwards, I took the midnight train to New York.

I had breakfast at the apartment and continued by train to Westbrook, Connecticut. There I had time to lunch with my friends Miss Lape and Miss Read before proceeding to Fall River, Massachusetts, where I spoke in the evening for the Russian Relief Fund.

Before leaving Washington, I did manage to wrap up quite a number of Christmas presents. This year I am making it a point to give children, in whom I am interested, 10¢ War Savings Stamps books with a certain number of stamps already in them, so they will be inspired to complete them. To their elders, in many cases, I am giving bonds, where I can think of nothing really useful they might want.

I found I could get very attractive folders, and when they are done up with Christmas cards and ribbons they look very gift-like. I haven’t, however, near all my homework done for Christmas, but most of my shopping is finished.

In a way, it is hard to take the usual kind of interest in Christmas celebrations, but this is part of the way of life for which our boys are fighting and I think we should carry it on. The traditions which we have built up in our homes and the little ceremonies which we go through on each holiday, are things which our children carry on in their homes when they leave us.

In many cases, metaphorically speaking, they give us the opportunity to join hands with those we love throughout the world. We know that those who have been with us at similar celebrations will be thinking of us and will probably join with us in thought when we rise to toast the absent members of our families as well as absent friends.

This is a busy day. I started with two guests at breakfast, then the group working for Russian Relief in Boston arranged for two and a half hours of varied activities. In the afternoon, I go to Radcliffe to speak to the students, and later attend the dinner at which I shall be taken into the Phi Beta Kappa fraternity.

I am very deeply honored to be admitted into this society of the learned and I only wish that I thought my academic achievements would really allow me to make an intellectual contribution worthy of my audience this evening. I can only hope that they will be charitable.

Tomorrow morning, I take the train to Brunswick, Maine, where I speak in the evening at Bowdoin College, but I shall tell you about that on Sunday.

301

December 14, 1942

New York – (Sunday)
I was very happy in Boston on Friday to have an opportunity to talk to the girls at Radcliffe College in the afternoon. It was interesting to go from there to Bowdoin College on Saturday morning.

In a panel discussion at the fraternity house, one of the boys at Bowdoin asked me whether I found it any different talking to young men or young women at the present time, and whether I had any preference. I had never thought about it before, but I do not find that I like one any better than the other.

I am afraid I am just incurably fond of being with young people. Having had sons and a daughter and their friends at home for many years, I have come to consider them not only as my children as they grew up, but as my friends.

When I find myself with a big group of young people, the surroundings are very familiar and I feel very much at home. Now there is an element of seriousness in any meeting with young people, whether they are boys or girls. The boys are going out to fight, either on fields of battle or in various occupations, so that we may all live in a world where freedom exists and where we have an opportunity to build our civilization along the lines we think good.

The girls may not be so conscious of it as yet, but, nevertheless, they are going to do the same thing. It is urgent that the boys should know just what kind of a world they are fighting to preserve and build, and it is even more urgent that the boys and girls together should discuss and come to agreements on the basic things involved. While the boys are actively in the Armed Forces, the carrying on of the business of citizenship will very largely fall to the girls.

I like the chapel and the art museums and the general atmosphere of the campus at Bowdoin very much. I was glad I had an opportunity to give the debating cup to the winning high school team, which had considered, I believe, the weighty question of whether men and women should be drafted into service or not.

Dr. and Mrs. Kenneth Sills, were more than kind and I spent a most delightful time with them.

I have made five speeches in the last three days, two for Russian War Relief, and the rest more or less tied up with what I saw in Great Britain. I am glad that tonight I shall be free to catch up on the mail, which, as usual, assumed appalling proportions in the few days I have been away.

302

December 15, 1942

New York – (Monday)
Tonight I am going to a concert given in Poughkeepsie, New York, by the Dutchess County Philharmonic Orchestra. The soloists are to be Maj. John Warner, of the New York State Constabulary, who is a fine musician, and Mrs. Lytle Hull, also a good musician, though most people think of her primarily as a patron and ceaseless worker in the interests of music and musicians.

Last summer, this orchestra gave a concert out of doors at our home in Hyde Park. I feel that small orchestras like this one, springing up throughout the country, mean a growth in the appreciation of music, which is valuable to the nation as a whole.

While I was in Boston the other day, I heard a great deal of the terrible fire which cost so many lives there. A great many precautions are now being taken. No inflammable decorations are allowed in public places, and whatever can be done in the way of assuring safe conditions is being done.

I think, however, that the only real safety lies in the ability of people to remain calm under stress. If the doors had been opened and people had gone out quietly, nothing like the tragedy which occurred could possibly have happened. It is panic which always leads to these disasters and I wonder if one should not train a certain number of people and dot them around crowded public places to keep people quiet.

I was interested the other day to see a report stating that approximately four hundred babies a day are now being born to the wives of our men in our military services. The report states:

Many of these young mothers are away from home with no resources other than the dependents allowance for the enlisted men. The American Red Cross is receiving more than 25,000 requests each month from soldiers’ wives requesting assistance in maternity care.

When wives join their husbands for a short time near Army camps, they are not legal residents and, therefore, are not eligible to whatever community services may be open to residents. The medical and hospital care for servicemen’s families, usually available in Army hospitals in time of peace, cannot cope with the tremendous additional number who now require assistance.

It seems to me that this situation will have to receive consideration by the Congress not only because it is the right thing to do for the men who are in the services, and must leave their wives at home, but because these children are an asset to the nation in the future.