Eleanor Roosevelt – My Day (1942)

143

June 15, 1942

Washington – (Sunday)
Friday afternoon we had a party for some of the soldiers stationed in Washington. The President greeted them, the Army band played and then they had some refreshments and sat about the lawn. A chorus, organized by Mr. Donald Murray, and composed of members of the United Federal Workers Union, sang some of their own songs and we found that there was plenty of talent among the soldiers.

One of their number played the piano to start the singing and led at the end. I was really sorry when it was over, because I enjoyed having them and look forward now to another party in the near future.

Yesterday morning, the President and I greeted the British and American boys, whom the Treasury Department is sponsoring on a trip around the country. The Secretary of the Treasury came back from the country to be with them and the British Ambassador joined us on the porch. I don’t believe they enjoyed the photographing any more than they have enjoyed some of their experiences.

However, they must be a great inspiration to some of the people who greet them in different parts of the country. These boys are a symbol of the unity which exists between Britain and us in the fight for freedom. I hope that, before long, we shall have added to their number boys from China and Russia, because in this fight no one carries the burden alone.

It is a joint burden and will continue to be in the future. Such honors as we pay individual heroes are really only a symbol of what is due to heroic youth throughout the world. We should not only honor the representatives of the nations which are fighting together today, but also those who represent the other United Nations, for they continue to fight in every way which is possible in spite of the occupation of their home territory.

As one reads of the many merchant ships which have been sunk, I wonder if there should not be some special medal of honor for the men who man these ships. In some cases, they run even greater risks than the boys in the Regular Army and Navy. When we realize that, over and over again, they land from one torpedoed ship and as soon as they recover from wounds or exposure, they start out on another trip; we can hardly fail to pay homage for supreme courage.

Last night we saw a moving picture, Mrs. Miniver. Because everybody had spoken so highly of it, I was rather prepared for disappointment. Instead, it is better than I imagined possible – a sermon, and a charming and beautiful one.

144

June 16, 1942

Washington – (Monday)
The Flag Day ceremony in the State Dining Room at the White House yesterday afternoon was very impressive. The flags of the United Nations were placed in a circle and underneath each flag stood the representative of his country. At the table, in the middle of the room, sat the President and the Secretary of State with the Mexican Ambassador and President Quezon of the Philippines, who were joining the United Nations. The President read Mr. Stephen Benet’s beautiful prayer, which I am giving in part in the hope that all will cut it out and keep it with them.

God of the free, we pledge our lives and hearts today to the cause of all free mankind.

Grant us victory over the tyrants who would enslave all free men and nations. Grant us faith and understanding to cherish all those who fight for freedom as if they were our brothers. Grant us brotherhood in hope and union, not only for the space of this bitter war, but for the days to come which shall and must unite all the children of the earth.

Our earth is a but a small star in the great universe. Yet, of it, we can make if we choose, a planet unvexed by war, untroubled by hunger or fear, undivided by senseless distinctions of race, color or theory. Grant us that courage and foreseeing to begin this task today so that our children and our children’s children may be proud of the name of man.

Yet, most of all, grant us brotherhood, not only for this day but for all our years – a brotherhood not of words, but of acts and deeds. We are all of us children of earth – grant us that simple knowledge. If our brothers are oppressed, then we are oppressed. If they hunger, we hunger. If their freedom is taken away, our freedom is not secure. Grant us a common faith that man shall know bread and peace – that he shall know justice and righteousness, freedom and security, an equal opportunity and an equal chance to do his best, not only in our own lands, but throughout the world. And in that faith let us march toward the clean world our hands can make. Amen.

145

June 17, 1942

Washington – (Tuesday)
On Sunday evening a few of us went to the concert at the Water Gate, which was the first of a series of concerts given by the National Symphony Orchestra and led by Mr. Hans Kindler. The program Sunday night was dedicated to the United Nations.

In addition to the music, there was an informal pageant produced in cooperation with the Office of Civilian Defense and the Office of Facts and Figures. Mr. Melvyn Douglas directed it and the script was written by Mr. Maxwell Anderson. I think everybody felt it was an appropriate and effective presentation for this occasion.

Our climate treated us to one of its sudden changes and a warm day became a cool and windy evening. However, it was certainly a lovely setting for beautiful music and I was happy to see the numbers of young people in canoes listening and enjoying the evening. We are becoming a musically appreciative nation, particularly in the younger generation.

I have been leading a rather uncertain existence due to the fact that other people’s plans on which my own have to be dependent, have been rather changeable. Instead of reaching New York City yesterday in time for lunch, I got there just in time for a reception at Holland House in celebration of Flag Day. It was sponsored by the National Council of Women and the Women’s Society for a Free and Democratic Europe.

In the evening, I presided during the first part of a meeting held under the auspices of the French weekly, Pour La Victoire, for the benefit of a group of united charities. Manhattan Center was crowded and an overflow meeting was held in a nearby hall. Mr. Conrad Thibault sang the “Star Spangled Banner” and Madame Genevieve Tabouis opened the meeting.

I had the pleasure of introducing Mlle. Eve Curie, who spoke on her travels in the various battle-torn countries. It was an extraordinarily interesting hour-and-a-half. There were light touches here and there in her address, but on the whole the factual presentation of these travels made a deep impression on me.

They showed a power of observation and analysis of situations and people, which must have been based on a calmness and self-possession even in moments of danger. As a woman, I am always proud when women acquit themselves so well in any job which they are allowed to undertake.

I reached Washington again in the very early hours of the morning and I was reminded of the time when I was greeted with a “good morning,” instead of a “good night.”

146

June 18, 1942

Washington – (Wednesday)
I am becoming very familiar with the forms and applications which have to be filled out by people who desire to find some way of being useful to their government in the present crisis. Some of the people who turn up in Washington are able to support themselves and only wish to find someplace where they can contribute their efforts. Others must have a salary. Still others wish to be in the armed forces. If they cannot achieve actual combat service of some kind, they want at least to feel they are a part of the war effort, serving in some civilian capacity in the government.

I think there must be a certain amount of duplication in the information which is finally gathered on the various seekers of “opportunity.” Occasionally some of the questions appear to be rather amusing and not to have much bearing on the ability actually to do the job in hand. I can see why a certain amount of information about people’s personalities is necessary, but occasionally I feel we allow people rather little leeway as to privacy in their private lives.

I saw a decision in the papers the other day announced by Adm. King for the Navy, which points the way to a similar action perhaps for some of the rest of us. I wonder if we could all cut down on half the paper work we do. Adm. King thinks it will make it easier to fight the war. I think it might save everyone hours of time.

My decision to accept the opinion of the Treasury Department on joint income tax returns has brought me one of the most amusing editorials. They wonder how I dare to set myself up as a tax expert, and why I talk about something when I so obviously disagree in my final decision with many people who know much more about the subject.

The truth is that I am only too conscious of my lack of knowledge, but am trying to get my information from what I think is the best source and to interpret it as accurately as I can. Nobody is bound to agree with me or to accept what I think.

The only obligation I feel is to give an explanation as accurately as possible in the way it is given to me and to let that information reach people who then must decide for themselves as to what they think they must do. A joint income tax return, where my husband and I are concerned, will mean paying higher taxes for both of us. I do not feel that I can take exception to that if it is going to be of benefit to others.

147

June 19, 1942

New York – (Thursday)
I left Washington yesterday afternoon and reached New York City in time to have a few friends dine with me. They took me to see a musical comedy called By Jupiter, in which Ray Bolger is most amusing. Afterwards, we stopped in for a few minutes at the Stage Door Canteen. It is certainly crowded and the boys in all the services seem to have a very good time there.

I am on my way to Hyde Park this morning, where I intended to be earlier this week. It is only a short trip and I expect to be back in Washington by Friday evening.

Someone wrote me the other day about the Sharon Sanitorium in Sharon, Mass., where for over 4 years they have been trying the open air treatment for children suffering from rheumatic diseases. Rheumatic fever often causes heart disease and many children die or are crippled for life by this disease, which Dr. Paul de Kruif has so often written about. The Sharon Sanitarium does not claim to have found a cure, but hopes it is on the road to constantly improved treatment. One cannot help being interested in efforts of this kind.

The more I hear of children in Europe and in other parts of the world, the more I fear that for a generation we shall see many of the diseases brought on by privation, hunger and strain crippling children all over the world. It is difficult to see how one can do much about it at the present time, and yet I hope we shall not be forced completely to abandon what feeding we have been able to do.

How magnificent is the courage of people in all of these countries! In Carl Sandburg’s column the other day, he quoted a letter smuggled out of Norway, written by a man just out after three and a half months in prison to a former cellmate. The letter reads:

I wish you could see us today – outwardly gray, poor, stripped to the skin, so it seems. But it is only a seeming, only on the outside. Never has life behind and inside us been less grey, never has blood been more red. He’s trying to kid himself, you say. Well, just consider yourself when you were here. Even though it was strenuous, you nevertheless lived, felt the pulse of life even in the grayest of gray, which you lived through the final months. You expressed this yourself the last time I talked with you. And today it is still more clear… Seen from the outside it may appear grayer than ever, marked with hunger and distress, loss and suffering. But inwardly, life presses forward irresistibly.

148

June 20, 1942

Washington – (Friday)
The news from Africa is serious. Of course, it is again a question of production. Until we can send enough planes, ships and materials of war to all the fighting fronts, we cannot expect men to stand up against equipment which has been prepared over a long period of time. Discouraging as it is, we must keep right on working until we gain the upper hand and we must not allow ourselves to be slowed up by discouragement. It must simply spur us on to greater effort.

The day in Hyde Park yesterday was great fun. I found the two little girls who are staying with me this summer anxiously waiting to know when they could ride. So, after lunch at the big house we went out to the stable, looked the horses over and decided that the children could take their first lesson. Each of them has ridden a little, so this summer is going to be a chance to learn something new.

We agreed that every day they would ride at 9:00 and then return and lie in the sun and swim, leaving more sedentary occupations for the afternoon hours. They have agreed that their household chores of bed-making and tidying up their rooms will all be finished by 9:00 every morning, but I wonder how frequently this program will go through on time.

Often I consider if my responsibility were to follow up children every minute of the day, whether I would succeed as well as those who really do it and seem to accomplish it without any friction.

I unpacked boxes in the big house after lunch, then stopped to see my sister-in-law and returned in time for a swim with the girls, in which Mrs. James Forrestal and her two sons joined us. We had guests for supper and I wandered about and looked at all the flowers. I don’t think I have seen the country lovelier.

Some of our climbing rose bushes are already in bloom. The sunset on the water made a rosy pathway. As we ate our supper on the porch, the young moon came to shine upon us. It was so lovely I could hardly bear to come indoors.

We had to rise early this morning, since I have a meeting in Washington this afternoon, and tomorrow will be a special day spent with the people I rarely see nowadays.

149

June 22, 1942

Washington – (Sunday)
Yesterday was a very quiet day and I spent most of it catching up on mail. In the late afternoon we had a meeting of people interested in the International Student Service.

There was a very interesting editorial in one of the metropolitan papers on Thursday. It brought up the much discussed question of of public schools in England. These schools, which correspond to our most exclusive boarding schools, are giving consideration to changes for the future.

Some of our educators, who are concerned about real freedom of opportunity in education, are also thinking about what we should do. There are colleges in this country in several of the bigger cities where tuition is free to the citizens of that city. There are state universities where tuition is free to the young people of the State. Board and lodging is still a considerable expense, however, so we have many young people who give up obtaining a college education because financially it is too much of a burden.

That is why some of us have been so much interested in the National Youth Administration grants to college students, as well as to graduate students. I agree with the writer of the editorial that:

A democracy needs leaders, influential by talent and by character. The wider the basis of choice, the more successful the democracy will be and the more capable of resisting the vulgar führer – prinzip which now afflicts so great a part of the world.

To do this however, there will have to be a system of grants to students who are worthy of obtaining higher education, otherwise this type of education is available only to those whose families are able to pay for it.

A letter has just come to me on the value of milk powder. Milk in this form can be shipped long distances and still retain its nutritive value. It is cheap, but not whole milk. As a sub-family head, I want to say at once that I am one of those who like milk just as it comes, but I also believe that there is great need at present for the education of the public in the use of processed foods in general. If you cannot get good clean, whole milk, you should get powdered milk, since it will provide your family with the necessary nutritive values.

150

June 23, 1942

Washington – (Monday)
This is a time of great seriousness, for the fall of Tobruk threatens to prolong the war. The United Nations face a challenge and now is the time to prove our unity. Every front belongs to every nation and we who are the youngest and strongest nation now facing the Axis powers, must show our determination to win. This can best be done by proving our unity of feeling and of purpose with every one of our allies. Success may mean more sacrifice, even changes in our way of life, but if we can shorten the war by an hour, everything we will do will be worthwhile.

This seems to me the opportune time to publish a letter which has just come, and which breathes the spirit which must be ours. It is signed by Margaret Rollo, and comes from Lanarkshire, England:

Dear Madame,
I have been given the very great honour of writing you on behalf of the the Women’s Rural Institute of this village to thank the women of America through you, for their most kind and thoughtful gift of vegetable seeds. I can assure you that this gift, one of so many, has touched the hearts of all the women of Britain. These seeds have been put into the ground with many kind thoughts of American women and of good wishes for all Americans who are standing shoulder to shoulder with us in this gigantic struggle.

Not many days ago, one of our loveliest old cities in the South was badly “blitzed” two nights in succession. Many people lost everything. A member of my family wrote and told me that she had been working in a rest center for 16 hours one day, helping to feed and clothe the homeless. She said:

The garments we gave out all came from America and you have no idea of the comfort and cheer they gave.

I have seen many of those garments for the house of one of my friends in this village is the receiving center for the upper ward of Lanarkshire. What struck me about the garments was their cheery colors and their look of warmth and comfort. Do tell the women of the United States how truly grateful we are for their help and wonderful generosity.

In this war we are learning what is of real and lasting value, and I pray God we may never forget. You would be amazed at the courage and cheerfulness of people who have undergone the most terrible experiences. We have one dear little woman living in Robertson, who, in March 1941, lost everything except what is most precious – her husband and two small children. She comes down here to help us occasionally and she is like a tonic. Her parting word is always “cheerio.” It is a privilege to help people with courage. We are confident of victory however long and hard the struggle may be.

151

June 24, 1942

Washington – (Tuesday)
Yesterday afternoon about 35 Hi-Y students from the Northwest came in to see what rooms are now open in the White House. I talked to them for a few minutes while they had refreshments in the State Dining Room.

These young boys are between 15 and 18 and their trip is sponsored by the Young Men’s Christian Association. A great many of them had earned all or part of the money which they had used for this trip. I imagine, as the war goes on, that fewer and fewer trips will be possible. Yet, I am always glad to feel that even a few young people can take back to their communities the impressions gained by seeing their country and their country’s capital.

It may be possible for them in the future to see a great deal more of the world, but perhaps nothing will ever be as vivid as the first impression which comes from a trip across the whole United States. There is such a variety of scenery, such a variety of occupation, that I think it is impossible for any young person not to get a sense of the greatness and power of his nation.

That sense is a good thing to have at the present time. It awakens a confidence both in the present and in the future. As I looked at the faces of these young boys, I felt a pride and a confidence in the material we produce to meet the future.

One boy came from across the border in Canada, several of them from near Seaside, Oregon, which has just been shelled and the war seems close to them.

On Wednesday, July 1, I am told that a campaign instituted by the “Retailers For Victory” will undertake to stop all sale of ordinary merchandise in retail stores of the country for fifteen minutes, from 12:00 noon to 12:15 p.m. will be devoted to the sale of war savings bonds and stamps. That will mean that in big cities, in little towns and small villages, stores can plan a ceremony where as many citizens as possible can attend and buy stamps and bonds. There is a great advantage in having the time set because it is so easy to say to yourself: “Oh, I’ll buy one the next time I come in,” and the next time never comes.

I am going this afternoon to an exhibition of some clothes which is being prepared by “Bundles For America.” This display features 25 garments selected in New York City as showing the greatest ingenuity in making use of salvage material. I saw some wonderful pictures in the paper yesterday where patches of different types of materials were used in new designs, so evidently we had better brush up on our ingenuity in the use of materials!

152

June 25, 1942

New York – (Wednesday)
It was a great pleasure yesterday afternoon to have an opportunity to see Senora de Calderon Guardia, the wife of the President of Costa Rica. She came here because of ill health, but after spending some time in Baltimore, Maryland, under the care of doctors, looks as well as when I last saw her.

Señora de Calderón Guardia is a charming person and most anxious to find out where the women of Costa Rica could be most useful in alleviating some of the suffering which has spread throughout the world. She said they were already working on various Red Cross activities, and she was going over to find out what more they could do.

I asked her whether they had any of the nutrition problems through which we could educate people as to what native foods would provide them with a balanced diet. I was greatly interested to find that so much of their food has come from the United States, and since shipping is at present a difficult problem, they are being thrown back on their own willingness to produce certain foodstuffs.

It is natural that women should have a special interest in these problems, for feeding the family from the earliest days, has been one of our jobs.

I was astonished this morning to see in the paper that a committee which Dr. Frank Kingdon heads, the Union for Democratic Action, has been reported by the Dies Committee as a subversive group, attacking the legislative branch of our government with the object of destroying it.

This seems to me a very serious and extraordinary accusation, and I hope it will lead to a very careful investigation. In the first place, there are many people on this committee who will be surprised to find themselves classed as engaging in subversive activities and who will feel they have a right to a thorough investigation. In the second place, I question whether a committee composed of so many people of good reputation should be thus accused without first being granted a hearing, and it might be well to settle this once and for all.

Last evening, a small group of people sat on the South Porch of the White House and discussed until fairly late in the evening, certain educational possibilities. Dr. Alvin Johnson of the New School for Social Research, is one of those creative people who is constantly looking into the future to discover needs that may arise. There never was a time when the challenge to education was greater in every field. I think the difficulty is going to be in finding leaders who are able to think out these problems.

I took the night train to New York City, where I have a number of engagements during the day.

153

June 26, 1942

New York – (Thursday)
Yesterday I attended the French-American Club, Inc., lunch and was very much pleased to be invited to become a member. Besides our traditional sense of gratitude to the French people for their support at the time of our Revolution, I have always been grateful for the leadership in thought given by Voltaire which prepared the thinking of the men of that period. I shall never cease to be grateful personally for the years spent with Mademoiselle Marie Souvestre who left an indelible mark on many of her pupils.

Both Mrs. Davey and Monsieur Jacques Maritain spoke eloquently. There is no one who is more delightful to talk to, nor a better presiding officer than Mr. Louis Bromfield.

In the afternoon, I saw Mr. Walter Russell’s very excellent head of my husband and spent some time talking to various friends at my apartment. In the evening I attended the Hunter College Commencement exercises.

It is amazing to see so many young women graduating, almost a thousand girls took their degrees. It was an inspiring evening and I shall watch with interest the girls whom I have had the pleasure of meeting in this class as they grow under their new responsibilities.

Dr. George Shuster, the President of Hunter College, announced that the two houses in which my mother-in-law and my husband and I lived in 65th Street, had been bought by Hunter College to be used as an interfaith house where the girls would come together in different religious groups and also for social purposes.

I should like to mention even belatedly, how glad I am to hear that the Drexel Institute of Technology had given an honorary degree on June 13, to Miss Grace E. Frysinger. Miss Frysinger was made a Doctor of Science and the citation reads:

Home economist of international distinction and expert in the problems of rural life. As an educator and writer, she has rendered invaluable service in the improvement of rural life in all parts of the world, especially in America where, by virtue of her high position as senior home economist in the Department of Agriculture, she has made outstanding contributions to the improvement of the standards of living in the rural communities of our country.

I have known Miss Frysinger ever since I have been interested in rural organizations. I am glad to pay a tribute here to her and to Dr. Louise Stanley, who heads the Bureau of Home Economics in the Department of Agriculture, as well as to the many other scientific people working there. They do an outstanding useful piece of work for the government and for the people of the country.

154

June 27, 1942

Hyde Park, New York – (Friday)
Miss Thompson and I came up to Hyde Park yesterday and I devoted most of the afternoon to unpacking barrels of things which had come from New York. I try to decide for which child these things can be packed away and whether there is anything we can use anywhere now.

As far as possible, I am putting everything in use, but if the children cannot take their things at present, I have to mark them and keep them until the war is over. I have been through the experience of a generation in which things have been collected and not used, but kept for possible use sometime in the future; and am firmly convinced that everything should be in the hands of someone who can use it as soon as possible.

After lunch, the children and I read for a little while from a most charming little book called Masha, by Marguerita Rudolph. She is a teacher in Manumet School and there has charge of one of my small guests, Michael Toombs, who is spending a week’s holiday here with his mother. His father, our old friend, Henry Toombs, who was the architect for Warm Springs, is now in the Army.

We all had supper together on our porch. I never tire of the sunset hour. I think, perhaps, sunrise and sunset are the two loveliest times of the day. After supper, we all played games together and had to chase two active little girls to bed before we settled down to our grown-up occupations for the rest of the evening.

I am doing very nicely on saving my gas. My bicycle has taken me all the way to the big house and back. I was afraid I would never be able to negotiate the hills, but I find a little practice brings back one’s old skill.

A rather nice story about an NYA boy was sent me from Missouri. I want to tell it to you because it is typical of what has been done for many boys. He was 17 years old and had been hunting a job in the City of Joplin for days, when he was picked up by an NYA interviewer. He had no father, his mother worked away from home and he lived with his grandmother.

So, the NYA interviewer suggested he return the next day and enroll in the NYA radio workshop. The boy worked so hard in the defense training shops and took the examination for all the licenses he required for employment, that he is now with the Federal Communications Commission in Memphis Tennessee.

The bugaboo of his first day’s search for work had been the often-heard question:

What experience have you had?

A boy with his schooling, obtained somewhere in the country near a city like Joplin, is not apt to have had much experience of which to boast.

155

June 29, 1942

Washington – (Sunday)
On Friday afternoon the sad news was telephoned to me that my cousin, Mr. Henry Parish, had died very suddenly. When I was young, he was always more than kind to me. Mrs. Parish is my godmother and my mother’s double first cousin, so she always took great interest in me and in my younger brothers. My brother Hall and I spent many vacation months with them and Mr. Parish did a great deal to teach us to enjoy the out-of-doors.

Later, when I tried to master my own finances, he was patience itself. Though he could never quite teach me the intricacies of double entry bookkeeping, nor make me keep the kind of accounts which he thought were presentable, still he did a great deal to help me manage my own money. I owe him a debt of gratitude, not only for many good times, but for valuable discipline.

In the last years of his life, it must often have been very difficult for him to accept many of the things for which my husband and I stood. Yet he was always sweet to me and ready to offer help if there was anything he could do of a personal nature.

I know that none of us has any idea of how many people he has helped and who have depended upon him, both in a business way and in his private life. None of the people who were close to him will know how much he did for them until they miss the little daily things which he did so unobtrusively. I have rarely known a more disciplined or more unselfish character and I am sure his influence will live long after him.

On Saturday morning I went to New York City and spent several hours with Mrs. Parish, and later caught a train to Washington. Since I took this trip somewhat unexpectedly, I had no reserved seat and felt very guilty for travelling on a weekend. I was more than fortunate to find a seat immediately next to a very nice young man, who was reading a magazine in which was an article by Alexander Dreier.

When I told the young man that I had met Mr. Dreier and we had talked about the situation in Germany, he was very much interested. After he left, a young woman came and sat beside me. She was on her way to see her soldier husband.

It was the longest trip, she told me, that she had ever taken alone. Infantile paralysis at the age of four has left her slightly lame, but it has not dimmed her spirit and her fresh and pretty face. I hope her husband will be as proud and happy to see her as she is in accomplishing her surprise journey.

156

June 30, 1942

New York – (Monday)
I found some friends staying in the house when I reached Washington on Saturday, and two of them even joined me at a very early breakfast Sunday morning before I went off to Richmond, Virginia, by train. Because of some difficulty with a pipe, we were three-quarters of an hour late in leaving Washington, and by the time we reached Richmond, we were an hour and a half late.

I knew that Governor Darden and some of the officers of the Veterans of Foreign Wars were planning to meet me. Luckily, they had discovered how late the train was and all we had to do was to hurry through lunch. We reached the hall on time and I was sorry I was not able to stay for the whole meeting.

The Governor took me on the afternoon plane, so we had an opportunity to talk for a little while. I was impressed by his sincerity and interest in a number of questions which are very important to his own state and to all Southern states today.

He would like to see his state do on a state scale what the Farm Security Administration does on a national scale, in making more productive the poorer farms of the state. If every state would do that, we would cease having soil erosion. We would soon have more intelligent farming which would improve the land for the future and produce more for people to eat and to market at the present time.

I think you will all be interested in a quotation from a letter which has just reached me. Lady Reading, who heads the Women’s Voluntary Services in England, writes:

I have just come back from Northern Ireland, where I met a great number of your people and visited some of your camps. I was immensely struck by the extremely nice type of boy and the freshness of his outlook as well as the sincerity of his beliefs. I do hope they can be mediumly happy on this side of the Atlantic, and that we shall not fail in according to them the measure of welcome we wish so earnestly to give them and that we are so characteristically tongue-tied in giving.

Lady Reading is a fine person and has done extraordinary work in organizing the British women. I hope that in every community which is near a camp where British boys are training as cadets in this country, our Women’s Voluntary Services will take an interest in their welfare and make them feel at home and try to create a better understanding between them and our own boys.

There is no use thinking that because the British speak English, we shall automatically be friends. We sometimes find their particular brand of English hard to understand and they look upon ours as equally odd. It takes just as much effort really to know each other as though they spoke Greek, and we civilians should make the effort.

157

July 1, 1942

Hyde Park, New York – (Tuesday)
The other night I saw a film called Native Land. It is a beautiful piece of photography and most artistically produced. There are still people in this country and there are still parts of it where the horrors which Native Land pictures may be found.

Sometimes I think that the greatest good anyone in this field could do would be to write the truth day after day. Then people would have something which would lie about halfway between the worst side of the picture, as presented in Native Land, and the worst side of the reverse, as presented in Mr. Pegler’s columns. Both pictures are truthful, but they are not the whole picture on either side. It is the whole picture which shows the real trend towards which we are striving and working for the future.

I reached New York City yesterday morning by the night train from Washington. After a hurried breakfast at the apartment and a short time spent at Calvary Church, I went up to my cousin, Mrs. Parish’s house. We came down together for the funeral services of my cousin, Mr. Parish. It was a great comfort to her that Mr. Sumner Welles and her nephew, Lieutenant Harry Parish, were able to be with her at the services. Then we drove to Tivoli, New York, for the burial in the old churchyard where so many of our family lie.

I reached home about 4:30 and found that there was a demand from the children for a picnic supper. They helped carry all the food down by the fireplace and built their own fire. After I returned from meeting Miss Thompson and Mrs. Fleeson O’Donnell and her little girl, we walked down to see the results of all the preparations, which seemed to be very satisfactory. One of the children presented me with a beautifully roasted marshmallow. They all assured me that they had eaten all they wanted. I think the enjoyment of these parties is always more in what they do than in what they eat.

The Yiddish Theatre Division for the Army and Navy Relief Funds is giving a benefit at the National Theatre in New York City. I hope very much that it will be very successful. I am much impressed by the way in which the theatrical and other artistic groups throughout the country have actually given, not only of their money, but of their time for these benefit performances. They have brought in a great deal of money throughout the nation and I think all of us are grateful to them.

158

July 2, 1942

New York – (Wednesday)
Yesterday morning, at Hyde Park, Mrs. Morgenthau, Mrs. Fleeson O’Donnell and I took the three little girls to visit the Vanderbilt Mansion. Since Mrs. Morgenthau and I had been through it a number of times, we wandered around and examined the trees outside, and for the first time I discovered a cucumber tree. To other people it may be familiar, but I had never come across one before. To me, the real beauty of this Vanderbilt place lies in its trees and the beautiful view up and down the Hudson River.

We then stopped to look at the murals painted by Mr. Olin Dows in the little Hyde Park post office. Each painting has local historical interest. I enjoyed reading the description which is posted in one of the glass cases at the end of the office. These paintings make this post office colorful and interesting and I think Mr. Dows must get pleasure viewing his work.

At 2:00, Mrs. Morgenthau and I attended a meeting of the Emergency Home Demonstration Committee, sponsored by the Dutchess County Farm Bureau Association. In the evening we all went down to the opening of the Starlight Theatre in Poughkeepsie and saw Miss Gloria Swanson in a play called Reflected Glory. However, all these leisurely country activities were exchanged this morning for New York City and Washington, and now we are on our way back to a more exacting existence.

I have just received the following postcard and I imagine there are a good many people who are troubled in the same way, so I quote it here. It comes from Schenectady, New York, and reads:

Could you enlighten the people by radio or some magazine article? How can a baby be supported on $12 a month – which amounts to about 40¢ a day – including his meals, medicine, clothing and so forth? The second child receives $10 a month, 33⅓¢ a day when he must drink two quarts of milk a day. [A rather excessive amount!] How can you buy medicine, clothing for the other three cents per day?

Also, I would like to know how a baby food which must be mixed with milk can be bought every five or six days at 79¢? Also, I would like to know if there is a nursery in New York State where you board a child for such a ridiculous amount per month. I am inducted in the Army.

Perhaps the answer is in the new $50-a-month pay. Otherwise, I can’t answer it either, unless the mother goes to work and the WPA nurseries and nursery schools still function.

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July 3, 1942

Washington – (Thursday)
Our plane was a little late yesterday afternoon. I reached the Red Cross ceremony, where the six nurses who escaped from Corregidor were being decorated, just as their citations were being read. It was to me a very moving ceremony, not only because of the knowledge of what these particular nurses had gone through, but because of the thought of all the others who are serving on ships and shore throughout the world.

I think my admiration and sympathy goes out most warmly to those who, with their patients, are today prisoners of war. It must take a tremendous amount of courage to stay on your job, not knowing whether you will be allowed to go on working, or whether you will be forced to stand idly by and see your patients neglected.

The story in the paper this morning, describing what one nurse told of the first bombing on December 7, does not seem so extraordinary to me. I think it is easier to stand up to a situation where you have to do something every minute, than the weeks in concentration camps with the uncertainty of how you will be treated which must be very difficult to face.

I felt a great desire to express to these nurses, and through them to all the other nurses in the services, the appreciation of the women of this country for the work which they are doing. As a woman, I feel proud and very humble before them, and am tremendously grateful for the care which they are able to give to the men in the Armed Forces.

I am sure that the standard which these nurses have set will be followed by all those who find themselves in similarly difficult situations, and they must inspire many young women to enter this service that offers such great opportunities for serving their country and humanity.

I happened to notice a paragraph in a newspaper article which appeared some time ago and I have thought of it often since. The subject was the United Nations “failure to prepare against war while at peace.” Then the question was raised as to whether we might be making the other mistake of not preparing for the peace while we are prosecuting the war.

There is no question in my mind but that everything we do in a war is a preparation for future peace. One of the most important things we can do is to realize that our actions today have a bearing on the future. The way these captured nurses act and the way they are treated will undoubtedly be a factor in the future peace.

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July 4, 1942

New York – (Friday)
On this Fourth of July, we are fighting again for our liberty in just the way that we were fighting when the Declaration of Independence was signed. We are a great nation today. We were a small nation then, but the forces against us today are a hundred times greater because of the rapidity of both communication and transportation. We do not know whether from some fertile brain, over here or in Europe, will come some new invention at any minute which will mean death to thousands of people in the countries throughout the world. Whoever makes the invention will profit, and the others will suffer until they find some way of meeting the new invention with one still newer.

The problem before us, therefore, is just as great and requires of us the same qualities that were required to win our original war and then build a nation when it was over. Now we must sacrifice and work and go without things that we have long been accustomed to having, to retain the freedom which we achieved at the end of the Revolutionary War. And when we have retained it, we must set about building not a nation, but a new world.

To us the task seems as great and terrifying an undertaking as building a nation on a new continent once seemed to our forefathers; and it will require as much daring, as much courage, as much imagination and as much foresight.

There will probably be very few fireworks this year. I hope few children will be allowed to think of this Fourth of July only as a time for awakening their elders at dawn with firecrackers under their windows, without any realization of the significance of the day. The younger generation over many years will have to dedicate this day and every day in the year to a better understanding of their responsibilities as citizens in a democracy.

I think perhaps on this Fourth of July, when we decorate the graves of men who have given their lives or their services in the past for the preservation of this country, we should devote time to a prayer to the future. That prayer should be for ourselves in the older generation, and should beseech for us unselfishness of purpose and the power to recognize nonessentials in order that we may preserve the basic things which have made democracy dear to us.

From us our children must learn integrity, and the determination to work for the things in which we believe. If we succeed in passing on these conceptions to them, the Fourth of July will always record our freedom and that of the world.

161

July 6, 1942

Washington – (Sunday)
Yesterday was hardly a holiday in the White House, or anywhere else in the country I imagine. I spent the morning visiting low cost housing projects in and around Washington. Some of the people who were moved, because of the fact that the Navy Yard had to be enlarged, are in a trailer camp nearby.

On the whole, the arrangements are good. I was surprised at how wonderfully the women manage in such small quarters. In one trailer three grown people and three children were housed, and yet everything was as clean and neat as possible. The camp is divided into two units. Each has a utility building where laundry can be done, and showers and sanitary toilets.

I did not see any of the new demountable houses which are to house so many defense workers. Property owners have in many cases objected strongly to having these houses go up in their neighborhood for fear of lowering the values. But since these houses are demountable and are to be sold at the end of the emergency and taken somewhere else, I do not feel the danger is very great.

The other sites I visited are all under the direction of the Alley Dwelling Authority. I came away with a great sense of pride in the effort which people make to improve their living conditions just as soon as they have anything with which to work.

I had the pleasure last night of having Dr. Davenport’s group of government interns come to the White House for a movie. It was nice to see three of the young people who had been at the International Student Service last summer in the group. They are now having their preliminary orientation courses and then it will be decided where they will work for the rest of the year. The record of these young people as administrators in various government activities is quite remarkable.

The First Congregational Church in Berkeley, California, has taken a great interest in the American-born Japanese who have had to move further inland. The following story was sent me by them:

Arriving in Tanforan with only the clothes he wore, Bill Kockiyama, 21, last week received a $2,000 inheritance from a former stage and screen actress, for whom his father had worked for the past 20 years. Kockiyama came from New York City in 1940 to attend the University of California. At Tanforan he is a mess hall worker. “After deducting income taxes I purchased $1900 in war bonds in order to do my part in the war effort,” Kockiyama stated. Eventually he hopes to use the money invested to continue his education.

This should remind us that among the group are really good, loyal Americans and we must build up their loyalty and not tear it down.

162

July 7, 1942

New York – (Monday)
We sat long over breakfast at the White House porch on Sunday morning. Three young people with me discussed their differences in background, bringing up and education. The young people, as is natural, look to far better results with their children than was attained by their parents with them.

I think there is great value in the perspective which comes with old age, because you do recognize that there is a constant pressing forward to something that will be better than what came before in each generation.

Our great trouble is that we tend to bring up our children for the world in which we ourselves have lived. We rarely take into consideration the changes which have come about in our own lifetime and which are likely to come about before our children are fully grown. Perhaps we handicap them unnecessarily by too much anchoring to the old and too little preparation for the new.

A number of people lunched with us and it was interesting to think from what distances they had gathered. One from somewhere in the Pacific Ocean, another from England and others from various parts of the United States.

We divided up in the afternoon and one group went off for a picnic supper in the open. The rest of us stayed and had a swim with my daughter-in-law, who was leaving for Texas and felt she must have some exercise before she started on her trip. We saw her off at six-thirty. The end of the day found us again looking out at the Jefferson and Washington monuments from the South Porch as we ate our supper.

We were shown a movie at the White House the other night, which was taken from Eric Knight’s book This Above All. I liked the book very much and I liked the movie. It is well acted and I think brings out the struggle in the young man’s mind. He has been through all the horrors of war and knows what they are, and in his childhood he has gone through the horrors of peace – poverty, lack of opportunity, difficulty in finding a job.

If he could feel that his leaders were fighting for the kind of world that he envisions, everything would have a meaning. Without that he goes through the struggle of deciding whether he must fight to defeat the Totalitarian Powers simply because that defeat will give him a chance to fight for the kind of world he wants.

It still seems difficult to convince and arouse other people to action to obtain the needed changes for a peaceful world in which social reforms will take place. I am sure there are many people who go through these same struggles with themselves and I think the movie should be a great value.