Eleanor Roosevelt – My Day (April 1940)

21

April 24, 1940

Washington, Tuesday –
I happened to notice in the newspaper yesterday, that the Metropolitan Opera Guild in New York City is making its drive for the last $100,000 of the $1 million which they are collecting. This may seem a purely New York City interest, but if any of you have enjoyed the matinee radio broadcasts as I have, you will perhaps feel as I do that this is one in which everybody in the country has a stake.

Of course, opera is given at different times in different places all over the country. Just as in Europe, in certain cities, one thinks of the opera not as belonging to that city, but as being representative of the country and a world interest in music. So I think we can claim in New York City that the opera represents a national interest and even a world interest. At this time, when it is so hard to think of things which draw us together instead of splitting us apart, music and art seem to be the things where there still is an opportunity to have a common appreciation.

I was glad last evening to have the opportunity of meeting Dr. and Mrs. John Rothstein before they left this country. He is the director of the Tate Gallery in London, and has been in Canada and here looking after some of the works of art belonging to his nation, and in general getting a picture of the interest of people in painting. He encouraged me greatly by saying that he felt our government program had been remarkably good in this country and had awakened a far greater art consciousness.

I received this morning a group of high school girls from Coral Gables, Florida, who wear a most attractive Spanish costume. I think as they go sightseeing in Washington they will attract considerable attention. This is the season for young things to visit this city and I am glad that this is so, for it is a beautiful season here. There must be inspiration in just the physical beauty of the grounds and buildings which represent the government of this country. I was interested, also, to find how much impressed these young people are when they have an opportunity to see and talk with some of the men and women who are actually in government positions.

The group from Barnard College, which I told you was coming last night, was a very interesting group. Some of them are anxious to earn their livings in government service, others anxious to discover how they could be useful as citizens in their communities. All of them are becoming more conscious through their contacts here that government must rely on human beings for carrying out any plans or theories.

1 Like
22

April 25, 1940

Miami Beach, Fla., Wednesday –
I left Washington yesterday on the 2:00 plane for New York City and attended Mr. George Carlin’s tea. Here the columnists writing for the United Feature Syndicate stand in line and greet the gentlemen and ladies who are kind enough to make their columns available to the public. I always enjoy this party very much and regretted to have to miss it last year, and so am particularly glad that I could be present this year. After it was over, and I had had a chat with another group that wanted to speak to me, I went down to my apartment where I had a quiet supper and went to the evening plane which landed me in Miami early this morning.

There was a time when I found dressing, undressing and sliding myself into an airplane berth and buckling the strap across, quite a difficult undertaking. Now I have all my bags arranged and manage it all with comparative ease and get just as good a night’s sleep as if I were at home, which just shows how one can accustom oneself to various things. I can’t say, however, that I enjoy arriving anywhere at 5:30 a.m. It is beautiful once you are up, the air has a nice clean washed feeling and when the first effort is over, you wonder why you don’t do it more often. In spite of that, I don’t find that I do it often.

This is a very different trip than the one I took in February, when I came here for holiday making. I am installed in a very comfortable and large hotel. But I don’t look forward to hours of peace and quiet.

At 9:00 a.m., Mr. Beecher, the representative of the Farm Security Administration will come for me and we will go on an all-day jaunt to see some of the Farm Security work in this area.

Talking of camps, I have been very much interested in a request which comes to me from New York City. A camp fund called “The Johanna M. Lindlof Camp Fund” has been set up to establish some camps for public school children during the summer months. Mrs. Lindlof is a member of the Board of Education and, with several other people who are familiar with the problems, such as Dr. Angelo Patri, Miss Ruth Gillette Hardy, Dr. Isidore Kayfetz, Mr. Frederick Schoedel, Mr. Samuel Goldman and Miss Eva M. Larry, Mrs. Lindlof is establishing these camps where children will have a month’s vacation. The ultimate goal of this project is to demonstrate the special values of camps operated by the Board of Education. It is believed that city children can benefit greatly from a camp program which will initiate them into life out of doors where the need of enterprise and ability will train them to assume and carry responsibilities in their various activities. I speak of it here, because it seems to me that this plan might be of interest to other boards of education in other cities.

1 Like
23

April 26, 1940

Miami Beach, Fla., Thursday –
I drove quite a distance in miles yesterday but it seemed very short. The flowers are far more beautiful than when I was here in February. Everything still looks deliciously green and is a riot of color. I think it was epitomized for me when I saw a girl crossing the street wearing an orange blouse, brilliant blue shorts, a green sash and carrying over her arm a bath towel with all the colors mixed together.

The tourist season is over, so the place seems to belong more to the people who really live here. The beach has a few children with their parents or nurses watching them. The water looks very tempting when the sun comes up and when the moon shines on it at night. Since I did not come on a pleasure jaunt, I brought no bathing suit but, as I drove yesterday, I could not help thinking how pleasant a dip in the ocean would be.

I have never seen the Everglades before. Miles and miles of flat, rich soil, beginning with muck about a foot deep and increasing to well over six feet. You drive along a straight road with a canal alongside, which serves as an irrigation canal when necessary. This is probably the biggest acreage of undeveloped farm land we have left in this country. At present, there are fields of beans, celery, tomatoes, cabbage and sugar cane in an area of about 100,000 acres. Packing houses are dotted here and there.

The farming system is a peculiar product of this area. The man owning the land does not, as a rule, live on it. The farmer may not own the land, but may lease it. He may not even be a farmer, but hires a manager and a labor boss who provides him with labor. You can see that this is like an industrial situation, with little or no contact between the man at work and the man with money at stake.

From the point of human beings, the result is quite deplorable. I, who have always believed that a good example is of greater value than many words, received quite a shock to my confidence after I went over a model plantation of the U.S. Sugar Corporation at Azucar. Here the Quaker gentleman in charge said it was good business to have his people live decently, and those he keeps all year round have little individual houses with gardens of their own. Only a short distance away, however, the county health department has condemned a housing unit where conditions are almost unbelievable.

Why should you, in the country, find houses so close together that you can touch them on either side as you walk through the alley? Even though condemned, these places are still lived in. I saw packing house workers living in tents on muddy land, or along the banks of the canal, and farm hands in shacks unfit for animals.

One can only hope that the new Farm Security Camps being established for both white and colored labor will set a new standard of decency which will have to be followed by employers generally.

1 Like
24

April 27, 1940

Asheville, NC, Friday –
Before leaving Miami yesterday, we had a whole morning free, so I had a luxurious shampoo. Then Dr. and Mrs. Frank Christian and their daughters came to call. We reached the train in ample time and, in going into the dining car, had a most pleasant surprise. We found our Chicago friends, Mr. and Mrs. Edward Flynn, and enjoyed very much lunching with them. Little surprises of this kind are what make travelling such fun. When you like people a great deal, it is particularly pleasant to have a chance to see them when you haven’t expected it.

We worked the rest of the afternoon on a number of things which had been waiting to be done when we had a few consecutive hours of quiet. The train was crowded with people coming North. They were evidently reluctant to give up their vacation spirit and so clung to the clothes which they had been wearing during their holiday. Bright colored slack suits made the dinner quite a charming picture.

When we went in for dinner, it was crowded and we had to wait about 15 minutes, but we were through dinner before we reached Jacksonville, where we changed for Asheville, NC. The trip this morning up into the mountains has been perfectly beautiful. The young green of the trees with luxuriant white dogwood gleaming through the woods and numerous noisy little brooks tumbling down the hills over the gray rocks, have made every turn a joy to the eye.

One thing surprised and interested me. In a little clearing on the side of a hill, we saw two mountain cabins, no different from the average type, though they looked a little better built. What a change there was, however, in the outward surroundings. Each of them had a little stone wall holding up a grass terrace in front of the porch and planted all around it were the lovely purple flowers which grow like a carpet through the woods. Some little trees had evidently been planted around the cabins and I could not help feeling that some very good influence had been at work to make such neat and tidy exteriors, where one is never surprised to find careless and ill-kept cabins, outbuildings and yards.

It was nice to arrive at a familiar homelike place like the Grove Park Inn. Now we are looking forward to a pleasant afternoon before the lecture tonight. I have not seen either Mr. and Mrs. McIntyre or Miss Durand, who are here, since they left Washington. My husband was here last autumn, but I was not with him, so it is really quite exciting to see them all in a short time. I have another friend here, whom I hope to see this afternoon.

1 Like
25

April 29, 1940

Charlotte, NC, Sunday –
Once arrived in Asheville, NC, we found ourselves embarked on a busy but pleasant day. The air is invigorating in these mountains, with a snap lacking in warmer climates. After a press conference, we went to lunch with Mr. and Mrs. McIntyre. It is curious that, when you have known people for a good many years, the fact that you haven’t seen them or even communicated with them, doesn’t seem to make much difference in your ability to pick up and go on as though time was more or less annihilated. I suppose it is because people you know and see very often over a period of your life, remain forever after rather constantly in your thoughts and you never feel they have slipped away from your interests, or that you are apart from theirs.

We had some very happy hours together Friday and Saturday and enjoyed meeting Mr. McIntyre’s doctor, Dr. Bernard Smith. All their efforts at present are bent on Mr. McIntyre’s returning to go on the next trip the President may take. Though that seems to me a rather strenuous way to begin work again, perhaps it is easier than spending many hours at a desk daily.

After lunch, we went to see Miss Margaret Durand. Her courage and cheerfulness in the face of the many months she has spent here and the variety of setbacks she has had, are a lesson to all of us. She kept repeating how much she wished she could be at work. She said she felt that, since she had been here, she knew more about the results of what everybody in Washington was trying to accomplish than she had during her very active days there. Still, she would rather be among the trees and not see so much of the forest.

After that, we visited the Aston Park Marionette Club in the little building on top of the hill and saw the play which the children wrote and present themselves. They made the marionettes, pulled the strings and were the voices behind the scenes. It was very attractive and gave the audience of children a great deal of pleasure.

On the way back to the hotel, I visited two craft shops. One, the Highland Craft Shop, had an assortment of really beautiful handwork from a variety of places in which I have become interested in the last few years. Back at the hotel, a group of Girl Scouts from Asheville and Waynesville each presented me with some flowers and I had a little chat with them. Yesterday morning we came by train to Spartanburg, SC, and drove to Winthrop College in Rock Hill.

1 Like
26

April 30, 1940

Washington, Monday –
I had a very full day yesterday. We left the hotel in Charlotte, NC, a little after 9 o’clock and visited two centers within a five mile area outside the city. The first one, a boys’ resident center, was giving the boys training in construction work. They were building a number of buildings and putting their own camp in good working order. The allied training in arithmetic, reading blueprints, English and all matters pertaining to the jobs they are doing, seemed very excellent.

During the day we travelled across the state toward Raleigh. The girls’ centers are stressing home-making, but at the same time they are trying to branch out and give them more than sewing and the strictly home-making courses. They teach upholstering, first aid which may be used in home nursing and a certain amount of clerical work. The original thing about their program for girls is the fact that to meet the needs in their own state, they are combining training. For instance, a girl can learn clerical work and salesmanship, and serve either as a salesgirl or in the office, if she is not busy behind the counter. In small towns this is very necessary and will mean increased employability for the girls. They have worked out other combinations which I think will be very valuable.

We also saw one of the best agricultural projects I have seen. The boys are building their own cabins of the type used on farms in that vicinity. They cut down the trees and strip the bark. On one of the projects they make the shingles used on the roof. They do all the cement work, wiring and plumbing. They work in the fields and do some really valuable farming, because it will prepare them for some of the changes which must be made if the agricultural life of the state is to be improved. They are also learning a good deal about forestry, cleaning up underbrush, preventing forest fires and allowing the trees to come to maturity for harvesting, and reforesting.

One of the most valuable things done in all these resident projects is education in a democratic way of life. They have established self-government. The boys and girls take responsibility and function as they should in their own communities. I think this is going to be a tremendous help in making them conscious of their future responsibilities as citizens.

We ended the day by arriving in Raleigh about 7:30, and the entire staff entertained the Governor and Mrs. Hoey, Miss Thompson and me at dinner. It was a distinctly profitable and encouraging day for me. I felt the young people were happy and hopeful, that Mr. John Lang was a successful NYA State Administrator and his staff – all of them young – had the qualities to continue to develop this program profitably.

1 Like