Eleanor Roosevelt – My Day (1945)

221

September 11, 1945

HYDE PARK, Monday – I have received through the State Department, in the last few days, messages which are not meant only for me. One of them comes from Adelaide, Australia, and reads:

South Australian Housewives Association desires to express through you congratulations to women of America victory Europe. Our thoughts and prayers for speedy victory in the Pacific.

I know that women the world over thought of each other in all the different countries and would liked to have clasped hands across the many oceans and rejoiced – first, when the war ended in Europe, and more, when it ended in the Pacific and we could say the world was again at peace.

Besides these cables I received several from South and Central America, Great Britain, France and other countries showing that as the war ended the thoughts of many people were filled with gratitude to my husband, as well as to President Truman and the present administration and to the whole people of the United States.

It is good to feel this friendly spirit flowing across the oceans and I hope that many people will acknowledge that our responsibility to build this feeling continues throughout the coming years. One of the first and striking gestures of goodwill which we can be proud of is the fact that on Wednesday, September 19, a ship will be loaded at a New York City pier with 100,000,000 pounds of clothing contributed by the American people during the United National Clothing Collection. This ship is bound for Yugoslavia. The need there is apparent to every visitor who sets foot in that country.

In the following sentences we get a little picture of what women are facing in England. The letter comes from Lady Reading, head of the Women’s Voluntary Services for Civil Defense.

We are anticipating a pretty tough winter. Obviously, housing is our biggest and crying need – the number of houses that have been destroyed, quite apart from the houses that have not been able to be repaired or kept up to date, owing to shortage of labor, is something fantastic and wherever you go or whoever you talk to, the one predominating worry is for a place to live in.

Alongside of that we are, of course, full of apprehension of the difficulties we are going to have to meet this coming winter in food, clothing and fuel. In fact, it looks as if one’s worries will not let up for quite a little time. But undoubtedly the fact that we need no longer worry in regards to people facing death does make a very great difference. We are very conscious of the fact that resistance will be very much lower this year and we must be ready for quite a lot of illness.

Not a happy picture but one we must remember, for it is repeated over and over again in many countries.

222

September 12, 1945

HYDE PARK, Tuesday – I have a telegram today which I think is really important. In Chicago, from October 1 to 4, the Veterans of Foreign Wars will hold their 46th annual encampment and they will have a large delegation of World War II veterans.

They tell me that as honor guests there will be representative combat veterans from all the United Nations. These men are to be chosen for exceptional bravery which has already brought them recognition from their governments.

The hope is that bringing together our own men and men from other nations will foster a spirit of international understanding and help us build for future world peace.

I think the most important thing that can be said to veterans of this war, whether of our own country or from other countries, is that in all their deliberations they must think of themselves first as citizens. They have endured the same hardships and dangers, and that will tend to make them believe they are a group apart from the rest of the people in their nations. This war has been fought in large part, however, by all the young men of this generation and, therefore, in meeting the problems of the present and the future they must think primarily as citizens and not merely as veterans.

And now to lighter matters. This is a gray day and the sky looks as though at any moment it might open up and weep. But in the woods this morning, as I walked Fala, the grayness only seemed to give an added depth to the mysterious feeling that one always has as one walks along a road which is cut through thick underbrush and trees.

Fala kept darting off to chase some wild thing I could not even see and, though my mind had been wandering far from my immediate surroundings, I suddenly became more aware than usual of the beauties that Nature strews all around us.

Along the edge of the road for long stretches there are clumps of a delicate fern-like growth with a little orange-colored flower almost like a tiny slipper. Then there is the golden rod and the blue and white cornflowers which grow in such profusion through the fields at this season.

Finally I saw part of an old log which had been left to rot at the edge of the road. It was covered with the most beautiful fungus just the color of the little orange lizards that go slithering across the road when they hear anyone coming. How grateful we should be who have eyes to see!

As I drove down to visit Mrs. Henry Morgenthau Jr. yesterday, we passed the first maple tree I’ve seen with reddening leaves. They are always very beautiful, reminding us that the season I like best in the year – the autumn – is approaching. But that means the end of summer. Though I really enjoy every season of the year, I am always sad to see each one come to an end.

223

September 13, 1945

HYDE PARK, Wednesday – A man who is very much interested in creating new opportunities for veterans wrote me of a rather interesting idea which he has developed. He says that in almost every large community, and at main intersections in small communities, a man might obtain the use of parking space and a phone booth. The type of vehicle which could be used for delivering packages and messages is very inexpensive and can be produced in moderate quantities for as little as $145.38, he says. In almost any community, he believes, a good business can be worked up by consolidating the delivery of messages and packages for the neighborhood stores and for individuals.

I think that for small businesses and individuals one might even add to this service a wrapping service. People who live in apartments have very little space for keeping boxes, wrapping paper and twine. In New York City I know that a consolidated delivery service exists but all deliveries were curtailed during the war to save gasoline, while messenger service was merged or cut. People were willing to wait for deliveries and to wait in sending their letters or messages far longer than would be convenient in peace time.

Probably the big stores will resume more frequent deliveries, as gasoline is more plentiful, and messenger service may also be increased. Therefore, in the big cities where such consolidations have taken place there might not be an opening for new small delivery services. Undoubtedly, however, in small towns and even in villages this might be made a very great convenience and be built up into a varied and well paying service, if the person running it was ingenious enough to watch for the needs of the community and offered new services as he discovered those needs.

Of course, this whole idea might be made more feasible if some big group would sponsor it, furnish the delivery vehicles and arrange for franchises to cover parking space and telephone service. But I think the individual would still have great play for personal development and personal ingenuity. It seems to me the idea is worthwhile consideration by veterans, particularly those who are not able to do very heavy work.

I am told that one great bar to the employment of handicapped veterans, or any handicapped people, is a certain reluctance of many employers, particularly those who employ a small number. They dislike to assume the risk of engaging those whom they fear may be more easily injured on the job and become more seriously disabled because of their previous disability – which means longer and heavier payments of state workmen’s compensation.

Whether anything can be done by the Federal government to lessen this risk for employees and, therefore, make it easier for handicapped veterans to get jobs, is a question which should be taken up by the Veterans’ Bureau and the Congressional committees.

224

September 14, 1945

HYDE PARK, Thursday – Those of us who live in the country are far along with our canning for the year, but there is still some canning to be done.

A long while ago I was sent, on behalf of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration, their community canning program for war relief. I meant to tell you about it because I thought many more people might cooperate than those mentioned on the pamphlet – which states that the program is being carried on in association with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Foods Distribution Programs Branch of Production and Marketing Administration; Federal and State Extension Services, Nutrition Programs Branch; U. S. Office of Education, including Camp Fire Girls, Inc., and Girl Scouts. I am sure, though they are not listed, that the 4-H Clubs, through the Department of Agriculture, have cooperated.

Through the program, all users of community canning centers have been asked to can 10 percent over their own local requirements and to give this surplus for overseas relief. Contributions will be shipped abroad by UNRRA.

I feel that many individuals who do not can in community centers, or in cooperation with any of the groups mentioned, may have products that they have canned and will still can, which they could spare and send to the headquarters of one of these groups in their communities to swell the amount that goes overseas. It is hard for us here to realize what the needs will be in almost every country outside of North and South America.

I have been hoping that some arrangements would be arrived at whereby one administrator would be appointed for the distribution of coal and the rehabilitation of transportation throughout Europe. It seems to me until that is done, it is going to be extremely difficult to start people over there on an upward trend, and it is going to be extremely difficult to distribute properly what relief is sent abroad.

There is food in certain parts of Europe. For instance, certain parts of France even now could send food to other parts if their transportation were not completely ruined, and coal were not completely impossible to obtain. Denmark was not ruined as a food-producing country by the Germans because Allied airplanes disrupted the German transportation system.

I have seen in the papers that the rivers will be used as a method of distribution, but that will not adequately meet transportation needs.

While I think we should bend every effort to save from our own plenty and ship to countries where starvation stalks the land, I think we should not forget one thing. That is, to urge that there be immediate consideration of a plan whereby some able administrator is put in charge of coal production and transportation, especially in the European field.

225

September 15, 1945

HYDE PARK, Friday – I spent nearly two hours, the other morning, at our local radio station listening to a transcription of a program given on V-J Day over the local Syracuse, N.Y. radio station, WSYR. It was entitled “Half a War,” and was really a review of all that had happened, with excerpts of speeches by various public men as they had given them over the radio at different times during the war period.

It made one re-live those years and brought back so vividly sensations which one had experienced that one could not help but be deeply moved at times.

I think that Mr. E. R. Vadeboncoeur in writing this script made a real contribution to the history of this period and I wish it might be used in many school courses, so that children might feel the march of history as they never would if they merely read the facts in text books.

I wonder how many of my readers know that on September 24, at the Du Sable high school auditorium in Chicago, a tribute is going to be paid to the Rev. Amos Ligon, pastor of the Lily of the Valley Baptist church. He served as chaplain with the rank of captain in the 369th Infantry in World War I, so it was not surprising that all five of his sons enlisted in World War II.

Four of them were lieutenants and chaplains. Two of them were killed in action in Italy, two went down with their ship while en route to serve in the islands of the Pacific, and the last one was killed by enemy bombs in England.

In spite of this accumulation of sorrow, such as few people have had to suffer, the father continued with his war work at home. The five gold stars hung in his window. Whatever tributes are paid him, they cannot really lighten his sorrow. But we can show by our sympathy and recognition of what he has done for his country that we realize there is a quality of citizenship which rises above race or creed or color.

The Rev. Amos Ligon is a Negro citizen of the United States. His sons will be honored by us all just because they were such good Americans and gave all they had to give to their country’s cause.

Last night I attended the Dutchess County Social Planning Council meeting. As a result of having a community chest, I think we are beginning to be conscious of the fact that we need more knowledge about our local conditions in the social welfare field.

I was amused by one story of a community where annually the existing agencies reported on what they had done and everybody patted themselves on the back and thought how completely satisfactory everything was. Then a local newspaperman suggested it might be well to list what should be done, instead of what had been done. Instead of saying how many visits had been paid by the Visiting Nurses Association, it might be well to say how much service had been requested and not given because of the lack of funds and personnel to meet the needs, etc.

If this were done everywhere, it might be a shock to many of us.

226

September 17, 1945

HYDE PARK, Sunday – I went down to New York City on Friday to attend a meeting of a small, new organization called “Widows of World War II.” They have started branches in New York City and in neighboring counties, and their hope, if they prove helpful to each other, is to spread to other parts of the nation. At first, only a few women met together to talk over their problems and possible solutions. Now their membership has grown to eighty.

Most of these widows, of course, want opportunities for social life. Then they want some concerted effort made to find better employment opportunities – especially part time work, or work at home, for those who have children. They have additional problems, such as allotments which do not come through. Many of these widows, too, must leave small children behind while they go to work, and they are concerned over the problem of what to do when there are no adequate child care centers in their neighborhood.

At the meeting, it was interesting to observe the general reaction when one girl brought up her problem. After her husband’s loss, she said, she found it very difficult to pull herself together again. Her health had been affected, and she realized that she was not giving her two small children the kind of care and companionship they needed. She wondered if, for her own well-being and for her children’s sake, she should try to find some kind of boarding school, but she feared the expense would be prohibitive.

Quickly, suggestions were made that the group might find some member in her neighborhood who could help out and thereby give her more free time. It was heartening to see how general was the realization that both she and her children would lose something very valuable if, so early in their lives, the latter were separated from their mother and their own home.

These women are, for the most part, very young, and for many of them renewal of a family life may come in the future. But this new organization may give them, during a very difficult period of their lives, the companionship and the sense of backing which every woman needs and which her husband usually provides. I hope that I may be able to be of some use to them in the coming winter; and if they find that their organization really meets their needs, I hope that it will spread to other places.

I came home as early as possible on Saturday morning, to be greeted by Fala as though I had been away for a month. He kept begging me to go for a walk, but I thought he had already had his morning exercise and I put him off during most of the day. I finally discovered that he had been really cheated, so Major and Mrs. Melvyn Douglas and I sallied forth and gave him the walk for which he had been pleading. Earlier, we had a teatime chat with Mr. and Mrs. Sam Weil, who had come up to see the library.

227

September 18, 1945

HYDE PARK, Monday – This morning a man came around to inquire about Christmas trees, which makes me feel that summer is nearer its end than I realized and we had better begin to concentrate on preparing for our next holiday season. Thanksgiving takes very little thought on my part. But Christmas, while it will seem very simple this year in comparison with Christmas in the White House, will require a little more personal attention, since there will be fewer people to help Miss Thompson and me get ready.

My husband always enjoyed Christmas, even though in the years of the war he had less and less time to give either to preparations or to enjoyment of what the rest of us prepared. Nevertheless, I do not think he ever lost his sense of pleasure when we all gathered in his room for the opening of Christmas stockings, nor his joy in gathering family and friends around him to enjoy a Christmas dinner.

I think very often it would be easier to give up celebrations as one grows older, particularly where they have been centered around some one member of a family who is gone. Perhaps, however, celebrations are the very things which one should attempt to carry on, because they serve the purpose which was the theme of Maeterlinck’s “Blue Bird.” In that story, people went to sleep quite happily in the land of departed spirits and woke to real enjoyment only when those on earth remembered them.

I think it can be real enjoyment only if those on earth think happily about them. Some persons seem to think that, when people die, it is more respectful and shows more feeling if their names are mentioned only occasionally, and then with solemnity. I believe, quite to the contrary, that one should try to talk and to think of such people just as though they were still here and entered into our daily lives – and not as being in the past.

Yesterday our county chairman, Walter Cronk, held a Democratic field day at a park just outside of Poughkeepsie. This gave me the opportunity of having as our overnight guests Senator James M. Mead, junior Senator from our State of New York, who came up from Washington, and Paul Fitzpatrick, our Democratic state chairman, as well as Mrs. Helen Gahagen Douglas. All of them spoke at the meeting, and spoke very well. We are overwhelmingly Republican in Dutchess County, but the Democrats made up in enthusiasm what they lacked in numbers.

We were warned over the radio this morning of the approaching hurricane, which has created so much havoc in Florida. Our skies are grey and the chill is that of a November day. I only hope that the wind, which sometimes does havoc in our woods, will not travel so far from the coast this time.

228

September 19, 1945

HYDE PARK, Tuesday – I was urged by someone the other day to resign from the CIO as a patriotic gesture because of the strikes in the Ford plant. I was told that it was terrible for the workers to strike when the industrialists were trying so hard to give jobs.

If this is a sample of the thinking which is going on, I believe the time has come for some of us to state clearly what we really feel and know about the economic situation which faces us in the reconversion period.

First of all, unions are not perfect. They are made up of human beings. But neither are employers perfect; they also are human beings. I happen to have been told by a number of people that a few of our biggest employers – not all of them, but a few of them – think quite honestly that this is the time to break the power of labor through destroying their unions if they can. These industrial leaders believe quite honestly that it would be better for the country to return to what to them seems normal – to a situation in which the costs are largely saved in whatever you manufacture by the cutting down of the number of jobs and of the wages of the workers.

Let us examine this theory. As long as there are other jobs being created into which people can go, the creation of labor-saving devices which benefit only the employer make very little difference. But we have reached a point today where labor-saving devices are good only when they do not throw the worker out of his job. It is fine to produce more things than ever before, but in doing so we must benefit the employee as well as the employer. We must make it possible for him to work fewer hours, and at the same time permit him to have the things which he makes at lower cost and to continue to have the wages which make it possible for him to be a consumer. His wages are the part of our wealth which is most constantly in circulation, just as what the farmer makes is important to us because that also is immediately spent.

The circulation of money is a necessity to prevent depressions. Therefore, if too much money goes into the hands of people who can save it and not put it back into circulation, we will have a depression. When we live on invested money, instead of on the fruits of our own labor, of necessity that money must bring in less. The stockholder or investor must expect less return than the original worker.

I do not know whether the demands of Mr. Ford’s workers should all be granted. But I think there should have been set up, long ago, labor-management committees where questions such as this one could be threshed out. Men should not have to strike for something which probably must be accepted in the future – the right to work fewer hours and yet receive the same wages. It should be a question for sensible men to settle in conference. We need a big national income with money kept in circulation if we are not to go through another depression in which both employer and employee will suffer.

229

September 20, 1945

HYDE PARK, Wednesday – I hope a great many people read the story about the Ford plants in Germany, published in one of our newspapers the other day, with its record of the actions permitted to these foreign plants by the majority stockholders in this country. Although the story dealt only with the Ford empire, there are many other great industrial concerns in the United States whose plants function in many countries throughout the world. I recall hearing, after France fell and after we went into the war, that the heads of a big industry in this country cabled congratulations to their managers in France because the latter were keeping the plant going – although they were keeping it going by making what the Germans asked them to make.

Business complications do strange things to our patriotism and to our ethics!

I imagine that each one of us thinks we are honestly trying to look at any given situation not only from the point of view of our own individual interests, but from the point of view of the good of the people as a whole. Just because this is the case, it is important that every now and then we stop and examine what we have done and what resulted from our actions. In the carefully documented case of the Ford German plants, it was quite evident that Hitler and the Nazis profited by the attitude of the stockowners in this country.

In a case where a labor leader was primarily swayed by his own interests and not by the interests of the people as a whole – as, for instance, when Mr. John Lewis insisted on calling a coal mine strike during the war – we can easily see now that his action was detrimental to the public interest at that time.

Today, with the war no longer on, there are no men fighting for their lives overseas and depending for safety on what is or is not produced at home. On the other hand, it is important that people stay at work, and unreasonable demands, made purely because this is an opportune time to make them, would be detrimental to the people as a whole. But if the demands are reasonable, then their refusal is not in the public interest, since lack of production at this time inconveniences the people who need the goods and delays our return to a prosperous civilian economy.

I do not see why these questions cannot be settled by men of goodwill around a table, thus giving evidence that groups within our country can consider their mutual interests and the interests of the nation and come to a satisfactory solution. How can we expect the nations of the world to sit down together and solve their problems without war if we do not use the same mechanism successfully in settling our domestic problems? If it does not work in the world, our civilization is doomed to destruction. If we cannot make it work at home, we are putting the first nail in the coffin of our civilization.

230

September 21, 1945

HYDE PARK, Thursday – I have just read in manuscript the book called “Joe Louis, American,” by Margery Miller, published by Current Books, Inc. If I had been told beforehand that I would read until 2 a.m. in order to finish a book which in large part deals with boxing matches, I would have smiled and said the person knew very little about my tastes and interests. I have never been willing to go to a boxing match, except for the amateur type that youngsters put on; and once, many years ago, I watched the sailors on board a ship in bouts which they had put on for the distinguished travelers aboard. I did that only because I was told it would be a great disappointment if I did not attend!

This book, therefore, will not be of interest to boxing fans alone! Neither will it interest only the Negro people, though they will have a justifiable pride in the story of a man’s rise from a cotton field farm in the South to fame and respect throughout the sports world. As I read, I realized that this was not the record simply of the boy who had reached the top in his particular sport. It was also the record of a man who, through his work in sports, wanted to win for his people goodwill among the people of other races and religions with whom his people had to live.

The story is simply told, without embellishments, but I believe many people who would not think of reading about Joe Louis, the champion, will be interested to read about Joe Louis, the man and the citizen.

This week is National Dog Week, and I want to say a word in its interest. Ever since I was a little girl I have owned dogs and, at various times in my life, I have depended on them much. Fala is today a companion, a source of interest and amusement to me. I know that it is important for all dogs, large and small, to be well trained and to have proper care. Dogs who are not well will be bad-tempered. They need the proper kind of food, in proper quantity and at regular times. They need exercise and, if they are not going to be a nuisance, they need good training.

A well-disciplined master will always have a well-disciplined dog. It requires patience to train dogs, just as it does to train a child, but in both cases the results will amply repay the time spent. We have come to look with pride and interest on the Seeing-eye dogs, who do so much for their blind owners. But they could do very little without their training, and their training is given by people who have patience and understanding and really care about both people and dogs. No one should own a dog who is not prepared really to love him. But if a dog is loved and well cared for and well trained, he will repay his family with the kind of devotion which is rare in any human relationship.

231

September 22, 1945

HYDE PARK, Friday – I had my first long drive through the countryside yesterday. I had spent Wednesday night with Miss Esther Lape at her home in Westbrook, Connecticut, and in the evening we stood on an upstairs porch and saw the full moon shine on the fields, with the background of Long Island Sound in the distance. It is interesting how places retain the spirit of the people who have lived in them. This house and the woods, and the view, all speak to me of Miss Elizabeth Read, who lived there and loved it. One can almost feel her presence as one remembers the joy she had in the beauties of nature.

That is one of the reasons why I like to go there. Miss Read was a rare personality, with great ability and marked integrity. I loved and admired her very much. Now, in a world with so many problems, it is good to be reminded of the way in which she would have approached many of the complicated questions we have to think through today.

On Thursday morning Miss Lape and I took a short walk in the woods, and then she drove me back to Hyde Park. I like Connecticut roads: they wind so much that you can’t drive too quickly, and so you have an opportunity to look at the country. It is good country, with many little lakes, brooks and rivers, woods and hills. We arrived rather late for lunch; but even if our household was hungry, they didn’t show it too much and greeted us almost as happily as did Fala.

I spent the afternoon re-packing boxes in preparation for the weekend, which I hope will bring a visit from my two youngest sons and will give them a chance to make their final decision as to what they want for their homes.

It is a great excitement, now, to have the boys getting settled and starting to work. I wanted to know everything they did during the war. But somehow I dreaded it, too – partly because it conjured up so much general suffering, and partly because it gave one’s imagination plenty of opportunity to play on the dangers which were never mentioned but which one knew existed.

I have been reading a book called “Plowman’s Folly,” by Edward H. Faulkner, and I can well imagine that it must provoke great discussion in agricultural groups. All my life I have heard about the virtues of deep plowing, but this author suggests that we plow under much valuable material and should change our ways. It is interesting as a theory, and I shall now try to get the opinion of others who know more about farming than I do! I think it would be fun to take two rather similar fields and try out the two methods. But perhaps I shall find out that that has already been done.

232

September 24, 1945

HYDE PARK, Sunday – The news of Judge Irving Lehman’s death is in the papers this morning, and the State of New York has sustained a loss which its citizens will recognize with deep sorrow. For many years, the Chief Justice of the highest court in New York State held a unique position, and he was respected and regarded with great affection by all those who knew him. To his family, this loss is a heartbreaking one. I can hardly imagine how Mrs. Lehman will face life without the deep concern and solicitude for her husband which has always been present in her mind and heart. Deeper than that, however, will be the loss of someone who has always stood for her, as well as for the rest of us, as a tower of strength and integrity.

I have been reading some reports in the last few days which perhaps are sharpened for me by the fact that we have lost Judge Lehman’s strength in the fight for the right. These reports have come to me from a number of sources. They speak of the fact that because of a legalism which sets down how we shall treat German nationals, both civilians and prisoners of war, our authorities feel bound to make no distinction in their treatment of German nationals whom they found in concentration camps in Germany.

We have not even removed many of these people from places where filth and disease are rampant. These prisoners of the Nazis were largely Jewish, though among them may be found political prisoners of other religious beliefs and national origin who were opposed to the Nazis. They have been interned, many of them for years, under horrible conditions. They have lacked food and clothing; cleanliness has been impossible, and they have been under constant fear of torture and maltreatment. We prolong these years of horror because, legally, they are German nationals.

This seems to me unthinkable. I am sure that the people of our country, if they were aware of this particular situation, would feel as strongly as I do that those who have suffered under the Nazis – no matter what their nationality or religion – are not our enemies or the enemies of the Allied nations, and should not be treated as such.

These are the things which happen because general directives have to govern situations which cover large areas of territory, and at first it is hard to foresee the exceptions which have to be made in almost every situation. I hope, however, that these terrible conditions, which affect so many thousands of human beings, will be corrected as soon as possible.

Just the other day, the late Judge Lehman sent me his address of welcome given in New York City to General Eisenhower. In this address he quoted: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul,” and “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.”

“That is the law which went forth from Zion.” According to that law, Judge Lehman lived his life out.

233

September 25, 1945

HYDE PARK, Monday – No one will begrudge Secretary Stimson his well-earned rest. He has had a long and very remarkable career in public service, and the nation owes him a great debt of gratitude. He must often have wanted, in the past few years, to remind people of his efforts to awaken Great Britain and ourselves to the menace of the Japanese when they first entered Manchuria. He is a farsighted statesman who gave unstintingly of his time and ability to the nation, but I think his service through this last war was his most remarkable achievement. He was young in spirit and kept in touch with what the men were going through, and I doubt if many people even thought he was demanding a great deal of himself at an age when most men would have felt themselves entitled to retire and claim immunity to further work. Our gratitude is due to both Secretary and Mrs. Stimson.

His able assistant, Secretary Robert P. Patterson, is well suited to follow in his footsteps and will give the same unselfish service to his country.

I have been somewhat disturbed lately to read statements in the public press by members of Congress and military officers which seem to assume that the atomic bomb is a secret that can be kept by this nation, if we so desire. The scientists who worked on the discovery, and who should know more about it than anyone else, insist that it is no secret. No scientific discovery can long remain secret when the fundamental principles involved are so widely known; and in this particular case, the fundamental principles of atomic energy and its release were widely known even before the particular developments for this project were undertaken. The technical and engineering details will soon be discovered by other scientists in other lands.

It seems to me that this discovery has made imperative an educational undertaking in every country in the world. Every man, every woman – everywhere – must grow up knowing that since this discovery of how to use atomic energy for destruction, annihilation faces them unless they learn to live in a peaceful world and to allow the policing of the world to be done by an international security agency.

The sovereignty which each nation will have to renounce is not too high a price to pay for the continuation of our civilization. Almost every country in the world has the needed raw materials for the manufacture of these bombs, and the little countries can do it as well as the big ones. All that is needed, to destroy, is to act first. Are we going to live in constant dread of all our neighbors? Except for the completely happy-go-lucky person, able to wipe out all thought of the future, no one could go to bed at night with any sense of security. Once a weapon is discovered, it will always be used by those who are in desperate straits.

The day we found the secret of the atomic bomb, we closed one phase of civilization and entered upon another.

234

September 26, 1945

HYDE PARK, Tuesday – There is a small book which I think many of us will like to give as a Christmas gift to little children we know. Called “The Beloved Son,” it is the life of Jesus written in rhymed couplets for young children by Blanche Shoemaker Wagstaff, with illustrations by Bettie Kerkham. I am sure any child who reads it will enjoy it and have a better idea of what happened to this man who, so many years ago, tried to teach people that “God is love.”

If you want to know something about the life of a young teacher – (and she would have to be young or she never would undertake it) – who decides to teach in a small rural school in the mountains, or in one of the poorer rural areas of our country, be sure to read “Fair Is the Morning,” by Loula Grace Erdman. A love story is woven into the pages of this book to give it appeal for the casual reader; but the stark facts about the average poor country community, its school and the schoolmarm are all here. The children – gifted or stupid, unruly but loyal when once won over – pass before you and show you why any teaching, anywhere, can be made an exciting career if you have imagination and love people.

But the difficulties that face “Connie Thurman,” in this story, might overwhelm many a young woman, and they don’t need to be faced if, by and large, our national and state governments and the big groups interested in education would give more understanding thought to the problems of the rural school in the poor community.

During the White House Conference on Rural Education, held some years ago, one thing struck me – namely, that with the exception of the Farmers Union, the big farm organizations have not been willing to face the fact that children in rural communities, by and large, have less opportunity for good education than children in cities or in richer rural communities. Two of the speakers at that conference, referring to the strides that had been made in making education available to rural youth, seemed to think that belonging to the 4-H Clubs, or to the Future Farmers of America, would far outweigh the advantages of having better teachers, better paid, and a school which would make it possible to give certain courses that would help change the pattern of the life of the community.

If rural life is going to appeal to our returning veterans, and if it is to hold the young men and women who are needed in any community to make it a good community, then education in rural areas all over the country must provide better teachers at higher salaries. They must have tenure, too, for this gives them freedom to introduce new and valuable subjects which will eventually prove their worth, but which, because they are new, often seem dangerous to localities that have not had the opportunity of watching educational experiments in other areas.

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September 27, 1945

HYDE PARK, Wednesday – The wave of strikes which is sweeping the country and, just at present, paralyzing a good deal of the business in New York City, must be of concern to everyone in the nation. We who look to the future with the hope that human beings are going to find ways to adjust their difficulties peacefully, under the laws which operate in the particular areas where troubles occur, are deeply concerned.

The eyes of the world are on this nation. The fact that peace came sooner than we expected, and therefore found us without our reconversion machinery in complete running order, will not serve as an excuse for anything except delay – and that delay must not be too lengthy.

I do not think any period has shown the need for planning in advance more clearly than has this past war period. The men who planned the strategy of the war years planned months ahead. At Casablanca and Teheran, plans were laid down which did not come to fruition for months. The problems of peace need to be handled in that same way. The only difficulty is that we are now in somewhat the same position as we were in ‘32, when plans had to be made quickly and were much more experimental than most people liked. The situation was so desperate then, however, that everyone was willing to try.

Now we again face an uncharted situation. We deal with human beings, many of whom have not been educated in the past to think of any situation as a whole. We have, however, a great advantage. Some of our industrial leaders have learned that they must think of the situation as a whole, as it affects employers, investors and workers; and among our labor leaders we also have men who can be expected to take the same broad view. With that nucleus, we should be able very quickly to develop machinery which will give enough confidence to all so that management and workers will be willing to continue working while problems, no matter how difficult they may be, are being adjusted.

The strike, which is a weapon of force, should be renounced. But that cannot be until we set a limit on the time allowed for arbitration and until we say that all interests shall be equally considered and that concessions shall never be expected from one side only.

The men in history who have been the most successful in advancing the world are the men who never gave up their ultimate objectives, but who compromised over and over again, being satisfied when they felt that they had gained a little more understanding for their point of view and inched forward toward the ultimate goal for which they hoped. The warning to us in our present situation is not only national; it is international. A meeting is going on abroad among representatives of the United Nations. Our situation at home cannot be a great encouragement to them abroad.

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September 28, 1945

HYDE PARK, Thursday – I wonder if the tone of the press dispatches, as they describe the peace meetings in England, gives you the same sense of uneasiness that I experience. We have not yet learned to handle other people so that they believe in our goodwill and in our honesty. Naturally, we will advocate what is good for ourselves; but they must know we will also take into consideration what is good for other people, since we know that if they suffer, in the long run we will inevitably suffer, too.

It is a traditional American feeling that we do not have to worry about understanding other people’s prejudices and customs, since we can go our own way. With hard work, we expect to get along regardless of what happens to others. It certainly is difficult to change from this attitude to one in which we accept responsibility for studying our neighbors, for trying not to ruffle their feathers, because we know we need friends in the world and not disgruntled neighbors.

People in this country are generous, and I know that they are more than anxious to help whenever they realize there is suffering anywhere. For example, a woman wrote me a wonderful suggestion which I am going to pass on to the Share the Food committee, because I think it might accomplish much. She says: “Millions here make a small amount of money which covers only our everyday expenses. Naturally we want to help those who have much less, or nothing at all. We millions have nothing left over but one or two dollars after we pay our rent, electric, washing and cleaning bills; but we can spare a few pennies every week. We could give a small quantity – about four ounces – of noodles, spaghetti, dried vegetables, cocoa, coffee or cheese, plus the four pennies to cover the cost of shipment overseas. In 52 weeks, it would amount to something.”

Such a gesture, from millions of people, could not help but give courage to other millions who have gone without so much for so many years. Thus the people make friends. When it comes to dealing on the diplomatic level, however, we become suspicious. We think we must be aloof and not show our natural friendliness because we expect other people to think we are suckers and to take advantage of us.

Long ago, as an individual, I found it was better to be fooled occasionally than always to be suspicious of other people’s motives, and I am sure that a great many other people have come to that same conclusion.

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September 29, 1945

NEW YORK, Friday – Last night, in New York, I spoke at the closing session of a two-day forum held in Christ Church. Dr. Ralph Sockman, the rector, presided and the subject last evening was “The Challenge of the Future.”

There were a good many speeches and I admired the fortitude of the audience, but I must say I have never heard such a high level attained by a group of speakers – beginning with Dr. Mordecai W. Johnson and ending with Grove Patterson of the Toledo Blade. Congresswoman Clare Boothe Luce preached a fine sermon; but she managed to weave into it allusions to Republicanism, and she looked beautiful!

Earlier in the afternoon I went with John Golden down to City Hall, where the Mayor paid his tribute again to the producers and members of the entertainment world who have made New York City such an exceptionally pleasant place for servicemen to visit. They have donated tickets for movies, theatres and all other types of entertainment. I am always very glad to add my mite of praise not only for those who provide the tickets, but for those who, like Mr. Golden, Mrs. Adler and Mr. Donovan, do the hard work of organization that permits distribution of these donated tickets to go on so smoothly, and who create at 99 Park Avenue such a pleasant atmosphere.

Yesterday’s celebration was for the passing of the 10,000,000 mark in donated tickets. The four men who received the tickets yesterday all had very fine records, and in my heart I wished for them not only a very happy evening, but a future more peaceful than they have yet known and with the same opportunities for service in their civilian lives.

The drive for the National War Fund must now come to everyone’s attention. It is very important this year, because it includes the aid which we give to many of our Allies as well as the things we do for our own. The activities for servicemen are centered largely in the USO Camp Shows program; and since the monotony of occupation is well known, I think our men need more entertainment than they did during the war period. I hope therefore that contributions to the fund will allow us to do more than we have done before. USO Camp Shows has a group of special V-J Day units, which is an addition to its usual program. These programs will include a total cast of 1206 artists and will consist of 62 variety shows, 12 musical shows and 12 dramatic productions.

The War Fund has always been able to carry out satisfactorily all of its activities, and it could not do this without the backing of the public. I hope that this backing will again be forthcoming.

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October 1, 1945

NEW YORK, Sunday – October 1 through October 8 has been chosen as the Sixth Annual National Newspaper Week. During the war years, we have been particularly conscious of the contribution made by war correspondents to the knowledge and understanding of the war by the people of the United States. Without the risks which they ran, we would have known little of what our men were accomplishing. They shared in the landings on foreign shores, they jumped with the airborne troops, they covered the seven seas, and many of them paid the same price that our servicemen paid and lie buried in foreign soil.

In the domestic field, we cannot say, of course, that every newspaper in this country holds to the ideals of giving its writers the freedom to write the truth as they see it. Many a paper expects that its writers will write from the point of view which they particularly wish to get across to the minds of the people in general. But that was not the case with the war correspondents. They wrote the facts as they saw them, and because of their devotion to the ideals of their profession, we have seen through their eyes a colorful and intimate picture of the happenings in this war.

Raymond Clapper and Ernie Pyle stand out in my mind as writers who have given me not only information, but much food for thought.

The newspaper profession has been one in which a high standard of ethics was set many years ago, and by and large, that standard has been adhered to through the years. I have known men and women who have resigned their positions rather than write what they did not believe, and I am very proud to have a small part in a profession which helps to form the public opinion of the people of the United States.

It is a grave responsibility. But if every writer and every publisher and owner of a newspaper make a primary requirement of complete integrity from their writers, there is bound to be an honest diversity of opinion which will give the American people a good foundation on which to argue out their own convictions.

Yesterday I attended the lunch given by the National Citizens Political Action Committee of New York City, at which former Secretary Morgenthau and General O’Dwyer spoke, among others. The National Citizens Political Action Committee is doing much to arouse public interest in contemporary political situations, and that seems to me a service to democracy.

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October 2, 1945

NEW YORK, Monday – I have noticed in the papers that Christmas packages for men who are overseas this year should be mailed in the near future. Yesterday a man in the Navy sent me a telegram. He urges me to ask all those who are sending Christmas packages overseas to reenforce their cardboard boxes in some way. He says that mail and packages are so important to those who are away from home that it is a tragedy when anything goes wrong. Last year some of the packages that reached them were beyond identification. Things had fallen out and been broken, and it was a desperate disappointment to many servicemen. My navy man says he does not blame the postoffice, because he thinks they did an efficient job; but he feels the senders could wrap parcels more efficiently.

I remember seeing some experts packing in England once, and they were doing the packages up in a cardboard box wrapped in heavy cloth, with the ends sewed over.

I only pass this along because I think it is almost as disappointing for us who send out packages, when they do not give pleasure, as it is for the men who receive them.

Yesterday afternoon I went up to the National Guard Armory at 142nd Street and Fifth Avenue, where a tablet was being unveiled to the memory of Colonel William Hayward and the officers and men of the 369th Regiment who fought and made a brilliant record in the first World War. This was a colored regiment, and they were brigaded with the French. Colonel William J. Schieffelin made a remark to me, as we were waiting for the ceremonies to begin, which had a sad aspect. He said: “The 369th was fortunate when the decision was made to let them fight with the French. They received their complete training as an infantry regiment, and were then able to function where there was no prejudice against them.” He himself was one of the colonels of the regiment.

Present yesterday was one of the two Americans who received one of the first decorations given by the French in the war. He was a colored sergeant in the 369th, and he received the decoration for great bravery on the field of battle. The other recipient, also a colored sergeant, is now dead.

The plaque by Selma Burke, the Negro sculptress who recently did the plaque of my husband for the Recorder of Deeds office in Washington, is a very fine piece of work. The ceremonies lasted for some time and, as the space between the armory and the river kept filling up with more and more people, I began to wonder whether shortly they would be pushing each other into the river. The flags and the different groups represented, however, made it a colorful sight. When we went inside the armory for Mrs. Hayward to unveil the tablet, each of the ladies was presented with a beautiful bouquet of flowers.

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October 3, 1945

NEW YORK, Tuesday – Last night I went to Newark, New Jersey, for a Freedom Rally held under the auspices of the Federation of Negro College Students and other civic groups of the city. The Mayor was there and the auditorium was crowded, and I was glad to see that it really was a joint meeting of many people of different national origins and of varied religions. After the Mayor’s greeting, Dr. Channing Tobias spoke, and both young and old seemed to feel the significance at the present moment of a meeting to emphasize the unity of the American people.

I think Mayor La Guardia was right to be horrified when he heard of the rumored high school riots here, and of the actual ones in Chicago and in Gary, Indiana. It seems to me, however, that while on the surface we can blame certain organizations and leaders who may have been impressing on these young minds the differences among people rather than their likenesses, we elders cannot escape from the main responsibility. Parents at home must know when their children are rioting, or developing the ideas which lead to riots. If they do not know, it shows a lack of family communication and mutual interest which is sad indeed.

I have long been one of those who like to feel that many of the most difficult problems which we face will find no solutions as long as we, of the older generation, are making the decisions. I have lately come to think, however, that in this atomic age we are not going to be able to sit back comfortably and look to the future generations to solve the problems of the world. An atomic bomb moves so fast that, unless we remove any reason for its destructive use, there may be no future generations!

It would be comfortable to accept the pessimism of a Henry Adams who, enjoying pessimism, acknowledged that he and his contemporaries had failed, yet hoped future generations would do better. But we are in the sad situation of being forced to act ourselves or run the risk of having no future in the civilization which we and our forefathers have built.

When one reads the accounts of the peace conference in Europe, one cannot help feeling that our individual conviction about the necessity for peace, and the need for having confidence override suspicion, has not been strong enough to impress itself very greatly on the minds of our representatives or the representatives of Britain and Russia. One can talk about leaving things to the “Big Three,” but in the long run the world cannot be run only by the men at the top. They must reflect the feeling and direction given them by the individual citizens of their nations. That can be done better in a democracy than in any other form of government, I believe, if the citizens accept their responsibilities; but it can be done anywhere, by any people who are determined to be heard by their leaders.