Eleanor Roosevelt – My Day (Dec. 1940)

21

December 25, 1940

The White House, Tuesday –
Christmas Eve is for me one of the busiest days of the year, and for many other people it must be the same, whether they are housewives preparing for their family Christmas celebration or busy executives preparing for celebrations on a wider scale.

One thing I think we should all remember no matter how busy we are, Christmas was meant to bring us a spirit of calm. The shepherds would never have heard the angels if they had not been sitting in calm and quiet watching their flocks. So, sometime on Christmas Eve, let us try to clear our spirit to be in a receptive mood for the Christmas message.

It is a joyous message, one that should bring consolation and good cheer to the suffering people of the world. It is hard to say the usual “Merry Christmas” to people whose liberty is gone; whose lives are temporarily directed by alien people; for under the circumstances merriment does not seem possible. The old time greeting however, “Christ is born, rejoice for He shall save the world,” can still bring comfort to sorely tried souls.

When one suffers, whether personally or through others, the tendency is to be bitter against those who cause the suffering. No one could have agonized more than Christ Himself as He realized what human beings must bring upon themselves through the years, by their stupidity and greed, and yet nowhere in His preaching is there any tinge of bitterness. I have come to fell that, on this Christmas Day, perhaps that lesson of charity toward others is the most important lesson we can take unto ourselves, for it keeps us from indulging in bitterness of spirit.

I was re-reading Robert Louis Stevenson’s Christmas Sermon last night, and I think the reiteration ourselves in order that we may not be too hard on others would be good for some of us to remember. One particular quotation in that simple, charming essay has always been a favorite of mine and I pass it along to you on this Christmas Day as worthy of our consideration.

To be honest, to be kind – to earn a little and to spend a little less, to make upon the whole a family happier for his presence, to renounce when that shall be necessary and not the embittered, to keep a few but these without capitulation-above all, on the same grim condition, to keep friends with himself – here is a task for all that a man has of fortitude and delicacy. He has an ambitious soul who would ask more; he has a hopeful spirit who should look in such an enterprise to be successful.

May your Christmas season be one of calm joy. Let us pray together that we remember our obligations to others during the coming year, that we keep from all bitterness and have equal charity for those whom we consider in the wrong as for those we fell as fighting the battle of righteousness. May we be given the grace to walk humbly and to spread kindness along our way.

22

December 26, 1940

Washington, Wednesday –
Christmas Day! As I went my rounds yesterday I could not help thinking that for no adults could this day be a completely joyous one, but for children it must be. All the joy that one can put into a child’s life, should be there. No matter what the future holds, those memories of childhood will help one through.

Yesterday, I started with a party for the children given at the Capital Theatre by the Central Union Mission. As I go to these parties, I am impressed more each year with the complete tractableness of the children of the poor. They are told to stand thus and so, they are given a bag of toys so a photograph may be taken, and then it is taken away again. They look bewildered, but they never protest. It is a quality of reasonableness better fitted to maturer minds and indicative of much experience that one would rather the children never had.

The first party was at 8:45 and from there I drove to Arlington, Va., where a second party, given by the Kiwanis Club, was in progress. To each group I gave the President’s good wishes and my own. I was back in the White House at 9:40, going the rounds of the daily routine.

Diana Hopkins had been busy while I was gone and arranged the little creche from the Greenwich House Pottery Shop at the foot of the big Christmas tree. I hope many children noticed it as they took their toys in the afternoon. Today we have it under our little tree on the second floor.

The singing Trapp family, headed by Baron Georg von Trapp paid me a visit about 11:00 yesterday morning. After telling me many interesting things which they had learned in their travels around our country, they sang two songs, an American one “Home On The Range,” and, then in German, the Austrian Christmas carol, “Silent Night.” It is one of my favorites, but I don’t think I ever heard it more beautifully sung.

I hope that everyone felt as I did about the few words which the President spoke at the lighting of the municipal Christmas tree. It seemed to me that he expressed for us all, whether we are articulate or not, the feelings we have in our hearts this Christmas time.

We all enjoyed the carols sung by the WPA Negro Community chorus on the White House steps last night before we went into dinner. They sang for fifteen minutes and sent us away more appreciative than ever of the fact that our Negro people have a great contribution to make in the musical world.

Early this morning, we were all in the President’s room, the children and the puppy the center of attraction. I think the grown-ups had more fun playing with the puppy’s stocking than in watching the children. Now we are all going to the interdenominational service at the Congregational Church.

23

December 27, 1940

Washington, Thursday –
Today, the Parent’s Institute released an annual report on the nation’s children. This report is made by Miss Katharine F. Lenroot, Chief of the United States Children’s Bureau, Surgeon General Thomas F. Parran of the United States Public Health Service, and the United States Commissioner of Education, Dr. John Studebaker.

It is important to the people of the whole nation to keep in touch with what the country is doing for its children. The Children’s Bureau reports on the care of mothers and babies. The homes of the nation and the children in them are our first line of defense. In all our preparations we must not forget this important fact.

Each year about 2 million babies are born in the United States. One fact in the report about them, which will please you, I know is that during the five years from 1934 to 1939, our baby death rate dropped 20%. Even at that, some 50,000 babies died between the 2nd and 12th month of their lives and, sad to say, many of them could have been saved. There has been little or no decline in the death rate of babies from one day to one month old, and there are still 75,000 still births every year.

Under the Social Social Security Act, 800,000 children approximately, benefit from the program giving aid to dependent children. Because of the acceptance of responsibility for our children by the government agencies during the depression, some 8 million children are at the present time receiving economic aid in their homes.

The Surgeon General, in his report, states:

New horizons are ahead of us in the attainment of national health. New knowledge and surer weapons offer us, as parents, real hope for better health of our children: and, as citizens, hope for a strong, vigorous America, eternally ready for tomorrow.

Naturally, Dr. John Studebaker is primarily concerned with education. His chief interest in the past year, because of national defense, has been with our vast investment in vocational schools and equipment.

None of these people feel that we have attained the full measure of our desires in the opportunities we offer our children, but all of them feel that we have improved, and for this we may be grateful.

We all enjoyed the Christmas Interdenominational Service yesterday morning. We were happy later to greet the United Norwegian Royal Families with their children.

I want to thank again, in this column, the innumerable people who have sent us so many Christmas cards and telegrams. It is impossible to acknowledge them personally, but they may be sure that they warmed our hearts and that we are deeply grateful.

I think last night was the pleasantest Christmas dinner and party which we have had in a long time, though we missed not having all our own children present. We had a great many old friends and it was a happy close to a happy day.

24

December 28, 1940

Washington, Friday –
I had a most unique experience yesterday afternoon. Mr. and Mrs. Robert Woods Bliss have turned their house and grounds, known as Dumbarton Oaks in Georgetown, over to Harvard University. They invited me to bring my mother-in-law, Mrs. James Roosevelt and Mrs. J. R. Roosevelt to see the house before they, themselves, left it.

Here is a collection of books and objects of art from about the second century up to the fifteenth or sixteenth century. For me, the dominating thing in the museum section is the bronze prancing horse which is so full of life and action.

I can imagine nothing more delightful than being a student at Dumbarton Oaks. The atmosphere surrounding the student will be simple and severe, but he will have a wealth of books, textiles and beautiful things around him. I am sure that any professor given an opportunity to teach in these surroundings, will find it very inspiring and that living in the house will be comfortable and conducive to study.

Bishop Atwood came to tea. Our rather large household straggled in and out and, just before dinner, Franklin Jr. and one of his friends and I had a grand swim.

At 8:00, the Secretary of the Treasury and Mrs. Morgenthau, with Joan and Bob, and some other young debutantes and their escorts, came to dine. At 10:00 promptly, most of the guests were assembled and we received in the Blue Room before the dance. The President greeted all of the first rush of arrivals, but I fear he missed those who came late.

I was sorry he could not have stayed away from work long enough to watch the young people dance. We seem to have gone back this year to full tulle skirts, and they certainly add to the charm of the picture on the dance floor. The many colors in the dresses of the girls made the beautiful East Room look like a summer flower garden, and never for a minute did the spirits of our guests seem to flag. That is why I like debutante parties, they have such a good time.

Even the members of the orchestra seemed to enjoy themselves. They were particularly kind to me, for they played many waltzes which I noticed the young people are enjoying too these days. The conga seems to be a very popular dance, which I had not seen before. It gives a real opportunity for acting as well as dancing and I enjoyed watching the way the various boys and girls danced it.

Franklin Jr., Henry and Bob Morgenthau decided that a party always left a happier memory if it came to an end when everybody was still having a good time, so at 3:00, the orchestra played “Good Night Ladies.” No one paid any attention, and finally Sidney and his orchestra played the “Star Spangled Banner,” so that everyone had to stop dancing and join the singing. That ended what, for me, was a delightful evening.

25

December 30, 1940

New York, Sunday –
I don’t know whether any of you are reading about Ernie Pyle’s trip to England with as much interest as I am, but I have read everything since he left, and on Friday one paragraph stuck in my mind. Speaking of what an English friend told him about the English people, Ernie Pyle remarks:

He says the war has done a lot for the English character. He says it has drawn people together, made them prouder of each other, made them humbler within themselves, and hence, both mellower and stronger.

That combination of humility and pride is a great achievement. Humility as regards oneself and pride in other human beings who make up your people – what a great leveller of artificial distinctions!

Friday was a rather quiet day at the White House and I had an opportunity to pay a call on one of my godchildren, Ruth Eleanor Armstrong. She and her twin brother are very attractive youngsters, and they certainly were having a grand time with their Christmas toys.

Saturday found me in New York City doing a number of errands before going out to spend a little while at the joint conference held by the International Students Service and the National Student Federation at the New Jersey State College for Women.

I find myself at present in a most unique position. A certain number of papers, including the Ku Klux Klan paper of Atlanta, Georgia, accuse me of supporting the communists because I have made some contributions to a very excellent labor school in Tennessee and I have also subscribed to the Oklahoma branch of the Civil Liberties Union.

On the other hand, some of the communist papers are accusing me of trying to use certain youth organizations for dark purposes which are closely tied with fascist work camps. I have never tried to use any organization, and where youth organizations are concerned, I have always felt that older people have an obligation to help them when their own beliefs allowed them to do so.

I have never heard a government official advocate a compulsory work camp of any kind. I still think a great many girls as well boys would not only profit by a year of service for their country, but would gladly give this time at some fixed age. This is my own personal opinion, however, and I may be overestimating the desire of the boys and girls of this country to train themselves as well as to serve their nation.

In any case, what I happen to believe has nothing whatsoever to do with what people who are actually responsible government officials believe or do. I can only wish that I actually had half the influence which the two extremes seem to attribute to me. I’d be glad to use it to achieve the preservation and improvement of democracy as it now exists in our land.

Today was filled by appointments with various members of my family and friends. Tomorrow morning I shall start back to Washington, taking with me the young daughter of an old friend, the late Mr. Thomas M. Lynch. She will be our guest for a few days.

26

December 31, 1940

Washington, Monday –
As I walked down 5th Avenue in New York City, yesterday afternoon, I could not help being amused by little incidents along the way.

Two small boys, roller skating, recognized me. With the joy of devilment in his eye, one of the youngsters pulled up in front of me with a grand swirl and said:

Hurrah for Willkie.

I imagine he had no idea how funny he was, but I went chuckling down 5th Avenue and remembered what pleasure it would have given me if at that age I could have thought of something which I considered really clever by which to annoy my elders.

A little further down, a woman, hesitating before crossing the street, caught sight of me and came over rather shyly, saying;

May I shake hands with you, Mrs. Roosevelt? I have always liked you.

And so we shook hands and I wished that it might have been a bridge to to better acquaintance, for she had an interesting face. Two boys just behind her shook hands, too.

A minute or two later, I met someone I really knew, Connie Ernst, a charming picture with a gay handkerchief tied around her head. She greeted me and we walked two blocks together. Further on, I saw an elderly gentleman; oh, so immaculately dressed, but with an expression on his face that said very plainly that life had lost its savour for him. As I bowed my recognition, I wondered what it was that made old age for some people a time of flowering, but for others a time of drying up.

Three of us listened in my apartment in New York City to the President’s speech last night. I think all of us felt that it was as sincere a presentation of the question of national defense as it now stands before the nation, as could well be made.

The newspaper this evening announces that the “City” of London is in ruins as a result of bombing. I imagine this means little loss of life, and all the activities which have been carried on in the past, in this particular part of London, can be resumed somewhere else. An American who had been in London not very long ago, came to see me today. Someone asked him about the effect of the bombing, and with this very news in mind, perhaps, he answered:

They are the bravest people I have ever seen.

A woman who was here at luncheon just a few days ago casually mentioned that her house in London had been hit a short time ago and she was so thankful that her husband had not gone home to luncheon that day.

The loss of material things seems to matter less and less as the days go by, just as they tell me the old class distinctions are being wiped out by the necessities of the moment. Let us hope that we can learn some of the lessons of suffering without having to endure it.

I had a rather bumpy air trip to Washington this morning. My young fellow passenger, who was on her first flight, was not very happy, but we arrived in time for lunch and she seemed quite recovered, for she went off to the movies with Diana Hopkins afterwards.