Eleanor Roosevelt – My Day (1942)

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December 16, 1942

New York – (Tuesday)
Last night, I enjoyed very much The Carnival of Animals, by Saint-Saens, as played by the Dutchess County Philharmonic Orchestra, with Maj. John Warner and Mrs. Lytle Hull at the two pianos. It always seems to me like a delightful and amusing extravaganza. The composer must have had such fun writing and finding ways to express all the different animals in sound. There are beautiful bits of haunting melody, which seem to give just the right touch to set off the humor.

It seemed strange to be in Poughkeepsie and not to go home, but my cottage is closed for the winter and the big house is only open when due notice is given.

The train I took to New York City was an hour late in arriving at Poughkeepsie, so I sat in the station for a time and watched the usual come and go of passengers and read a magazine from cover to cover. I found Mr. H. M. Tomlinson’s article, which deals with our after-war attitude, well worth considering. He fears that we and the British, merely because of having to fight the war, may sink into some of the very attitudes we are trying to wipe out.

One paragraph stands out in its emphasis on what each of us must contribute as an individual:

Amid the uproar, one meets persons speaking as citizens of the world. They express, in what seems to be chaos, their sense of individual responsibility; and certainly without that understanding of civility even a democracy would die. The great city is the city of the best men and women. Its rulers cannot make it great. If the right spirit it is not in its tenements, then the city is as dead as Babylon, or deserves to be. And if ever there was a day in the story of humanity when the common man must summon his wit and will to decide which way history shall go, it is now. All depends on him. Unless that fellow chooses to refashion this earth nearer to the heart’s desire, civilization must perish. The danger is not that he is unworthy and unwilling to choose, but that he has never understood history to be but the story of himself and from as far back as the day when he shaped flints. History is, in all its lessons, no more than the imperfect reflection of his apprehension of good and evil.

A little further on he says:

We may fairly say of the American and British peoples that they regard war with horror. But horror of war, however, does not preserve peace. No, only a passion for justice and a determination to see it function the world over will preserve peace. Each one of us, as individuals, must feel this passion and insist on giving it expression.

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December 17, 1942

New York – (Wednesday)
We had a short but very pleasant meeting of the Chi Omega Achievement Award Committee yesterday. I cannot remember ever arriving at an agreement as quickly as we did on our choice for this year’s award.

I always enjoy meeting with this group. In the course of conversation, several questions came up which I have been thinking a good deal about of late. What is the place in the war effort, I wonder, of older women who are trained in business or office work of some kind, who are college graduates, still quite able to do a full day’s work, and yet not apparently wanted anywhere?

Of course, I realize that this would not be so if we actually needed every bit of manpower we had in the country. I saw in Great Britain how everybody is needed, even the physically handicapped are used.

We also talked a little of the unrest which seems to be affecting girls’ colleges as well as boys’ at the present time. I am receiving a number of letters from girls who feel they should leave college and go into what they call more active service – a factory, Red Cross work, or the Auxiliary Military Forces.

To me, it seems that this should depend entirely upon the needs of the country, looked at from a long view as well as the immediate situation. If we need an increase in certain groups of specified occupations at once, I think the Manpower Commission should tell the people, and that should include the women of the country, where these particular workers are needed and may be found.

I believe that good minds and young people with potentialities for development in the sciences, the professions and in executive work of all kinds, will need trained minds more than ever before. College can give this training in a shorter period than would be possible if one waited for the years of experience, which some of us have had to accept as a substitute.

I do not feel that any girl should stay in college, who is not doing the maximum of work. I do not feel that, in these important years, girls should be chosen for college purely on the basis of whether they can afford to pay for this opportunity. They should be there because of the potential value which they will bring to the nation. If they have this added training, the nation should be willing to put something toward their development.

This morning, I am going down to tell the Joint Legislative Committee on Nutrition as much as I can about the British experience in nutrition. Then we take a train back to Washington.

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December 18, 1942

Washington – (Thursday)
The train trip down yesterday was a wonderful opportunity to do much accumulated work. When I arrived here, I had time to get ready for a tea, which Mrs. Harry Hopkins and I gave for the nurses and the nurses’ aides at Columbia Hospital.

They are using nurses’ aides in this hospital with great success. I cannot help thinking that the attitude of the superintendent of nurses in a civilian hospital has a great deal to do with the successful use and development of nurses’ aides.

I saw in some magazine the other day, the suggestion that we need to develop better qualified people to help in hospitals. I know of no way to do this except by taking in nurses’ aides and keeping them under supervision until they develop skill enough to be given real responsibility.

Actual practice in doing things in the hospital is the very best training that one can have. The more we can encourage the aides to stick at their jobs over long periods, the more qualified people we will have who can accept ever-increasing responsibility.

After dinner yesterday evening, Mr. Charles Palmer showed us the movies he took in Great Britain of various devastated areas. Of course, there is practically no rebuilding going on in Great Britain at present. The thing which he brought out, however, and which interested us all, is the amount of planning which has been done for the development in all these cities.

Improved housing can be undertaken as soon as the war comes to an end and normal transportation is resumed. This will be a source of employment which is basically very valuable, because the building materials used require much labor, in addition to the labor required in the building of the houses.

Of course, we have no devastated areas, but we shall need much additional housing. I hope we shall study the plans made in Great Britain and use any ideas which can be adapted to our own needs. I hope we shall offer the occupied countries encouragement by making it clear that we intend to help them along the same lines.

Hitler apparently has made a master plan in which he develops Germany industrially and drains from the occupied countries as much as he possibly can, leaving them primarily agricultural nations. If he is doing this, it is quite evident that we should offer something better to all these people, who struggle in underground ways to keep up a vision for the future of better things than Hitler offers.

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December 19, 1942

Washington – (Friday)
Last night I had the pleasure of having Mr. Earl Robinson come down from New York City to play us a new composition. One of his favorite themes is Abraham Lincoln, and this has a haunting quality and is a stirring and stimulating composition.

Later, we all went over to the Stage Door Canteen, which is scarcely a stone’s throw from the White House, being in the old Belasco Theatre. Miss Antoinette Perry, Miss Helen Menken, Mr. Milton Berle and various other artists were making a great success of the evening for the soldiers. I took part in a broadcast, listened to Earl Robinson sing some songs, in which the audience could join in the chorus, heard Mr. Alexander Woollcott and another laugh to the many which Mr. Berle had already elicited, and then came home to an hour’s chat with Mr. Woollcott in my sitting room.

He is a most delightful guest, even though a most distracting one, because one would like to steal more time out of one’s busy day to talk with him and to listen to him. He gave me today a page from a magazine, in which he describes a wedding present given a young couple separated by the war.

Of course, what he has done is to give thousands of such young couples, to parents and children, and to friends, an unforgettable suggestion. In this particular case, the girl told him:

Right now we have to build our marriage on paper, so letters overflow my bureau drawers and have to be stored downstairs in my trunk.

Then he finds the perfect paragraph:

Let those who may complain, remember that only on paper has humanity yet achieved beauty, truth, knowledge, virtue and abiding love.

This morning I met with a group of Latin-American gentlemen who are here studying agro-economics and who faced me with some pretty difficult problems, which I attempted to answer as truthfully as possible. They seemed to me somewhat in the unanswerable field, because when you are asked what a nation such as ours may do in the future, you are guessing pure and simple. You can only state your hopes and determination to try to make those hopes come true.

I had the pleasure, too, of seeing Begum Shahnawaz and learning a little of what she is trying to do in the health and education fields for the women and children of Punjab. It is hard to believe that she lived hidden behind a veil until the age of 24. The women of India have certainly come a long way in the last few years.

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December 21, 1942

New York – (Sunday)
I spent yesterday in New York City finishing up odds and ends of errands and seeing a few people, whom I must see before Christmas. This morning I am on my way to Hyde Park to make all the preparations for the Christmas parties there on Monday and Tuesday evenings.

I forgot to tell you the other day of some really excellent work, which I found being accomplished by a young woman in Washington, whom I have just lately come to know. Mrs. Laura Paine has a home and a family, but she finds the time to do a good deal for other people and still carry on her home responsibilities. She asked me if I would come down to see what she has been able to accomplish in the Quartermaster Department, so between engagements I made a hurried trip.

I found a little frame building, painted green, very simple outside but attractive inside, with a big fireplace at one end of a large room, comfortable chairs and plenty of tables. In addition, there is a small canteen and a dormitory, where officers just passing through can find a bed and a place to rest in this busy town, which has no quiet spots and no empty beds if you want to find one just for one night.

In the big office building itself, she has created in every division, with the help of the military organization, comfortable restrooms for the girls. In one central room, she has some charming looking young women, each occupying a little partitioned off space. They are ready to talk over with confused, bewildered and disheartened girl workers, any problems created by the new atmosphere in which they find themselves.

There is a room where girls may press and sew in their off time. If they are making a dress or blouse for themselves, there is a locked closet where they can leave their work until they return the next day. There is also a library with books, newspapers and games of all kinds.

In each of these rooms, I noticed that the woman in charge was neither too old nor too young. They are mature enough to understand human nature and help if help is needed, but not the type who suppress good times and high spirits when they are doing no harm.

As I looked into each room, I regarded the young woman beside me and marveled at the executive ability, understanding and persistence which had created these facilities for government workers and transient officers. I wish we had a great many more people like her in Washington just now.

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December 22, 1942

Hyde Park, New York – (Monday)
Some friends who stayed with us not long ago, read me an account written to them by a young boy who belongs to our paratroops. They took him home one day when they found him lonely and at loose ends at a USO club near their home, and ever since he has written them from time to time.

The lady of the house wrote and told him that she could not imagine how it would feel to come to the moment of the takeoff in an airplane, and actually have the courage to go out of the door. You could have no idea of what you would find when you landed on the ground, if you were able to land in the way you had been taught to do, and you had no mishap which made life even more complicated for you. You would be lucky, but were you sure of your luck?

The letter he wrote is such an honest and simple one, I have asked permission to quote it here for you:

I am not strictly at the top of my form tonight, but I’ll try to tell you what a parachute jump is like anyway. First we go down to the packing sheds and draw our chutes; inspect the brake-cords on the static and start sweating the jump out. Maybe you’ve had the feeling – probably not. It feels more like a swarm of butterflies in your stomach than anything else, not that I’ve eaten a swarm of butterflies to find out for sure. When the time comes to get into the plane, we check our reserve chutes to see that the ripcord isn’t fouled, make sure that our rifle is firmly fastened, strap our helmets on good and tight, so that one of the connector links won’t bat us behind the ear when the chute opens, and climb in. By this time most of the butterflies have turned to canaries.

In the plane, as we rise from the ground, everyone is usually silent. Soon someone breaks the silence and, before you realize it, everyone is talking too much, laughing too loud. Probably a mild form of hysteria – awfully mild though. We fly for fifteen minutes to half an hour. Someone in the rear of the plane starts to sing, too loudly and a little off key. Some of the fellows join in, the rest laugh at them too loudly. As we circle the field we are to jump in the first time, the singing dies away. You suddenly notice that you’re tense all over. You laugh too loud and you try to relax. It doesn’t work. Soon the plane is almost over the field again. “Stand in the door!” – “Go!” At the word “go,” the first man bails out, followed by the rest.

I shall have to continue this letter in tomorrow’s column because of lack of space.

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December 23, 1942

Hyde Park, New York – (Tuesday)
And here the rest of the letter from the paratrooper, which I started in yesterday’s column goes on:

You suddenly find yourself at the door. Say to yourself:

Don’t think, and jump as far away from the plane as you can, making left body turn as you do so, in order to have the prop blast straight behind you rather than somersaulting you through the air.

As you jump from the door, and feel the prop blast hurling you back, there seems to be an infinite pause. No sensation of falling, no sensation of fear. You may notice the clouds or the tail of the plane passing over you. You find yourself automatically counting “1,000, 2,000, 3,000.” If your main chute isn’t open by the time you have the third count out of your mouth, pull the reserve (and don’t drop the rip cord or you’ll buy everybody a beer). As the main chute opens, you are suddenly jerked upward, snapped by the chute, and find yourself gently swinging beneath the canopy anywhere from 400 to 1,200 feet from the ground. There’s still no sensation of falling, no sensation of movement, except for the swinging.

You pick out the spot you’re going to land in, and slip your chute toward it, at the same time checking your oscillation to reduce your chances of coming in backwards. At about fifty feet from the ground, the earth seems suddenly to begin rushing toward you. Pull down vigorously on the risers when you’re about fifteen feet from the ground and you’ll still land on your face or elsewhere, but it will make a much softer jolt.

So you’re happy. You think – “Gee – and I was sweating that out!” “Nothing to it,” you’re glad to announce to all and sundry, and the next time you jump you’ll either feel the same or worse before you get out of that door. I thought I was through sweating them out, but the last jump proved that I was wrong.

The above seems to me a very poignant description of something which takes both courage and skill to do.

These days up here have been extremely pleasant and it has been nice to see our neighbors and revel in the winter countryside. Late this evening I shall return to New York City in order to have a tree party tomorrow at the Women’s Trade Union League Clubhouse for the children of workers, whose fathers are now in the military services overseas.

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December 24, 1942

New York – (Wednesday)
I keep getting letters asking me about Lend Lease aid to different countries. It seems to be the general impression that Lend-Lease is a gift and not a reciprocal arrangement, whereas we really do get certain things at the present time from Great Britain, and these things are as important to us as are the things we send to Great Britain.

For instance, the other day I heard Lend-Lease Administrator, Mr. E. R. Stettinius, over the Atlantic Coast Network, and I wish he had been talking to the whole United States. Therefore, I am going to tell you in my own words some of the statements which he made.

We are receiving from the British now, anti-aircraft guns, barrage balloons, airplane detector devices, all of which have been perfected through British war experience and are valuable to us in guarding our vital zones. But, perhaps, the most important category of reciprocal aid that which our American troops overseas have received, not only from Great Britain but from other United Nations as well.

They are provided with services and materials ranging from repair facilities, transportation and housing to food, uniforms and ordnance. I even discovered when I was in Great Britain, that the buildings which were used for distribution centers and for American Red Cross clubs, are turned over to us and furnished under the Lend-Lease agreement.

Some of the people who are always looking for something behind the news, have suggested we are paying twice for the food which Great Britain buys from us under Lend Lease and which she may provide us with on the other side of the ocean. This, of course, is not true and I particularly like one of the paragraphs in Mr. Stettinius’ answer to a question, which Mrs. Esther Tufty asked on this subject:

He said:

We are learning that it does not matter who uses a given supply or a particular weapon, so long as it is used in a way that does the most damage to the enemy. This is why American pilots fly Spitfires over the English Channel (where the Spitfires are the best plane to do the fighting) and why British pilots fly American Kittyhawks over the Libyan Desert (where Kittyhawks are the best plane for the job).

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December 25, 1942

Washington –
How completely the character of Christmas has changed this year. I could no more say to you “A Merry Christmas” without feeling a catch in my throat than I could fly to the moon! We all know that for too many people this will be anything but a Merry Christmas. It can, however, be a Christmas season of deep meaning to us all.

The Christmas story is a reminder to us of a life so unselfish, so completely lived in the interests of other people that there was no room in it anywhere for thought of self. Christ knew that at the end of His life He would have to pay the supreme sacrifice, and yet He was willing to make that sacrifice in order that life might have a little more meaning and a little more hope for His brothers and sisters in the world of His day and forever thereafter.

Many of the young people today are doing their jobs in the present world crisis with exactly the same hope in their hearts, and it is this spirit of divine sacrifice and love for your fellow human beings which gives to the Christmas season its real spiritual significance.

Whatever our particular religious beliefs may be, we still can feel a share in this Christmas spirit and try to do our part at this season by making life just a little bit brighter wherever we touch it. So many families will be divided, so many people will find their hearts hovering over faraway places, that it will be hard even to keep “a smiling face” as Robert Louis Stevenson admonished us to do.

You will perhaps remember the story of the man who had nothing in the world to give and so he always gave a smile, and when he reached St. Peter’s Gate, the little Angels that welcomed him in were the happy thoughts that he had inspired by his smile.

I am going as usual on Christmas morning to a church service and then I hope to have time for a flying visit to Walter Reed Hospital to the wards where some of our returned wounded from Africa are being treated. After that I will stop for a few minutes at the YWCA where they are having a Christmas dinner for government workers who are strangers in Washington and who have no family connections here. This seems to me a very nice gesture for the YWCA to make, and I am glad to be given the opportunity to stop in for a few minutes to wish them all a pleasant day, before returning to our own family concerns for the rest of the day.

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December 26, 1942

Washington – (Friday)
I returned yesterday morning a little bit late, but in plenty of time to get over to Arlington, Virginia, for the children’s party given there every year by the Kiwanis Club. There were fewer children there this year, which means that more people are at work and have money enough to provide Christmas cheer for their own families.

The Central Union Mission, which usually has a large children’s party, and the Volunteers of America, have also given up their annual parties. All of which, I feel, is an encouraging sign.

The Salvation Army, however, went on as usual. I imagine that among their beneficiaries there are too many old people, or people who are otherwise incapacitated for work, so they have to rely on the generosity of others for extra things at this season.

At 11 o’clock, the President and I greeted all the people in the executive office. The rule made by the government, not permitting traveling and limiting the number of people who could go home for Christmas, has made it a rather sad Christmas for many people who save their time off and their money to spend this particular holiday at home. I am sure that there are many homes that are sad also because the war has made this rule a necessity.

At 2 o’clock, I went to the usual ceremonies held by the Salvation Army, and found the party in the White House for the families of those attached there, in full swing when I returned. The President greeted them and all the little children received their customary gifts.

At 4 o’clock, the ceremonies which are usually carried on when the community Christmas tree is lit, took place, but without lighting the tree this year. However, the carols went out over the radio, and I am glad that people will be able to have their Christmas trees indoors, even though driving through the countryside and in the cities will not be as delightful an experience as it formerly was, with the outdoor lighted trees.

Today I went to the Walter Reed Hospital immediately after church, to visit the wards where we have casualties from overseas, in order to take the President’s good wishes to each one of the men there.

Our two grandchildren and other children who came in for the family Christmas tree, seemed to have a very satisfactory time. It is a pleasant thing to have some children around who can be completely joyous over this Christmas season.

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December 28, 1942

Washington – (Sunday)
First of all, today, I want to thank literally thousands of people who have been thoughtful and kind enough to send Christmas cards to the President and to me. It has been a very heartwarming thing to have such an outpouring from people all over the country, and it is particularly nice to know how many people hope that the New Year will bring greater happiness and peace to the world. With so many people working toward the same end, and giving the best they have to the war effort, I think we can hope that peace will be hastened.

One of my nicest Christmas presents came in the form of an abridged version of the Beveridge Report, but it is a fuller one than I have yet seen. I am looking forward to reading it with great care, knowing quite well that a pattern which might fit Great Britain may not, of necessity, fit the United States. But I hope to find in it some ideas which may be of value to us all.

Yesterday morning, I visited the new Naval Medical Center, just outside of Washington. It is a striking building with a very high tower, but as yet the planting around it does not seem to be sufficiently grown to make the building look as though it has belonged in its surroundings for any length of time. That I am sure will come and, on the whole, it seems to me both inside and out, extremely well-fitted for the purpose for which it is intended. The rooms are bright and cheerful, which I think is one of the first requisites in a good hospital.

In the afternoon, Maj. Hooker and I went to the Walter Reed Hospital to call on an officer friend who has been there for several weeks and who apparently will be there for sometime longer.

We returned to the White House just in time to gather up the rest of the family and go out to Fairfax, Virginia, for Belle Roosevelt’s wedding to Mr. John G. Palfrey Jr. When you see young people today trusting to the future enough to start a new life together, it not only fills you with admiration for their courage, but you cannot escape a certain emotional tension which is apparent in the general feeling which runs through the guests at almost any wedding today.

Bishop Atwood joined us at a very small family dinner and I spent the evening trying to make a beginning on my Christmas letters of thanks to the family. We were particularly happy to get one letter from one of our sons in Africa, written two weeks ago, but which arrived yesterday. Such things are precious these days and it will go the rounds of the entire family.

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December 29, 1942

Washington – (Monday)
Sunday was a very peaceful day for us. The President and I were overjoyed to greet at luncheon, Mr. John G. Winant, our Ambassador to Great Britain, who has come home for a short time. One is ordinarily supposed to return home for a holiday, and it would certainly seem a necessary thing to do when one works as hard as this particular Ambassador does.

Instead of resting, I think Mr. Winant is planning to use much of his time over here to work on things he just can’t find time to work on in Great Britain. I only hope he will have a few days of peace and quiet with his family in his own State of New Hampshire.

In the late afternoon, I managed to corral my husband to look at a few Christmas presents and then a few friends came to supper. We saw the movie called Random Harvest, which is based on James Hilton’s book. It is charmingly done and everybody seemed to enjoy it.

This morning I am carrying on my usual type of day, beginning with an interview with a lady who has not been able to find her particular niche for useful work, though she has been in Washington for some time. Next, at 11:00, Miss Margaret Hickey, Chairman of the Women’s Advisory Committee of the War Manpower Commission, came to my press conference to tell the ladies of the press about the progress of the work of her committee.

A few minutes after 12:00, Miss Gertrude Warren, of the Department of Agriculture, brought over some of her executives in charge of 4-H Club work, to try to find out whether anything I had observed in Great Britain could be of use to them. She left some information on the achievements of the 4-H Clubs throughout the country, which I want to pass along because I consider them quite astounding for this age group in the rural areas of our country.

In the general field of good citizenship, these youngsters bought War Bonds and Stamps to the value of $6,000,000 and were instrumental in selling to others $2,600,000 worth. They have become sufficiently conscious of the examinations, and 7,000,000 meals were prepared by them in keeping with the nutritional needs of the family.

In the field of production, they produced 11,000,000 pounds of soybeans, peanuts and other legumes. Their gardens produced 3,000,000 bushels of vegetables and they were responsible for the care of 6,500,000 chickens. There are more things I could tell you, but this will give you an idea that the 4-H Clubs are developing good citizens.

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December 30, 1942

Washington – (Tuesday)
One of the most interesting points in Vice President Wallace’s speech is the realization that education in the aggressor countries must be watched in the future. Implicit, however, in that acknowledgement is the fact that education must be watched everywhere.

If we are going to live in a world ruled by true democracy, then it is essential that every human being receives the kind of education that will best develop his faculties. In addition, each and every one of us must become conscious of the fact that we have an obligation to think for ourselves so that we may function as citizens. We must base our actions on facts and use them to determine what type of action we want taken by our representatives in government.

The importance of all education lies far more in the training of minds than in any facts which may be absorbed, for trained minds will ascertain the facts as they need to know them. Having learned to reason and to weigh the information they discover, people with such minds will be more nearly educated than any amount of cramming of definite facts into their heads will make them.

If we look at education not as something to end at any special point, but as a preparation whereby we can attain the means to acquire whatever we need in life, we shall have a truer perspective on what we want to achieve through our educational system.

In the early grades the tools must be provided. We must learn to read, write and figure. After that, it depends on the individual. Some people develop better mentally through the use of their hands. To others, a classic type of education brings the greatest satisfaction. To others, scientific studies make a greater appeal. Once you have your tools in hand, then the development should be along individual lines.

I am going to New York City this morning in order to speak this afternoon on the radio for the Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies, and then to attend the dinner for Senator Norris, where I am to have the honor of presenting him the bust made by Mr. Jo Davidson. I am anxious to see this bust, because I think no artist has a greater gift for catching and reproducing the real personality of his subject. I shall be back here for breakfast tomorrow morning.

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December 31, 1942

Washington – (Wednesday)
Mr. Jo Davidson’s bust of Senator Norris is a wonderful work of art, as I hoped it would be. It is like looking at the Senator himself. There is humor, gentleness, strength and wisdom in the lines which time has etched into his face. A great artist has reproduced them, letting the spirit shine through and giving in lasting form the personality of his subject.

The dinner to Senator Norris, given in New York City last night, was more than just a tribute, it was a plea from almost every speaker to continue the leadership in private life, which the Senator has given during his public career. It is wonderful to have been in public life for such a long time, where every act is scrutinized, and to come through with the admiration and confidence of such diverse groups of people.

I returned to Washington in time for breakfast this morning and found in my mail a booklet entitled Safety For Women In Industry. If any of you ladies are planning to work in a factory in the near future, you had better write to the National Safety Council in Chicago for this booklet. It will give you good advice on what to wear while you are at work.

Some of the things are very obvious, but we probably need them. No jewelry, particularly no rings, should be worn. Low heeled shoes will allow you to fill your daily stint with less fatigue. Wear goggles and a cap which completely covers your hair, and which has a visor broad enough to warn you when your head is getting too near any part of the machine.

Slack suits, jumpers, and dresses should all be loose and comfortable, with no loose tabs, belts, or large buttons to catch in the machinery. Sleeves should either be short, or, if you prefer them long, tight-fitting. These suggestions stress the fact that a woman can still look extremely attractive in her working clothes, but that the object in going to work is to produce as much as possible. When you wear clothes about which you do not have to think, you will give more thought to the work you are doing.

I have another letter from a dressmaker, who says she has designed a dress which will conform to the WPB desire to use less cloth and to cut down on the variety of styles, which the big dress shops are now making. She says her pattern is a basic dress, which can be made in quantity by the manufacturers, and then have a variety of changes for different occasions. It sounds interesting and I am sending it over to the person who is in charge of this particular form of economy in WPB.