Eleanor Roosevelt -- My Day (1943)

141

June 7, 1943

New York – (Sunday)
Yesterday morning I went to a meeting of The Youthbuilders, in Town Hall. Miss Sabra Holbrook seems to be developing some very thoughtful youngsters in this organization of school children. I was surprised that so many young people would sit so long and listen to speeches. They tackled problems which many of their elders would probably feel they knew little or nothing about. It is good training for future citizens, however.

Mr. Newbold Morris whispered to me that one 8-year-old boy had come to him and told him that he:

…had invented a marvelous anti-aircraft gun, but for some reason he could not get the War Department to consider it.

Next, I went to the broadcasting station, and for two hours and a half, we worked in preparation for a broadcast. Some very remarkable stories of youngsters were told, and then I answered some questions which they asked.

The first question on the program was asked by a young paratrooper, wounded in Guadalcanal. He is slowly regaining the use of his right wrist at home. He was a nice boy and made friends immediately with a little blind girl, who came to tell us that the young dancer who makes such a hit in the show Star and Garter taught her ballet dancing on Saturday afternoons.

I left there at 3:00 and took the bus on Lexington Avenue to go to the Doctor’s Hospital. I thought I was seated inconspicuously, when a man leaned over and asked if I wouldn’t please give him an autograph, which I was weak enough to do. My backbone stiffened with the second request and I thought that was over. Then a nice, elderly woman recognized me and practically told everyone around us who I was.

Then the lady next to me finally got up enough courage to inquire if I “really was Mrs. Roosevelt.” She then told me she was driven home from Paris by the war and that she found this country very different from what it used to be, but that she did have great respect for the way my husband bears his burdens.

Last evening, I took some people to see The Doughgirls. It is light and amusing and so openly risqué that one wonders if the old theory, that sin is alluring because it is mysterious, is completely given up. In any case, there was no mystery about this and nobody had much sense of sin. The girls were pretty and the audience seemed to enjoy the play. We came home to a serious discussion, which made a good contrast to the earlier part of the evening.

Today, after seeing Mrs. Kermit Roosevelt, and visiting the hospital again, I shall be on my way back to Washington.

142

June 8, 1943

Washington – (Monday)
After I reached Washington yesterday afternoon, I spent a quiet hour eating a rather frugal supper of iced tea and fruit on the south porch, and thought of people one remembers when one sits alone in this house or looks out at the view.

The site for this city was chosen by George Washington. In reading Carl Sandburg’s column in the Galesburg Post today, I find he quotes two letters of the first President which should be read today because the principles which he laid down for peace in his time were as global as ours have to be now. He knew as well as we do that all mankind has to be free if peace is to exist.

Washington’s Monument points to the sky. It is the first thing you notice from the south porch, which is as it should be, for he was the first man to lay a course for this country to follow. By and large, we haven’t deviated so far from the principles he laid down.

Next you look at Jefferson’s Memorial and cast your eyes back to two little mounds on the White House grounds, which Jefferson built because rolling country to him made a more charming landscape than a flat lawn. We probably owe to him some of the beautiful trees which shade the lawn. We certainly are indebted to him for many of the ideas which kept Washington’s original course for this nation towards a real democracy.

Finally, though you cannot see the Lincoln Memorial, you are always conscious of Lincoln’s presence and of the hard years of the War between the states. He must have watched the other side of the Potomac River so often and wondered whether the boys in gray would someday stand there, whether the day would ever come when we would look into a man’s face and think only of the brotherhood of man and not of the division of race or color.

All of these men thought in terms which embraced not only their own country, but the world at large. It is not astounding then, that the leaders of today think in global terms. Madame Chiang says we must have “cooperation and humility,” and perhaps that is the best prescription of moving forward in the future. We shall certainly need humility to arrive at any kind of cooperation.

The radio and newspapers seem to be preparing us for action in the European theatre of war, as well as in the Pacific. Like millions of other women throughout the country, I turn on my radio and open my paper with a certain amount of dread every day, and yet I know that action is the only way to bring our present difficult and horrible situation to an end. The United Nations cannot begin to build for a better world until we control the world which we have at present around us.

143

June 9, 1943

Washington – (Tuesday)
Yesterday I spoke in my column of controlling the world around us, but, of course, this is only a temporary control. The war we are now engaged in, must be won, but then we must begin the struggle for control of the world of the future – the control of the people of the world, of a world which belongs to them all.

Sometimes this is rather terrifying to think about, because the task seems so gigantic. It means that so many people have to be educated to struggle for similar objectives and, unless we succeed in this education, our hopes for peace are built on very uncertain foundations.

People must learn that force is a very destructive method of control. That reason and cooperation are the only methods by which we can build a world constructively.

A newspaper recently asked some questions on the postwar world. It found that one of the things least understood and accepted was need for economic cooperation, and yet this is one of the basic considerations if we are to live together in peace. A visitor from Chile, a social worker who has been studying here for some months, said to me yesterday:

I always find in your country an assumption that you have things to give us and that you are going very consciously about the business of being a good neighbor and intend to share with us some of your culture and technical knowledge. But I never find any conception of the fact that we might have something to give you in return.

I feel very sure that our relations with all the countries of the world will have to be undertaken on the basis that we will give and take, and we have to be humble enough to realize that there are things we can learn from almost every group of people in the world.

We received the delegates to the Food Conference on the lawn yesterday afternoon after the President had talked to them in the East Room. It was very inspiring that they held such a harmonious conference. I was disappointed that there were not more women taking part, because I think women have such a vital interest in the canvassing of these subjects which are preliminaries to peace and which touch the home, where every woman’s interest centers.

In the evening I spoke at the meeting of the War Activities Labor Management Committee of the Office of Price Administration, during their “Tribute To The United Nations Week.” Today I go with great anticipation to the Women’s National Democratic Club, where Miss Josephine Schain, one of our delegates to the Food Conference, will speak.

144

June 10, 1943

Washington – (Wednesday)
Have you read a book called Is Germany Incurable? by Richard M. Brickner, MD. He shows in careful scientific fashion what are the characteristics of a paranoid individual, and continues from that to the proof that Germany is a paranoid nation.

The last chapters were a great relief to me and most interesting, because he evidently thinks that there is hope of dealing successfully with both a paranoid individual and a nation, if there are clear areas which can be tapped and used to bring them back to a sane condition. The books seemed to me to cover only one phase of a very great problem, but it is an interesting phase and one we should know more about.

I spent the morning at a meeting of the heads and members of national women’s organizations, called by Mr. Charles Taft, Director of Community War Services, in an effort to discuss social protection. Director McNutt opened the meeting. Mr. Taft and Mr. Eliot Ness outlined the problem as it faces the country today. Miss Elsa Castendyck of the Children’s Bureau, discussed juvenile delinquency in the teenage group, and Miss Jane Hoey spoke of the problem in connection with families needing public assistance.

I have always felt that this problem is very largely tied up with general social conditions and what we do in our communities to meet the needs of young people and older people. It is not just a question of caring for those who are the victims of social diseases, it is really a question of removing the conditions which bring about environments where social diseases flourish.

Women’s organizations should take a special interest in this problem, because it affects the home. In wartime many of these problems are brought to us and dramatized as they might not be under peaceful conditions, but the problem is one that exists at all times and will have to be followed up after the war if we really want to make a dent in the ravages caused by these dread diseases.

I have just seen the plans for child service centers which are contemplated in the Henry J. Kaiser shipyards, and I hope they will be able to put them through in all their plants. It will certainly make it more possible for women with young children to go to work with the feeling that their children are well cared for. The children will get an opportunity for expert care and training which will probably be of value throughout their lives.

145

June 11, 1943

Washington – (Thursday)
Last evening, I spent from 7:00 to 9:00 at a meeting at the old soldiers’ home. They wrote me and said they were veterans of many wars, that they held meetings twice a month, that they had a great interest in the war now going on, and felt left out because I had told so many groups of my experiences in Great Britain and had not been to them. So, since there was a stag dinner last night at the White House for the President of Paraguay, I spent the evening with the veterans.

At 5:00 yesterday, the President of Paraguay, Gen. Higinio Morinigo, was received with the customary formalities, and after dinner he and the President had a long conference.

I left on the night train for New York City, in order to go this afternoon to the dedication of the Anzac garden on top of the British Empire Building. At 5:30 I go to Norwalk, Connecticut, to lead a forum, after which I return to New York City to take a night train back to Washington.

I was surprised on Tuesday to have my press conference women ask me about these tales which have been circulated and which accuse the women in our military services of a percentage of immorality. I realized, of course, that the reporters asking me knew quite well that they were not true, but, since they had to ask me, I also realized there must be a certain amount of belief in the country that these tales are justified.

I have inquired of the authorities and find that there is probably no group of young women anywhere with as high a standard for good behavior. Someone wrote me complaining about certain things they thought they had seen near one of the training camps and that was at once investigated.

These young women take their work very seriously. They are imbued with a desire to be of service during the war, and they know that part of that service is to set a high standard of conduct. The public should know that the women already recruited in the WAACs take the place of four divisions of soldiers, and releasing that number of men for active service means something to the enemy. The enemy was conscious of this when it started a similar whispering campaign against the women in the British and Canadian forces.

Why we fall for this same type of Axis propaganda here is beyond my understanding. If any of us know of individual cases of misbehavior, we should report them at once so that they can be corrected. But to believe that these girls are not doing a patriotic and fine job, and living up to the standards which their homes would expect of them, is just playing into the enemy’s hands.

146

June 12, 1943

Washington – (Friday)
The ANZAC garden celebration yesterday afternoon was a touching ceremony. This little garden on the roof of the British Empire Building, New York City, is in the shadow of the big Radio City tower. A little reflecting pool symbolizes the Pacific Ocean, and on either side are the little gardens of Australia and New Zealand. A very charming statue of two young people, kneeling back-to-back, symbolizes the youth of the two nations. The garden is to be rededicated each year to those who died in the last war and in this war to preserve freedom throughout the world. Dr. Evatt was there yesterday and Mr. G. S. Cox, First Secretary of the New Zealand Legation.

Afterwards, I went over for a few minutes to the club on West 56th St., which is very homelike and pleasant and must mean a great deal to these boys who are so far away from home.

I was met by an escort at the gate of the train yesterday afternoon and found that Mr. Norman Cousins, who was to go to Norwalk, Connecticut, with me had been taken ill. So, Mr. William White, the son of our old friend, Mr. William Allen White of Kansas, was moderator of the Town Hall forum instead of Mr. Cousins. He performed his duties very well, and the whole evening went on with real interest on everyone’s part.

We had a dinner first at the General Putnam Inn, which is one of the many places where Washington is supposed once to have slept. It has a lovely old fireplace and hand-hewn beams, and the food was excellent. The host and hostess were very charming. Mrs. Dillard, who had taken charge of the arrangements, had been kind enough to ascertain what my favorite flowers are, so yellow roses named after me, and pansies and lillies-of-the-valley greeted me at every turn. This was a thoughtful attention, which I appreciated and enjoyed very much.

On June 22, the Russian War Relief, Incorporated, will observe “National Tribute To Russia Day.” This is the day on which the Soviet Union enters the third year of warfare. I know that in many places throughout the country, there will be people gathered together who will want to do honor to the young Russian boys and girls, as well as to older people, who helped to defend that 1,800-mile front.

What they have done as one of our allies can never be overestimated. If either China or Russia had given up their fight, our fight and that of Great Britain would have been lengthened by many years, and would have cost us many, many lives, which we hope now can be preserved. On June 22, therefore, let us say a prayer of gratitude and a hope that Russia will soon be able to free her own land completely and that we may give all the help she needs.

147

June 14, 1943

Hyde Park, New York – (Sunday)
I received three ambassadors, who represent the governments of some of our neighbors to the south, and their wives Friday afternoon in Washington. Then some friends came in for tea and for dinner.

Yesterday, I came up to Hyde Park. The sun was shining, and for the first time, it was really tempting to swim in the pool and to lie in the sun. We did that for nearly an hour before lunch and then walked for an hour-and-a-half through the wood, each of us saying at intervals:

How wonderful it is to be in the country and how remote the strife of the world seems.

We visited the library before taking a guest, who had come up for lunch, to the afternoon train. At supper on the porch, we watched the sun go down and listened to the sleepy chirp of the birds, and I again thought of those we love – two off North Africa somewhere and one in the Southwest Pacific. I think we prayed for the day when they might see the sun go down with us without that constant sense of alertness, which being near a fighting front requires.

I know for these men it will be hard to settle down and relax and to find joy in the simple things of life. That is something which those of us who are at home will have to remember. The gap between war and peace is a difficult one to bridge. All the energy and tension which has gone into fighting a war must disappear if one is to relax enough to build up the necessary strength and determination to fight the battles of peace, and really make the things for which one has fought come true in a world of flux.

Lately, I have been reading with interest the efforts being made to find foster homes in New York City for children whose parents do not wish to give them up permanently, but who must be relieved of their care for a time because of some particular difficulty which has arisen in the family. It is difficult to get good foster homes, it is far easier to adopt children because then you know you are building a permanent relationship and everything you do counts for happiness in the future.

I have often thought, however, that young people with children of their own who need companionship, could make a real contribution by giving a home for a period of time to one or two children. People living in cities will find it harder than people living in the country, where problems of space and food are not so complicated. Naturally, one has to live up to certain rules and regulations, but it might be a valuable way of teaching children in one’s own family a sense of obligation to their fellows. The earlier we learn that lesson the better it is for society.

148

June 15, 1943

Hyde Park, New York – (Monday)
The country is too lovely these days ever to leave it, but back we go to New York City this afternoon. A cool breeze blew across my porch this morning and the roses on my desk have blossomed out in full bloom. I never heard the frog chorus in the evening or the bird chorus in the morning more full-throated and triumphant than it has been these last few days. How can the world be so beautiful and so horrible at the same time?

Since it is anonymous, I am going to quote you a letter which strikes me as really amusing:

Dear Mrs. Roosevelt,

Are the ladies of the country getting mad because they are going to be asked to state all their personal affairs, their ages, etc., in connection with the pay-as-you-go questionnaire, to be handled by office help in their places of employment? Too bad you cannot meet them personally!

They seem to think they have a personal right to some privacy in this country and it is high time they put men into office who will respect their personal right! Can you not say something, Mrs. Roosevelt to console these ladies with fine sensibilities? Please explain to them that all their affairs are now the affairs of the public and that they must be patient until they are able to elect men into office who will respect their rights to any privacy. Poor ladies!

Just a Listener!

Whoever would have thought that any pay-as-you-go tax bill would lead to such strange thoughts? I have never found the public especially interested in private affairs as they are represented in the answers to questionnaires. It takes a little dressing up to make people pay attention, and that is not usually done by elected officials. The press and the radio as a rule take care of that, so my dear “Listener” calm your “ladies.” Unless they make good copy in some other way, their questionnaires will remain of little interest.

I read the anti-strike bill through yesterday. I am sorry anyone has made it necessary for us to have one, even in wartime. I must say the arguments which contend that the one particular clause on political contributions, should apply not only to labor unions but to corporations and businesses, seem to me rather valid.

Of course, I think it would be a great step forward if the Government allowed all candidates to spend exactly the same amount, gave them so much time on the radio, so much newspaper advertising space and so much cash for travelling and actually meeting people.

It would really be a good thing if this expense came out of our taxes and we never had to have any funds raised by political organizations except for education work on actual policies and measures between election periods. Even where party activities such as these are concerned, I am not sure that there might not be better ways of doing it than the way in which we do it now.

149

June 16, 1943

New York – (Tuesday)
Last night one of the most remarkable Army benefits, The Army Play By Play, was given for the Soldiers and Sailors Club of New York.

Mr. John Golden, who has produced many Broadway successes, probably never put on a more interesting performance before a more distinguished audience. When he was asked to give a benefit, he happened to have on his desk a number of plays written by soldiers for a competition, in which he had offered a prize for the best soldier play written by a soldier.

The plays had been weeded down to five when the note asking for a benefit performance arrived, so he simply put them on for it and spent hours of his precious time coaching the soldier casts. He says he swore at them, but they still liked him, and I have no doubt that is true. He adds that there are a number of boys who have never acted before and who he really considers good professional material, besides the few boys who were professional actors in the past.

All this work was done for one night’s performance, and the first thing Mayor La Guardia said was, “What a waste, they should play for a few times at least.” There isn’t any question in my mind but that should they happen to play under professional auspices, they could roll up considerable sums for charities.

The soldiers will enjoy these plays, because in places they are like “Private Hargrove,” just the life of a soldier with all of his language, his interests, and his separation from the world in which he once lived. Some of the old life still clings to the soldiers, but it undergoes a subtle change and they are just American soldiers, giving due deference to their officers, but never for one minute being fooled by them.

These boys are the people of the United States. Their families are the families we all know. The plays are gay and you have a good time, but there are lessons in them – lessons of the unity of the American nation which are good for us all to feel in our souls.

As I walked through a side street yesterday, I saw a woman in black ahead of me. A man in uniform walked by her, stopped and went back. She greeted him warmly and I heard her say:

My, it is good to see you looking so well. You know I lost my boy in this war.

I wanted to stop and to tell her how sorry I was that there were so many people who must be saying just the same thing. I hope they said it with as brave a smile and as courageous a ring in their voices as she did.

150

June 17, 1943

Washington – (Wednesday)
Yesterday morning, Mrs. Samuel A. Lewisohn, of the Public Education Association, called for me at my apartment in New York City at 9:30. We went by subway to Public School No. 194, on West 144th St., New York City. The principal, Mr. Daniel G. Krane, had asked me to come to see a pageant which the children were putting on.

In conjunction with the Public Education Association, this school has been conducting a demonstration ever since last September of what an all-day neighborhood school can mean to the surrounding community. The children stay in school until 5:00 in the afternoon, and there are special teachers assigned for group work in the additional hours.

This school is in a colored section, and so the children chose to do the history of Harlem. Another public school designed all the costumes and made them. The pageant was fresh and vivid and every youngster entered into his or her part with an earnestness which betokened real interest and understanding of the importance of the occasion.

These youngsters will never forget the parts they played, and it must be beneficial for them to acquire such a clear understanding of the growth of their city and of their own group within that city.

I went straight from the school to see Mrs. Henry Morgenthau Jr. at the hospital and left in the afternoon for Washington.

Arrived in Washington, we had a very happy family reunion, for my aunt and uncle, Mr. and Mrs. David Gray, are here from Dublin, Ireland, and our daughter-in-law, Mrs. Elliott Roosevelt, arrived on business. I take my hat off to all these young women who carry on their husbands’ affairs while they are gone.

Many of them will be happy indeed to shed business cares in the future, but the training they have had will always be of value and give them a sense of independence if the need ever arises to go to work again. I think it is good for children also, to realize that their mothers are doing unusual tasks during this war period and that they have an obligation to take on more responsibilities to make these tasks possible.

If your mother isn’t always there to remind you to put on your rubbers and to eat your supper, it is your war job to put on your rubbers and eat your supper all by yourself. Put in that light, many a youngster will take far more interest in this new type of responsibility, which is an avenue through which he can express his patriotism.

151

June 18, 1943

Washington – (Thursday)
In writing the other day about the section in the anti-strike bill, which will not permit labor unions to make political contributions, I did not make it clear that there are restrictions on corporations also, but that it is far more difficult for unions to meet a situation where there are restrictions of this kind than it is for corporations.

The heads of corporations can make the maximum individual contributions that are allowed, and can see that other people do the same. That method is not usually possible for the officers of trade unions, and in effect what this clause would do, would be to make it very difficult for the average person of small means to give anything to promote the election of the candidate he is backing. Whereas, it would still be possible for men of means to see that in one way or another, sufficient financial gifts found their way into their candidate’s treasury.

Of course, all gentlemen of means do not unite on candidates any more than do all trade union members, but it is easier for the candidate who represents big business to obtain the financial backing needed.

There is a question as to whether the rights or wrongs of political contributions from either labor or business in any way affect the rest of this bill or have any connection with it. I read it over a number of times and I have so far been unable to see why it has a place in the bill.

Last night I went to the Capitol Page Boys School graduation and presented the diplomas to the graduating class. They were a fine-looking group of boys, starting on their way, for the most part, into the armed services. One is going to study medicine and there may have been one or two exceptions, but all will be working in some way for the war.

Senator Burton spoke to the parents and friends of the boys, telling of his hope that before long a suitable place would be found to house all these boys together and make this school a resident school. There would be greater opportunities to see that the boys had as healthy and normal a life as possible during the hours when they are not on duty in the Senate and the House. Some of the boys are still so young that it would seem a highly desirable change in their lives.

Two boys who spoke made good speeches, and I think showed that they had profited by listening to oratory in the Senate and the House.

152

June 19, 1943

New York – (Friday)
Wednesday, we had the pleasure of having Mrs. Jan Struther, the author of Mrs. Miniver, spend the night with us in Washington. She was a delightful guest and left me a new poem, which she had written as a result of one of her trips through the country. Mrs. Struther has been on a lecture tour, and has had an opportunity on many trains, to see men in the armed services and their families, who form the major part of the travelling public at the present time.

Yesterday afternoon I came up to New York City, stopped to see Mrs. Henry Morgenthau Jr. in the hospital and spent the night at the apartment, so as to get off this morning to keep an appointment in Orange, New Jersey, for the middle of the day. This evening I am going to Hyde Park and am looking forward to nearly ten days in the country, which will not be idle days because I have several engagements that have to be met. There is great joy, however, in getting back to the trees and the familiar countryside.

I wonder if you have seen a little reading list entitled “Reading For Democracy,” with 31 important books which “every American should read.” It is published by the Chicago Round Table of Christians and Jews, and I think everybody will find it an interesting list.

I keep getting letters which point up the prejudices in which so many of us indulge, even in wartime. They are not always prejudices against a race, sometimes they are religious prejudices. For instance, some people do not wish to be where Catholics or Jews predominate in their environment. Sometimes, it is Protestants who are banned.

All this seems out of place in a country with so many racial origins and so many religions. Our soldiers fight and die, side by side, and are comforted by priests, ministers or rabbis, as the case may be, quite regardless of whether the dying boys belong to the particular church represented near them at the moment.

It seems to me this might teach us, as civilians, a lesson. What is really important is not what religion or race we belong to, but how we live our lives, whether we deal with others with honesty and kindness, or whether we lie and cheat and take advantage of our neighbors. I wish that out of this war might come to us a truer evaluation of the worth of human beings and far less interest in the labels of race and religion.

153

June 21, 1943

Hyde Park, New York – (Sunday)
I have started my ten days’ vacation. Miss Thompson and I reached Hyde Park Friday evening.

Yesterday was very largely given over to watching with amazement the preparation which goes into the production of any theatrical performance. Mr. John Golden came before lunch to rehearse The Army Play By Play. Long before he was here, the soldier band arrived by a train which must have left New York City somewhere around 5:00 in the morning. The cast arrived and all of them found carpenters and stage hands hard at work. These last had been up here, as far as I could find out for several days.

A little theatre had suddenly blossomed in the President’s library, and from the moment Mr. Golden arrived, rehearsals began. Food seemed to be a minor consideration, and yet I never knew young men who were not interested in eating, so I was relieved to find that Mr. Golden had sent for food in the middle of the day for these boys. I made Mr. Golden leave them for a few minutes of quiet, while he came to the house to lunch with us.

Our neighbors, the people on my sister-in-law’s place and our place and a contingent of soldiers from the military police school, all enjoyed a repeat performance of The Army Play By Play, and I think it was better than the first time I saw it last Monday in New York City. I am glad I am not a producer, however, it takes so much patience and energy and real artistic temperament.

The column which to me stands out as the most human and vivid story of the men in the African Theatre is Ernie Pyle’s. I would not miss that column every day if I possibly could help it, and I am sure that many people feel just as I do.

I have been fortunate enough to have letters of late from several parts of the fighting fronts. Though most of them were written, of course, long before the things happened which we now read about in the papers, and in spite of the fact that all my correspondents are very censor conscious, these letters do give one sidelights and a background for everything one reads in the paper as accomplished facts later on.

This morning, besides the two little girls staying with us, we have a most wonderful baby, who is always cheerful and apparently just thinks the world is his oyster. Of course, his parents came with him, but they are a minor consideration, for everybody’s attention is riveted on the baby.

Our two daughters-in-law, Mrs. Elliott Roosevelt and Mrs. Franklin Roosevelt Jr., came up to spend a few days and they enjoyed the plays with us.

154

June 22, 1943

Hyde Park, New York – (Monday)
This is the day which is being celebrated as Tribute To Russia Day, and this afternoon I broadcast for the Russian War Relief Society. They have sent me a number of letters which have been written by Russians and by citizens of the United States under the stimulus of their letter writing campaign.

I will only be able to use a few of them this afternoon but I wish you could read them all, as I have. It would confirm your opinion, I know, that people the world over are pretty much the same. If they live on farms, they are interested in what they can grow in the climate, in livestock, and in the opportunities which their children have to learn to do better work than the older generation has done. If they live in cities, they want to improve the conditions under which they work and live, and just now, whether they live in Russia or the United States, their main interest is in the men in the armed forces.

Mothers, wives and sweethearts worry about these men in every country. In Russia, at least, the fighting is near enough so they do not have to wait weeks without news. I think, for our people at home, the most difficult thing is that so often they do not know where their boys are when they do not hear from them in quite a long time. In the meantime, the boys are sometimes two or three months before they get their first news from home.

The trying periods are those when people feel that almost anything might happen and they would never be the wiser. Many a boy who starts out for the Southwest Pacific, North Africa, Alaska or Greenland, may never have been more than 20 miles from home before he entered the service. When he was in this country he knew, if he could save the money, there was a chance he might get back to familiar scenes.

Once he learned about the long-distance telephone and airmail letters, even if he was far away from home, he heard the same language about him and he knew he could hear a familiar voice if separation became unbearable. After he started overseas, that sense of security was gone entirely, and I think we shall look back upon this war with a feeling that perhaps those periods without news were one of our greatest hardships.

I was rather pleased to find the other day in the library here, that the soldiers from the nearby military police school bring their wives and girls there occasionally when they come up to visit, and really seem to enjoy looking at all the exhibits. Since driving has not been allowed, the crowds that used to come and go, can no longer reach any of the places of historical interest. I wondered if the nearby people, who have a better chance to see things more quietly and comfortably than ever before, would take advantage of it, and I think they do.

155

June 23, 1943

Hyde Park, New York – (Tuesday)
As I came out of our gate on Sunday, I was interested to see quite a group of young people on bicycles. That is reminiscent of Europe. It may be that the shortage of gasoline will start our young people really travelling by bicycle. I know of few better ways of seeing the country if you do not try to cover too much territory.

In the Lake District of Great Britain every year in the holidays, you can see young people bicycling in groups, staying in the most inexpensive inns, reveling in the scenery, seeing houses where great poets lived, and getting an idea of the scenes which inspired some of their poems. We are becoming old enough in this country to provide enough places of historical interest in small areas for people to take either bicycling or walking trips. Motoring has developed wayside cottages which could be used as well for bicycle tourists, as they once were for motor tourists.

If everyone who could went on bicycling and walking trips, it might keep some of the places which are now hard hit by the lack of gasoline from going under completely. Their prices will have to remain low, but at least it might tide them over the present lack of paying guests.

The soldiers in the military police school up here are getting a taste of all the “joys” of life in the jungle. I see them every now and then out in the woods with improvised defenses against the mosquitoes, and I am sure they will be well seasoned for any part of the world where they may have to fight this particular kind of pest.

Between our rocky ridges in the woods, there are innumerable little damp bogs. No amount of draining ever seems to get them dry and they breed the nicest and fattest mosquitoes. I long ago gave up riding in the woods in July and August, and take to the duller pasture woods and fields as soon as the flies and mosquitoes appear. Walking in the woods in summer is always a double amount of exercise, because you have to use your arms quite constantly to keep the mosquitoes away. I should not malign our part of the country, however, for I have seen mosquitoes far worse in other places, and I look upon them here as just as one of the less pleasant manifestations of summer life.

The domestic scene, as you listen to the radio and read the papers today, is anything but encouraging and one would like not to think about it, because it gives one a feeling that, as a whole, we are not really prepared for democracy. We might even fall into the same excesses that some other people whom we look down upon have fallen into, for we do not seem to have learned self-control and obedience to law as yet.

156

June 24, 1943

Hyde Park, New York – (Wednesday)
The two little girls who are staying with me manage to put in the most exciting days and find and create all their own excitement. They were up before anyone else this morning, and when I came downstairs at 7:00, they had already laid the breakfast table. They danced around, hid behind the door, waited for the maid to appear and register the proper amount of surprise at having the elves or the pixies or the gremlins help her out.

There is a grown-up’s birthday celebration today and, before breakfast, one of the little girls had picked a vase full of flowers and put it before her place at the table. The other searched around and found an enormous box, in which she placed a corsage she had picked and made up herself. On the whole, they have very few of the gremlin’s destructive attributes, though I have had one or two moments when I thought these were also going to appear.

In common with most of the rest of the world, I am experiencing some of the difficulties which come when there is more work to do than there are hands to do it. We had two leaks the night before last and so far have not been able to find anyone to investigate them. Luckily, no serious damage occurred.

I have had another communication from “Just A Reader,” who agrees with one of my former correspondents, that it is outrageous for women in business to fill out questionnaires which require them to state their age. This excitement may seem foolish, but I am beginning to think there is something valid in these protests, because there is so much prejudice in some places against the employment of women.

Even at 35 some employers demur, and when you get to be 45 or 50, in most cases, you are just looked upon pityingly and supposed to be completely on the shelf. I have known too many women in the older age brackets who are good workers, and too full of energy to look with complacency on anything which will prevent them from being able to earn a living. They are able to make a real contribution and this contribution is lost if this foolish habit of thinking that everybody over 30 is on the downward grade, becomes fixed in the employers’ minds.

One woman wrote me the other day that she was even finding it hard to get a job in war industry, and certainly that should be easy at present. Many an older woman can stand work at a machine longer than the young ones.

157

June 25, 1943

Hyde Park, New York – (Thursday)
I am printing a letter today which has come to me and reads as follows:

Long Beach, California.

Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt.
My Day:

Could you spare me a few lines in your column for the youth of America? After all, they are as important as teas, victory gardens, etc.

My son, who is a private in the Army, is home on furlough. Today we went down to get his transportation back to camp, which happens to be in Mississippi, a long trip.

We were told that, because of his being a private, we could not buy him a pullman ticket. They were reserved for officers. The only way to procure a berth for him would be on a troop train. I am asking you, Mrs. Roosevelt, is this a democratic way of doing things? Is he still not a citizen of the U.S.A. and shouldn’t the soldiers be accorded some consideration?

He came out of the ticket office and made one remark – a remark I have heard often of late – what are we fighting for, mother? Will you please give this your consideration, and I thank you.

I think there must be some mistake about this, because, unless a train is already overcrowded, I am quite sure that a private, as well as a civilian, can get a berth or any accommodation that he is willing to pay for. What many people do not realize is the volume of travel today and the fact that they should make reservations far in advance.

I know, for instance, of a case not long ago where a civilian waited in the station master’s office for accommodations, in company with soldiers, sailors, and officers of every grade. Some of the officers were willing to sit up all the way to California, even though it was a three-day trip, because they did not want to delay in getting to their destinations and accommodations simply did not exist. Gradually the patient and very understanding officials of the railroad had everyone stowed away, but it took them over twelve hours.

Now I realize that many a boy in the services cannot make his plans very far ahead, but he must take his chances with the others and not feel that because he is a private, he is discriminated against. In the last war, my husband was Assistant Secretary of the Navy, but that didn’t give me any special consideration. I can remember trips when I stood up for five hours, or sat on the arms of seats in crowded cars, so do not let your boy get the idea that he isn’t fighting for a real democracy.

158

June 26, 1943

Hyde Park, New York – (Friday)
Now that it has finally appeared in the newspapers that my husband was here for last weekend, and that the Queen of the Netherlands was our guest, I can say a little more about the weekend than I was able to say before.

I am here so often alone, or with guests of my own, that it is quite easy to write about whatever goes on without even mentioning whether the President is here or not, for his visits are rare indeed. I only wish that they could be more frequent, for it is beautiful here now and I think one needs, every now and then, when one is trying to solve great problems, to feel the calm of nature around one.

The Queen of the Netherlands spent two mornings lying on a rug out under the big trees on the lawn, reading papers that she carries around in a briefcase she never lets anybody else take away. She is evidently a lady who likes to feel a certain independence, because everyone around her dashes to carry her rug or bag, but she seldom relinquishes them. I got the feeling that she much prefers to go strolling out by herself, choosing her own tree to sit under, and is glad to be left alone.

Here is another case, I think, where the burden of serious questions and the responsibility for final decisions, no matter how much advice and information may be sought, weighs heavily on the individual.

It was fun last Saturday evening planning an unrationed buffet supper, and I only hope our guests, who had to come up by train and go back by train, had enough to eat.

The baby who has been staying with us for the last few days, left us yesterday and I must say we miss him very much. Perhaps there is nothing as reassuring in time of war as contemplation of the kingdom of babyhood. Here is a perfectly unselfconscious and appealing person before whom the immediate world around him, bows down. Everything he does is miraculous and he is to every human being who approaches him, the tangible promise of eternity.

As long as we have babies, we renew our sense of security that the world we know is going to survive. There is only one sad thing which comes to me every time I look at our own well fed and well cared for children, and that is the thought of what is happening to babies and children in the occupied countries of Europe and in the Far East, day by day. When the war comes to an end, our first help must be for them.

159

June 28, 1943

New York – (Sunday)
I had a most tragic letter from a man the other day. He not only has a great sorrow to bear in the loss of one of his sons in the war, but is adding great bitterness to his sorrow by believing that these losses come only to inconspicuous people. The names in the paper, he says, are never names that he recognizes as prominent persons and he wonders if the sons and daughters of people in high position are kept out of danger zones, or given special protection, while his child had to take the risks of the dangerous work, wherever he was.

I answered his letter. But because I fear that there may be others who think the same thing, and whose sorrow is all the harder to bear because of this bitterness, I want to say to them here that there are high officials in Washington who have suffered these same sorrows since the war began, and many friends of mine had said a final goodbye to sons or husbands who have given their lives in this war.

I can assure everyone that no difference is made in the assignments given. Perhaps the boy who has had great advantages before he went into the service has a greater sense of obligation to bear himself with as much courage and take as many risks as any of those with whom he finds himself.

Nothing can compensate for the loss of those you love, whether they are your children or your friends. If you feel, however, that the cause for which they fight is a just cause, and that you are doing all you can to make the future safer and better for them if they return, and for their fellow human beings, you accept the inevitable and struggle on in the future without the added burden of bitterness.

I left the country this afternoon and came to New York City to see Mrs. Henry Morgenthau Jr., who is still in the hospital after five weeks of serious illness. This evening I am to have a joy which I hope many mothers share with me. Our oldest son was invalided home some months ago from the Southwest Pacific, and is on a two-week furlough from hospital care.

I have not seen him for a year and a half, so I look forward to greeting him with his wife this evening with a kind of excitement which I cannot describe. He will be with us for a few days, I hope.

These are days in which one grasps every joyous moment and savors it to the full in payment for all the hours of anxiety which everyone must go through.

160

June 29, 1943

New York – (Monday)
I have waited to add my small tribute to the tributes of many other people who knew and loved Mrs. William Brown Meloney, because I felt that many others had known her longer than I have and had a right to speak first. I have known her well only since she had begun her extraordinary fight against pain and illness, so always to me she will be the flame of a spirit which nothing, not even death, can extinguish.

Many a time when I went in to see her, the words of a poem written by my aunt, Mrs. Douglas Robinson about her sister, Mrs. William Sheffield Cowles, kept running through my mind, for Mrs. Meloney was “A Soldier of Pain.”

Facing each day, head high with gallant laughter, Anguish supreme;
What accolade in what divine hereafter Shall this redeem?

Through the long night of racked, recurrent waking, Till the long day.
Fraught with distress, brings but the same heartbreaking Front for the fray.

In a far land our Nation’s patriots, willing Fought, and now lie,
But you – as brave – a harder fate fulfilling, Dare not to die!

One never came away depressed from seeing “Missy” Meloney. One always felt that the world was so full of interesting things that there was something important for everyone to do and she was urging you on to do your share. I know that even in the future, if I am sometimes weary and think that perhaps there is no use in fighting for things in which I believe against overwhelming opposition, the thought of what she would say, will keep me from being a slacker. She believed that women had an important part to play in the future. She not only helped such women as Madame Curie, who were great women, but she helped many little people like myself to feel that we had a contribution and an obligation to try to grow.

I do not want to think of Mrs. Meloney as dead. I want to think of her vivid spirit living on in those who loved her, giving them strength to conquer bodily ills and courage to achieve more than they believed themselves capable of achieving. Most of her messages and letters finished with the same sentence. She used it to me and I am sure she did to all her other friends, and so I say “God Love You,” Missy dear.