Eleanor Roosevelt: My Day (1946)

81

April 4, 1946

NEW YORK, Wednesday – Next week is “Be Kind to Animals Week” and, having a little dog, I always feel it incumbent upon me to remember this week with gratitude. Anyone who really enjoys the companionship of some animal always wants to remind people of the obligation that human beings have to the dumb creatures who cannot talk in our language, but who, in their own way, show so many qualities that add to the joy of our lives.

Fala’s wagging tail and warm greeting is always a pleasure. When he runs away in the country to go a-hunting, and leaves me calling him for hours with no response, I feel like spanking him, but I never quite have the heart to do it when he returns. He enters with a sheepish expression of knowing he has misbehaved, or with an expression of triumph if he has run his prey to earth, and I find myself so glad to see him that he gets a pat instead of a spank!

This coming week also has been designated for the first time for national observance in thousands of communities where people are blessed by having a public-health nurse. It is really a campaign to encourage us to learn more about the public-health nurse and her work. Governors and mayors in all sections of the country are issuing messages and proclamations, and President Truman has made a public statement to awaken the interest of communities in the value of the service which these nurses render.

I see by the papers that Senator Robert Taft and Senator James Murray, in a committee meeting, had a slight difference of opinion as to whether the new national health bill was socialistic or not. It seems to me that Senator Taft might remember that the postal service is one of the most socialistic things we have in this country, and yet I hardly think he wants to do away with that.

Labelling something socialistic may, from his point of view, be detrimental to the endeavor, but my experience is that, when people really want something, the label you put on it makes very little difference. And there is no doubt in my mind that the people want, in the words of President Truman, “Health security for all, regardless of residence, station or race – everywhere in the United States.” This means not only more medical facilities but more doctors, scientists, dentists, nurses and other specialists.

To have an adequate public-health nursing service for all who need it would require a force of 65,000 nurses. This would mean the addition of two new nurses to every one now on duty in local, state and federal agencies.

Nurses are now being demobilized from the armed services and they will be available in constantly increasing numbers. The shortage has been great during the war, yet many nurses are apprehensive lest, with the return of those from overseas, there will again be a lack of work for them. I feel quite sure that this will not be the case. Moreover, if the program for public-health nurses could actually be put in motion, I think it would do more for the general health of the country than we realize, and we would see a marked improvement in every community in the course of the next year.

82

April 5, 1946

NEW YORK, Thursday – I see by the papers that Robert Hannegan, Democratic national chairman, has been denounced by a Congressional group of Southern Democrats because of a sentence in an article printed in The Democratic Digest, an official party publication. The administration opposed the Case strike-control bill, and this group of Democrats proceeded to vote for it, but when a party publication takes them to task for opposing their own administration, they turn around and complain. What their complaint amounts to is that being irregular works only one way! Now, I am all for teamwork, but it seems to me that the people who got off the team here were these gentlemen who voted against an administration bill.

One part of the newspaper account stated that Representative John E. Rankin of Mississippi told reporters: “I denounced the CIO-PAC as a Communist-front organization that is now out trying to get control of the Democratic party. It is rumored that President Truman won’t run for the presidency again. If that be true, Governor Tuck of Virginia is far out in front.”

Just what makes the CIO-PAC a Communist organization? Among the members of the various workers’ groups, there are Communists. I happen to think that, in the United States, people who belong to the Communist party should not be officials or leaders in any group which does not openly avow itself to be a Communist-controlled organization. There are many organizations, however, that are overwhelmingly democratic in feeling and in action but within which there are some Communist members. This is the case where the CIO-PAC is concerned.

I do not think they are out to control either one of our major political parties. However, since organized labor is a large and increasing part of almost every constituency in the United States, it will be increasingly true that their organizations will carry weight in both political parties and that candidates will seek their support, eventually even in such states as Mississippi.

The last part of Mr. Rankin’s remarks seems to me rather irrelevant, since we are not now preparing for the convention to nominate a presidential candidate. Instead, our next elections will be concerned with Congress. Chairman Hannegan, of course, is hoping to elect as many Democratic Congressmen as possible and he is following the wise practice of trying to build up his organization into a functioning machine. It might be well for the group whom the Southern Democrats appointed as “a committee on harmony and cooperation” to look beyond their own membership in the South and realize that a successful political party has to carry a majority throughout the country.

We are the leading democracy in the world and what we do is of great importance at the present time, because the whole world is watching us. The two strongest nations in the world today are probably the United States and Russia. They must cooperate on the world stage, but there are bound to be constant comparisons of their two systems, both political and economic. If the Southern members of the Democratic party will realize this, they will try to make the party meet the needs of the majority of the people and forget as many sectional differences as possible.

83

April 6, 1946

NEW YORK, Friday – Yesterday, I went to a luncheon of the Executives Association of Greater New York. This is an organization comprising one member from all the different trades and businesses within the city. They have an affiliation with a comparable group in London, and they invited me to the luncheon to receive from the British group a very beautifully bound memorial edition of the London Times containing Winston Churchill’s speech in Parliament and a record of various other commemorative tributes at the time of my husband’s death. This I am to place in the archives of the library at Hyde Park.

It was for me a most interesting and delightful occasion and I was deeply appreciative. As a return gift for the British Executives Association, the New York group had a gavel and sounding block made from the teakwood planks of the deck of the battleship Oklahoma, which was sunk at Pearl Harbor. The appropriate inscriptions bring to mind the fact that the sinking of this ship marked the time when Great Britain and the United States joined together to fight and win the war.

Prior to this luncheon, I attended a meeting of representatives from a large number of organizations which have banded together to give aid to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in their legal defense of the men who were imprisoned in Columbia, Tenn. Every effort will be made to see that the full light of publicity is thrown on this case and that the ends of justice are served, since it is important that a repetition of anything of this kind be prevented if possible.

In the afternoon, I met Mrs. Winthrop W. Aldrich and Mrs. Sidney C. Borg, and other members of the city’s United Nations committee, to talk over the plans for hospitality which will be made available for those working here with the United Nations.

A group of friends came in for tea, among them Mr. and Mrs. Douglas Chandor, Frank Sinatra, and the Polish Minister of Labor. In the evening, I went to speak at the City Center for the New York University School of Commerce Alumni Association.

On the whole, yesterday was rather a full day, and today in Philadelphia promises to be even more fully occupied. I think that, now that spring has come, I shall make it a rule that, under no circumstances, regardless of people’s persuasive powers, will I make more than one speech a day!

Everyone wants me to talk about the same thing – the United Nations – and before long, they are going to be so tired of my particular presentation of the subject that they will have to go out and find someone who can talk about it from another point of view! I have said right along that we must keep alive the interest in the U.N., but I think the subject requires presentation by many different people.

84

April 8, 1946

HYDE PARK, Sunday – In talking with the Polish Minister of Labor and Welfare, the other afternoon, I received the same picture of Poland that one gets in talking to people who have been working for relief and rehabilitation in Greece, Yugoslavia and other European countries. Italy sounds almost as badly off. Some of the stories from France and Holland are equally pitiful.

How can we work to have the needs of these countries really understood? This generation of children will be tomorrow’s citizens, and the scars left from starvation and illness will affect the whole history of the world. The Polish Minister said that it was not unusual, as he went to work on winter mornings, to find people lying frozen to death on the ground or in doorways. In a certain part of Poland where there has been great destruction, 800,000 people have no shelter and live literally in foxholes. He said a well-fed people might resist the cold and hardships, but people who were reduced by lack of food cannot stand up under the attacks of illness or under great cold. Needless to say, they can do none of the work which is needed to rehabilitate the country.

I have great respect for this man because he was in London and could have stayed away from all of these hardships; but he went back and faced them and decided to work with his compatriots, not just for them.

Friday, I spent in Philadelphia, speaking in the morning at a meeting of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. Two very good addresses were given, one by Professor Goodrich on the ILO, and one by Arthur Sweetser on the interim period between the League of Nations and the United Nations. Mr. Sweetser’s talk was comprehensive and authoritative, and his judgment on the changes and improvements which had been made is highly valuable, since no one has been more closely connected with the League and the efforts to build for peace.

Then I attended a woman’s lunch for the Jewish Welfare Fund. The increase in gifts over last year showed an appreciation of the misery of the remaining Jews in Europe which I wish could be duplicated by every group in this country in considering the whole European and Asiatic problem.

Between lunch and dinner, I was called for by Samuel Brown, the colored artist whose painting of “The Scrub Woman” had appealed to me many years ago in a WPA exhibition in the Corcoran Art Gallery. He has come a long way since those days, and a series of water colors done in Mexico last summer have real charm. Mr. Brown teaches in a vocational high school but gives all of his spare time to painting.

In the evening, I attended the very beautiful services at which Paul Manship’s Memorial, made for Reform Congregation Keneseth Israel, was dedicated. I am always deeply appreciative of these memorials, which, during the years to come, will keep before many people the thought of my husband and the things for which he stood.

85

April 9, 1946

HYDE PARK, Monday – Saturday noon, I took a plane to Buffalo to attend the dinner given that evening for Senator James M. Mead. At the dinner, he was announced as our next Democratic candidate for governor, but he himself was entirely non-committal!

I have always thought that, in many ways, being Governor of New York State would be more interesting than being in the United States Senate, but where one has had long experience in the Senate, it may be that the change to administrative work might not be so attractive. Dealing with the State legislature would, of course, be fairly simple in comparison with dealing with the other members of the United States Senate, but it is a big decision to make and one that I can well imagine would require a great deal of consideration.

The dinner was the annual one given in tribute to Grover Cleveland, who started his political career in Buffalo. It is well for all of us, I think, to recall these men of other days who labored in the public service and contributed to the building of our republic. Grover Cleveland was a man of outstanding honesty. He trusted and believed in the people.

But even in his day, the burden of the presidency must have been very great. My husband’s father knew President Cleveland and took my husband as a little boy to call upon him. All his life, my husband told us the story of the deep impression it made upon him when President Cleveland, in saying goodbye, patted him on the head and wished for him that he might “never be President of the United States.”

I took the night train from Buffalo and, in the morning, went into the club car to get a cup of coffee before we reached New York. A kindly-looking gentleman asked if he could sit down and talk with me for a few minutes.

He told me that many of the business and financial men he knew were very anxious to have all controls removed to spur production. They said that then there would be a short inflation, but that Mrs. America would never pay excessive prices for long and would shortly refuse to buy. This would bring a sharp deflation but of short duration, and we would soon be back to normal. Our whole upset economy would settle down and the free-enterprise system would be saved. This plan might be hard on a few people but the hardship wouldn’t last long!

How simple it sounds, but it isn’t as simple as that! It may flatter Mrs. America, but she had better not accept the assignment!

86

April 10, 1946

HYDE PARK, Tuesday – I got here Sunday morning by the same train as my guest, Miss Charl Ormond Williams. She wanted particularly to see the church and the little chapel that my husband had attended, and to go through the house once more before it is finally turned over to the public. A young French newspaper man, Mr. Matin, had come up too, for the day and lunched with us. So I took them to see the top cottage in which my son, Elliott and his wife, now live, and then they spent some time in the library in the afternoon.

When I went to pick up Miss Williams, I was surprised to hear that Madame Gouin, wife of the President of France, was going through the house, but I was happy to be able to greet her. She is a very charming woman, and I am looking forward to her coming to tea with me today in New York City before she returns to France.

It was a beautiful Sunday and though it was chilly the sun gave us a touch of spring, and I noticed little wild flowers peeping up in the woods as we drove through. Last year Mr. and Mrs. Henry Morgenthau Jr. planted a great many bulbs, daffodils and narcissi around my husband’s little cottage in the woods, and this year they are coming up and blooming bravely. In one sheltered spot the daffodils already are out, just as they are by Miss Thompson’s back door.

Yesterday morning Elliott took me out at a quarter before seven with an old friend of ours whose advice we always are anxious to obtain. We looked over the old barns and realized anew that when a farm has not been kept up for a number of years there is bound to be a great deal of work to do when you start out to rehabilitate it. I know nothing about farming, but I evidently am going to learn. We are going to raise all the feed we can and keep our cows, chickens and pigs on a slowly increasing scale!

We are planting a big enough garden this year to give us all the vegetables we need this summer and to let us put away a great deal in our deep freeze for next winter.

Our nice weather held until about eleven o’clock and then it began to get gray. Towards late afternoon yesterday I suddenly looked out to find it snowing hard!

I had to take Fala for a walk but he never really enjoys it in the rain; and the snow, of course, was more like rain than real snow. Most of my day was spent in putting my linen in order and tidying up the closets which is an occupation I find one has to do oneself at least once a year. I wish I had not been obliged to come back to New York this morning. But engagements must be kept.

87

April 11, 1946

HARTFORD, Conn., Wednesday – There is an American Relief for France Committee at 1720 Eye Street, N.W. Washington, D.C. They send out instruction sheets to anyone anywhere in the country, telling how to wrap and ship boxes to individuals anywhere in France, and they hope that this will become a national movement.

On the back of one of their instruction sheets there is a poem by Katherine W. Dunlap which might have been written by almost any of the people in Europe who are now struggling to live. Here are the last four lines:

“We, the survivors of these tragic years,
Must face the burden of our legacy–
Left us in trust by those whose faith was great;
Who saw beyond the stars and died in hope.”

It is true that they must do their part, but it is also true that they cannot do their part unless we do ours – and ours means supplying them with food, clothes, tools, and a sense that we really care what happens to them.

Anyone who read Judge Simon H. Rifkind’s recent report to Gen. Joseph T. McNarney must have a clearer vision of the conditions under which the Jewish group in Europe are now existing. Judge Rifkind has been special adviser on Jewish affairs to Gen. McNarney, the European theatre commander.

He estimates that, in Germany and Austria, the Jewish survivors at present number about 100,000, and he feels that the sooner they are permanently settled somewhere and rehabilitated, the better it will be. They wish to quit Europe; many of them wish to go to Palestine. The longer the final decision of where they can go is held up, the harder it is for them.

One thing he notes seems extraordinary to me. That is “the use of German police in persecutee centers.” He points out that this “is not promotive of order. Careful screening would produce good ex-persecutee material for such policing.” Of course, few of us here realize the shortage of manpower in Europe, but Judge Rifkind’s suggestion that some of the refugees themselves be trained for this police work would seem to be a possible solution.

At one time, there was a great deal of criticism over here because some of the Poles in refugee camps were allowed to do policing and were armed while they were on duty. This was tried because of our Army’s rapid demobilization and the need for men to work instead of remaining idle in the camps. Some of the Poles, however, proved none too reliable and their use as police had to be stopped. But Jewish refugees in Jewish camps will be entirely reliable, and certainly not dangerous to their own fellow sufferers.

88

April 12, 1946

HARTFORD, Conn., Thursday – There is one thing I have been meaning to write about for a good many days. It is the bill of rights before Congress to extend to the men of the Merchant Marine certain rights that now belong exclusively to the men in the naval service.

It seems unfair that these merchant seamen, who were all volunteers and who, in proportion to their numbers, lost more men in the war than any other branch of our fighting services, should not have the same benefits that sailors in the regular Navy enjoy. Over 1500 merchant ships were lost and over 6,000 merchant seamen were lost or taken prisoner during the war.

According to a poll taken by Dr. George Gallup, I understand that, on the whole, the voters are in favor of doing more for the Merchant Marine men. One of the reasons they gave was: “The Merchant Marine boys are not going to have any easier time than the rest in finding jobs after the war.” And again: “They risked their lives for their country, and they are volunteers, too.”

Many a man who could not get into any of the other services finally got into the Merchant Marine. Many men who sailed in the Merchant Marine were old sea-dogs, far over draft age. I think, as do the 60 percent of the citizens who voted “yes” in Dr. Gallup’s poll, that they are entitled to the benefits under this bill. Their needs, as well as the needs of the men in the naval service, should have full consideration and protection through our Government.

It is something of a jump from the men of the Merchant Marine to the production of a play. The connection is hardly obvious, and yet, if you read or see “On Whitman Avenue,” you will see that a question of justice is involved in this play, just as it is in the case of the merchant seamen. It took Canada Lee and Mark Marvin a long time to raise the money to produce this play, and I hope very much that, after it has played Buffalo and Detroit, it will come to New York and have a long enough run to repay those who had faith enough to produce it.

It deals with a question which is very vital to us at the present time, since the eyes of the world are on us just now. Our fight for democracy and justice, when all the various elements that make up our citizenship are concerned, is an essential fight to give that sense of strength and confidence in democracy which has to permeate the world. This play, through its portrayal of day-by-day incidents in an average community, makes one alert to the dangers that may defeat democracy and justice if we are not on our guard.

89

April 13, 1946

HYDE PARK, Friday – This morning I am going over to receive a collection of newspapers which the Common Council for American Unity is giving to the library as a memorial to my husband. They are issues of foreign-language papers published on the days after he died a year ago.

So many people have been kind enough to remember the anniversary of my husband’s death and send me tributes to his memory. I deeply appreciate it and wish that I could write each one a note of personal thanks. But I am afraid this will not be possible, so I want here to express my gratitude. I feel sure that the hope so many have expressed – that my husband’s faith in people will be fulfilled – and his own hopes for a happier future for the average man will be carried on successfully by our present and future leaders.

I very deeply appreciate the President’s coming up here today to attend the ceremony incident to the final taking over by the government of the house and the land deeded to the United States by my husband. I hope that this gift will bring interest, inspiration and pleasure to the people of the country in the years to come.

On Wednesday, I went to Hartford, Conn., to speak at a meeting of representatives from many counties in Connecticut who have been interested in the study of international affairs. They came to represent their groups and report back to them. I spoke about the United Nations meeting in London.

The meeting was held in the auditorium of the Fox Department Store. It looked like a most beautiful store and, being a woman, I would have loved to have time to go through it! However, when the lecture was over, we had to hurry off, because Governor and Mrs. Baldwin had been kind enough to invite us to meet a few women at tea at the Executive Mansion.

Connecticut has only just provided its governor with a house, so Mrs. Baldwin showed it to us with great pride. It certainly is charmingly arranged and very convenient for the kind of entertaining which falls to the lot of most governors.

I dined and spent the night with my cousin, Mrs. Joseph Alsop, in Avon but we drove back to Hartford in the evening for a big meeting held in the interests of the United Jewish Appeal.

Thursday morning, I drove over to Waterbury, where they had a most successful women’s luncheon for this appeal. There is only a small Jewish community in Waterbury – 800 families – but they have accepted a quota of $200,000 in this exceptional drive, which is being made to raise $100,000,000 for the rescue and rehabilitation of the Jews of Europe. Some of the ladies kindly drove me home, but we did not reach Hyde Park until nearly six o’clock.

90

April 15, 1946

HYDE PARK, Sunday – John W. Snyder’s recent report on reconversion to the President, Senate and House of Representatives is interesting reading. The papers have been so full of stories about strikes that it is very difficult for us to realize the simple facts which Mr. Snyder sets forth – namely, that more Americans are now working and producing more goods than ever before in peacetime history.

In the first quarter of 1946, civilian production was 154 billion dollars. On V-J Day, production was 128 billion dollars; and in 1939, with the figures adjusted to show the purchasing power of the dollar in 1945, civilian production was 118 billion dollars.

In the first quarter of 1946, non-agricultural employment was 44.8 million. The spendable income after taxes for the first quarter of 1946 was 140 billion dollars. On V-J Day it was 141 billion; and in 1939, with figures adjusted again to show the purchasing power of the dollar in 1945, the spendable income after taxes was only 91 billion dollars.

That is a pretty rosy picture, but in spots it does not seem to be as happy as this report would indicate. For instance, not long ago I saw in the paper that in New York State there are now 250,000 veterans who are jobless, and that the U.S. Employment Service feels this number will rise to 600,000 by midsummer. I feel quite sure that one of the difficulties is that we are not enforcing the Fair Employment Practices Act. Therefore a good deal of our unemployment is among our colored veterans. I heard, for example, of one young colored man here in my neighborhood – a mechanic and coming from a good family – who has been looking unsuccessfully for a job ever since he came out of the Army.

The U.S. Employment Service estimates that about one-third of the jobs offered carry salaries of from $30 to $40 a week. Another third pay from $40 to $60 a week, with about 10 percent below $30 and the remainder above $60. So they are going to make a drive to reach the employers and urge them to employ more veterans. Under the law, on his return a man must be offered a job by his employer comparable to the one he gave up upon going into the service.

A great many men, however, seem to have an urge to go into business for themselves. I heard of another young man today who said the only thing he wanted to do was to come home and run his family’s farm. But he didn’t want them to give him any orders, for, he said, he had received all of the orders he wanted to take from anyone during the rest of his life.

91

April 16, 1946

HYDE PARK, Monday – The memorial dinner given in New York City on the anniversary of my husband’s death, and attended by his friends, was a great success. As we were all rather weary, I think perhaps the list of speakers was a little long, but I nevertheless had a very warm feeling, as though many people there were glad to see each other again and to draw from each other the sense of consolidated strength to go forward with the unfinished business that lies before us.

One of the things that is sometimes hard to realize is that no one, no matter how devoted they were to a man or a leader, can carry on any program by simply doing what they think that man would have done. It is impossible to tell how any man would have changed his plans or his objectives because of the changes occurring in the world around him. So in drawing strength from the past, one is obliged to think for oneself, to contemplate simply the characteristics that one found in individuals and the manner in which they approached a question, thus making it possible to approach our own questions in the same spirit, but doing it as completely independent people.

On Saturday morning, in New York, I attended a meeting of the committee, which Dr. Channing Tobias and I are heading, in defense of the men arrested in Columbia, Tenn.

Then I had the opportunity of listening to two very good speeches at the Herald Tribune Forum for high school students. Bill Mauldin, the cartoonist, spoke very well, and he looks so young that I am sure the audience felt he was one of themselves. They could, therefore, take his advice and point of view with the feeling that it was given by one of their own age, in spite of the fact that he actually is older and has had wide, and deep experience through participation in the war.

I always renew my confidence in the future when I come in contact with a big group of young people like the youngsters I saw before me on Saturday morning. They have not had time to experience many disappointments and therefore their confidence in life and in human beings is far greater than that of their elders. I think that is why they are able to dream better dreams and have the enthusiasm to try to carry them out.

In the afternoon, I motored up to Hyde Park with some friends and, in the evening, I went to the Jewish Community Center in Poughkeepsie and spoke on the United Nations. I found the audience interested and prepared to ask very good questions.

We had a very pleasant weekend. Sunday was a glorious spring day with the bluest of blue skies. Walking in the woods, seeing the little spring flowers, and feeling the warm sunshine and the soft wind made one rejoice in living. I return regretfully to town today.

92

April 17, 1946

NEW YORK, Tuesday – In talking with Madame Leon Blum yesterday afternoon, I found that she is very much interested in the setting up, throughout the world, of houses somewhat similar to our International Houses, which we have organized in connection with universities or religious groups in large cities throughout this country.

Madame Blum feels that the sacrifice which will be demanded of the young people in France during the next few years will be very great, but that, if they can see it as a great challenge to serve not only their own nation but the world as a whole, they will rise to almost any heights.

I have a feeling that this same thing is true of the young people in our country. If they can feel that they have before them a very great challenge and that their role is an important one, they too, I think, will keep their enthusiasm high and set their standards of living on a global plane. When I was young, this was expressed by a phrase: “Hitching your wagon to a star.” Nowadays, it is hitching your ideals to the United Nations and learning really to love and work with your brother man.

There was a most interesting article in the paper this morning on the difference in thinking, which had emerged in the Security Council discussions of the Iranian question, between ourselves and certain other groups on the one side and the Russian delegate on the other. No one doubts the sincerity of the Russian point of view, the article points out, and therefore it is baffling to contemplate the future, because with two equally sincere points of view being expressed, there is little chance of either being modified.

Fundamentally, the Russians seem to feel that agreement in the Security Council should be reached only among the great nations, since they are the ones who provide men and material for war. The other nations, instead of having a voice in the agreements and being counted in the vote, would be there to carry out such policies as the great nations agreed upon.

This is contrary, of course, to our whole idea of majority participation and the rights of small nations to share alike with big nations in the decisions on questions of importance which do not actually lead to punitive action. A good many people think that, even in cases where punitive action is undertaken, the veto power should be done away with in order to insure a wider expression of the majority point of view. For the time being, however, that idea has been set aside.

The pattern set in our Constitution, where each state, large or small, has two representatives in the Senate and therefore equal power in that body, was apparently followed in setting up the Charter of the United Nations. This is a very fundamental question and will undoubtedly have to be resolved before much real understanding can take place between the Soviet delegate and the delegates from the other nations.

93

April 18, 1946

NEW YORK, Wednesday – I wonder if the troubles which are bedeviling the city administration here are not the same type of troubles which everyone is having to meet in every city throughout our nation.

I had so many letters condemning the local administration because garbage was not properly collected and the streets were dirty that I wrote to find out what conditions really are. This is what I find:

“This has been a very trying winter for the Department of Sanitation. Their equipment is just about on its last legs. Automotive repairs are becoming more and more difficult as the equipment grows older. We are providing funds for new equipment in the 1946-1947 budget, and this will relieve the problem to a great extent.

“A large part of the refuse from Manhattan is loaded on barges and towed to Staten Island, where it is used for filling in a marsh area that will eventually become one of Staten Island’s largest parks. After the fill is placed, it is covered with a two-foot layer of sand and good clean earth, to improve compaction, eliminate any possibility of light material blowing away, stifle odors, etc.

“In good weather, this method of disposal has been very successful, but unfortunately this winter, between rough water in the lower bay and the harbor strike, operation of the scows was greatly curtailed. It became necessary for the Department of Sanitation to haul this refuse in trucks for excessive distances to points in Queens and the Bronx. Good equipment would have withstood this excessive wear, but the effect on the old trucks was disastrous. The department is now back on schedule and is up to date on Manhattan collections, although it required day and night operation to do this.”

In addition, I had almost violent letters because, during the tugboat strike, places of entertainment and buildings where business is carried on were closed for one day – Lincoln’s birthday. I inquired about this also, and here is the answer I received:

“The Mayor was forced into the closing of the buildings in the city for a day by a recommendation of the Disaster Control Board, a city agency established to cope with such problems. This was based to a great extent on the claims of the Health Commissioner that such a move was essential in order to protect the health of the community at a time when the oil reserves had reached a point where there was not enough to supply the city for another day. Fortunately, with a break in the weather and the help of the Navy tugs, it was possible to increase the supply of fuel during the day that the city was closed.”

These are the answers to local situations, but I cite them here because people are very apt to grow critical and excited when they know very little about a situation. If they understood it better, they would see for themselves that it had to be met in some way and that the authorities met it in the way which seemed best to them.

I believe in constructive criticism, but I also believe in trying to find out the reasons why things are as they are. Blaming people without an understanding of what they are up against isn’t quite fair play.

94

April 19, 1946

NEW YORK, Thursday – In my own little sitting room here the other night, I was given the privilege of hearing some really delightful songs. John Golden, the playwright and producer, won’t like it but I am going to let you in on a secret. When he is with a few intimate friends and they bedevil him enough, as a very great favor he will occasionally play and sing one or two of his own compositions. They are songs of long ago but they are just as good as they ever were, and he won great applause when he consented to give a few numbers for our little company.

Then Todd Duncan, who has been on a tour of the country, sang some beautiful songs which he has been singing in many cities. The words by Joseph Auslander, the poet, and the music by Dr. Foch are very fine. They are serious songs, dealing with the things which we have been through in the last few years. Strains of horror and sadness come into them but, sung by Mr. Duncan, they are very beautiful.

The songs, however, which I think may have great significance for the future are some compositions by Irving Caesar which he sang for us. You may be familiar with his “Songs of Safety” for school children. These songs, which are easy for children to learn and sing, teach them the everyday precautions they must observe in a big city, where trucks and fire engines and crowded conditions cast many hazards around their lives.

Mr. Caesar’s new songs, which really were given for the first time on this evening, might be called a “Series on Friendship.” They explain why the nations of the world must be friends and they do it in terms that even a small child will understand. Above everything else, they are easy to sing, and we soon found ourselves joining in the choruses. I noticed that even Mr. Duncan was adding his voice to those of the untutored masses.

I was glad to find that those among us who had a special interest in the United Nations felt that these songs might possibly have a real meaning for future understanding. Mr. Caesar told us that they were already translated into a goodly number of languages, and if children all over the world start to sing the same songs, that will help our friendly relations.

I have always noticed that, at the Girl Scouts’ international encampment, music seems to be the first medium through which the girls develop a bond of understanding. I have heard among them not only Spanish and Portuguese songs but many in other languages, and I have seen the costumes and the dances of many lands. I realized that here was growing an appreciation of the culture of many nations which would be valuable to every one of these girls as they grew up.

95

April 20, 1946

HYDE PARK, Friday – The other afternoon, I held a small meeting of business men in the hope of getting some help on the benefit which the board of the Wiltwyck School in New York is going to give on May 21. We have secured Melvyn Douglas’ musical production, “Call Me Mister,” for that night and we hope that the public will buy tickets and pack the house. But that alone would not give us enough support for the school, so we hope to have a souvenir program to acquaint the public with Wiltwyck and bring us in considerable revenue through advertising.

Next Thursday and Friday evenings, April 25 and 26, the African Academy of Arts and Research is giving its annual festival of dance and music at Carnegie Hall. On both evenings, a noted exponent of these African arts, Asadata Dafora, will appear with a company of fifty in “A Tale of Old Africa,” devised by himself and Etuka C. Okla Abuta, African writer who is now in this country.

Many other well-known artists who have been touring the country or appearing in New York City will take part in this festival. Among them are Princess Orelia, Randolph Scott, Clementine Blount and Bernice Samuels, all of whom are dancers. Among the drummers, they have Norman Coker, Alphonse Cimber, Moses Mianns and Sylvanus Cole. On the night of the 26th, a special feature will be Katherine Dunham’s dance group presenting “Rites de Passage,” dealing with primitive rituals.

The festival proceeds will go into the regular work of the Academy during the coming year. The Academy has gradually established itself as doing valuable work both among people in Africa and our own colored people here.

It has slowly gained the backing and sponsorship of many people in this country who are interested in the development of better race relations. Purely selfishly, we must realize that, in the continent of Africa, there is a vast market in the future for our products, but only as their people begin to want some of the things which we produce.

Yesterday morning, in New York City, I went to Douglas Chandor’s studio to see a sketch of an historical painting which he is hoping to complete and which someday should hang in our Capitol in Washington. It will show the three great war leaders, President Roosevelt, Prime Minister Churchill and Premier Stalin, consulting together. In preparation for the final painting, Mr. Chandor has done a portrait of my husband and did one of Mr. Churchill when he was last here. He is hoping to do one of Premier Stalin from life, and then he will be able to undertake the finished painting.

96

April 22, 1946

HYDE PARK, Sunday – It is a sorry picture to see human nature at its worst, as evidenced by the statement given to the press last Thursday by three officials of the United Automobile Workers, CIO, without consultation with the union’s newly elected president, Walter P. Reuther. The anti-Reuther officials were able to do this apparently because they have more votes on the UAW executive board than Mr. Reuther has, even though the rank and file elected him president at the convention.

I care about the welfare of labor and I believe that, of all other groups, it should strictly adhere to democratic principles. Reuther was elected by the majority at the convention. There were people who disagreed with the ideas he stood for during the strike. Since he is a human being, I would never question the fact that Mr. Reuther might make mistakes. But I believe he is an honest labor leader who has at heart the interests of the majority of the rank and file. I also believe that he has one great advantage, not only over some of the other labor leaders but over many of the business leaders with whom he associates. He knows the peoples of the world through personal contact. At the present moment, that is one of the most important attributes any man can have who holds an important position. Mr. Reuther spent three years traveling around the world and working in various countries.

The labor men who oppose Mr. Reuther have a perfect right to stand for the policies they believe in, and to fight them out on the convention floor. But once the vote is cast they also have an obligation, I think, to uphold the will of the majority. It seems to me quite outrageous that in their statement they should attack other labor groups that had done what they thought was right, and also liberal organizations which they think upheld Walter Reuther by showing an interest in him as an individual. I happen to be one of the sponsors of the Union for Democratic Action and I know that many of their speakers cannot always represent the views of the board, or even of all the members of the Union for Democratic Action. The organization has an obligation, however, to give an opportunity for a hearing to as many points of view as possible; and I hope they will continue to do so. I did all I could to help the women and children whose men were on strike in the UAW recently, because I believe that in our country we want to alleviate suffering wherever it is possible to do so, since the harm done, particularly to children while their elders fight out their various points of view, seems to me unjustified.

I have always liked R. J. Thomas, UAW vice president, though I have never known him well. But I want to see labor strong and unified, and the kind of thing which has just happened within this group is the kind of thing which will give the opposition to union leadership a great hope that they can control labor groups for their special interests, rather than find these groups unified and disinterestedly fighting for the best interests of the average labor man.

97

April 23, 1946

HYDE PARK, Monday – The majority of the House of Representatives, in their handling of the OPA bill, certainly thought only of the immediate future. And that is, I am afraid, what a great many people in our country seem to be doing at the present time. The House majority ignored the polls which have been taken recently, almost all of which show that people are anxious to have price controls continue, and are even willing to be curtailed again on a rationing basis if they can feel that they are helping to feed starving peoples throughout the world.

Paul Porter, price administrator, and Chester Bowles, stabilization director, have both made statements pointing out what the House’s action will mean as to price controls and also what will result from the reduction in subsidies. The overall effect will be a rise in the cost of living. This, of course, affects the poor far more than the rich. For that reason, I have always approved of the subsidy method of keeping prices down on things which are consumed by the average household.

There are many people, however, who have never been in full accord with the subsidy program and who disagree with it on principle. If this House bill goes through the Senate as passed by the House, we will soon know whether subsidies have been helpful or not in keeping down the cost of living. We will know, too, whether we have discarded too soon the regulations which saw us through the war and which perhaps should help us to get through the uncertain period when peace exists in theory but when the results of the war are still so evident on every side.

It is hard for the average person to think of the world situation and of the effect of what we do here at home, not only next year but five years from now, and not only in our own country but throughout the world. That kind of thinking we expect from our government, from our representatives.

Many of them try to gauge what the people of their districts will think about each individual question which comes before them. But I have always felt that the representatives of the people have a second obligation – namely, the obligation to go back to their constituents and tell them how they see a situation whenever they feel that their constituents are not seeing it as they themselves are enabled to see it in Washington because of their greater opportunities for wider information.

If this service is not rendered to their constituents, then the people are entirely dependent on the information which comes to them through the printed word and the radio. To judge correctly what you read and what you hear, you must know the influences that lie behind the individuals writing and speaking. To understand the influences that play upon these fields of communication requires a very broad education, and I wonder whether our government representatives can as yet rely on our present educational system to furnish the people with the necessary educational tools. If not, the men who are elected to office must furnish this information to their people back home.

98

April 24, 1946

HYDE PARK, Tuesday – In the last few days, two things have been brought to my attention. One is an effort to solicit contributions to aid the 30,000 orphaned and homeless children of Belgium. Chaplain Edouard Froidurf of the Belgian Army and Louis Sheid, both of whom spent some time in the Dachau concentration camp, are administering this program.

The citizens of the United States are being asked to contribute to many things at the present time, but orphans in the war-torn countries especially appeal to our hearts. Also, we are a nation made up of people whose backgrounds tie them closely to many countries in Europe. It is possible to raise the funds which are asked of us through the people who have a special interest because their parents or grandparents are in the country whose children are suffering.

These 30,000 orphans will have to grow up under the care of the Belgian Government, and we are asked to contribute $1,000,000 toward their support. I hope there will be found enough people in this country to undertake this particular burden.

There are several other countries in Europe which I think are going to need our help for a long period. France has many people in the United States who will have a continuing interest in the needs of her children and in her own restoration as a cultural center for the world.

Yugoslavia, whose fight against Fascism was of great importance at a crucial time for the Allies, perhaps is amongst those nations facing the greatest need at present for both food and medical care for her children and adult population.

I told you recently about a visit I had had from the Polish Minister of Labor and Social Welfare, Jan Stanczyk. He has since sent me a little more information on the condition of the children in that country, and I am quoting it here:

“There are in Poland 1,100,000 orphans and semi-orphans, and 2,400,000 children and youths up to 18 years of age whose parents are in such poverty as to be unable to provide for them. These children and youths must be partially fed and totally clothed by a public welfare organization.

“Furthermore, there are about 2,100,000 adults who have lost their health either in concentration camps, while doing forced labor, or as a result of difficult conditions during the war and occupation. Among them are tens of thousands of invalids, wounded in fighting the Germans in our country and abroad.

“Our population is reduced to poverty, and our country is destroyed to an incredible extent. Consequently, we are unable to assure, solely by our own means, care and assistance for the masses of people finding themselves in extremely difficult circumstances.

“We are thus compelled to appeal to governments of Allied nations and to the conscience of humanity for aid.”

99

April 25, 1946

HYDE PARK, Wednesday – I went down to New York City on Monday morning, leaving here a little before 7 o’clock and driving my own car. It was so lovely and springlike that I kept wondering why I didn’t always get up and out at that hour.

To my horror, when I reached my apartment in New York, I found that a gentleman who I thought was coming the next day had been waiting an hour because I had wired him to come on Monday instead of Tuesday! However, I found that what he wanted to discuss was something I knew so little about that I gave him letters of introduction to the proper people and he went on his way.

I was then able to devote a little time to my aunt and uncle, Mr. and Mrs. David Gray, who had arrived from Ireland on Sunday. It is wonderful to have them here for even a short time, but I had so many engagements that day that I felt as though my greetings were somewhat breathless.

At a little before 11, after seeing several other people, I went uptown to the Museum of Modern Art, where Rene d’Harnoncourt showed me the exhibition of the primitive arts of the South Seas. It is one of the most extraordinary exhibitions I have ever seen.

The natives used wood almost exclusively to make instruments for household use, for war, or for religious ceremonies. Their tools, for the most part, were extremely limited, being largely made of shells or sharpened stones or rats’ teeth. And yet the designs and shapes and colors they created are some of the most beautiful I have ever seen in primitive art.

It was a little shocking to me to find that cannibalism does not necessarily denote a lack of ethics, since apparently you must never eat your victim if he has been angry before death – and I suppose fright would be as harmful as anger! In many cases, it was the custom to be particularly nice to people for a month or so before they were eaten, giving them the best of food and shelter and the most desirable of wives.

You were paying someone, I was told, a great compliment when you ate him, because you made him part of yourself, and so, in order to improve the quality of your own soul, you made sure that you ate someone for whom you had great admiration. I still think it must have been somewhat uncomfortable for the victim and I cannot say I like the idea, but it was the first time that I ever thought there was any ethical standard back of the ritual of cannibalism.

100

April 26, 1946

LOUISVILLE, Ky., Thursday – The other evening, in New York City, I attended a dinner for the New York Infirmary. It was a very distinguished gathering. They were particularly fortunate in getting Bernard M. Baruch to make a speech.

Among other things, he said that his father, whom he described as one of the wisest men he had ever known, had once told him that no man should become a doctor who was looking for any financial return. His reward should be entirely in the good he could do for other human beings. That is a pretty difficult standard to live up to in any age, and I think Mr. Baruch’s doctor-father must have been a very fine man.

Mr. Baruch then proceeded to pay the ladies a very wonderful compliment by saying that he thought they would more nearly meet his father’s requirements as doctors and, therefore, he believed in the work of the New York Infirmary, which is staffed entirely by women and gives them an opportunity for the best and highest training in the medical arts.

There was a time, many years ago, when this was the only institution in the city of New York where women could get this kind of training. But now they have won their way and they no longer have to face as many difficulties as they did in the past. However, they still have some limitations to overcome, so this institution still fills a great need.

The dinner launched a drive for $5,000,000 to build a new building, since the one in which the Infirmary is now located is very old and inadequate. We know that, in the medical profession, the latest tools are necessary to accomplish the best results, and doctors must be trained in the use of these tools.

I was interested to find that not only women but many men attended this dinner. Evidently the institution has gained recognition upon its merits and no longer has to appeal purely to the special interest of women in opportunities for other women.

Mrs. Frank Vanderlip, president of the Infirmary, who has been loyal to it for many years, made a delightful speech. And Miss Helen Hayes, the actress, did a really beautiful bit of reading in a dramatic monologue.

Having started my day very early in the morning and having been busy every minute all through the day, including having a number of visitors in the afternoon, each of whom had a particular interest which had to be talked over, I found myself somewhat weary at the end of the evening. I was very grateful, therefore, to be sent home in a kind gentleman’s car. But even then, there were a couple of hours of work on the mail awaiting me before I could go to bed!