Eleanor Roosevelt – My Day (1945)

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March 12, 1945

WASHINGTON, Sunday – On Thursday afternoon Dr. and Mrs. Syngman Rhee, of Korea, came to see me and brought me two of Dr. Rhee’s books, one of them a pamphlet on Korea. I had never met Dr. Rhee before, but a very beautiful spirit shines in his face, and the patience which one feels his countrymen must have exercised through the past many years is present in the gentleness of his expression. Someday I hope that Korea can live again in peace and security in a world where such conditions are possible to small nations as well as large ones.

Friday morning I had the pleasure of seeing Miss Loula Dunn, Commissioner of Welfare in Alabama, who is just leaving to visit Great Britain as one of the OWI speakers. I think Great Britain is making a very great effort to bring about more knowledge of the United States and our people among her citizens.

I recently had an opportunity to look over some of the courses conducted in the different grades in various English schools, together with some compositions written by several youngsters on the United States which I thought were very interesting. We would need to revise some of our textbooks to do anything similar here, but I think it might be valuable for us to bring our thinking on Great Britain more up to date. We allow so many of our youngsters to focus primarily on the Revolutionary period and the War of 1812. Much of the suspicion and antagonism which some of our citizens feel toward Great Britain grows out of the fact that we do not bring our teaching up to date.

On Friday afternoon the Rt. Hon. W. L. Mackenzie King, Prime Minister of Canada, arrived to visit us. We had a very pleasant, quiet dinner, after which the President took the Prime Minister off to converse on important matters.

I spent Saturday in Philadelphia, leaving Washington by the 7 a.m. train and getting home in time for dinner. I reached Philadelphia in time to hear Representative Helen Gahagan Douglas make the opening speech at the conference held under the auspices of the University Club of Philadelphia. The overall subject was “A Program for Women Today.” The morning was taken up with a variety of forums, some of which I attended; and after speaking at the luncheon I came back to Washington.

This morning I am receiving four Canadian Wrens, who are coming to see the White House. One of them lives at Grand Manan Island out in the Bay of Fundy, beyond the Island of Campobello where we have had a cottage for so many years.

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How? Isn’t Korea under japanese occupation?

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Active independence movement.

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March 13, 1945

RALEIGH, North Carolina, Monday – Yesterday, after receiving the Canadian Wrens at 10 o’clock, we had a number of luncheon guests. At 3 o’clock I received the graduates from the first group of veterans attending American University who will work with the Disabled American Veterans organization. They had many members of their families with them, and held a service in St. John’s Church. Afterward they came to see the White House and gave me a delightful time listening to one of their number play his violin for our entertainment.

At 4 o’clock our usual Sunday afternoon group of veterans came from Walter Reed and St. Elizabeth hospitals.

In the evening Miss Thompson and I left on the night train to come to Raleigh. We are now at Josephus Daniels’ house getting a little rest and refreshment before we start on a very busy day. More of this, however, tomorrow.

Just now I want to tell you a little about what the American people have been able to do through the organization of American Relief for Italy. The story has doubtless been told before in the press, but many people apparently missed seeing it and have written me deploring the fact that we were not able to do anything for Italy. So I want them to know what really has been done.

Last December and January, the first shipments of clothing, milk, vitamins, medicines and other supplies donated by people in this country were distributed to the six provinces of central Italy most damaged by the war – Pescara, Chieti, Aquila, Campobasso, Littoria and Frosinone. The Allied armies and the Allied Commission helped with transportation when it was not available by train.

More than one-fifth of the total population of these provinces was provided with clothing, which was distributed on the basis of four garments and a pair of shoes to each individual. In this way 128,030 men, 133,164 women, 72,352 boys, 72,768 girls and 85,422 infants were helped. The distribution was made without regard to race, nationality, religion or political belief. Later, distributions of supplies were made in Foggia, in the districts of Naples, and in the province of Rome.

This relief has been continuing systematically. The February shipments alone are estimated to have been 3,000,000 pounds, so I think we may feel that Italy has had some tangible evidence of our interest in the people’s welfare.

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March 14, 1945

MONTREAT, North Carolina, Tuesday – The Hon. Josephus Daniels gave us such a warm welcome yesterday that it was heart-warming to be with him, and he arranged our day so that we had some rest in spite of doing many things.

We left his house at a quarter before 11 and went to the Governor’s Mansion, which is a very beautiful old house, with thick walls and beautifully proportioned, high-ceilinged rooms. There Mrs. Cherry, the Governor’s wife, greeted us at a morning coffee hour given by the Business and Professional Women’s Club and the Altrusa Club. A few minutes after 12 we started back to Mr. Daniels’ house, where at 12:30 I was interviewed for 15 minutes over the local broadcasting station.

At one o’clock Mr. Daniels gave a lunch, and from 2:45 to 3:15 I met with the women of the State Legislative Council of North Carolina. This group of women represents the heads of many women’s organizations. It has a legislative program, and over the period of years during which it has existed much has been accomplished. This year they are trying to get the school attendance age raised to 16. They are working on hospital care for mentally defective and spastic children. They are interested in getting their state laws to cooperate more fully with the federal Social Security laws in the matter of old age pensions, and, finally, they are studying their county and city jails.

At 3:30 I spoke to a legislative assembly in the lovely old state Capitol. Then we had an hour’s rest at Mr. Daniels’ house before going to speak to the Girl Scouts at 5:30. Afterwards we had dinner with the members of the Institute on Religion, who invited me to come and make their closing address in the auditorium in the evening. There were various groups studying for an hour after dinner, so I attended the Youth Group session, where four high school youngsters discussed certain problems before an audience in which there were many of their own contemporaries as well as many of their elders. At 8:30 we went to the auditorium, which was packed; and I particularly enjoyed the singing of the Raleigh High School glee club.

We left there at a few minutes before 10 and had time to pack and change our clothes before taking the night train which brought us to Black Mountain, North Carolina, at 8:30 this morning. Here we are in the Montreat Inn, which housed the families of some of the German and Japanese diplomats before they returned to their native lands.

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March 15, 1945

MONTREAT, North Carolina, Wednesday – This is beautiful country, and our rooms face the Presbyterian College across a charming lake. I am attending a meeting of the Council for Southern Mountain Workers and finding it most interesting.

After arriving at Montreat Inn yesterday morning, we had breakfast and by 10 o’clock met for the first session of the council. The subject under discussion was “The Rural Mountain Church.” After the brief religious exercises conducted by Mark A. Dawber, executive secretary of Home Missions Council of North America, there were statements and discussion on various subjects.

Dr. A. Rufus Morgan, who is the priest in charge at Franklin, North Carolina, spoke on the rural church and self-support, and I gathered that he felt the churches were important enough for the rest of the country to be interested in their support. Other areas should feel that they are amply repaid, in view of the number of boys and girls who go out from this area and live in communities all over the country.

He was followed by Henry S. Randolph, secretary of the Rural Church Unit, Presbyterian Church, USA. His topic was “The Role of the Rural Minister – Spiritual? Social? Economic?” He felt strongly that the minister served the community and not his own parishioners alone. Finally Ladmir E. Hartman, field worker of the council from Berea, Kentucky, gave a report on the Institute for Rural Pastors.

To me, one of the interesting things to come out of the whole morning’s discussion was the similarity of the problems facing the rural areas of the South today with the problems facing rural areas elsewhere in the country. They are probably a little more acute because the poverty is greater, wages have been lower, land has deteriorated more and reforms have been slow. Some of the conditions existing today I can remember as existing in New York State 25 years ago, and I know of places in other parts of the country where land is poor and therefore people are poor. I know other parts of the country where wages are low and where general social conditions are unsatisfactory.

After lunch Mrs. John C. Campbell, director of the John C. Campbell Folk School at Brasstown, North Carolina, talked about “The Folk School and Community Planning,” and an interesting discussion followed. I had to miss the report on recreation given by Miss Marie Marvel because at 4 o’clock I went with Colonel Willoughby and Colonel James to see the Redistribution Center in Asheville.

This is a new and very interesting attempt by the Army to give overseas men who have been returned after their period of hospitalization and furlough a two-week rest and reclassification period. They live very comfortably in hotels which have been taken over. Recreation is planned for them, and if they are married their wives can be with them.

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March 16, 1945

WASHINGTON, Thursday – On Tuesday, after getting back from visiting the Army redistribution center in Asheville, North Carolina, I had supper with the Girl Scout day and permanent camp leaders who are taking a two-weeks training course at Montreat Inn. Immediately afterward, in the lobby of the inn, the Brevard College chorus gave an informal program of mountain songs which was delightful.

At the evening session Arthur M. Bannerman, president of Warren-Wilson College at Swannanoa, opened the discussion on education in the mountains. So much talk followed both the summarizing of the morning sessions and Mr. Bannerman’s speech on the student who must earn his education through work, that the second speaker of the evening never got a chance to make his statement and had to wait until yesterday morning.

“Education in the Mountains” was the subject of the Wednesday morning program, and at 11:15 we went over to Warren-Wilson College for a chapel program and dinner. The afternoon was partly taken up by business meetings and partly by a summing up of the two days’ sessions, as well as a continuation of a discussion on education on the college level.

We made the afternoon train quite easily, and this morning found us back in Washington. I feel that I learned a great deal in these two days and am very grateful that I was asked to take part in the discussions of the Council of Southern Mountain Workers.

I find that in giving you the rule for mailing letters and parcels to prisoners of war in Germany, a few mistakes were made, so I want to note the changes here:

When regular correspondence blanks are not used, the writer should address his letter just the same as he does on the regular form, but the letter should then be put into a second envelope. Leave this second envelope unsealed, and address it: “Postmaster, Prisoner of War Mail.” All of these go to New York.

When a person has been notified that a man is a prisoner of war, but there is still no address as to what camp he is in, the mail should be addressed in care of the International Red Cross, Directory Service, Geneva, Switzerland.

I was deeply grieved to read the other day of the death of Mrs. Fraser, the wife of the Prime Minister of New Zealand. She was so kind to me in New Zealand, and so thoughtful of and interested in our boys in hospitals there. Her death must be a grief to the whole people of New Zealand, and to her husband and family an irreparable loss.

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March 17, 1945

NEW YORK, Friday – Yesterday in Washington I lunched with a group of women who appeared on a panel arranged by Mrs. Charles Tillett, vice-chairman of the Democratic National Committee, and a number of other women interested in the meeting.

This was the first time that I have heard the women speak together who represented us on each of the international groups which have already considered special subjects. Miss Josephine Schain covered the food and agriculture conference; Mrs. Ellen Woodward, the relief and rehabilitation; Dr. Mabel Newcomer, the international monetary conference at Bretton Woods; Dean Mildred Thompson, the international education conference in London; Secretary of Labor, Miss Perkins, the international labor organization; Mrs. Thomas McAllister, the aviation conference; and Dr. Harriet Elliott, the Dumbarton Oaks proposals.

The summing up was made by Charles P. Taft of the State Department, who told some humorous stories apropos of his facing a group largely made up of Democrats, since this particular effort was one of education for Democratic women.

I imagine the women’s division of the Republican National Committee is carrying on much the same kind of educational program, and, of course, the nonpartisan organizations of women are doing a splendid job along these lines.

It was particularly appropriate that Mrs. Woodrow Wilson could be with us. She must feel a great sense of hope in these days, when her husband’s prediction that someday his ideas would be accepted and carried to fruition seems about to come true. That does not mean, of course, that there will not be much discussion on every step of a final international organization, nor do I fail to realize the pitfalls and possibilities of defeat. But so many more people seem to be aware of the seriousness of the alternative, that I cannot help but hope for some kind of foundation being organized in San Francisco.

I hope that all communities throughout the country are meeting to organize and appoint local chairmen to solicit contributions of clothing from every family during United National Clothing Collection in April. The big organizations – Rotary, Kiwanis, Lions – are hoping for the help not only of national organizations but also of local groups. We all know it takes time to collect, sort, pack and ship the amount of clothing which is going to be needed for the people in war-torn countries. Next winter will be upon us before we know it, and the need will then be very great. In rural areas, county extension agents can be a great help in getting local people to do the work. I hope in the course of the next few days that Dan West, executive secretary of the drive, will hear that the organization of communities throughout the country is practically complete.

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March 19, 1945

WASHINGTON, Sunday – On Thursday in Washington I went at 4 o’clock to the interdepartmental auditorium to attend a meeting of personnel officers attached to various government departments, and I got home at 5:30 to find that our guest, Mrs. Grenville Emmet , had already arrived.

In the evening the East-West Association had a meeting in the East Room of the White House. We saw some of their Chinese plays, and heard a number of speakers tell of the association’s work throughout the country in developing an interest in other peoples. It was a stimulating evening, and I particularly enjoyed seeing the paintings made in China by an American army sergeant. He had heard about the East-West Association and had sent the paintings back in a desire to help. They were really well done: the artist had caught the bony structure in the faces and had made some character studies which are unforgettable.

Friday morning I went to New York City. Miss Helen Ferris of the Junior Literary Guild lunched with me and told me of some of the books which they are preparing for submission to us on the board.

In the afternoon I went with Arthur C. Gillette to Madison, New Jersey, to speak at the centennial celebration of the New Jersey Consumer Cooperative, Inc. They have had a cooperative organization for 12 years in Madison, and evidently have a very successful consumer cooperative store.

I visited two small war plants, both of which are making vital war materiel and working very well. They are already employing some returned veterans, and I was glad to have had a chance to congratulate the management and the workers. I had a chance also to look at their municipal building, which is the gift of Mrs. Marcellus Hartley Dodge, and a very beautiful structure.

After a buffet dinner with Mr. and Mrs. Gillette and some of their friends – including Mrs. Phillip McKim Garrison of Llewellyn Park, who is an old friend of my aunt, Mrs. Douglas Robinson – we went to the meeting in the school auditorium. Before a capacity audience, Judge Thurman Arnold gave an extremely interesting and illuminating address about the place of cooperatives in the economy of the future. At the end of the meeting I had a few minutes to shake hands with some 30 people. Then I caught a train back to New York City which gave me time to change and pack and take the midnight train back to Washington.

I had three appointments Saturday morning, and did a recording for a broadcast which will take place next week in connection with the United National Clothing Collection.

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March 20, 1945

NEW YORK, Monday – We were delighted to have Her Royal Highness, the Princess Juliana of the Netherlands, arrive at the White House early Saturday afternoon to spend the weekend with us.

After two appointments in the afternoon on Saturday, I went to the Corcoran Art Gallery to look at the 19th Biennial Exhibition of Contemporary American Oil Paintings.

At 5 o’clock the former consul at Niagara Falls, Canada, the Hon. Lynn W. Franklin, and Mrs. Franklin came to have tea with me before leaving for Chicago. Mrs. Stephen B. Ives also came, and brought three of her friends, Mrs. John Chafee, Mrs. John Sensenbrenner and Mrs. George D. Seldon.

Saturday evening we had a small, informal dinner for Princess Juliana, and Sunday we had a few people at lunch. Sunday, on the whole, was a quiet day, but at 4 o’clock I had my usual party for servicemen from Walter Reed and St. Elizabeth’s hospitals. We had a few guests for Sunday evening supper.

Sometimes one finds oneself doing strange things! It would have been far easier to go straight from Washington to Greensboro, North Carolina, where I have to spend Tuesday and Wednesday, but long before I made that engagement I agreed to speak today at the interdenominational ministers meeting in New York, so we journeyed up here this morning. I will have an opportunity to see my cousin, Mrs. Henry Parish, who has not been well, and then will go to the meeting and take the train tonight.

In one of the papers the other day, the results of a poll of the Senate on the question of setting up some machinery for international cooperation were published. It is interesting to note that the real difficulty of getting a plan for some kind of organization through the Senate will not come from those who want no such organization. It will come from the perfectionists and the reservationists, who want an organization very badly, but who want only their own kind of organization or one that is in some respect different from what the other United Nations agree on.

When you realize that other nations must have the same anxieties about subordinating their sovereignty that we have, one almost despairs of this effort to set up cooperative machinery on which to build peace. It is going to be well nigh impossible unless the people of this country state in no uncertain terms to their representatives that no one will be forgiven who prevents the setting up of some international machinery because of any specific objection.

Compromise means that everybody gives way a little. Those who cannot compromise should be looked down upon by their neighbors and their constituents.

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March 21, 1945

GREENSBORO, North Carolina, Tuesday – The other day I received an interesting statement from the Commission to Study the Organization of Peace. They offer a proposal to the United Nations which urges “the setting up of a commission on human rights and fundamental freedoms to this end. It is a necessary part of permanent peace, for there can be no such thing as a lasting peace that is not founded on the decent treatment of human beings.”

I gather that they propose that this should be part of the document which will emerge, we hope, from the San Francisco meeting – something like our own Bill of Rights. It is so general in its terms that I wonder if the Dumbarton Oaks proposals of a social and economic council, under which all the various groups working for economic and social aims throughout the world can find a place to work together, would not be the proper place for these considerations. Certain it is that in the future we do need to have some people who will study the conditions of various peoples throughout the world and try to determine how we can help them to obtain a decent living and to preserve their fundamental rights and freedoms.

I have an amusing letter which I want to publish here, because it shows the spirit in which we should all approach whatever work we can do. I am afraid the “anxious” ladies referred to cannot have their age limit changed, since that is in the power of the military only, and they made the original decision. But it is good to find people who want so badly to make a contribution, and I congratulate them and hope that whatever they do will be done in this same spirit!

The letter reads:

We are taking the liberty to write you to see if we could interest you in our problem, namely – about a dozen of us are beyond the age to be WAC soldiers.

We are strong, well educated, of good character and holding down men’s jobs by day, and work “extra” at night. We are bank clerks, bookkeepers, office workers.

Will not our Commander-in-Chief have the age limit raised to, say, sixty-five? None of us are this old…

We have bought bonds from “can to can’t.” But we want an active part in the victory that will be ours eventually. Soldiers returning from the front would be glad of our jobs. We are not old, broken-down women, but are alert go-getters. There would not be enough of us to be objectionable to the young GIs, who of course want young girls to go with. We would be strictly business, and feel sure that the Army would never regret taking us in. Physical examinations are required for some of us to hold our present positions, and we passed these without a defect…

On the Anxious Seat

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March 22, 1945

GREENSBORO, North Carolina, Wednesday – I reached New York City Monday afternoon, and in the evening I went to speak at the Rev. Charles Young Trigg’s church at 129th Street and Seventh Avenue. It was a community inter-denominational meeting in celebration of Brotherhood Week. Dr. Robert W. Searles of the Greater New York Federation of Churches also spoke, and a united choir from many churches sang very beautifully.

We made the 10 o’clock train for Greensboro, and arrived yesterday morning, unfortunately too late to go to Dr. Charlotte Hawkins Brown’s school at Sedalia, in which my mother-in-law was interested. I had a chance to go to the home of my hostess, Mrs. Julius Cone, before Dr. and Mrs. David D. Jones of Bennett College took us to the agricultural and technical college, where some thousand young colored people are getting a very good education in home economics, farming, horticulture, engineering and other fields.

After a very delightful lunch at Mrs. Cone’s, we were at Bennett College at 2 o’clock, and had an opportunity to see a number of the campus buildings and to meet some of the faculty and students at tea. Finally we went out to find school children from the colored public schools gathered on the campus with a few of their elders. I talked to them, and later was interviewed on the local radio station by one of the women broadcasters.

Spring has come and is in full bloom down here. Every flowering shrub and tree is out, and the garden of this delightful home, as well as everywhere we have been today, reminds you that spring will be with us even in the north before long. It is so warm that I have been wondering why I thought it necessary to wear a coat, and by the time we came home at half past four I was quite ready for a nice, peaceful hour or two before dinner and the evening speech at Bennett College.

Bennett College is having a week’s institute on “The Returning Serviceman,” and Miss Katharine Lenroot has already spoken to them. As we drove in this afternoon two high school boys were waiting, camera in hand. They reminded me of the professional photographers, because they took at least six photographs and then asked me to wait until they changed to a color film. Insatiable, just as the professional ones.

I have read a magazine article which deals with all the peoples living on all the small islands in the Pacific which we find now under our control. If we retain the responsibility for any of them, we will have the added problem of establishing new standards of living in that area, where human rights have never been given much attention. Here we are confronted with the whole question of how people who are not yet ready to look after their own affairs, without some assistance from the outside, are going to be handled in the post-war period. There undoubtedly will be much interest on this point in the San Francisco conference.

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March 23, 1945

WASHINGTON, Thursday – Staying with Mrs. Julius Cone in Greensboro, North Carolina, was certainly a restful way of fulfilling one’s obligations on a trip of this kind. At least when one was not on public parade, peace and comfort surrounded one. Her house is charming, with space and comfort, and good taste on every hand. Books are everywhere, and that to me always makes a home.

After breakfasting in our rooms at 8:30 yesterday, we were ready to leave at 9:30 when Col. Younts, commanding officer of the replacement camp, came for us to spend an hour in his area. First we went to a big tent where dances are held and entertainments given. The very excellent orchestra, combined with men’s voices and a very good announcer, gave a stirring and moving demonstration, or roll call of the United Nations. After a short talk to 2,500 assembled personnel, we followed some of the men who were being processed. From the place where they received medical “shots” to the final spot where their equipment was checked over for the last time, everything was methodically done. They even have a chance to write their last letter home and mail it before leaving the building.

We then went through several wards of the hospital, and I was glad to find that here, at least, they have comparatively few seriously wounded men.

At 11 o’clock we went over to the Woman’s College of the State University, and I had a press conference where the college and high school press, as well as the regular press, were represented.

At 12 noon I spoke to their assembly, and at one o’clock a small group of us lunched with Dean and Mrs. Jackson. At 2:30, we went to Greensboro College, which is a Methodist college. Here they have some 400 girls, in contrast to the 2,250 who make up the Woman’s College.

In both colleges, the young women were an interested and vital group who gave you the feeling that they had great possibilities for achievement in the future. This world of young people, especially of young women, is a very exciting world, for in their hands lies so much of the promise of this nation as well as of the possibility of progress for the world as a whole.

The campus of the Woman’s College is a charming campus. Two of the buildings I saw were built by the Works Progress Administration. They are a credit to that period during which we did so much of lasting value for the country, even though many people regard it as having been a period when we lost some of our individual independence.

From 4 to 5 there was a tea at the Woman’s College in one of their main halls, attended by faculty and students. That ended my official obligations, but Mrs. Cone very kindly invited some friends to a reception in the evening at her home after a small dinner. Then we boarded the train and arrived back in Washington this morning.

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March 24, 1945

WASHINGTON, Friday – I had a very pleasant talk yesterday with Miss Laurentine B. Collins, director of school-community relations in Detroit, who was presiding here at a meeting on physical fitness.

Miss Collins feels that great advances have been made in creating an understanding among different groups in the communities, but that much more remains to be done; and in that I heartily agree. I wish we could use all of our programs to improve physical health as community programs which would draw different groups in the community together for participation in healthful relaxation.

A group of officers and men from the naval hospital came in at 3 o’clock, but I was obliged to cut my usual time with them rather short, because the President and I left at a little before 4 o’clock to meet our guests, His Excellency, the Governor General of Canada, and Her Royal Highness, the Princess Alice at the station. They had been told yesterday that our Washington weather was almost summer-like, and then suddenly we decided to have winter again, with cold and sporadic showers descending upon us!

The President and the Governor General braved the weather in an open car. I was glad that Princess Alice and I could be more comfortable following in a closed car. We drove around for a look at the Capitol, then up Constitution Avenue and in through the east gate of the White House grounds. Military honors on arrival always give a colorful touch. Then we went into the Diplomatic Reception Room, where the Vice President and the members of the Cabinet waited to be introduced to our guests.

In the evening the President took the Governor General to the White House Correspondents’ dinner, while Princess Alice and her lady-in-waiting, Miss Vera Grenfell, went with me to the Girl Scouts’ birthday banquet at the Mayflower Hotel. This party was given for the leaders of the council, and I was particularly impressed by the speeches made by the wives of foreign representatives. Girl Scouting has grown in many countries throughout the world and I think is destined to grow increasingly in the years to come, as it is fundamentally a good program for training girls in citizenship.

The Washington Choral Society is giving a concert in Constitution Hall on March 27, at which Brahms’ Requiem and Bach’s Magnificat will be sung. I am looking forward to this program, and also to the concert to be given by the concert band and chorus of the U.S. Navy School of Music on May 2 at Constitution Hall.

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Will Eleanor continue writing this after uh… Truman becomes president?

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Yes, indeed. In fact, she continued writing her column all the way until over a month before her death.

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Damn… it was that popular?

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Apparently so, though it was more popular in her First Lady years and the immediate aftermath of the war.

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March 26, 1945

WASHINGTON, Sunday – It was very pleasant going through the White House, on Friday, with a subcommittee of the Fine Arts Commission. They have some plans they want to carry out in the future when the war is over; but in the meantime they said very firmly that they do not like the wood baskets. I haven’t the remotest idea, however, what kind of containers I can use, since the restrictions on materials make it difficult to find receptacles which will hold logs of wood in these formal rooms. In the winter, a fire in the Red Room or the Green Room occasionally makes all the difference between cold formality and warmth and welcome.

Our guests, the Governor General of Canada and his wife, Princess Alice, have found Washington very beautiful. I am so glad they came at this time of year, which really is a perfect time. They saw Mt. Vernon, Arlington and the National Gallery yesterday, and when they came in at 5 o’clock for tea they were really exhausted sightseers. A few of their friends came in to greet them, and then in the evening we had a small dinner, ending up with a family chat in the President’s study.

Saturday morning they were off again to see the sights, and then lunched with Under Secretary of State and Mrs. Joseph C. Grew. At 3:30 we took them to their train. Their visit has given us an opportunity to express our appreciation of the welcome which they have always extended to us, and I hope it has given them pleasure.

I was happy on Friday afternoon to see Miss Molly Flynn again, who is now working with UNRRA and is back after some months in Egypt. Later, John Gunther came in to talk with my daughter and me for a little while.

Yesterday morning I went to the clubhouse of the National Council of Negro Women for a meeting with Mrs. Mary Bethune and a few other women.

One or two appointments in the late afternoon Saturday, and a quiet dinner in the evening, filled the day.

I was shocked to read in the papers yesterday morning that since 1940 there has been a rise in the number of deaths from cancer. I had thought that we were making progress in the control of this dread disease. A letter to me the other day begged that a concerted effort be made for research that will finally discover its cause. Unfortunately, the causes are not always so easy to find, no matter how much money you put into a scientific research project. The control of cancer, I gather, is largely in the hands of the public itself. If they can overcome their fear and watch for the very first signs, often a case can be completely cured. It is when people try to fool themselves into thinking that all goes well, and that there is really nothing the matter, that conditions become so bad nothing can be done.

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March 27, 1945

WASHINGTON, Monday – I have a letter from a woman who is the mother of seven children and who speaks with feeling of the difficulties of another family in her neighborhood where there are nine children. She points to one of the weaknesses of our communities which I think we should bear in mind, not only now, but from now on as our community problems increase.

She says:

It is just this, Mrs. Roosevelt – no War Risk insurance, no Red Cross, no charitable organization can do what neighbors in a democracy should do and are not doing. We are not doing it for lack of an intelligent plan of home cooperation, practical cooperation, at least for the duration.

I want a plan something like this: Over the radio I heard the other day that in Franklin, Ohio, the police department offered to help the wives and families of men overseas. That is, do those little things and give them the protection that a husband and father, or older son, would do for the home. These wives of men in service can register at the police department, and are also asked to place a light in the window at night so the guardian of law and order can keep an eye on those homes needing help in emergencies. Many of them are unable to obtain a telephone. That is what I suggested to the Parent-Teacher Association, in a sense – to register at one’s school PTA, or church, in an overall plan of home cooperation. The police will be glad to help this mother with two invalid sons and six young children, no telephone, and her husband out at night with his taxi.

But the police department can’t help her eliminate some of the drudgery of her work. The neighbors can, and I am sure there are things she can do for her neighbors, too, with the little free time she will then have.

A wealth of exchange could be made on a plan like this. And if successful, even employment for many women in neighborhood cooperatives, with latest equipment bought and used cooperatively, making use of homemakers’ higher skills. For instance, there are homemakers who love to iron and dislike to do a washing, while others are very good at the latter. Some enjoy cooking and baking, and still others don’t at all mind washing dishes, etc. The effect on the children of the community will be very good, and even large families will come in for a share of the good things of life for which they now fight.

This plan is like going back to rock bottom as far as our background is concerned, because nothing could be more connected with our past than helping each other in our home communities.