Eleanor Roosevelt – My Day (1945)

301

December 13, 1945

NEW YORK, Wednesday – The one bright spot in the present management labor situation is the negotiation now going on between the Ford Motor Company and the United Auto Workers.

The workers, through Walter Reuther, have offered to permit the Company to discharge the instigators of wildcat strikes, and fine the participants three dollars a day for the first offense and five dollars a day for the second. In return, the Company would agree that if any of its representatives instigated or unnecessarily provoked stoppages of production, they would be penalized.

It was said yesterday that the Ford Motor Company has under consideration a plan to substitute an annual for an hourly wage. To the outsider it looks as though Mr. Ford’s own idea that mass production could bring higher profits was at the back of much of this new thinking and might lead to some really revolutionary changes.

The resolutions adopted by the International Executive Board of the International Wage Policy Committee of the United States Steel Workers of America yesterday are well worth the study of every citizen. They point out that the government now has the facts involved in the present dispute.

They say: “The Office of War Mobilization and Reconversion have a complete report on the condition of American industry. The OPA has a full report on the financial condition of the steel industry.”

It would, therefore, seem unnecessary to do more than publish these findings so the public would have a basis for judgment on the labor and management issues at stake in the steel strike called for January 14.

By December 15, a letter written by Elmo Roper, public opinion analyst, will be in the hands of the public. It is a letter which might well go to people in every community in this nation. Dealing with rising racial tensions, it asks the help of the communities and, in a sane and peaceful fashion, tries to work out sound solutions before the pressures on Negro life bring about demonstrations of violence.

It points out:

“1. More Negroes employed at whatever jobs their skills fit them for, will make them more self-respecting citizens.

“2. Decent housing for Negroes will remove slum plague spots and make your community a healthier place for all.

“3. Self-reliant Negroes make a fine racial contribution to America.

“4. Negroes and whites, happy in a world at peace, can give their best energies to the good community life.”

This is a sane program and the Urban league is right in asking our support now to prevent situations which may tarnish the good name of Democracy throughout the world.

The labor troubles we now face have a close tie-up with our racial situation. Racial minorities always are the first to suffer when there are strikes or lay-offs, and when our people, instead of working toward full employment, are indulging not only in labor strikes, but in management strikes. Management seems to be trying to bring about less strong workers’ organizations and a lower labor cost.

302

December 14, 1945

NEW YORK, Thursday – Tuesday afternoon I talked at some length with a Dutch publisher and his wife, whose family are Texans, and also with a representative of the press from Norway. All of them have been travelling in the United States and are on their way back to their own countries.

They will arrive there in mid-winter. The best they can hope for in heating their offices is to keep a temperature of 48 degrees Fahrenheit. In their homes they can have enough coal to cook one hot meal a day, and that will be all the heat there will be in the whole house!

They cannot help being struck by how little we know of the daily discomforts which still are the familiar experience of all who live in a country where war has been on their doorsteps for the last five years, and where the results of war still are evident on every hand.

These people feel, quite rightly I believe, that the Allies who made a stand against Germany and Japan, are entitled to our help before we do anything beyond the mere subsistence level for our enemies. Of course, I entirely agree with them.

People, and especially children, who have lived through starvation and cold and fear for five years have reached the breaking point and must have help immediately. It is not our purpose to let the German people starve. However, in these past five years, they have had the food and coal taken from the other nations and they are therefore better able to stand the hardships of this winter than are the peoples of our Allies.

My visitors told me how much the American soldier has earned in admiration and respect wherever he fought. I think I detected a hope, though it was not expressed, that the American civilian would not by lack of understanding of the effort needed for peace, tarnish the record of our servicemen.

I can hear some say: “The job is too big for the people of this nation. We cannot feed the world or put it on its feet. We must look after our own people.”

The answer is, I think, that our own interests can be served successfully only if we do furnish the people who have been close to the war with the tools and the wherewithal to rebuild their own economy. We must not forget that our great domestic demands at present, once they are filled and once the savings made during the war are spent, will leave us a margin of productive capacity which requires markets in other prosperous countries.

We are concerned about the economy of the rest of the world, but it is not an unselfish concern. Whoever coined the phrase “enlightened self-interest” knew very well that human nature is always more easily touched by its own concern. World markets will be vital to our future well being.

303

December 15, 1945

NEW YORK, Friday – I have just read Keith Wheeler’s “We Are The Wounded.” A fighting man with the gift of expression is a rarity, but in this book a war correspondent with a talent for vivid writing has himself gone through the experiences of a wounded soldier.

Anyone of us who has visited the wards of military hospitals, both near the front and here at home, will corroborate his testimony as to the courage and cheerfulness which prevails almost universally among the wounded. They cover up their suffering and pain to the utmost of their ability, and their black hours are hidden from most of us, even though those with permanent disabilities must have them.

It probably is valuable for all of us to have a writer gather together in a book, so well written that you cannot fail to understand the pain, the individual stories of the wounded, as Wheeler has done. These stories could be multiplied thousands of times over. For each individual the problem is a little different and his own reaction is never quite like that of the next man.

This volume should help us all to a realization that a wounded man is still the same man he was when he left his home and that to the best of his ability and to ours, that is what he wants to continue to be.

There is another book which I think everyone should read. It is called “Sea, Surf and Hell” – the story of the Coast Guard in World War II. It is edited by Commander Arch A. Mercey, USCGR, and Lee Grove, Chief Specialist, USCGR. This history of the Coast Guard during the war tells in quite a dispassionate manner, some thrilling and exciting experiences. Without apparently considering anyone a hero, it relates the stories of innumerable heroes.

The U.S. Coast Guard always has done a day by day heroic job, but in the war, as part of our Navy, they participated in every kind of action, and their history is the history of young America’s heroism everywhere.

The name Coast Guard might lead one to believe that they operate for the most part within sight of our coasts. With this in mind, Lieut. Scott Wilson, a veteran of the invasion of Saipan, began to hum some words in the spring of ‘43, and on talking it over with Chris Yacich, Specialist 1st Class, USCGR, who had some songwriting experience, a song was born called: “I’d Like to Find the Guy Who Named the Coast Guard.” The chorus goes:

“I’d like to find the guy who named the Coast Guard
And find that bit of coast he had in mind.
Whatever he was thinking, is the thing that puzzles me
When submarines I’m sinking in the middle of the sea.
And when I’m dodging enemy torpedoes
Or landing troops upon a foreign shore.
Then I have a salty yearning, while my hand my gun is burning,
Oh, I’d like to find the guy who named the Coast Guard”

Yesterday I had the pleasure of meeting at lunch Mr. Lawrence Phillips, Executive Director of the USO Camp Shows. These shows must go on until all of our men are home. They have done a wonderful job of entertainment world over. But unless we support USO Camp Shows, the men who are left in faraway places will not have the same sense that they are not forgotten at home which these shows have been able to give them during the war.

304

December 17, 1945

NEW YORK, Sunday – I am very happy to know that a number of people are pressing upon the House of Representatives and the Senate, the importance of appropriating immediately the rest of the money we pledged for this year to the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration. How can that Administration arrange for transportation and obtain the necessary goods unless they have in hand the money which makes these activities possible? The delay in passing this promised appropriation seems to me to indicate a shameful lack of understanding on the part of our people and their Representatives of the needs of those we have pledges to keep alive during this winter.

We have been critical about the kind of a job that UNRRA has done. I am quite certain that there are places where relief could have been better administered. We deal with human beings and unfortunately human beings are not always perfect in the work which they undertake. We play up in our newspapers the failures which occur, but we rarely tell of the great number of successes. I have letters of gratitude from people in many parts of the world who state that without the goods brought them by UNRRA, their people could not have continued to exist.

With the best administration and executive direction in the world, however, no organization can function unless it is sure of its own future. This is where we, the people, and our Representatives have a responsibility. If we don’t do our share by seeing that appropriations which we have pledged are in hand when they are needed, then we are to blame if people starve and if in the future there is ill-will towards us in other parts of the world. It is easy to say that it is no concern of ours what happens to the people of the rest of the world, but we must not forget that the Lord has been kind to us. He might have let us suffer as He let people suffer in other countries. Since he did not, there surely was a purpose behind our salvation. We are a generous people, but even if we acted purely from selfish motives we would deny ourselves today so that we might have goodwill in the future throughout the world. We can not let our Representatives deliberate over an obligation which we must fulfill when every day means less chance to help in this critical winter. Winter is with us now, and it will take at least a month or two before this money can be translated into goods. I know there is suffering in our own country and each one of us in our own community could be more aware of it than we are, but that is no excuse for not seeing that our word is kept so that our share of help goes out to the rest of the world.

I am glad that there are also many private organizations that are trying to help UNRRA, much for instance as the United Nations Food Drive which is collecting and sending food to supplement the work of UNRRA, and the Federal Council of Churches of Christ in America. These committees are already working on Congress for the adoption of next year’s appropriation for the UNRRA program which shows that some of us are fully conscious of the need to serve world need as well as domestic need during the next critical years.

305

December 18, 1945

NEW YORK, Monday – According to the newspapers yesterday the Emergency Appropriation Bill of $2,400,000,000, which carried $750,000,000 as a contribution for the United States to the work of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration, was passed on December 15.

However, this Bill has to go back to the Conference Committee to smooth out any differences between the Senate and House Bills. Even then according to the accounts, “the appropriation for UNRRA does not become effective until Congressional action is completed on the additional scheduled appropriation of $1,350,000,000 which will cover our contribution for next year.”

We must not allow ourselves to be lulled into complacency, therefore, and to think that since our $750,000,000 has been passed, UNRRA can go ahead and make its plans. It now seems vital that, before Congress goes home on the 20th, they pass next year’s appropriation.

Otherwise no money will be actually on hand, according to the above item, with which UNRRA can carry through its plans. It would seem impossible for the members of Congress to go home and enjoy their Christmas vacations with the weight of the suffering of the world constantly before them, and no action yet taken to alleviate it.

It would, I think, be for all of us a sadder Christmas. Our representatives in Congress must be conscious of this, and yet I am sometimes a little bit confused by their apparently inconsistent reactions to this suffering.

For instance, as far as I have been able to find out, there has been comparatively little protest over the fact that the Germans – Jews, Protestants and Catholics – who have spent years of the war in concentration camps, and therefore should be regarded as our Allies who fought from within Germany, are treated similarly to the Germans who fought the war against us, whether as soldiers or civilians.

I see also that thirty-four Congressmen, Democrats and Republicans, have petitioned that our army be instructed immediately to increase the rations for the German people. I do not want German people to starve, but the returning soldiers all speak of the fact that German children are well-fed and well-clothed. It is obvious that they would be, since for five years the wealth of all the conquered countries has been siphoned off into Germany.

There is no question, according to the reports of the men coming home, that the German people are better able to withstand this winter than our Allies, in spite of the fact that coal will be lacking and they will have less food than they had as a conquering nation.

I feel very strongly, as I think all fair-minded people feel, that the ration given the German people this year should be limited to the bare necessities of life and that whatever we can give in excess of what is now being shipped to our Allies should go to them and not to Germany.

It is our Allies who for five years have been on a starvation diet. They are the people whose houses are cold, whose clothing is scant and they are the ones who fought with us to end the war.

306

December 19, 1945

NEW YORK, Tuesday – Not long ago my little dog and I got a taxi on West Street, near Christopher and meandered through the snow looking for the old YMCA. It was ten o’clock in the morning and I had been asked to come and see a building which housed permanently about one hundred and fifty old seamen. Seamen who, even though they were over sixty, had returned to sea during the war.

One man had been torpedoed three times. But now there is no longer a call for their services and they can’t all be housed in Sailors Snug Harbor.

These men have no families; they’ve lived a roving life. One thing they do have, their self-respect and perhaps a few small savings. Others are on welfare, but here they can live for $6.00 a week. Each room is clean as a ship’s cabin, with a bed, locker and chair. Their food is good. How it is done only the cook and the steward can tell.

They have a floating population here, too, much younger men who come in for a few nights before shipping out again, or groups of men who have been stranded for one reason or another and are waiting for their government to see that they are re-employed or shipped to some other point.

There is a new, much better YMCA on the water front, but this old building is needed. The time has come, however, when like most old structures it must have some repairs. New plumbing, a new heating system. I hope that all of us who have been served so faithfully and well by the men of the sea throughout these years of the war, are going to make our small return to them by responding to this appeal.

Their dayroom at present is very bare with few comfortable chairs and not very many of the things which they like to do for recreation. They have to hire a projector and a movie screen if they want to show a movie. The games on the tables looked well-used and none too plentiful. Perhaps some kind friends will remember them with Christmas gifts that may be used in the dayroom during the coming year.

On Sunday I went to Philadelphia to receive an award given posthumously to my husband by Brith Sholom. The citation read: “For his devotion to humanitarian principles and his untiring efforts on behalf of the stricken and oppressed peoples of the world.”

Rabbi Wise, with his usual eloquence, spoke words of praise which I greatly value. He and Mrs. Wise had spent two days in Atlantic City hearing of the need of the displaced persons in Europe from the lips of some of the men who had survived the horror camps. I think that background gave added emotion to his appreciation of my husband’s real feeling for the importance of equal justice throughout the world, coupled with his devotion to the cause of oppressed peoples at home or abroad.

307

December 20, 1945

NEW YORK, Wednesday – On Tuesday I spent the full day going to the Veterans’ Hospital in Coatesville, Pa., near Philadelphia. The population of this hospital is greater than was intended.

The kitchen, for instance, was planned on a basis of 1,000 beds and the hospital now has well over 2,000 patients. Some of the day-rooms have had to be turned into wards, but on the whole one is not conscious of great overcrowding.

More than two-thirds of the veterans here are from World War One and some even are Spanish War Veterans. Age and the strain of life, and the fact that many are without families or friends, have brought them to the hospital where they will probably stay for the rest of their lives.

I was particularly happy to find that there was no use of cuffs, strait-jackets or solitary confinement. Shock treatments are given; also, the hot baths which do have a quieting influence on the more excited patients. There is a ward of very old and very sick people which must demand from the attendants the same patience and care that a baby would need.

The great difficulty in a mental hospital is, of course, the lack of psychiatrists and of trained attendants. New attendants are given an eight-day intensive course before they go on the wards. This hospital has had great success in using groups of colored soldiers as attendants. They have proved kind and gentle, but under the point system many of them are now going out of the service. So the need for regular attendants will be increasingly hard to fill.

Under General Bradley, there is being inaugurated in these hospitals a special services program with a physical director in charge of certain activities. I saw some of the younger men doing setting up exercises which I feel sure will be beneficial to both their physical and mental condition.

It seemed to me that there was great need for the services of more psychiatric social workers. The occupational therapy work is being done, but could be strengthened. If there were more trained psychiatric workers available, one on every ward would, I am sure, be helpful to the doctors and to all the other people working with the younger patients.

Here the chief effort must be to rehabilitate as rapidly as possible and return to normal life, so it is essential that they get now the best care and all the services that may speed up their recovery.

The other afternoon Miss Ella May Thornton, State Librarian of the Georgia State Library came to see me, bringing a most moving account, related to her by Mr. Graham Jackson, of his last interview with my husband at Warm Springs and his last glimpse of him on the day of his death. She had written it just as Mr. Jackson told it to her and the simplicity and real affection which shone through the whole account gave it a really beautiful literary quality.

308

December 21, 1945

NEW YORK, Thursday – It looks as though there was going to be a very determined effort to tie the increase in wages to the price of manufactured goods. Apparently nobody has the slightest objection to raising wages if they can cover the full amount of the price increase by charging the public more.

It is perfectly obvious that this would make the rise in wages null and void. It doesn’t really matter how much money I have, it is what that money will buy which is important. If five cents will buy all that I want, then five cents is all I need.

The only real advantage in raising wages is to allow the average person to have a few more goods and services than they had in the past. That is called raising our standard of living. Therefore, the managers of our businesses should be thinking very hard at present of how they are going to be able to sell people more goods at the same or a lower price than in the past.

Mr. Chester Bowles, of the OPA, should be upheld in keeping prices down to prevent inflation. Wages should go up to make it possible for people to buy more. Good management could discover ways and means of selling to the public not at higher prices, but at lower prices.

No one is going to dictate to management how this is to be done. It should not be done by cutting the backlog of savings which should accumulate for a rainy day. On the other hand that backlog should not be too large since in the aggregate it may mean that too much saving is keeping money out of circulation.

We have been clever in the past in the use of machinery. Perhaps that will be the answer again, and when the solution to our present difficulties is found, as I am sure it will be, I hope it will be a real one that raises the standard of living.

The other afternoon a young woman came to see me with whom I could talk only through an interpreter, but the expression of her face and the eloquence of her sad eyes were proof enough that she had come to this country on a mission which was close to her heart.

Mr. Soledad Alvarez is one of the political prisoners to whom the Spanish government promised amnesty if they returned to their country. He had made his escape to Cuba after the defeat of the Loyalists and then returned to France to fight with the Resistance forces there.

As soon as he crossed the border into Spain he was arrested. His wife, who is a Cuban, quite naturally is doing all she can to enlist public sympathy in this country in his behalf, in the hope that the white light of publicity may move the Spanish government to greater leniency.

She is hoping that our government will use its influence to persuade the Spanish government that political prisoners are entitled to an open trial, to lawyers of their own choice, and to attendance at the trial of the press and representatives of any foreign nation. She feels that political prisoners in every nation have a right to a full and open hearing and to protection such as is accorded prisoners under the laws of all civilized countries.

Mrs. Alvarez seemed so young and one realized that her husband must also be a very young man in spite of his varied experiences. Such situations seem so far away and completely outside of the ken of our life here that it is only in coming face to face with her that I realized what her anxiety must be and how strange it is that such publicity should be denied by any nation.

309

December 22, 1945

NEW YORK, Friday – Now that I have been confirmed by the Senate, I can say how deeply honored I feel that President Truman has named me one of the delegates to the General Assembly of the United Nations Organization. It is an honor, but also a very great responsibility. I know it has come to me largely because my husband laid the foundation for this Organization through which we all hope to build world peace.

In many ways I am sure I will find much to learn; but all of life is a constant education. Some things I can take to this first meeting – a sincere desire to understand the problems of the rest of the world and our relationship to them; a real goodwill for all peoples throughout the world; a hope that I shall be able to build a sense of personal trust and friendship with my co-workers, for without that type of understanding our work would be doubly difficult.

This first meeting, I imagine, will be largely concerned with organization and the choice of a site within this country as a permanent home.

Being the only woman delegate from this country, I feel a great responsibility, also, to the women of my own country. In other lands women have gone with their men into the fighting forces. Here we have more nearly followed the traditional pattern of working and waiting at home.

To be sure, some of our work was done outside the home in places which the mothers and wives of earlier days never would have dreamed could be a woman’s working sphere. But fundamentally we were doing what we could to help our men win the war. We were striving to give them, when they returned, the kind of country and the kind of home they had dreamed of and sometimes gave even their lives to preserve.

I feel a great responsibility to the youth who fought the war. When they were not called upon to make the supreme sacrifice, they gave years of their lives which most of them would rather have spent in building up their personal futures. Some of them will carry handicaps incurred in fighting the war, throughout the rest of their lives. Every one of us has a deep and solemn obligation to them which we should fulfill by giving all that we are capable of giving to the making of the peace so they can feel that the maximum good has come from their sacrifice.

Willy-nilly, everyone of us cares more for his own country than for any other. That is human nature. We love the bit of land where we have grown to maturity and known the joys and sorrows of life. The time has come however when we must recognize that our mutual devotion to our own land must never blind us to the good of all lands and of all peoples.

In the end, as Wendell Willkie said, we are “One World” and that which injures any one of us, injures all of us. Only by remembering this will we finally have a chance to build a lasting peace.

I am sure in President Truman’s heart, as in that of everyone of our delegates, is the prayer that in this coming year, we may make measurable strides towards goodwill and peace on earth.

310

December 24, 1945

NEW YORK, Sunday – I have received a great number of Christmas cards and messages and I should like to thank the many kind people who have remembered me this Christmas. I know that they have done so feeling that this would be a sad and lonely time for me, and I am grateful for their thought. It would be impossible to thank each person with an individual note, as I should like to do, but I hope that many of them read this column and will take these few lines as a personal acknowledgement of what I think shows the great heart of the people of this country. Christmas is a joyous time and a busy one, particularly where there are children, and that so many should have taken time out to send me a word of greeting makes me deeply appreciate the loyalty of people to my husband’s memory and their kindly feeling toward me.

On Thursday I went to the headquarters of the American Committee for Yugoslav Relief to accept the honorary chairmanship of that committee. I have been particularly touched by the stories of the want and suffering among the children of that country. It seems to me that this rather small population became a unit in the Allied war against Fascism. Women and children were included as part of the fighting forces. Now there are many children without parents, and the casualties among them from privation and starvation are somewhere around 80 percent.

Two children brought me samples of the kind of food which we hope will pour in to be sent to the children of Yugoslavia. One of them, a little boy who might have been six years old, looked at me with solemn and sad eyes, so I asked him where he came from. Without a smile, he answered: “I am a Filipino guerilla.” I imagine there are many similar sad-eyed and solemn children in Yugoslavia, Greece, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Russia and many other countries where the horrors of war have born as heavily on the children as upon their elders.

I recently took some friends to see the play, “Therese,” which is acted by quite a distinguished cast. Dame May Whitty, at the age of 80, gives a remarkable performance. I am afraid, however, that this type of play, based on Emile Zola’s psychological horror, has ceased to have real interest for me. That may be equivalent to saying that I am getting old and don’t really like to be kept tense and stirred up by more or less unreal situations. Perhaps, as one lives through a war and its aftermath, one has so many real situations to meet that one does not need to be stirred up by fictitious ones.

The other evening I also went to the opening of the American Negro Theatre, which has found a home on the second floor at 15 West 126th Street. They gave Samuel J. Kootz’ “Home Is the Hunter,” and they expect to continue their performances every Thursday, Friday and Saturday evening. Of the four people in the cast, I thought Clarice Taylor, who played the heroine, did the most natural piece of acting. The play dealt with a contemporary subject, the difficulty between labor and management, and was therefore interesting, but I thought it unfortunate that the playwright had cast a returning soldier as the Fascist. I hope this theatre will give an outlet to Negro talent and that many people will take an interest in its ultimate development.

311

December 25, 1945

HYDE PARK, Monday – This is the first Christmas in five years which we celebrate free of the shadow of war. Yet I cannot wish you a Merry Christmas because as we look around the world, we know full well that there are people to whom peace has not yet come.

Some men and women still are fighting for the very things which victory by the United Nations was supposed to assure them. Misery, hunger and starvation will be the Christmas gift this year for many hundreds of thousands of persons.

All we can wish, therefore, on this Christmas Day here in the richly blessed United States of America, is that we may be conscious of all the blessings that are ours.

The children must have their jolly and rotund Santa Claus who fills their stockings and brings the presents from their families and friends to be found around the Christmas tree. The rest of us are apt, however, to be thinking of the religious significance of the Day, and the teachings of the Man of Sorrows, who came to earth so that we might better understand the needs and aspirations of His people everywhere.

In the city of New York, as in all our other cities and towns and villages, there has been little light and color at Christmas since the war began, but this year there it is a real wealth of Christmas decorations to remind us of the change that has come to the world.

All up Park Avenue great Christmas trees stand and as the evening falls, their lights blink and sparkle in the dusk. Under the arch in Washington Square, up in the courtyard of Radio City, outside almost every church and in innumerable homes, decorations, Christmas candles and the lights of many trees, shine out through unshaded windows.

This is the season when over and over again we will hear the message of the Angels repeated “Peace on Earth, Goodwill to Men” May these words take root in our hearts so that we do not forget them as the season fades into the new year and we are going to need the Christmas spirit day in and day out during the future months, if we are to bring to the instruments now set up to build peace throughout the world, the spirit which alone can help us the people of the world, to translate their purpose into action.

Some may have read with the same sense of shame which swept over me the objections which the Indian delegates raised during the discussion of the site of the United Nations Organization in our country. They said it must not be in any place where all men, regardless of race or creed or color cannot be treated as equals.

Christ was born in Nazareth in the country of the Jews but He was born to serve all people. All the world must share in the faith and the hope and the love which He brought to the world.

312

December 26, 1945

HYDE PARK, Tuesday – This is Christmas Day, a day which every child anticipates and longs for, far before its arrival. I came up yesterday from New York, having been somewhat busy trying to take care of some of the things which must be done in anticipation of being out of the country for some time.

We arrived in time to have my son and his family lunch at my cottage and then made our way through the snow up the hill to his cottage, which my husband built, and to which Elliott had invited the people on the place for the annual Christmas party. It was my mother-in-law’s custom, as well as my husband’s, to gather around our Christmas tree on Christmas Eve all those who live here, give them their gifts, sing Christmas Carols, have refreshments and part with mutual wishes for a happy Christmas.

Had I been alone this year, I think I would not have had the heart to keep up this custom in spite of the fact that I am quite sure both my mother-in-law and my husband would want it to go on. So I was particularly glad that one son at least is living here.

Though it was not a happy time for any of us since everyone felt too keenly the loss of the warm handshake and the welcoming smile which they had counted on for so many years, still I think those who could be with us were glad that the old Christmas customs were being continued.

The rest of us had an informal supper at the top cottage and then set to work preparing for Santa Claus’ advent. The red stockings which I keep from year to year were all hung up by the fire place in the big living room.

We started early for the night service in our little village church and it seemed a very short time from the hour that we went to bed and the awakening this morning when our young fry in my cottage insisted that we must get up and go up to the top cottage to share whatever Santa Claus had brought. Then we all had breakfast together.

Some old friends are staying with me, Major Henry Hooker, Miss Lorena Hickok, Miss Nancy Halliday besides my cousin, Mrs. Forbes Morgan and her children. My sister-in-law, Mrs. J. R. Roosevelt, was with us in the afternoon and again today for Christmas dinner. The children are, as usual, much too excited really to enjoy their gifts, but that will come in the course of the next few days. After all, Christmas joys and toys have to last for a whole year.

The children had a short rest after Christmas dinner while their elders sat before the fire and talked and then we went back to the top cottage. The Christmas tree was lighted again and we opened packages until the children’s bed time.

313

December 27, 1945

HYDE PARK, Wednesday – When the children were safely in bed last night, the adults returned to my cottage to eat cold turkey which I sometimes think is better than hot.

We were all weary enough to sit around the fire afterwards in a very contemplative mood. I think everyone of us went to bed with a prayer in our hearts that now and always we may be conscious of our blessings in spite of our sorrows.

Above all else, I want to feel the continuity of life, so that I will be reminded that all we do here is imbued with the spirit of those influences and associations which have gone into the building of our lives in the past. May this spirit flow through us to shape the future, and may our children and grandchildren be the kind of people who will help to build the world that all of us want here on earth.

In expressing thanks for my own Christmas cards in my column the other day, I did not mention another member of our household who certainly has a place in the hearts of all dog-lovers.

Fala and his master were so much associated in people’s minds that Fala still has the affection and attention of a great many people. So may I extend thanks for the cards which were sent to Fala and for the gifts which came to him?

I want particularly to say that I appreciate the fact that so many people spoke of his master as well as of the little dog himself. I think Fala has had a happy day. We have acquired a playmate for him, aged about seven months, and even though Fala is more sedate than she is, he is still young enough to find that having a companion to run with in the snow and to chase in and out around the garden is really very exciting.

Frannie has a sweet disposition and is curious about everything in the world. The two little black Scotties together in the white snow are really an engaging sight. They were the joy of the party of children who came here this afternoon.

At Wiltwyck School across the River there are always a few children left at Christmas-time, who are unable to go home for the Holidays. This afternoon, the day after Christmas, four of the members of the staff brought over some ten or twelve of them. Mr. Josh White and his little boy came up from New York and gave them a blissful hour of song, in which they were quite ready to join. Then everybody had presents from the very small Christmas tree which I have in my cottage, and ice cream and cake disappeared in astonishing quantities. It seemed to me a very happy party and I hope the boys found it so.

One of my old friends, Mrs. Charles Hamlin from Albany, came to lunch; also, Mr. and Mrs. Palmer, the superintendent of the government properties here, and we had a most interesting time. Mrs. Hamlin is a mine of historical information about everything concerning the Hudson River, the early Dutch settlers, this country as a whole and Europe from which so much of our art and history stem.

I must go back to New York City and then my last busy days will begin, but wherever I go I will carry with me the memory of evergreen trees, white snow, frozen brooks and family and friends around an open fire in an American home.

314

December 28, 1945

NEW YORK, Thursday – The world as a whole looks brighter today because of the foreign news. It is encouraging to be going off to the meeting in London, feeling that the three Foreign Ministers who have been meeting in Moscow, have found satisfactory settlements of controversial issues and have parted with warm and friendly words.

I have always found that personal relationships, however small and unimportant they may seem, have a bearing on the success of the settlement of bigger questions.

I am also very happy that President Truman is said to be going to talk to the nation right after the New Year. I think the people always appreciate the President’s speaking directly to them on the issues that face the nation. If the people understand what the President wants to have done, they will make every effort to come up to any height which may make his leadership easier and stronger.

In our own domestic situation I feel we are still somewhat at sea, because various groups among us do not understand the full implications at home and abroad of any steps that we take in this country. I hope the President can make clear to us that everything we do at the present time is bound to bring hope or despair to the peoples of the world.

Yesterday afternoon I opened the door and found the weather suddenly like spring. Driving down this morning the snow seemed to have melted away and brown fields lay bare before our eyes where snow covered the landscape last Monday.

Before I left home, I took Fala out, but walking on the ice was precarious. Fala would slip and I would slip. He would bounce off into the snow, breaking the crust, and then have to take a tremendous jump to get out again.

Both of us felt that we would like to stay in the country with the blue sky overhead and the wonderful clean, exhilarating air. Fala rolled himself in the snow, and I am sure the crust scratched his back and then he would poke his nose down trying to tell what little animals had scurried around before him. There isn’t any question about it, the country is the place for man and beast to live permanently. But back we had to trek for there isn’t much time remaining before I leave on Sunday.

It is somewhat ironical that we are going over by ship, because no matter how wonderful a ship the Queen Elizabeth may be, I have never been overly fond of a trip on the ocean. Nor does the month of January add to the sea’s charm for me.

I see myself walking miles around the deck in stormy weather, trying to absorb whatever information they wish to impart to us during the trip, in spite of my heavy head. I am never seasick any more, at least I haven’t been for some time, but neither do I feel particularly happy. Perhaps I shall be able to fly home, however, and that will be a great advantage since I surely will be wanting to get home quickly.

315

December 29, 1945

NEW YORK, Friday – I am beginning to accumulate material on various matters which other people know a great deal about but which I know very little about, that may come up in this next session of the United Nations Organization. As a result I am quite sure that I shall not have an idle minute on the boat.

In addition the names which are coming in of people who can give me the background and history of certain subjects that may come up for discussion indicate that I will be kept busy just seeing people the first few days I am in London.

Obviously the columns which appear while I am on the ship will be written before we leave, and quite obviously, too, since I belong to a profession which has a high standard of ethics, I am not going to be able to write anything which the rest of the press will not also be writing, as far as official information is concerned.

I think, however, that you will be interested in the life of the people in London as I am able to observe it and compare it with the period when I was there in 1942. The little daily happenings which come out of the human contacts one is bound to have in a foreign country, and which are quite outside of any official tasks, may prove interesting to my readers.

I shall, of course, take every possible opportunity to see old friends in London whom I knew in this country and whom I have met in official or unofficial ways during the years before we lived in Washington and while we were there.

I gather from the papers that Mr. and Mrs. Winston Churchill will be coming over here and so I shall probably miss seeing them, but I hope I will get back before their holiday in Florida comes to an end.

I hope I shall find people on many of the other delegations whom I have met in the past and who will serve as an introduction to many new people with whom we must become acquainted during this session.

After this, I gather that the permanent home of the United Nations Organization will be established somewhere on our eastern seaboard and the future meetings will be held in this country. Then the people of the United States will be hosts to this important group and we will have a great responsibility to make the delegates feel at home among us.

Last night I went to see the play “The Glass Menagerie.” It has a kind of gentleness and sweetness and sadness which I think has been characteristic of Eddie Dowling’s productions. It is completely charming, with a small but wonderful cast.

Laurette Taylor, Eddie Dowling, Julie Haydon and Anthony Ross all put on a most beautiful performance. The portrait on the wall seemed almost part of the acting group. The mother was enraging but, nevertheless, appealing. The play left me with a slightly melancholy feeling, but then I think there are times when all of us rather luxuriate in that kind of mood. The lessons are gently taught and probably that is the best way to make them stay in our minds.

316

December 31, 1945

NEW YORK, Sunday – The day is here at last when I am to set sail, apparently with quite a number of others, for London Town! Many times before have I started alone on a trip to Europe, or gone with my husband or with the children; or I have seen off various members of the family either separately or in two or threes. I know, therefore, that certain things are inevitable as a prelude to a long journey, or even a short one, if it is across the water.

We all of us seem to become obsessed with the idea that everything must be in order before we take a trip abroad. If we have neglected to draw our wills, they must be drawn and signed before we go. If there is any work that has to be done, which we have known we ought to do for three months past, we do it the night before we leave. That means there is little sleep before we get on board, worn and weary with the knowledge that in spite of all our efforts something is sure to be forgotten and left undone!

Ordinarily, we would be saying to ourselves, “But at least, when I get on board, I can sleep for 48 hours.” This time, none of us on this trip will be able to say anything of the kind. Our time will not be our own. I am told we will be “briefed,” whatever that may mean, during the trip. I am thankful beyond words, however, for this “briefing,” since I need it in the worst possible way. I know that I will not only listen avidly to everyone who has information to impart, but if any reading is suggested I shall be searching around for the books recommended and trying to find spare moments in which I can sit in peace and quiet and absorb their contents. I am taking with me several books, sent me for Christmas, on the backgrounds of various European countries and I hope to find time to read them all on the way over.

I am grateful now that so many years ago I lived even for brief periods in families of different types in various European countries. I am glad that through the years I have kept in touch with a number of them. When I hear people talk of France or Italy or Germany, I will not have to think only of one or two people in Paris, Berlin or Rome. I will be able to remember the little inns I stayed at, the farmers with whom I talked in Normandy or Brittany; the painter in whose Fiesole home I lived for a few weeks while visiting Florence daily; the German friend with whom I had roomed in school, whose home I visited and from whom I have always heard by letter between two wars. Her children are about the same age as mine, and her life has been hard – the last blow being the death of her youngest son while in a Nazi labor camp.

Through the years, with books and individual contacts, I have tried to keep in the forefront of my mind a picture of the life of the people I have known. The bombastic pronouncements of some of their leaders and the very evident faults of some of their governments could not change the people I know. It seems to me it will be more necessary now to remember the peoples and what they are like in this period of rebuilding than to remember the failures and the rantings that create anger in our hearts and fill us with hate and bitterness and make us less ready to find methods of conciliation to heal the wounds of war.