Eleanor Roosevelt – My Day (1944)

301

December 15, 1944

Washington – (Thursday)
There is no subject today which I think is creating more interest than our housing problems. I am getting more and more plans sent me which might be termed ideas and dreams for the future in this field. Among others, a well-known New York architect sent me a plan for rebuilding all the areas in the big cities as they reach a point where they are no longer profitable because patching up becomes too expensive.

This man would build the new areas with every apartment facing an open space, and he has thought of rather a nice name for these new housing projects. He suggests that they should be called “Cities for Heroes.”

Anyone who reads the papers, with their daily chronicle of innumerable heroic deeds done by our men in different parts of the world, knows that many of them are going to return to big cities in various parts of this country. Their earning capacity may be small at first, or it may be large. Their progress in civilian life may be slow or rapid, but it will not alter the fact that in the war they were heroes, and all of them are entitled to the best that we can give them in the way of living space.

The American Academy of Arts and Letters in New York City is holding a citywide essay contest, among the high schools, on how our national capital was created. Each Thursday, excluding Christmas week, until February 15, when the contest ends, at the Academy gallery on Broadway between 155th and 156th Streets, there will be a full color movie shown from 2:30 to 3:30 p.m., and a lecture and exhibit on the growth of Washington, D.C. This is to provide the background material for the contest, and at the Academy gallery there is an additional exhibit showing the plans and models of the city from 1732 to the present day, including original maps and sketches by L’Enfant, President Washington’s selected sites for avenues and public buildings, and President Jefferson’s proposed changes.

I think this is a most interesting contest, because it will enable our young people to gain a better understanding of the imagination and the initiative of the men who made these plans, as well as of the conditions under which they began and the manner in which the changes have come about with the years. One can hardly make such a study without becoming aware of the tremendous changes in our whole way of life during this period, and I should think that this is an idea which might well be nationally used for high school students.

In New York City, the two best essays will be judged by a committee of three from the institute, and the prizes will be given in war bonds. In some communities it might be more difficult to get competent judges and to provide the necessary prizes. But I think war stamps and bonds can be found for this purpose in almost any community, and the judges will probably enjoy educating themselves!

302

December 16, 1944

Washington – (Friday)
Do you ever reach a point where you have so many new books piled up on your table that you feel almost desperate about ever finding the time to delve inside them?

Last night I spent a little time looking through Margaret Bourke-White’s They Called It Purple Heart Valley. The pictures are, of course, wonderfully interesting. They could not fail to be because of their subjects. I have not yet read the story that goes with the pictures, but anything about the Italian front must have enough of the heroic to make it vastly interesting to an American citizen.

There is another short book on a subject in which every one of us is deeply interested at the present time. It is called What To Do With Germany, by Louis Nizer. I think everyone should read it. It gives a picture of what education has done to the German youth. We must remember that education will do this same thing to youth in any country, and there is no one who comes in contact with the young Nazi who will not bear out all Mr. Nizer says on this subject.

Unconditional surrender is one thing, but the final stamping out of Nazism and Fascism must be done in every country in the world, and in every individual. This system came to its highest development in Nazi Germany and in Japan, and if we are successful there, we will be successful in other places as well. This book of Mr. Nizer’s seems to me one of the “must” books for us all.

Then there is a little book by E. Stanley Jones, called The Christ of the American Road, which I think we might keep on our bedside tables to read a chapter at a time just before we go to sleep. Each chapter requires a little reflection, since it is not just a book to read, but a book which should affect our way of living.

Lastly, I have just finished Gwethalyn Graham’s Earth and High Heaven. I do not recommend it for the very young, but I do recommend it for the mature who know human nature and its evils as well as its virtues. I recommend it because it deals with prejudices – in this case with only one particular prejudice, but the pattern repeats itself wherever prejudices are allowed to flourish. We never know where prejudices will lead us. Neither do we know how often we use our prejudices to excuse or cloak motives and emotions which we would be ashamed to bring into the light of day if we had to face them without something as a camouflage to cover them over. Erica Drake was a wonderful character. Torn by many loyalties, she still knew that there was one supreme loyalty – the loyalty to one’s own inward sense of what is right for oneself.

303

December 18, 1944

Washington – (Sunday)
A few days ago I had the pleasure of having my old friends, Mr. and Mrs. Adolph Miller, lunch with me. Also with us were Mr. and Mrs. John W. Bracken Jr. and their two young children. The children were such delightful young guests, and I was interested in the poise of the six-year-old boy. He had some difficulty in keeping up with the grown-ups, but he never complained when his mother wanted him to leave what was unfinished on his plate in order to catch up with the rest of us. I think that was showing great self-control, particularly if he liked his lunch!

On Friday I went to a luncheon given for Mrs. Mary McLeod Bethune by the Southern Conference on Human Welfare. The subject was “The Effect of New Voters on the South.” It seems to me that the new voters today are going to have a greater effect on the future everywhere. They are the ones who have been through the most grueling experiences of the war. They are going to know more than anyone else what they want from the future.

I am seeing more and more of the returned veterans. Naturally, they have many different points of view. They come from varying backgrounds, their level of education varies and their experiences have been different, but among them all I find, as a whole, one very interesting similarity. I have yet to talk to a young veteran of this war who does not recognize the fact that unless the things he works for will benefit the country as a whole, they will not benefit him. There is a profound desire among them to continue to serve the country and its people. If they have been overseas, they have a tremendous appreciation of what this country means to the average citizen in the opportunities it affords, and they want to be worthy of the opportunity which is theirs.

I went to New York City late Friday afternoon and returned early this morning, having attended to family matters while there. Today is a quiet day, with a few people at lunch and at supper and the usual afternoon party for the Walter Reed patients.

One of our grandsons is home from school. He looks older and straighter and taller, but as slim as ever, which is more than I can say for myself. This is the first real indication to me that Christmas is approaching. I have had very little feeling that it was really here or would be before long, perhaps because so much of my usual pre-Christmas activity was done very early in an effort to comply with the request for early mailing. Now I find myself with comparatively little to do! Next week I imagine the Christmas spirit will really take hold of me, but as the war drags on it is getting harder and harder for all of us to enjoy any carefree moments.

304

December 19, 1944

Washington – (Monday)
I forgot to tell you that while in New York City I spent one evening of delightful and frivolous enjoyment. We went to the theatre and saw I Remember Mama, by John van Druten. This play is adapted from Kathryn Forbes’ Mama’s Bank Account. It is beautifully directed and acted, with Mady Christians, Oscar Homolka and Joan Tetzel in the principal parts. The story is slight, but each individual scene stands out as a perfect little cameo by itself. There is humor, there is sweetness, and there is pathos, and one very valuable lesson for young writers!

I happen to have been in contact with a few of them lately, who think they can write masterpieces about things of which they know nothing, before they have even lived or experienced any of the tragedies and joys of life. So that particular little item of advice to the young and aspiring author in the play struck home, and I felt that I would pass it on many times!

Just after I reached home yesterday I received word that my aunt, Mrs. Stanley Mortimer, had died suddenly the night before in New York City. Mrs. Mortimer was very little younger than my mother, but even with age she kept her beauty and her charm. She never seemed to me to be quite living in the world of today, with all of its realities; but her world was an interesting world, and I loved going to see her and feeling cut off for a while from my everyday surroundings. My children were all fascinated by her and enjoyed her whenever they met.

I think perhaps she was happier the last years of her life than she had been for many years before, because she discovered her own country as a result of the war, and because of new friendships which she had made. Instead of feeling sad that she could not visit her old haunts in Europe, she began to enjoy new ones over here. I think her only remaining sister, Mrs. David Gray, and I, as well as her children and close friends, will find the world not quite such a colorful and gay place without her.

Thomas J. Kehoe brought his group of veterans again yesterday afternoon from Walter Reed Hospital, and there seems to be such an interest in Fala that I am going to show them next Sunday afternoon the first movie which was done here in the White House of that busy little dog. During the afternoon I had three other appointments, followed by a quiet Sunday supper and not too busy an evening.

I had a press conference this morning, and at 12 o’clock I saw a lady who is up here from the island of Antigua, British West Indies, and who came to bring me a message from our soldiers there and to take one back to them from me when she returns.

305

December 20, 1944

New York – (Tuesday)
Yesterday Mr. Melcher, chairman of the committee of book publishers which presents books to the White House at stated intervals, came to see how they were housed at present. He seemed pleased with the library which we are creating downstairs, and with the way the books are scattered through the house. I am so happy to have these books in the White House that it gave me a great deal of pleasure to find that Mr. Melcher also approved of our arrangements.

In the afternoon I held the annual tea for the foreign students in the Labor Department auditorium. They sang two Christmas carols and then after a word of greeting, they all came in to shake hands with me and to have tea. Before I left, I think I must have signed every invitation card! I am always happy to have this tea, which gives me a chance to tell these foreign students how much I think their years of study here should affect our whole international relations in the future. It is only through the friendship and understanding formed among our young people that we can hope really to bind the world in closer understanding in the future.

In the evening, 45 government students came with Dr. Davenport for an hour and a half of discussion. They are college graduates who are taking a year of post-graduate work in some government work. Many of them hope eventually to find themselves in administrative or executive offices in government permanently. The object, of course, is to develop better public servants for executive positions, and Dr. Davenport seemed pleased with the record made by some of his students, both in government service and in the war.

I came back to New York City on the midnight train to go this morning to the funeral of my aunt, Mrs. Stanley Mortimer. My only other engagement today is the board meeting of Wiltwyck School late this afternoon.

There has been sent me in the last few days a “Declaration of Human Rights,” signed by many of our prominent citizens. This declaration calls for six points, the first being An International Bill of Rights – “To guarantee for every man, woman and child of every race and creed of every country, the fundamental rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

All the points seem to me to be excellent, but to make them worth the paper on which they are written will require some really concentrated work, not only on the part of those who signed the document, but on the part of many other people in this nation and throughout the world.

306

December 21, 1944

New York – (Wednesday)
As I sat alone in the pew behind Mrs. Stanley Mortimer’s children yesterday morning, and looked at the beautiful flowers which her relatives and friends had sent in a last gesture of affection, I heard the choir singing “Angels of Jesus, Angels of Light, Singing to Welcome the Pilgrims of the Night.” Later in the service they sang two hymns which as a child I remember we always sang at home every Sunday evening – “Lead, Kindly Light,” and “Abide With Me.”

I do not think I heard my aunt speak of those hymns for many years, and I doubt if since she was a girl she had kept up the old custom of Sunday evening hymn singing. We were brought up on it, however, in my grandmother’s home, and I could not help wondering if she had told her children that those three hymns were her favorites because of the old-time associations.

It is difficult, no matter how long one lives, I think, to throw off the habits and customs which became part of oneself in the years when our home was all the world we knew.

On the way home from Woodlawn Cemetery, I went to see my cousin, Mrs. Henry Parish.

In the evening I talked to my husband in Washington, who sounds as though his three weeks in Warm Springs, Georgia, had given him much enjoyment, as well as time to think over the world and its affairs. Even if you are always at the end of a telephone wire, and if dispatches and pouches continue to come, still, the change of scenery, the concerns of a different community, and the satisfaction of seeing something which long ago you had a hand in starting, do something to one’s mind and spirit.

The Warm Springs experiment, which started in such a small way and in such very rundown, shabby surroundings, has now blossomed into a very modern plant where much has been done for many people afflicted with “polio.” Much has been learned about this dread disease, but with all the research and attention lavished on it we still do not know what someday we must know – how to prevent this disease from bringing sorrow into so many lives every year.

I had an appeal the other day for the study of the treatment of spasticity. The writer said that much had been done for polio and very little for the spastic cases, of which there are a great many in this country. Of course, we know also that rheumatic fever takes a terrible toll of our children every year, and that there is some rise, I believe, in tuberculosis since the war. All of these things make us realize the necessity of improving the quality of our research work and, above all, of giving opportunity for the development of young doctors who show the possibility of becoming useful in this field of scientific medical research.

307

December 22, 1944

Washington – (Thursday)
Yesterday was a day of many appointments, and they covered many subjects.

I had a very young gentleman come because he is writing an article for his school paper. He is in military school and concerned about their future place in our educational system. Several very much older gentlemen and one or two ladies also came to see me. They are concerned about political questions both from the practical, personal point of view and from the more academic and objective point of view!

Some friends of varying ages came to lunch and another friend shared our evening meal, after which we spent a quiet evening and took the midnight train back to Washington.

I love the view from our New York apartment window, with the lights shining on Washington Square. A light fall of snow and the brightly lit Christmas tree gave the whole scene a Christmas aspect.

The news from Europe has been so bad that I cannot help thinking of the weariness and disappointment of the men who have taken these miles of enemy territory and are now being driven back.

The Germans, of course, have progressively less territory to defend. Once upon a time they were spread all over Europe, but as they are thrown back onto their own land, their lines of communication are shorter and their lines of defense more concentrated. Setbacks like these must, of course, be expected, but it makes one’s heart ache to think of the gloom and disappointment among our soldiers and the news of individual losses, which will come increasingly often knocking at our doors. Three people I have heard of today can hardly face the Christmas season with a joyous spirit, and my heart is heavy for the accumulated sorrow all about us.

An article which appeared the other day in a California paper contained the suggestion that instead of putting up monuments to the dead in towns and villages all over our country, we build universities and endow scholarships and pick the ablest young men and women we can find in all the countries of the world to attend these schools. In these universities special emphasis is to be laid on government training for international affairs – languages, world economics, history, government – everything which will equip people to deal better with each other in this field. Since young people will be brought together from various places, they will get to know each other and will not be strangers when they meet again in the diplomatic and consular services, as well as in legislative and administrative positions in their various countries.

Perhaps there may be something in this idea. I have always felt that stone monuments, with the names of the young people inscribed on them, did us comparatively little good, and I would far rather see something done to help future generations. The memory of the youth that has fought this war, and saved our civilization for us once again, can be fittingly honored only by finding ways to keep the peace.

308

December 23, 1944

Washington – (Friday)
Miss Thompson and I arrived in Washington in what seemed the depths of the night, but it was really a little after 7 a.m. yesterday. From then on it was a busy day.

At 11 o’clock the President and I received the staff of the executive offices to wish them all a merry Christmas, and at 12:30 Girl Scout Troop #167 came in and presented me with two big boxes of Christmas tree decorations. They had read in my column that I found it difficult to buy the usual silver and tinsel ornaments and decorations. Usually, the tree in the East Room at the White House has only silver and white on it, and we have used a great deal of the tinfoil “snow.”

I was feeling rather discouraged about the way the tree would look this year, and when the doors were opened the decorations brought by the Girl Scouts had all been put on and looked lovely. They used peanuts, straw sippers, cotton, paper doilies and red ribbon to make the ornaments, and the effect was very charming and as Christmas-y as anything I have ever seen.

Our old friends, Mr. and Mrs. Larue Brown, came to luncheon. We had quite a large family in the house, so we sat down twelve at table at both lunch and dinner yesterday.

At 2 o’clock I was at the Salvation Army annual Christmas party. The navy band always provides the music for this party, and yesterday there was a special little ceremony when they presented the leader of the band with a new baton. He at once used it, leading the band in “Stars and Stripes Forever.” I presented the first check and box of toys to a very nice woman with four sweet little children. The eldest little boy, eight years old, was full of initiative and had the nicest smile.

At 4 o’clock the President and I received all the house employees and their families in the East Room. The numbers have grown considerably because of the increase in the number of guards during the war, and, too, the families are larger, having been here a number of years. In all, 440 people came in to shake hands with the President and me yesterday afternoon. It is a great pleasure to see them all. I think new babies come in for the greatest amount of attention, but the way some of the children have grown is breathtaking.

At 6 o’clock I went to the alley carol service in Cecil Court on Cherry Hill. This is rather a sad alley, but the site where the little tree is placed overlooks the Potomac and is very lovely. The service was conducted by the minister of the Emory Methodist Church, and the ceremonies inaugurated by the Washington Council of Church Women. I think it was enjoyed by all the neighbors.

309

December 25, 1944

Washington – (Sunday)
On this Christmas Eve I would like to send a message to the many men and women in this country who, with heavy hearts, approach this Christmas Day. Preparations for another joyous Christmas for the children must go on in many homes where sorrow has visited during the past months. It will probably be most difficult for the women since they do the little things which either make or mar Christmas Day. If they cannot bear to plan for the usual festivities, for the singing of Christmas carols, for the Christmas tree, because certain loved ones will be absent, some perhaps never to return, the women, mothers, wives and sweethearts, can make of this a gloomy season.

No one can take the ache of loss or the gnawing of anxiety out of their heart, but everyone will find that the effort to simulate something of the usual Christmas joy, will bring its own reward.

The religious side of Christmas will perhaps bring more healing to sad hearts than can any other time of the year, for this is the time when we remember to celebrate the coming to the world of a symbol. The life of Christ is the symbol of the perfect kind of love, the love which should rule the world. It is also the symbol for which all good men from time immemorial have given their lives. Men rarely fight and die for an individual benefit. It is usually because of loyalty to a group or a nation, and perhaps it is always in the hope that something better will come out of their sacrifice. That is, after all, the whole story of Christ’s life, something better was to come out of His sacrifice for mankind.

If on this Christmas Eve, men and women who sorrow, can think primarily that those who have gone, went gladly, just as Christ did in the hope that something better would come to mankind, then with this conviction in their hearts, they can feel that there is a purpose and a reason in living. Those who have gone handed on to us their job here on earth to finish and one of the evidences that that job is being well done is that everywhere around us, in our communities wherever we can touch individuals or groups, some increased hope and joy shall come from what we do. That is the only way we can make this Christmas Day have any real meaning. That is the only way in which some people can face the future with any buoyancy of spirit.

God grant that on this Christmas night we hear again “The Angels’ Song,” “Peace on Earth,” “Goodwill to Men,” and that we work with whatever powers we have to make it ever increasingly a reality in our own particular sphere of influence.

310

December 26, 1944

Washington – (Monday)
On Friday, in the evening, I shared a Christmas party with some very dear friends of mine. On Christmas Eve the usual ceremonies were held around the municipal tree in the White House grounds, and at 5:15 the President broadcast his message to the country and to the armed forces all over the world.

That evening – Christmas Eve – the President, as is his custom, read selections from Dickens’ Christmas Carol. He usually begins before the little children go to bed and then, after dinner, he reads a little more to the older ones. In our many years of Christmas celebrations, I can remember only one when I tried to substitute for my husband, and my reading was nowhere as effective as his. I think he has heard it read so many years at Groton by the rector’s father, who apparently read it exceptionally well, that he has developed a way of reading different scenes in it which makes it understandable to the youngest child.

Christmas Day was entirely a family day with us. Breakfast was late as always, because the children gather in the President’s room to open their stockings first, and that always takes a long time. All the dogs have to be considered as well, and they can make a great deal of confusion when they acquire new toys and are trying to get some child to play with them.

After the small children had their naps and it became somewhat dark, we had the lighting of the Christmas tree and the presents for the children, who then went to bed a very exhausted group. We found ourselves getting ready for Christmas dinner with a certain amount of weariness, but with the sense of a day well spent, so that the elders could relax and enjoy the traditional Christmas feast.

We have again this year received many, many Christmas cards from people all over this country and from the men overseas. Sometimes whole groups of men send in a card together, sometimes the individual boys send one. I try to send a word of thanks to each one for the overseas cards, but it is impossible to do this also for all those that come from people in this country. We are nonetheless deeply grateful for the kind thoughts which prompted the sending of these words of cheer and affection at this season. I take this way of thanking our friends throughout the nation and in many other countries, hoping that it will reach a great many people.

Today our thoughts have been with those who are absent from our firesides, and since this is the case with almost every family in this country, I close this column with the wish that will be echoed this day in many hearts – God bless our absent ones.

311

December 27, 1944

Hyde Park, New York – (Tuesday)
Quite a number of the family went to the 11 p.m. church service on Christmas Eve. As I watched some of the boys in uniform, I knew that many of them had come back from far distant places to share this Christmas time with their families, and I thought how very fortunate I had been. Through the many years of our married life, I do not remember a Christmas when my husband was not home. Even the year he had infantile paralysis he was back from the hospital in time to share in the Christmas festivities. When the children were small, it was rare indeed that the whole family was not able to be together on that day.

I remember one memorable occasion when in the late afternoon on Christmas Day, after the parties were over, I discovered that James had German measles. We had had some rather important guests for Christmas lunch and the tree in the afternoon. Among them were the British Ambassador, Sir Edward Grey, and Sir William Tyrell, his chief advisor. I telephoned them at once and they reassured me they did not think they would catch any children’s diseases, though they confessed that neither of them remembered having this particular form of measles. The name was promptly changed because we were at war with Germany then.

I think it is probably rather rare that any family can look back over so many years, with the children grown and married and with homes of their own, and find that the whole family was always together at this Christmas celebration. Perhaps that is why Christmas has always meant a great deal to us and we have included people we loved, or those whom we liked, if they were far away from home on this day.

Even during the war, I think we have been very fortunate. We have two sons in the navy. One of them, until just a short time ago serving almost entirely in the North and South Atlantic, has every now and then come into port. The other one was here last year before his ship went out, so those two boys happened to be home last year at Christmas time. This year they are far away in the Pacific, and, like all others in the Pacific, not likely to be home for some time.

However, as if to accentuate our sense of gratitude this year, our son-in-law and other son who have been in the European area were both at home for a short time. Our eldest son has been almost continuously in the Pacific except for two sick leaves. But he was out of the fighting area temporarily during this Christmas season also, and we could all say prayers of gratitude on Christmas night, as well as prayers of supplication for all those in danger on sea, land and in the air.

I am always thankful for every glimpse, no matter how short, of any of our own boys, or of the other boys who are friends of ours and who drop in for a few days when they get a short time out of fighting areas. I try to remember always what an old friend of my grandmother’s used to say:

Enjoy every minute you have with those you love, my dear, for no one can take joy that is past away from you. It will be there in your heart to live on when the dark days come.

312

December 28, 1944

Hyde Park, New York – (Wednesday)
For the first time since the early days of the war, the people in this country are being tested by the war news. It is harder to bear today, because in the early days we could say that we had not been a war-like nation, that we had not wanted to make war, that we had not prepared for it and that our Allies would therefore have to hold the fort until we were ready. No one could help us in the Pacific, and we took some pretty humiliating defeats. Yet the men we had in that area did a holding job which was magnificent, for it is harder to retreat and give way and keep morale high than it is to go forward.

Gradually, as we came into greater production, the picture in the Pacific changed. We have regained some of what we lost, and we have taken many more islands which the Japanese had occupied. We have inflicted blows from the air on their homeland. But all the time we have known that we had to do most of the aggressive work. China, after many years of war, was doing a magnificent defensive job, but we knew that we had to come to her assistance, important as she was to us because of her resistance.

I think we are probably better prepared in our minds for the long war in the Pacific than we at first were for the slow, hard fighting on the Italian peninsula. Very few people in this country remembered the mountainous terrain our men would have to fight through. Sunny Italy was all we thought about, not snow and ice, cold and rain and mountains, with the enemy on top, which had to be crossed. That has been a long, hard, mile-by-mile campaign.

Then we landed in France, and romped across that country with a liberated people cheering us on. The enemy fell back, but in pretty good order, shortening their supply lines with every day’s retreat as we lengthened ours. When they reached a point where they decided to stand and counterattack, it was a surprise to us at home. Probably our generals knew that someday this point would have to be reached. Just when it would come they knew possibly no better than anyone else, since we cannot read other people’s minds. But I imagine that our men hoped they would advance into Germany as fast as they had crossed France, and the loss of the territory which they fought so hard to gain must be a bitter disappointment to them.

There may be people here who would say – Why do we have to fight our way across Germany? But those are the people who have forgotten what happened in the last war. They do not remember the German Army’s boast that it was never beaten – that only the German people at home let the army down – or they would not suggest that we run the same risk again.

This is total war, and we fight in spirit with our men overseas. We know that we have to produce more if they need more; that there have to be nurses for the wounded and supplies of food for our men, as well as for the liberated peoples who are hungry and cannot help in their weakened condition. We civilians at home have so far been annoyed by the war, but still on the whole we are comfortable at home. Our great suffering has been in the loss of our dear ones. Now we may have to face some of the physical hardships of a nation making a really great war effort. No hardships will equal those endured by our men at the battlefronts.

313

December 29, 1944

New York – (Thursday)
Yesterday I touched a little on the things we have to face in this crucial time of the war, but I have a letter from one soldier’s wife which has made me think a great deal about some of the things which are now troubling people, even though they deal with the future as well as the present.

This young woman’s husband is fighting in the Third Army under Gen. Patton. She has done her part in writing to her husband cheerfully despite difficulties at home, keeping him close to what is going on here and strengthening her own endurance with dreams of the useful life she and her husband will lead in the future, helping to build a new and peaceful world. Now she reads that the Allies have conflicting points of view and that their old interests are cropping up again to complicate their cooperation not only in the war, but also, she fears, in the plans afterward for laying the foundations on which future generations can build a peaceful world.

I do not blame her at all for being anxious. It takes a long, historical view to understand much of what is happening in Europe today. I asked someone rather well versed in history about certain points, the other day, and he explained that they went all the way back to the 12th century in their origin. Not many among us think casually that far back when we discuss the problems of modern countries, and yet these factors will have to be considered in the long run.

I think the one thing that peoples all over the world want to urge upon their governments is that they set aside old interests, old ideas of domination or of possession or balance of power, and that they think only of one main objective – the defeat of the Germans and the Japanese. Any nation whose ideas coincide with the ideas of our enemies, and who perhaps may give them aid and comfort, should be watched as a potential enemy, for one thing we must have – a world that is free of Fascism.

In the future, the peoples of the various nations will have to make up their minds whether they can pay the price of new wars. Deadlier inventions, with quicker destruction of human beings will be possible in the course of the next few years. If the peoples of the world do not wish to pay this price in blood and tears, then they must impress that fact indelibly upon the statesmen who, when this war is won, will represent them in creating the machinery for peace. They must insist that their representatives take what we have been able to do during the war and shape it into some framework within which the leaders of future generations can meet together and act to keep the world at peace. It is the people of the world, however, who will have to make these decisions and speak clearly to their leaders, for their leaders are older men who have lived through years when other objectives were dominant and who perhaps need encouragement to envision a new world.

It is still true that peace must be born in the hearts of individual human beings.

314

December 30, 1944

Washington – (Friday)
Every now and then someone does a very kind thing and one would like to thank him at once. Today I am constrained to thank a young man for a letter which he wrote on Christmas Eve, but I must do it through this column because he simply signs his letter “An Ex-Navy Pilot,” giving the name of the ship on which our youngest son has been serving during the past year in the far-off Pacific.

The young man writes:

I have just returned from duty in the Pacific on the carrier X——. Thought you would like to know your son, John, is in good health and doing a wonderful job out there.

We covered some 80,000 water miles since leaving San Diego, so you see we got around, out there. You have a wonderful son and I know you are very proud of him.

No mother could fail to appreciate the kindness which prompted such a note and to want to thank the writer. The boys who are pilots on the carriers have done extraordinary jobs. I hear a great deal about all the boys who are associated as shipmates with our various sons, so I have a great appreciation of the good work they do in all the different services.

I spent a part of yesterday in New York City, but most of my activities were of a purely personal nature, and Miss Thompson and I took the midnight train back to Washington.

This morning I had the pleasure of having a talk with Gen. Frank T. Hines, and I am hoping that he will take up with the War Department the changing of the pin which is now worn by discharged veterans. If this is done, I hope wide publicity will be given to the new insignia, and that we will accustom ourselves to the realization that the young men we see wearing these pins have served their country and can serve no longer in a military way. These men are important, however, to every community in which they live and should be made to feel their importance. Many of them are fighting some kind of a physical handicap, even though we may not be able to detect it, and they deserve our consideration, our respect and our admiration.

From noon on, today, I have a rather full schedule of appointments, with people coming in to talk on different subjects. In addition, I have on my desk a rather terrifying number of letters to sign, because they multiply greatly at this time of the year! Perhaps by tonight I will get caught up, but I still have enough to read to keep me busy for days.

I have just been introduced to a most noble-looking dog, a bull mastiff who was brought back by one of our boys from England. He is kind and gentle with people, but I would hate to be another dog if he should take to disliking me! I always wonder how dogs decide whether to fight each other or to make friends, and I wish I knew the proper approach when introducing them to each other!