Eleanor Roosevelt – My Day (1942)

163

July 8, 1942

New York –
Yesterday I came up by plane to New York City. I was interested to find that between Washington and New York City there were a number of empty seats, so I think the young man was right who urged me not to give up travelling by plane, so long as I was willing to cope with some uncertainty.

I wasn’t actually told I could have a seat until an hour before the plane left. However, I didn’t have anything so vital to do for an hour after reaching New York City and a little uncertainty didn’t matter.

Perhaps this period is going to teach us not to plan our lives on quite such tight schedules. After all, if we learn to use our time usefully wherever we are, it won’t matter if we are held up a couple of hours by troop trains, or if we have to wait over for a couple of planes until there is an empty seat. Most of my life has been spent getting accustomed to doing one thing, and then finding I have to do something entirely different. This is going to be a new lesson and I hope a valuable one.

We had one guest at lunch yesterday. Then, via subway and train, I went to Orange, New Jersey, to spend the late afternoon and evening with my cousin, Mrs. Henry Parish and Mrs. Franklin K. Lane, who is still staying with her.

Even the little dog seemed to look expectantly for his master. The house and place out there, which Mr. Parish greatly loved, and where he planted almost every tree and shrub and flower, seemed rather deserted without him.

On the way back I happened to sit in the train next to Dr. Robert Searles and we were able to talk a little about the Wiltwyck School, which has been reorganized. I hope it is going to do a valuable piece of work for both colored and white children.

In my mail has come a letter from Dr. Morkovin, who is director of the Hearing Clinic of the University of Southern California. He writes that there are some three million hard-of-hearing children in this country, whose loss of hearing is discovered far too late for complete cure. This is largely due to the fact that mothers do not realize that complications which destroy hearing often arise after measles, whooping cough, infantile paralysis and other children’s diseases.

Public opinion is indifferent to the fact that the hearing handicap may be a great deterrent to the development of the child. Therefore there are no state or federal agencies which care especially for hard-of-hearing children and they are not included in the benefits of the Crippled Children Act. If we know how much could be done, there would be a weight of public opinion in favor of watching for any signs of impaired hearing in small children.

164

July 9, 1942

Hyde Park, New York – (Wednesday)
Yesterday morning we had an early but a gay breakfast at the apartment in New York City with two young guests. Then Miss Thompson and I caught the train for Hyde Park. Travel seems to be very heavy and I wondered if I was going to get to the window in time to buy a family ticket. However, the agent caught sight of me, and as my check was all made out, he handed me my ticket without any delay.

I found Mrs. Bruce Gould waiting at the gate of the train. We worked together on the way up, so that when we arrived all our talking was done and I was able to pick up the two little girls and take Mrs. Gould over to see the view from the south porch of the big house and the library. We didn’t have a great deal of time, so we had only a hurried visit to the library and she felt rather cheated that she could not spend more time looking at the different exhibits.

She was particularly interested in the copies of the President’s speeches, showing how many times a speech has to be revised. On the way back to the cottage I showed her Nellie Johannesen’s weaving. I think homespun may become quite popular where the weavers have stocks of wool on hand are able to furnish really good material even during the present shortage.

After lunch Mrs. Gould went back to New York City and Miss Thompson and I worked on the mail and did a number of things in the house. Finally, we went for a long walk, since I thought it was cool enough for the woods to be free of mosquitoes. The two little girls found themselves so bitten up, however, they raced for home. This morning seems to be another wonderfully cool day and I can hardly believe it is July and not September.

I find that I am not the only person who is concerned about employment of older people. There is an organization called “The Forty Plus”, which has branches in many of the big cities. It originated, I think, in Boston. But the most recent letter I have had comes to me from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
The president, Mr. George Sheridan, writes:

The club was originally formed with the idea of relieving a situation then thought to have been brought about by the depression and with the hope in mind that as conditions improved, the situation would automatically take care of itself and that men with the ability of our members would find no difficulty in securing positions.

To a certain extent this has been true, and we feel we have had good success, having placed 571 men since our organization was formed in Pittsburgh in July 1939 to the present time; but we are still meeting with and endeavoring to overcome, a prejudice to hiring men over forty years of age. We are trying to correct an impression on the part of many employers that the ability and capacity for work of men over that age is less than that of younger men.

165

July 10, 1942

Hyde Park, New York – (Thursday)
Yesterday morning, after the girls had had their horseback ride, all of us went down to Poughkeepsie together. Groceries had to be bought, and everyone had some absolutely necessary thing that they had to acquire. I had a meeting with the school lunch committee, set up under the auspices of the Farm Bureau and with the help of the Home Economics Extension Agent. I was left at the post office and spent a most interesting hour. I found my little girls examining the murals in the post office when I came out to look for the car.

These murals are really very interesting and I often wonder if people driving through Poughkeepsie stop to look at them. In nearly all our post office murals there are portraits of historic people which add enormously to the interest of the pictures.

In the discussion of our county school lunch program, several points came up for consideration. First, no one knows what surplus commodities, if any, will be available next year and many of these programs have been run on surplus commodities.

Secondly, the Parent-Teacher Association, which nationally voted to make the school lunch program their main interest this coming year, has in some smaller localities in the county decided to disband for the year, because of the difficulty of getting about without gas. I hope these groups can be induced to revive rapidly, for I think this is a time when the Parent-Teacher groups should be more active than they have been in the past. There is more to be done and there must be ways found to do it.

Lastly, I was told that it would be extremely difficult to make people believe that school lunches had anything to do with war work. This last point is the main reason why I wanted to write about this meeting. I am quite sure that if some people feel this way here, there are many, many others who feel the same way in other places. It becomes not a local feeling, but a national feeling which may have a very serious effect on work which needs to be done and which is important to the boys who are actually fighting.

These boys are fighting to win a war, and they are looking forward to a world in the future, which will be the kind of a world for which they were willing to fight. Unless we at home carry on our job, there will not be the citizens in the future ready to carry on the work which is needed in the new kind of world we are trying to build. In tomorrow’s column I shall try to explain why school lunches have a bearing in this new world, and why the participation of women in this type of work seems to me a contribution to the war.

166

July 11, 1942

New York – (Friday)
The world we shall face when the war is over will be one in which every citizen must work hard to make his community a good place in which to live. It will mean that every citizen will give part of his time to some kind of work which serves the community.

Much will have to be done for other countries all over the world. If we have the resources in this country, they will be drawn upon to help the people of the rest of the globe. Therefore, we can look forward to an interesting new world – one of opportunity, of service, but not of luxury. Not a world where human greed can run riot for the benefit of any individuals.

If we are going to take our citizenship seriously, every man, woman and child will have an obligation to his community – and the first one which we should face today and begin to plan for, is the obligation towards children. They should be well fed. That does not merely mean they should have enough to eat – it means they should have the right kind of food.

One of the ways to achieve this is to give every child in the community a midday meal which contains the real necessities for proper nourishment. In this way, the children will become educated to eat what is good for them. The family will become educated to serve at home, as well as at the school, food that is of value to it.

Over and over again we find that raw vegetables are not used, that the latest discoveries of science are ignored, and that children whose families are well able to afford the type of food which they should eat, give them the kind of food which produces undernourishment. This gives us, in time of war, a great number of boys who have to be rejected in the draft.

In time of peace there are citizens who not only cannot do their work with the highest efficiency, but cannot be the type required by a democracy. Lack of nourishment and ill health, do not produce citizens with courage, initiative and energy.

No woman can do a greater service today in the war effort than to devote herself to seeing that her home meets, to the limit, the demands made by the government. She will need the cooperation of her husband and her children, but she will have the satisfaction of knowing that her home builds the community, and that as each community does its full job for the present and the future, the war is bound to be shortened.

Proper nourishment of the generation which must bear the brunt of the after-war period is essential war work. Every woman should ask for a school lunch program in her community and offer to help in every way she can to make it successful.

167

July 13, 1942

Hyde Park, New York – (Sunday)
My interest in the school lunch problem took up so much space that I haven’t told you what I have been doing in the past few days.

I went to New York City on Thursday and had an interesting talk in the afternoon with a committee of home economics teachers working in the public schools of New York City. They have a summer workshop in which they are discussing school curricula. The home economics teachers feel that every child should have training in this subject in the 7th and 8th grades and one year in high school. They believe this training is valuable to both boys and girls.

It is important in learning how to run their homes and how to live better, and for many will point the way to a foundation for a type of training which will give them opportunities for a variety of jobs.

In the evening I went over to Brooklyn to a forum in the Girls’ Commercial High School, where Mr. Agar, vice president of Freedom House, Dr. Clyde Eagleton, of New York University, and Mr. Clarence Streit spoke. It was an interesting evening and some of the questions at the very end were particularly valuable.

Friday evening was spent going to Saybrook, Connecticut, to visit my friends, Miss Esther Lape and Miss Elizabeth Read. On my way back on the train, I found myself sitting next to a charming young woman who was on her way to visit her brother in camp.

We passed a number of government housing projects and she suddenly said that one of the great needs of young married couples was for good housing at a cost of from $40 to $45 a month. It seems to me that this could be done by private enterprise when the war is over in greater volume than has ever been done in the past. It is one of the things which will keep up our production of certain basic goods.

Yesterday the rain came down in sheets and I was inclined to feel that the elements were very unkind, for we had planned an outdoor picnic for the grown-ups and children. However, in the evening we had the picnic in the playroom and it turned out to be a very pleasant and informal evening.

On Saturday afternoon I spent an hour at the Hudson Shore Labor School, where they had a two-day conference on what trade union women can do in their homes to help the war effort. They covered nutrition and various conservation projects, gas and sugar rationing and price regulation. I think everyone will get a much better conception of the reasons why these things are being asked of civilians. This will be a help, for there is still a certain amount of confusion which should be cleared up.

168

July 14, 1942

Hyde Park, New York – (Monday)
I do not think I ever remember July weather as pleasant and cool as it has been the last few days. Of course, the growers of fruit say we have had too much rain this summer and it has hurt the crops. Up in Rhinebeck, a project was started to provide pickers by bringing a group of young girls together to be paid by the farmers according to the amount they picked. Great difficulties have arisen because they have not had enough picking to pay for board and lodging.

Many of them, of course, have counted on making a little money on the side. They felt, in addition, that they were performing a job that was useful to the country, since they had been told that labor was needed on the farm and was scarce.

No one can control the elements, however, and the farmer is always subject to the ups and downs brought about by Dame Nature’s whimsies. I think it is the occupation above all others that is filled with unknown hazards and requires more wisdom, foresight and hard work than any other occupation in the world. Probably this is why it also carries such great compensations and rewards. Many a man who has made his way in other lines, remembers his boyhood on the farm with gratitude and joy.

We are taking a picnic lunch today up to the top of the hill, but the children have decided they want their picnic right near the swimming pool, so they don’t have to bother to dress.

This morning I speak at Vassar College at the opening of the Vassar Summer Institute for Family and Child Care Services in Wartime.

I have just had drawn to my attention the difficulties which are today confronting hospitals all over the country, and the magnificent way in which these difficulties are being met. Many doctors and nurses, who are needed in the armed forces, are being drawn from the hospitals. They are, therefore, trying to meet the needs of the civilian population with a reduced staff of doctors and, in many cases, a nursing force which can only provide expert supervision for new nurses in training.

This is going to require on the part of the civilians less use of hospitals for unimportant illnesses that can be cared for at home, more thoughtfulness in the demands made on doctors and nurses when in the hospital, and a certain amount of patience and understanding of the problems created by the war situation.

169

July 15, 1942

Hyde Park, New York – (Tuesday)
At Vassar College, yesterday morning, it was most interesting to have a glimpse of the large group of children who, with their parents, attend the three weeks session of the Vassar Summer Institute for Family and Child Care Services in Wartime. The children were at lunch when the morning meeting closed and we went off to see each group – the two-, three- and four-year-olds, and two older groups up to the age of 12.

One very small boy was placed in the corner of the room because, up to this time, he had always been in a high chair. Having walls on either side gave him a greater sense of security. The most amusing thing to watch is the ease with which children learn from each other.

It has been said that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. If older children only realized this, they would be in a state of constant pride over the influence which they exert on the smaller ones around them. The more mature person is, of course, the one who serves as a pattern. If the pattern is good, the imitation is helpful.

To me, one of the most interesting things was the toy room, where the children go to choose the toy with which they wish to play. These toys are designed to help families provide a child with entertainment and instruction at low cost.

One of the most ingenious toys was a board into which were screwed some large hooks with a rope tied at one end of the board. A little child could learn coordination threading the rope through the hooks, and at the same time have infinite entertainment with the variety of patterns. There was no toy which could not be made at home of some perfectly ordinary material which would be available in almost any house.

We have had so many guests these last few days that I have not had much time with the children. However, we all swim together and I am astonished at the way in which the girls are improving in their diving. There are certainly great advantages in being young, for what takes me months to learn, they do in a few days with apparent ease.

The news from the Russian front gives one a picture of such great heroism in defense and such reckless onslaughts in offense that one cannot help wondering what the loss of life must be and grieving over the horrible waste of young blood.

In Egypt, for the moment, things seem to be fairly quiet; and yet planes are attacking, guns are shelling positions and men are dying. It seems hard to believe when one spends a few days in a quiet countryside in the United States that we are lucky enough to be far removed from the horrors of the actual front.

170

July 16, 1942

New York – (Wednesday)
Now that it is in the papers, that our guests over the weekend were Her Majesty, the Queen of the Netherlands, her daughter, two grandchildren and various members of their household, I want to tell you one or two things about Queen Wilhelmina which I think may be of interest.

While she sat on the grass near the swimming pool with me, watching her two little granddaughters, the Queen talked about some of the things she is thinking over in relation to the future. She said that she made it a point to see every person who came out of Holland, particularly the young boys. They told her what they had been through and what they were thinking about the future, and that these things helped her to have a vision of what will need to be done in her country and in the postwar world.

She overheard me, for instance, talking to the President about the need for some sort of character loan which could be made to people without any security except their reputation. These loans, of course, are only to be made to people who have had some misfortune; such as unusual illness which has brought about a state of indebtedness, or where a little money is needed to invest in future security.

The Queen told us:

That is done by state banks in Holland. It was one of my brain children after the last war.

Again, she told me:

My mother started the tuberculosis prevention work in Holland and I have remained the head of it and, therefore, know the details of that work. I am thinking now of the new measures which will have to be taken to meet new conditions of disease which will undoubtedly arise out of the present war.

One senses a deep concern and constant anxiety over what is happening to the people of her country.

Perhaps you would like me to tell you, too, something which impressed me greatly in the education of the two little girls. At breakfast with their mother, Princess Juliana, and their governess, Miss Feith, both children ate with no assistance. When they were through, the older one climbed down from her chair and helped the younger one down from hers. Then she untied her bib and the younger one proceeded to turn around and untie the older one’s bib. It was a little ceremony indicative of real training, both in thoughtfulness and independence.

In the Navy release this morning on the Midway battle, I think we begin to see that the United States took the offensive and, in doing so, was cleverer than her opponent. We also see that we have to grieve for the loss of many young lives. That our men, though conditioned to peace, are as brave and as well-disciplined as any men anywhere in the world. My heart aches for those, however, who must read this account of the glory of a nation, with the weight of heavy personal loss on their hearts.

171

July 17, 1942

Washington – (Thursday)
Yesterday morning, on reaching New York City, I went to see an old friend who has been ill. I found her so much better it started the whole day off cheerfully. I left and took the train to Trenton, New Jersey, in the early afternoon to go to Bordentown to speak for the State Federation of Colored Women’s Clubs.

The State Industrial School, where this convention was held, is on a really beautiful site. The big trees shade the lawns and buildings and you look straight down the Delaware River. The day could not have been lovelier, so the exercises were held out of doors.

I was happy to see my friend, Mrs. Lewis Thompson, and Commissioner Ellis in the audience. It was nice also, to see Mrs. Maddox, of the State Federation of Women’s Clubs, who spoke on the program. I reached Washington at 10:30 in the evening, and I must say that the weather man was very kind, for we could not have had a cooler summer day.

I had a good many appointments this morning, so I have been busy, for I am going back to New York City this afternoon to attend an International Student Service executive committee meeting this evening.

I hope that you all read the Vice President’s article last Sunday. He brought up a subject which all of us need to consider. What we do now and in the next few years will mean building for peace, or building for another war.

It seems to me that all of us should understand that rubber is just one of the many things which are important to the rest of the world as well as to us. They will decide our future relationships with the rest of the world. If we allow ourselves, because of the interests of any particular group in our country, to be inveigled into doing such things as putting tariffs on certain types of products, in order that we can carry on an international production at a high cost, we will add to our own cost of living.

What is much more serious, however, is the fact that we will cut down the opportunities of other nations to exchange with us on a free basis; and the cutting down of the free volume of trade is certainly one of the causes of war. This whole question is going to involve economic questions from the international and not the national point of view.

It is enlightened selfishness to build up the ability of other nations to a higher standard of living. We thus produce wider markets for ourselves as well as the rest of the world. But all this does require education on our part.

172

July 18, 1942

New York – (Friday)
Yesterday morning, Miss Alice Nichols, who is in charge of the Victory Food Campaign for the Department of Agriculture, attended my press conference. I was much interested to find that we have had such a splendid response to the appeal made by the Department for more food production. Now they are going to be able to tell us at certain periods what foods we ought to buy and eat fresh, because they are so plentiful on the market.

Dame Nature has had a hand in this, and from now on we should be eating as many Georgia peaches as possible. Young chicken should form a large part of our diet, and even if Englishmen can only get one egg in every three weeks, we may have as many as we want every day and feel patriotic.

Someone brought up the cost of some of these products, which in spite of being plentiful still are fairly expensive. Miss Nichols told us that a number of the chain stores are planning to get together and sell these Victory Food Specials at cost as they are announced month by month.

If peaches are plentiful, there is no reason why even a woman in the city could not buy an additional amount and preserve them, if she has space enough for shelves where her fruit can stand ready for use in the winter months.

On the train to New York City yesterday afternoon, I managed to go through a considerable amount of mail. The evening meeting of the executive committee of the International Student Service was of particular interest, for it covered the plans for the Student Assembly in Washington in September, which promises to be of real interest.

Today the city is gray and cool. I am doing one or two errands, and then attending a luncheon given by Mrs. Lytle Hull for Miss Harriet Elliott and Mrs. Henry Morgenthau, Jr. I am delighted that Miss Elliott has been lent by the University of North Carolina to help the Treasury Department organize the women of the country in the campaign for a wider sale of War Bonds and Stamps. She is not only very able, but one of the best people to work with that I have ever met.

Today is American Heroes Day, and cities throughout the nation will do honor to their war heroes by trying to break their record for War Savings Bonds and Stamps. One million retailers throughout the nation are trying to meet their billion-dollar quota, as set by the Treasury Department, before July, and so 750 cities will stage drives today.

In some cities they are carrying on their celebrations for several days. Des Moines, Iowa, for instance, on Saturday will hold a patriotic rally in the Drake University stadium and admissions will be paid in War Bonds and Stamps. The roll of honor will be unveiled, and on Sunday there will be a sunrise religious service to pray for the Des Moines boys. There is no lack of enthusiasm, so this drive will certainly be successful.

173

July 20, 1942

Hyde Park, New York – (Sunday)
Yesterday was a wonderful day. I had no outside engagements! I woke on my porch in the morning to the realization that the sky was not completely clear, but the sun was struggling through the clouds and the birds were chatting volubly. It finally turned out so delightful, although there was very little air stirring and when you were not in a bathing suit, it was quite warm.

We swam with the little girls in the morning, did the mail and lunched on the porch. In the afternoon two young men who are training at Fort Schuyler for the Navy came up to spend their weekend leave, and everyone lay in the sun or had another dip, prolonging it as much as possible. I played two games of deck tennis and took about half an hour to return to a normal state, even after trying to cool off in the pool.

After supper I filled my car with the entire family and first, we went up to the President’s cottage to say goodbye to a young couple who are off to Newport, Rhode Island, Monday morning. The young man is going into the Navy and she is going to stay in Newport with her family. This gave us a chance to see the sunset from the President’s cottage. As we came down again, I realized that the purple weed, which always makes our own pond a riot of color, is beginning to come out and in the early evening light the reflection in the water was very beautiful.

Then we drove over to the Big House to make sure that all the arrangements for the concert, which is being given by the Dutchess County Philharmonic Society, had been made. I am saying a little prayer that no thunderstorm or shower will mar this part of the day, for it ought to be very enjoyable. We are more than fortunate to have Mr. Hans Kindler come up from Washington to conduct. We hope that in spite of gas restrictions many people will attend, as it is a benefit performance for the USO and other war groups.

The members of the Hudson Shore Labor School are coming over for their annual picnic at noon today and so this promises to be a fairly busy day. One always finds this group a very interesting and enjoyable one to entertain.

After supper this evening we will go to New York City, as tomorrow morning early I must be on my way to Asheville, North Carolina, where I am visiting one of the International Student Service’s summer institutes.

174

July 21, 1942

New York – (Monday)
Much to our pleasure, the concert given yesterday afternoon by the Dutchess County Philharmonic Society was very well attended. On the whole, this local orchestra is really remarkably good, and I think the opportunity to have Mr. Hans Kindler lead them and to play to such an audience will serve as a stimulus for more work in the future. It may also be useful in awakening the people of the neighborhood to the need for supporting local talent. Orchestras such as this very often furnish the real musical education of a people and are the reservoirs where great talent is discovered and developed.

I have a letter today which brings up a point that I have wanted to discuss in this column before. At one of my press conferences, I was asked whether I would approve of the drafting of boys in the 18 and 19-year-old group. Frankly, of course, I hope we will not be forced to do this, because I feel that it is important, where boys show aptitude for further education, that they should have an opportunity to acquire it. It is probable that in times of war where boys are not anxious for more education, they will enlist since after the age of 18, enlistment is possible. If it does become necessary, however, to use younger boys on a draft basis, I think it should be done with the greatest discrimination.

This mother who writes me from Atlantic City, New Jersey, points out that her older boy had three years of earning his own living before he enlisted at the age of 21. I imagine that during those three years, she felt that he was safeguarded by the fact that he was living at home and therefore could be watched over by his family. On the other hand, she feels that her younger boy, who is 18, has never been anywhere except where his family has taken him; so if he were thrown with a mixed group today, he would not have the experience to know good companions from bad, and might succumb the influences which three years later would not touch him. In other words, she feels that her 18-year-old boy is still a child, and this, of course, is true in many cases.

That is why I think draft boards, considering boys of this age, will have to consider first their physical development. Many an 18-year-old boy is strong enough to stand the strain. Others might not be. Secondly, mental and moral development are important factors to be considered. These two things will depend largely on the types of schools and homes in which these boys have been brought up. If they have been sheltered and made somewhat too dependent upon their elders, it would be too great a hardship to plunge them immediately into military service, and they should probably have some intermediary preparation.

175

July 22, 1942

Asheville, North Carolina – (Tuesday)
I reached Asheville, North Carolina, yesterday, but I think I will postpone until tomorrow what I have to tell you about the International Student Service Summer Institute, as I should like to give a complete picture of what is happening here. In the meantime, there are several things I would like to tell you.

I mentioned in one of my columns the state banks of Holland, which make loans on a character basis, and Mr. Harry R. Langdon of New York City has written to tell me about the Municipal Credit Union to which 29,000 government employees belong in New York City. Recent changes make it possible to consolidate the loans to these employees without any endorsement whatever.

The interest rate paid to investors has been lowered, and at the same time the interest paid on loans by employees has been decreased, and the present interest rate is the lowest in the country. This Credit Union has passed the $5,000,000 mark, and in a magazine called The Bridge, which is the official publication of the Credit Union National Association, Inc., there is an account of 25 years of service to government employees.

These Credit Unions are growing all over the country, but they do not serve quite the same purpose since they are open only to certain groups of employees, and cannot be used by the average citizen in a community. These average citizens without credit unions also need such service.

Mr. Langdon also tells me of an interesting project known as the Greater New York Neighborhood Athletic Association, which sponsors a physical fitness program among working boys. On Aug. 2, at Randall’s Island, they will hold a relay carnival for the various district groups throughout the five boroughs in the City of New York. There is no question but what a program of this kind is of great value to boys who are at work, and cannot afford the kind of athletics which would cost them much money. I think, of course, this same thing should be done also for the girls of the City.

I feel sure that throughout this country there are many cities now promoting programs such as these, perhaps through the efforts of Mr. John Kelly’s physical fitness program, which was started to help in the war effort. Such a program certainly belongs in the all-year round effort of every municipality or area interested in the health of its citizens.

176

July 23, 1942

New York – (Wednesday)
I left Asheville, North Carolina, yesterday afternoon, after a very interesting and pleasant visit to the International Student Service Summer Institute there. Asheville College, which has housed the Institute, was started almost fifty years ago by the Reverend Mr. Pease, who founded the Five Point Mission in New York City. When he retired, he bought a farm near Asheville and shortly thereafter he and his wife took in five mountain girls, to help them obtain an education.

From that little beginning grew Asheville Normal Teachers College, which was a denominational college, largely supported by church funds, up to a very short time ago. Most of its students come from a radius of a hundred miles around Asheville and belong to the proverbially large families of mountaineer farmers. The curriculum, therefore, has been arranged chiefly to meet their needs – homemaking, handcrafts, a business course, and courses which would prepare them to teach in the country schools. These have been the things which these young people wanted and have had. They look like a bright and intelligent group, and not very different from the youngsters in our Institute.

The college needs to find new support, new friends who are interested in seeing that these young people get a more liberal education. They are pure American stock. They are strong and fine, and they are deserving of help in the educational field, even from people who do not live in their own state.

A limited number of people have been interested in the past, but the college must make new friends, because the buildings need repairs, and more teachers are required. The president has a fine conception of what education for the world of tomorrow should be.

A good many of the young people in the International Student Service Summer Institute come from colleges in the South, but there is a sprinkling from the West, from Michigan and the Midwest, and even one student who combined his Indiana heritage with a Harvard University education.

The contacts on the campus with the students in the summer session of the college itself have been pleasant and beneficial, and the use of one of the residence halls has given our Institute excellent accommodations.

Mr. Carlton Collier was lecturing when we arrived on the wide porch which affords a wonderful view of the mountains. Mr. Mimms, the director of the Institute, Miss Louise Morley and the two counselors Miss Hildur Coon and Mr. Louis Harris, welcomed us.

There did not seem to be a single one of our Institute students who was not working hard and who did not feel that these weeks have brought them interesting lecturers, new outlooks and contacts, and much that will make their college work more truly a part of the war effort.

177

July 24, 1942

En route to Campobello, New Brunswick, Canada – (Thursday)
Yesterday I lacked the space in which to tell you about something in Asheville, North Carolina, which interested me very much. That was the Farmers Federation. It takes in all the western, mountainous part of the state and has 21 warehouses, plus a central warehouse in Asheville. The Federation began in a very small way, and is now a busy and flourishing cooperative.

We spent an hour Tuesday morning looking over the Asheville plant. At the poultry project, chickens are hatched from the best eggs that can be obtained, and every young cockerel sold to a mountain farmer today, comes from a strain in which the hens have a record of laying at least 250 eggs a year! When you consider that the breed of hens had grown so poor around this section that 60 eggs a year was the average production, you can see what a difference this would make. This enterprise has developed into a flourishing business. A licensed inspector grades and candles all the eggs coming in, and there is a market waiting to buy all that can be obtained from the farmers.

The Federation members have tremendously improved their dairy stock. They buy and sell the best seed obtainable. They run a school which boys attend for a year while they are paid a subsistence wage. Later these boys are employed by the Federation, and many of the warehouse managers once attended this school.

They have taken over a small handcraft project known as the Treasure Chest, which now sells hooked rugs to many of our larger shops in big cities. When Mr. McClure, the head of the Federation, tells you that at one time the average farmer saw less than $85.00 a year in cash in that section, and that today they pay many a man more than $1,000 or $1,500 a year, you can see what a difference the Federation has made in the farm family’s standard of living in this section.

The manager of the Treasure Chest told me one story of an elderly couple whom he had induced to bring in some of their handwork. He marketed the articles so successfully that one day the couple walked in to see him in his office.

The man asked:

Do you know how much you have paid me in cash in the three months since Christmas?

When the manager replied he would have to look it up, the answer was:

I have had more than $165.00, which is more money than we ever had in a year’s time, so I’ve been able to buy my children clothes and send them to school. My wife and I are so happy, we just had to come and thank you.

Every man in the Federation pays $10.00 a share, and by working together they all have profited.

178

July 25, 1942

Campobello, New Brunswick, Canada – (Friday)
Before I finish my story about the Farmers Federation in Asheville, North Carolina, I would like to tell you of one other phase of their work. They call it the Lord’s Acre.

It is often hard to pay the minister’s salary in a little country church, and yet not to have a church would be unthinkable, so members of the congregation set aside land and plant it for the support of the church. This plan has worked so well that last year they were visited by more than 80 missionaries who wished to study this method of meeting the expenses of small and struggling churches.

There is one other thing I would like to tell you also about Asheville College. Nearly all of the students earn a good part of their education by working in their flourishing handcraft shop. Their teacher is very ingenious, and she showed us a summer hat of corn shucks which made one really envious. They have some little pottery salt and pepper shakers in which they tell me the salt never clogs, even in the dampest weather.

Some of the weaving is expertly done, so much so that I planned at once to send in some Christmas orders, for we are nearing the month of August and I must begin to think about my Christmas list! It will be a vastly different one this year, for I think War Stamps and Bonds will be our chief gifts, except for the toys which children must have. Otherwise they would feel that Santa Claus had been conquered by the war, and that we certainly must prevent.

And now at last I will return to my diary of more recent events. I left Washington on Wednesday morning by a plane which was delayed almost an hour by headwinds. I worked for a little while in New York City, saw a friend on business, and caught an afternoon plane for Boston. There I was met by some representatives of the Harvard Post-War Problems Council, which is working with our International Student Service Summer groups. I had a short informal session with them, and caught the night train for East Machias, Maine.

Transportation to the Island of Campobello nowadays is very complicated, for one must take a taxi from East Machias to Lubeck. No regular ferry runs anymore, so one has to make a special date with a boat to get across the very narrow and swiftly-running bit of water between the mainland and the Island. Then one is ordinarily met by a truck, the same truck which brings supplies and the mail once a day. You and your bag get aboard and you are very grateful when you find yourself safely in the midst of the Campobello International Student Service Summer Institute.

179

July 27, 1942

Hyde Park, New York – (Sunday)
It was fun being back on the Island of Campobello, even for a day-and-a-half. There is something bracing about the climate which gives me a lift. It was very pleasant to find Mrs. May Craig, one of the Washington correspondents of the Maine newspapers on the train, and have her company during the trip.

We visited the National Youth Administration Passamaquoddy project. I wanted to see what changes had come about there, and found, to my joy, many improvements. The project really provides some of the best machine-shop training in the East, and therefore, the pick of the young men in the Eastern states often come here for the last stages of their training. There is a farm here, too, and highly important is the self-government program, which prepares the boys for citizenship in any United States community.

I think I told you last year that on their own time, a group of boys constructed a glider, and were begging the Navy and the Army to come and look at it, because they were convinced that it might be of service in the war effort. Today the use of gliders is no longer a novelty, and it is interesting to note that the idea came so early to the young men on this NYA project.

These boys are now going to aircraft factories all over the country, and into active service as well. Jobs are waiting for those who finish their training, and employers seem extremely glad not to have to break in these new workers, which is necessary in the case of inexperienced newcomers. I think we can feel that the National Youth Administration is hastening the training of manpower for work which needs to be done, and thereby helps to shorten the war period.

As to our International Student Service Summer Institute, we were welcomed by Professor McIvor and Miss Molly Yard, who head the project. I was very happy to have the chance to meet these young people, who come from many parts of the United States and colleges from all over the country. They are an alert and questioning group, and I only hope that in the short time we spent together that I was able to contribute something to their summer’s experience. Perhaps the greatest thing one can do for these young people today is to give them a realization of what a tremendous challenge living in this period is to all of us.

It should make us ask ourselves daily whether we are contributing all that we possibly can to the war effort. The war is our war, and many of the people we love must give their lives to this crusade, and there must be some contribution which we can make which taxes the best that is in us. That is our ever-present challenge.

180

July 28, 1942

New York – (Monday)
As we drove away from Campobello last Friday evening, I had the chance to enjoy the sunset, and the calm, beautiful water, surrounded by the rocks among which the dark green trees grow. Somehow, I had a feeling of remoteness, which I rarely experience anywhere else, and it was good to have that feeling even for a few hours, when the world is in such a turmoil.

Dr. Hans Simons, of the New School for Social Research, lectured while I was at Campobello, and came down with Mrs. Craig and myself on Friday night. It was a pleasure to hear him lecture, and it was interesting to see how he stimulated the young people. We arrived half an hour late on Saturday morning in Boston, and Mrs. Craig had to hurry to catch her train for Washington.

I was met by a gentleman who had made an appointment, and he drove with me as far as the airport. There, to my complete surprise, I found a message from a son who I thought was far away, saying that if I called a certain number, I could speak to him. I did, and instead of getting on the first plane, I waited until later in the morning, and had a half hour’s visit with a young man whom I had not seen in some time. Surprises such as this always give me a tremendous lift.

I had gone up on the train with a mother and father on their way to see their boy, who was training somewhere on the coast of Maine, and when I flew back to New York City, I found myself sitting across the aisle from a father who told me his son was leaving college to go into a branch of the Army Air Service. He was going home to spend a few days with his family, after being absent on war work.

I can well appreciate what it means to every father and mother, wife or sweetheart, to get a glimpse of the boy they know is soon going away, or who comes back from the Service even for a few hours. Every time I see a casualty list, or hear from someone who has had to give up hope of ever again seeing some loved one, I cannot help wishing that there were a way in which one could express sympathy.

Perhaps this is why I always feel that I want to talk to or smile to, or help in some way if I can, the boys in uniform whom I see on the street or meet in my travels. It seems as though even a kindly word spoken to one of these young men is something done for one’s own boy, and perhaps someone else will be on hand to speak or smile when the need is there.

We were back at Hyde Park Saturday afternoon. Everything there was going smoothly, so yesterday morning I spent the day in Albany, New York, with some old friends, and made the acquaintance of a new baby boy. Today we are back in New York City.

181

July 29, 1942

Washington – (Tuesday)
Yesterday I attended the lunch given by Mrs. Marshall Field, Mr. John Golden, and Mr. Charles Auchincloss for the men and women in the theatre box-offices. They have to go to the trouble to see that good seats are allotted to the young military men, both from our own forces and from those of our allies, who are now given half-price seats at the various theatres. Afterwards I sold the 50,000th ticket to a young American officer from Georgia.

This Officers Service Committee has very pleasant rooms in the Commodore Hotel, and is most anxious that all officers coming into New York City who are strangers, should avail themselves of the services which they have to offer.

In the evening, I took some Navy boys to see Irving Berlin’s show This Is the Army. It certainly was a wonderful show. There was so much spirit and life to it. From the first notes played by the orchestra, to the very last bar, we enjoyed the music. The songs and lines were delightful, and I have never seen such acrobatics, or better dancing. Perhaps because I can remember the last war, the thing which really stirred me most was the singing by Irving Berlin and some of his contemporaries of “Oh, How I Hate to Get Up In The Morning.”

We made the night train, and had the good fortune to find Washington fairly cool this morning.

I was told today of an effort which is being made by the Treasury Department to integrate the interests and the work of women to boost the sale of War Bonds and Stamps. It is quite evident that men alone cannot make the maximum contribution. They may allot part of their pay, but if the woman in the home does not learn to budget, does not see to it that she feeds her family well in spite of the economizing she must do, that family will not be making the greatest possible contribution from their income.

In some cases, it is going to mean doing without things, but these items must not be essential to the family health. In other cases, it is going to mean training ourselves to remember that everything which we do has a bearing on the winning of the war. The Treasury Department very wisely realizes this, and is going to see that we do not forget it.

An entertaining and very instructive little book was sent to me the other day. It is called Babies Are Fun, written by Jean Littlejohn Aaberg. If you are about to have a newcomer in your family, I think you will find it both amusing and helpful, for it is written with charm and common sense.

182

July 30, 1942

Washington – (Wednesday)
I am really beginning to think that my column has some value as a distributor of information. I am rather overwhelmed over the various items which have come to me in the last few days, and the requests that I discuss them in my column. All of them I cannot cover, but some of them seem to me to be particularly pertinent to the times. Gradually I shall pick out the more interesting inquiries and statements which come in, and shall try to mention them here.

We had the unusual pleasure of having the President and the Vice President lunch with us yesterday, instead of their remaining in the Executive Office. In the afternoon I saw two members of my family off for New York City. Miss Jane Seaver brought her fiancé, Ens. James Russell, to dine, and the first of Mr. Hopkins’ family to arrive, David, joined us. After those pleasant interludes, I worked on my mail most of the day, and here are some of the things which I ran across that seem worthy of mention.

A lady who acts as a chaperone at dances given for servicemen in a Southern city, asks what I think of the propriety of taking buses or streetcars, when wearing long evening dresses. She says that it will be almost impossible to transport these young ladies by car, and yet that the dances really give more pleasure when the girls are in evening dress. I can see no reason why anyone should not travel by streetcar or bus.

I can well remember in the days of my youth, before we became accustomed to taxis and automobiles, that not only many a young girl, but elderly dowagers as well, bundled themselves up and traveled in “stages” and streetcars to evening parties. I see no reason why women who have evening dresses should not wear them, and give pleasure to the soldiers by going to the dances, no matter what the method of transportation may be. They go for pleasure, of course, but also render a patriotic service, and a little thing like the lack of cars should not keep them away.

Incidentally, when the day comes when we do not all have evening dresses, that should not keep young women away either, because the purpose of the evening is to dance, to give young people an opportunity to meet, and what they wear is going to be secondary as difficulties multiply on the civilian home front.

I have received another appeal from the National Nursing Council for War Service, stating that the Army and Navy are asking for 3,000 graduate nurses a month, which means that 55,000 new students must start training courses this year. As many retired nurses as possible must come back also, to carry on essential health services on the home front. In addition, aides to the nurses must constantly increase in numbers.