MY DAY
By Eleanor Roosevelt
June 2, 1941
Hyde Park, Sunday –
Yesterday, I had my first swim in our outdoor pool, and I must say the first plunge was extremely cold. Only the knowledge that my brother and a small boy enjoyed it, kept me in long enough to enjoy it also.
Our son, John, and I rode for an hour in the afternoon. We reached my husband’s cottage upon the hill where we found him enjoying peace and quiet, which we disturbed for a few minutes. He has been going through the telegrams and letters which have been coming in the past few days, and it is a most gigantic task.
The woods are still pleasant to ride in, but what will happen in the course of the next week or so, I do not know, for already the bugs are fairly active. The horses can have protection for their heads by wearing large hoods, but their riders will have to take to the fields before long.
We heard last night from Franklin Jr. that he thought he could fly over this morning from Boston, and since I knew the way to the New Hackensack, New York airport, I agreed to meet him. I rose early to do so, and found it raining this morning. Just before I started out, he called me to say he might be able to go by air to Hartford, Conn., but no further, so would I send someone to meet him there.
I started off myself for Hartford. I am not as rapid a driver on wet roads as I should be. Perhaps I could never have accomplished what Franklin Jr. thought would be my driving time. In any case, it took me nearly three hours and I had to telephone home to ask my luncheon guests to wait. In the meantime, Franklin Jr. only reached Springfield by air and drove to Hartford from there.
We did reach home about 2:45 and everyone was very hungry. I I felt very apologetic to the three people who had motored up from New York City to discuss various things with me, and then found me gadding around the country after my young Naval Reserve officer. However, Franklin Jr. has to go back tonight and he may not be home again for a long time, so my apologies were sweetly accepted by everyone. I did enjoy my guests and was most grateful to them for taking the long drive up here.
These visits to Hyde Park are a thrilling adventure to the President’s little dog “Fala.” In the first place, he finds it great fun to play with Franklin Jr. and Ethel’s little boy, Franklin III. Then the two big dogs; the red setter “Shawn” and the great Dane “Sandy” simply fascinate him. He spends his time trying to attract their attention. Their reaction is great boredom, but this never seems to discourage him.
June 3, 1941
Burlington, Vt., Monday –
We left Hyde Park early this morning to drive up to Burlington, Vermont, where I am attending a tea at the University of Vermont, and then giving a lecture in the evening for the Women’s Auxiliary of the Mary Fletcher Hospital. This column is filed on the way, so I can tell you little of the trip until tomorrow.
I am very much pleased, because it looks as though we are going to have a new receiving home for children in Washington, DC. During the past few months, it has been possible to place children who are not delinquent in foster homes instead of the receiving home. This seems to me a great step forward.
At the other end of the welfare picture, where the old people are concerned, they tell me that certain very definite improvements have been made out at “Blue Plains.” The young doctor in charge there has been able to hospitalize some of his worst cases at Gallinger Hospital and to improve the care of those who are bedridden in the home. The food, I am told, is much better and it is served hot.
This is an advance and yet I hope very much that eventually the four institutions – The National Training School for Girls, The Industrial Training School, The Home for the Aged and one other industrial school – will all have new buildings. They may then be housed in a more suitable place where they can be separate, and yet so planned as to make a saving in management costs possible.
The Congressional committees, who made these investigations into these institutions last year, have made these improvements possible on the recommendation of the District of Columbia officials. It must be a great gratification for them all to know that they have brought so much comfort and happiness to the old, and so much more hope to the unfortunate youngsters, who have had to face some difficult situations in the way they had to be cared for in the past.
I wish very much that all the institutions for young people could be thought of primarily from the point of view of rehabilitation. Rehabilitation of bodies which have been insufficiently fed, of minds which have not been able to develop properly under the conditions which they have faced and, finally, the rehabilitation of emotional natures that have known too little security and love to make normal growth possible.
June 4, 1941
Saratoga Springs, NY, Tuesday –
As I told you yesterday, we motored to Burlington, Vermont, coming by way of Rutland. It was a most beautiful day and, when we reached Vermont, I was overjoyed to see lilacs and lilies of the valley in bloom, which I had missed at home again this year. It took us less time than I had anticipated, and we had a very leisurely lunch at the Terrace Inn, Brandon, Vermont.
The world is a small one, for the woman who runs the inn told me that her daughter had been in Chautauqua, NY, when I went there for the late Mrs. Pennybacker years ago. She had acted as a page at a large reception.
We had a delightful luncheon of waffles and little sausages and maple syrup, not entirely the lunch for two women who desire to grow thinner, but we could not resist maple syrup in Vermont.
We arrived at Burlington, and found our very kind hostess, Mrs. F. V. Burgess, somewhat harassed by numerous phone calls. She told us of the various plans and I began by seeing two young women reporters. At 4:00, I went to the University of Vermont at the invitation of the Dean of Women, Miss Mary Jean Simpson, and met the girls belonging to the honor societies and some of their faculty advisers. We had a very pleasant hour and I returned in time to receive Colonel Wood from Fort Ethan Allen, who had come to pay his respects.
We stayed at a fascinating house with a suspended circular staircase, which was most interesting. I admired a lovely needlepoint rug as we went into dinner, and discovered that our hostess had made it.
Today promises to be another beautiful day. We are homeward bound over the same route, stopping in at Saratoga, NY, for a short time.
I have just received a most interesting translation, made by a friend from the old French. It is a prophecy written in medieval times by St. Odile. It begins:
Listen, listen, oh my brothers, for I have seen the terrors of forest and mountains. The unbelievable has frozen the people. The time has come when Germany will be considered the most belligerent nation of the world.
It continues to describe the periods, first, second and third, of a great war in which twenty nations are involved and, in the end, it says:
All the plundered nations will recover what they have lost and more … for the men will have seen such abominations in this war that their generations will want no more of this forever … for on that day the frightened men will truly adore God, and the sun will shine with unaccustomed brilliance.
Curious, isn’t it?
June 5, 1941
Hyde Park, Wednesday –
The gentle rain is falling upon us again and is greeted with joy by everyone, for it is just the right kind of rain to benefit crops and gardens.
Our drive yesterday was very pleasant and we stopped in Saratoga, NY, long enough to assist at the christening of a very sweet baby girl. She never cried at all when the water was poured over her head, which I am sure means that someday she is going to give her father and mother, Mr. and Mrs. Al William Kresse, a very hectic time. You see, I was brought up on the old superstition that babies must cry the “devil” out of them at their christening, and if they don’t it will surely come out later on!
We spent the night with a friend and have now arrived home to face the usual mountains of mail which greet one after two days without any contact with the postman.
I found a rather sad letter from an old friend of the President’s, who has always been very fond of the sea. Like many other people, this friend adopted an orphan during the last world war. But I think he must have taken it more seriously than the rest of us, for he has kept in touch with him and really helped him and known him well.
The other day, the Daily Mail, in London, carried the story of this boy, now grown to manhood and following the sea, meeting his death, as have so many other gallant English officers, on his ship the HMS Patria. He was a first lieutenant and, when someone had to go below to free a hundred or more men who were trapped, instead of ordering a junior officer to do the job, he went himself and was never seen again, but nearly all the men on board were saved.
The story in itself will be one more tradition told on British ships on the seven seas to educate the young. It is the quotation in a letter from his wife to my husband’s old friend which I want to give you. She writes:
I am convinced that when he met this last trial, he maintained that quiet confidence, that unbreakable courage, and that smile of his that indicated peace of mind and soul. Danger at sea, he had always met without flinching, and this is as we must remember him. For my part, I am proud to have been his wife, even if for only eight years, and if his sons (there are two, five and two years old) grow up as straight and as fine and clean as daddy, I shall be satisfied.
This is a courageous attitude to take, but it must be hard to attain such fortitude of soul. If that is the spirit, however, in which the British face all defeats and still keep such high courage, then we may be sure that in the end, right must triumph over might. If our own courage and determination can be at the same level, perhaps, before long, might will be on the side of right.
June 6, 1941
Hyde Park, Thursday –
We are having our second day of steady rain. It is the kind of June weather when a fire on the hearth is pleasant. Yesterday I discovered that last year’s robins, or their progeny, have returned, not to the same bathroom window, but to the one next to it. Two blue eggs lie in the nest, from which the mother flies away whenever she hears a noise. I really wonder whether they are wet and miserable when the rain beats upon the window and all the protection they have is the ivy vine which grows thick around them.
I am going to New York City today to do some shopping. I imagine that it will not be as pleasant as trotting around the house or finishing things up at my desk would be. Work accomplished gives me such a sense of virtue. I wrote last night, but the quiet of the house, broken only by the crackling of the burning logs, seems to make the hours slip away unnoticed. It is only on waking the next morning that I realize that perhaps I sat up a bit too late.
The news that Chief Justice Hughes is retiring on July 1 comes as a shock. He always seemed to be such a vigorous person that I do not associate him with any particular age. It must be a great satisfaction, however, to reach the point where you feel you can lay aside your work and do only the things you want to do the rest of your life.
To be able to look back, as Justice Hughes can, on a successful personal career, a good name achieved professionally, a happy home in which children have grown to maturity and started out on their own lives with a satisfactory background, a public life which has brought posts of honor as recognition of his high ability and integrity, all this must give the Chief Justice happiness. His countrymen will rejoice with him and do him honor, both in the present and the future.
I cannot close these few words about him without saying how much I have always admired Mrs. Hughes. It seems to me, she has contributed greatly to the success of his career and that some honor and affection from her countrymen are due her as well.
I saw the other day that Ernie Pyle, the newspaper columnist, is taking a month’s holiday. I want to tell him that, while I do not begrudge him a well earned vacation, I shall miss him very much. This is to say, I shall miss his column, for that daily stint of his seems to be very much Ernie Pyle himself. I have come to feel that I know him and to wish that someday, on his vacation, perhaps, he might drop in and sit before my fire.
Yesterday, Mr. Carey Wilson, of Hollywood, Calif., did just this for a short time. I enjoyed it so much that I was both surprised and regretful when the hour came for him to leave.
June 7, 1941
Hyde Park, Friday –
It rained all day yesterday in New York City, but I managed to do a number of errands and was able to leave for Hyde Park this morning at quarter of 9:00. I drove up very comfortably since there was comparatively little traffic coming out of the city. As I looked at the winding lane of traffic on the other side, I was rather glad that I was not going south or coming into the city to go to work.
The sun is shining again and everything looks beautiful. Two days of rain does give the countryside a grand washing, and everything in our little vegetable garden seems to have grown visibly.
We have only two hours here because, at 1:00, we must leave for Catskill, NY, where I am to dedicate a camp which the public schools are inaugurating for the benefit of their pupils this summer. Then we shall drive straight to New York City, for I must be at the meeting of the Mother’s Health Association of the Lower East Side at Cooper Union at 8:00. Then I take a midnight plane for Chicago, on my way to St. Paul, Minn., and Miss Thompson goes back to Washington. This flying trip was an added reason why I was glad to see the sun come out this morning.
When I agreed to go to the regional conference of the Women’s Division of the Democratic National Committee, I stipulated that they must take the risk of bad flying weather, for I could only do it if I could fly. Nevertheless, I always have a guilty feeling. If I had not been able to get there, I am sure they would have been much annoyed with me and I would have been deeply distressed.
Several days ago I noticed the report in the papers of the death of a woman I have know for a long while. Miss Julia K. Jaffray was associated with the National Committee on Prisons and Prison Labor for 33 years. She came to the United States from Galt, Canada, as stenographer to Miss Helen Varick Boswell, who was secretary of that committee. Miss Jaffray, herself, served as secretary for 25 years. This Canadian woman became a leader and wielded great influence in many women’s groups in our country.
She organized the club women and worked with labor and manufacturers in a campaign for the abolition of a system of contract labor in prisons, and helped to develop the Federal Institution for Women at Alderson, West Virginia. Miss Jaffray’s interests were varied, but her accomplishments in prison work have always been outstanding. I think her name will be long remembered in many women’s groups and will serve to cement the friendship between the women of Canada and the United States.
June 9, 1941
Chicago, Sunday –
I landed from a plane in Minneapolis, Minn., on Saturday morning and was greeted by the press photographers and Miss Hickok. Then we proceeded at once to St. Paul. Fortunately, I was in time to attend the Democratic Women’s luncheon.
I had had some very nice letters from children in a hospital in Minneapolis, begging me to come to see them. Unfortunately, there were so many other things I had been asked to do, that I had to decide to do nothing at all, in order to have a little rest before preparing to speak in the evening.
I find that a whole night of travelling is not conducive to doing really well in a speech, if I have no rest beforehand. I was particularly sorry not to see the WPA nutrition projects, for these are among the most interesting things being done along this line in this country.
Some old friends came to see me in the late afternoon. After the evening meeting, where I spoke, I fell into bed, because we had to be back at the airport this morning at 8:00 to catch our plane back to Chicago, and from there to New York City and Washington. I was glad to have a friend with me on the return trip, though I always have so many things to read tucked away in my briefcase time never hangs very heavily on my hands, no matter how much I am alone.
The meeting last night was nonpartisan, even though it was held as part of the regional conference program. I am deeply appreciative of the hospitality which was extended not only by the democratic women, but by everyone we met.
When I told my mother-in-law I was coming out here, she, who thinks primarily about the family, reminded me that there are cousins here, the Ames, who have been a force and influence in the community for many years. She hoped I would surely manage somehow to see them. Then she thought of a young great-niece who is married to a newspaperman out here, and who may shortly go to Seattle, Wash., and expressed the hope that I would see her also.
Politics, when it comes to the family, means very little to my mother-in-law. She sees no reason whatsoever why all the cousins did not flock to see me, even if I was attending a Democratic Party meeting.
I shall return to Washington this evening at about the same time the President will from a short cruise on the river, if he is able to go. Nowadays, every plan he makes carries the proviso that the news of the moment may cause a change.
June 10, 1941
Washington, Monday –
I arrived in Washington last evening about 7:30, to find that the President was able to stay on the Potomac until this morning. I spent the evening straightening out the various things which had accumulated on my desk. Today is comparatively free. Breakfast on the porch was really delightful and leisurely.
I was interested to see that Miss Gizelle Shaw of Buenos Aires, speaking to the Eastern Regional Conference of the National Woman’s Party, remarked that South America was not flattered to have Mr. Douglas Fairbanks Jr. as an envoy from this country.
I think Miss Shaw must have made this statement under a misapprehension, for Mr. Fairbanks went only as an ambassador of goodwill to study the particular subject of the movie industry as it affects our relationship with our South American neighbors. He is extremely well fitted to make this study and, on returning, to put his findings before his own industry.
Miss Shaw makes the suggestion that South America would have been more flattered had we sent a scientist or an educator. I think again, she perhaps does not quite know the scope of the program being carried out under the Department of State and Mr. Nelson Rockefeller.
In some cases one wonders if, perhaps, too many people in different fields of endeavor are not flooding the South American countries today in their search for knowledge and their desire to bring a better understanding to this country of our neighbors to the south.
I was particularly impressed in St. Paul, Minn., by the panel on hemisphere defense conducted under Miss Josephine Schain’s leadership. Madame Graciela Mandujano, whom the Business and Professional Women’s clubs are sponsoring on a lecture trip in the United States, did a magnificent job, both as a member of the panel and as a speaker at the luncheon. Her approach was so charming and simple that everyone was interested in her presentation of rural conditions in Chile, and I was really thrilled to see the interest of the women in St. Paul in all she had to tell them.
We have some young guests in the house, for three of the Hopkins children are here just now. It is nice to know that the weather is not going to make life out of doors impossible for them.
Yesterday I finished a little book of stories about “Mr. Chips.” that Mr. James Hilton gave me. He is the hero of the book published in this country called Goodbye, Mr. Chips by James Hilton. This book I just read has never been published here, but I think it should be, for there are many things in Mr. Chips’ philosophy which would be of value, not only to schoolmasters, but to us all. One quotation we can remember with profit:
One of the lovely joys of growing old was to add to this list of trivial things one didn’t care about, so one had more time to care about the things that are not trivial.
June 11, 1941
Washington, Tuesday –
I have been requested to answer the following questions in my column. They are evidently based on an article I wrote for the May issue of the Ladies’ Home Journal.
How do you visualize the organization and registration of the service of girls on a compulsory basis?
I see it done exactly as done for young men, perhaps with certain modifications.
What would be the relation of this plan to women already employed, especially in industry?
It would have no relation whatsoever, because I visualize it only as a continuation of practical training for one year. This will benefit the community and, at the same time, be of value to young women in their future lives.
What ages would be included?
I surmise the ages would be from the end of high school, if girls were going no further; to the end of college training, if they had planned on taking a college course. I suppose it would be between the ages of 18 to 24.
How would existing organizations be used?
They would be used to give opportunities for training.
Why do you feel compulsory service necessary?
Only because it is obvious that the better the training is people have today, the better are the opportunities they have in life. This training should develop a broader knowledge of the whole community and should, therefore, be entered into by all girls in the community, physically able to participate and not exempted for special reasons, such as preparation in specialized fields of work.
Is this plan an integral part of military defense?
It has nothing whatsoever to do with military defense, but it is an important part of civilian defense. I believe raising the standard of living has a good effect on our civilian defense.
I should like to point out that this plan has no official backing and has not been considered by anyone in the government. It was suggested by me purely to bring about discussion, so that there would be a wider appreciation of the situation of young people, especially girls, in all the communities in our country. It should also bring about a consideration of what would be wise procedures for the benefit of individuals and community life.
I am very glad that I have achieved so much interest on the part of different groups, even those such as the American Youth Congress and certain political groups which are violently opposed to the word “compulsory.”
I think we should ponder this statement a very eminent man, Dr. Edmund Ezra Day, President of Cornell University, made the other day:
It is high time for America to face squarely the problems of individual and social discipline in a democracy.
June 12, 1941
Washington, Wednesday –
Yesterday afternoon, a delegation of Navajo Indians came to see me. They brought me a very beautifully woven small rug. It evidently has much symbolic meaning, but since the woman who wove it could not speak English, it was a little difficult for me to understand the full meaning of the pattern.
This group lives on the reservation which covers a more or less desert area in northern Arizona, New Mexico and southern Utah. Their nearest railroad station is Flagstaff, Arizona, some 200 miles away. Their livelihood consists in raising sheep and such minor crops as they can irrigate.
The government experts have decided that they must raise fewer sheep and they see starvation before them. Ten acres of irrigated land is all they can be given. They have no outside market that is within reach, and they have come to Washington to appeal to the Indian Bureau in the Department of the Interior and the Indian Affairs Committee in Congress.
I hope that some solution can be worked out for them, for it was a sad little group, doubly so because they are so bewildered. Not more than fifteen percent of the younger generation learn English, they told me, for while they have schools, they are inadequate. They have a hospital and medical care, but that too is inadequate to cope with their needs.
They are increasing in population and to cut down their food supply seems near starvation. These puzzled and rather helpless real natives of our land, certainly have had a hard time!
Last night, Mr. and Mrs. Armand Denis showed us part of their moving picture taken in Burma. It is beautiful and most exciting. The native method of paddling canoes is not only original but very graceful. The gripping scene, however, is the one where the priestess visits the snake god, the great and dangerous cobra. She calls him out of his cave and goes through the necessary ritual which must be performed if her prayers are to be answered.
We also saw a short film on the Navy called The Battle, which is excellently done. Another film explained the Treasury Defense Bonds and Stamps. The large sale of these last month shows that the people of this country not only want to help the defense effort with their savings, but that they have confidence in the future of America.
A group of people is coming to the White House this afternoon to go on the air and to give their reasons for participation by all the people in the Defense Bond and Stamps drive. It will help now and in the recovery period when peace returns to the world.
June 13, 1941
New York, Thursday –
I attended the graduation exercises yesterday afternoon for Washington’s shut-in pupils. Many of them were either in hospitals or unable to leave their homes, but a good many could be brought to the school. It was wonderful to watch their faces and to see how well they took part in the exercises. They sang and acted and were given badges of merit for effort and proficiency in various lines.
Unfortunately, the appropriation provided last year was not sufficient to reach all the shut-in children of the District. Nearly all large cities consider this educational service part of the public school education, but the District of Columbia has carried on its program under the Public Welfare Board. Next year, it is hoped, it will be placed by Congress under the Board of Education, who have collaborated very closely.
Even though the Commissioners requested only $15,000, so many people have appeared before the Congressional Committee, it is hoped the amount will be increased. At present, these youngsters can have only one hour and a half of schooling a week, and they should have one hour a day, five days a week.
In spite of their physical handicaps, these children, like all others I know in a similar condition, look cheerful and smiling and are deeply appreciative of anything which is done for them.
Later, at the White House, the quartette of the West Virginia ladies, who call themselves the West Virginia Legionnaires, came to tea. After being shown through the White House, they went off to their engagement, leaving Miss Edna Ferber, Mrs. Anne O’Hare McCormick, Mrs. Dorothy Ballanca and Miss Louise Morley to discuss the radio program for Defense Bonds which they were about to put on the air.
As I told you, we went on the air at 6:30, but in between, at 5:30, Mrs. Henry Wallace and I went out on the lawn to greet Mrs. Samuel Rosenman, who stood with us while we received the delegates of the National Emergency Housing Conference. I think Mrs. Rosenman felt that there was very good attendance at the conference this year and that all had gone very well.
A few people came to dinner, among them Commander Flanagan, who is starting off for London before long, and Dr. John Studebaker, who had one or two things he wanted to talk about to me. He had a chance to talk to Miss Louise Morley about the International Student Service School at Campobello this summer and was most enthusiastic.
After dinner, Miss Thompson and I flew to New York City and this morning we were up early. We had to reach the broadcasting station in time for a rehearsal before my 10:00 broadcast.