Eleanor Roosevelt – My Day (Sept. 1939)

1

eleanor1939.jpg

MY DAY

By Eleanor Roosevelt

September 1, 1939

NEW YORK, Thursday – Two things I saw at the World’s Fair yesterday impressed me greatly. If you haven’t seen the little Danish Colony Home, be sure to go there the next time you have a free minute at the Fair. It won’t take you long, for the little house consists of a tiny kitchen, a good-sized closet, four beds built like bunks in two tiers with an alcove which serves as a sitting room and dining room combined. Curtains can be drawn in front of the beds and there is also a little shower-bathroom. The whole house could be scrubbed and cleaned in less than an hour.

These little houses are a part of Denmark’s co-operative scheme for summer holiday making. You lease your small plot of land for two dollars a year and obtain your lumber, seeds, etc., at cost. You have a combination vegetable and flower garden, with a sandbox and playground for the children and a little lawn with a table, where you can eat and sit on pleasant days. Every inch of space is utilized, you even grow your strawberries in a barrel with holes bored in the sides, so you won’t have to give up the ground space. The house and its grounds make an ideal summer vacation spot for people of small means. I can think of many a young couple in this country who would be grateful for something like it near the place where they work.

Then we went to take a look at the “Masterpieces of Art.” Many old “friends,” I was glad to see again, hung on the walls. Some of the early Italians are very satisfying, but I have an especially soft spot in my heart for the examples of Franz Hals, Rembrandt and Velasquez which are shown there. Franz Hals’ portrait of an old lady with a beautiful white ruff around her neck and the exquisite detail of the lace cuffs, which serve as a background for the serene beauty of the old face, is one of the pictures one likes to see over and over again.

My time was too short to do what I really enjoy, namely, sit down in a room where there is a picture I want to see and look at that until its beauty has sunk in sufficiently to stay with me and give me the sense of peace which comes from seeing perfection. Someday, perhaps, I shall have the time to do this, even though that isn’t the way most of us sightsee in our own country.

By 7 o’clock, a small group of us dined together on the porch of my apartment and talked of the world news. We listened to the radio and could hear nothing to give us much encouragement. A talk with Washington provided no final decisions of any kind on the future. Our youngest son called me from the SS Washington to make arrangements for landing today. I tried to decide whether I should take the train to Newport News last night, because the weather still looked somewhat uncertain, or whether I was safe to trust to weather reports which prophesied clear weather for this morning. The Coast Guard called me at 9 p.m. to say that all reports pointed to being able to fly, so I decided to meet the steamer on which my mother-in-law, Johnny and Anne were landing and then fly to Newport News.

1 Like
2

September 2, 1939

HYDE PARK, New York, Friday – At 5 o’clock this morning, our telephone rang and it was the President in Washington to tell me the sad news that Germany had invaded Poland and that her planes were bombing Polish cities. He told me that Hitler was about to address the Reichstag, so we turned on the radio and listened until 6 o’clock.

Curiously enough, I had received a letter on my return last evening from a German friend who roomed with me in school in England. In this letter she said that when hate was rampant in the world, it was easy to believe harm of any nation, that she knew all the nations believed things that were not true about Germany, did not understand her position, and therefore hated her. She begged that we try to see Germany’s point of view and not to judge her harshly.

As I listened to Hitler’s speech, this letter kept returning to my mind. How can you feel kindly toward a man who tells you that German minorities have been brutally treated, first in Czechoslovakia and then in Danzig, but that never can Germany be accused of being unfair to a minority? I have seen evidence with my own eyes of what this same man has done to people belonging to a minority group – not only Jews, but Christians, who have long been German citizens.

Can one help but question his integrity? His knowledge of history seems somewhat sketchy too, for, after all, Poland possessed Danzig many years prior to the time that it ever belonged to Germany. And how can you say that you do not intend to make war on women and children and then send planes to bomb cities?

No, I feel no bitterness against the German people. I am deeply sorry for them, as I am for the people of all other European nations facing this horrible crisis. But for the man who has taken this responsibility upon his shoulders I can feel little pity. It is hard to see how he can sleep at night and think of the people in many nations whom he may send to their deaths.

I can hardly believe that I actually met the steamer George Washington yesterday morning, saw my mother-in-law and Johnny and Anne leave the boat and, with Mrs. John M. Franklin, who had been a passenger and who wanted to go to Newport News, Va., for the christening of the SS America, took off at 9:15 in a plane for Newport News. We reached there in ample time and the ceremonies went off without a hitch. I read a letter from the President to Adm. Land, for I represented him. I held my breath when Mr. Ferguson, president of the shipbuilding company, announced that at 11:49 the first whistle would blow and that one minute later a second whistle would start the ship down the ways. Everything happened on schedule and in spite of my usual anxiety I broke the bottle without any difficulty, so the America began her career under auspicious circumstances.

I spent an hour and a half in Washington with my husband and reached Hyde Park again at 7:45 for dinner with my guests. Quite a full day.

3 Likes
3

September 4, 1939

HYDE PARK, New York, Sunday – For some time I have been wanting to tell you about various things I have been reading, and this fairly quiet day is a good opportunity.

Perhaps you subscribe to the Protestant Digest. It is not just a Protestant magazine, but it does try to awaken those of us who happen to be Protestants to a realization of our responsibilities and interests in the world. I found it interesting. It is always stimulating to realize that if you belong to a certain religious faith there is a responsibility to make sure your thinking is constantly progressive, and that you are a living force, not a static one.

Then I have just finished a book called In High Places, by William Brown Meloney. I had seen a number of criticisms of this book, but I only glanced at them because I knew I was going to read it and wanted to keep my own mind clear of what other people might think or feel about it.

It is to me a very interesting book, I think a great book, although I am not sure I have as yet got everything out of it which may come to me as I go over it in my own mind. I finished it at 1 o’clock this morning, and lay awake a long time looking up at the stars and wondering what it was that would give its chief character “The Power,” such an influence over the people immediately around him and the great mass of people who followed him.

Why should one diseased brain create a personality so powerful and compelling? Was it that he lacked fear? He did not love, but he did not fear until he began to long for one understanding look. Then he met one human being who had conquered fear in himself, albeit in a way that “The Power” could not understand, because it was through spiritual strength and suffering, not through cruelty and the exercise of force over others.

There is no answer in this book to the question which innumerable people must ask themselves: “Why should such things be?” But there is inspiration in the character of two doctors, the standard of the one who never thought of revenge, and of the other who did not even think of doubting his colleague’s integrity.

The quotation at the beginning of this book is from Ephesians 6:12: “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.”

Yes, that is what we wrestle against. The doctor who died and apparently lost, really won. We must believe in our daily lives, for otherwise we cannot carry on the battle with “spiritual wickedness in high places.”

1 Like
4

September 5, 1939

HYDE PARK, New York, Monday – It seems futile to write about anything except the international situation, for that is the only thing which is uppermost in every mind at the present time, but life has to go on and so we must still live in little things, even though they will take on a different value in our minds. It is curious when great tragedies occur, how suddenly the minor inconveniences and sorrows of life, even personal things which seemed important, become overshadowed by the general weight of world conditions.

Johnny and I rode together Saturday and Sunday mornings. Though there were many personal things to take up, we discussed, almost the entire time, the European situation and its impact on us as a nation.

I hope that, in spite of the contagion of war, we can keep out of it, but I hope that we will decide on what we believe and do what we can to keep ourselves from being bitter even against those we think are in the wrong. I hope that we will throw our weight as best we can toward a speedy termination of the war, for when there is war no one is safe and the economic consequences of war are serious even to those not involved in the actual fighting. We should do all we can to bring war to an end with as little loss as possible, and to keep ourselves in the frame of mind where we can be fair, just and merciful. Our prayer should not be like the Pharisees: “I thank God for what I am,” but a petition that we may be worthy of the mercy which is being shown us. Let us do all we can for those who suffer.

Saturday afternoon, my mother-in-law, Johnny and Anne, Mr. and Mrs. O’Day, Miss Dickerman and Miss Cook, went with me to attend the Franklin D. Roosevelt Home Club meeting on Mr. Moses Smith’s lawn. This party is given annually to the President and he always enjoys it, for it gives him an opportunity to see and talk with his neighbors. Yesterday he could not be here, so I had to give them his message of regret. We had the usual local discussions as to whether Hyde Park should have a new post office and how the three new schools should be named. Of course, the final decision lies with the board of education, but everyone is taking a crack at it in the meantime.

I received a letter from Mrs. Kelvin Vanderlip a short time ago outlining the work which the women’s division for the Greater New York Committee for the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, Inc., is about to undertake. They have been gathering authentic information on which to base recommendations for New York City’s fight on poliomyelitis. There are six points which they feel should be incorporated in the program of the permanent New York unit.

One of these points strikes me as particularly important. They suggest that definite help be given to victims, who are able to earn all or part of their living, to see that they are placed in industry without discrimination because of their condition. This point I think most important, for I am frequently appealed to by young people and older people who have suffered from this disease, but who can still earn a living if people would only realize their capacities.

1 Like
5

September 6, 1939

Hyde Park, Tuesday –
We awoke yesterday morning to the news of the tragedy of the first English ship with Americans on board. From the German Embassy in Washington and from Germany itself, there come assertions that all German ships are out of that area. The German Navy seems to be scattered all over the world, never having returned to Germany after its trip to the Spanish coast, but it is said to have received orders to observe humanitarian rules on the sea.

We must all try to remain calm amidst the host of rumors which are bound to come to us and not believe anything until it is proven. It seems a horrible thing to think of innocent people being subjected to such an experience, when the ship could not have carried any war supplies because she was bound away from England. The blame for this disaster must not be fixed on anyone until we have positive proof.

I shall be thankful when all of my family and friends are safely back in this country and I am sure that every other American citizen feels the same way. It seems as though the sun could hardly shine upon a world where one man is able to speed civilization downward.

The little daily round of one’s occupations goes on for all of us, however, and I rode yesterday morning and greeted my solemn grandbaby, who seems to sense that these are not usual times and looks upon all of us with very sparing smiles. I hope when his father and mother return, he will show more “joy of life,” for I think that is a quality we should develop when we are young if we are to have it in later life.

Then I went to meet our son, Jimmy, at the new Hackensack airport. There was no news from him and no sign of his plane when I arrived at the appointed hour. The man in charge is an ex-Navy man who spent twenty years in the Navy, so we chatted about the news. He was most solicitous as the time went on and no plane appeared, but I told him that in all probability Massachusetts was on standard time. In any case, at 1:40, Jimmy’s plane came in. I had read part of my mail and two newspapers very thoroughly as well as the beginning of a new novel.

As we drove home, I reminded Jimmy of one occasion when he asked to be met at 3:00 a.m. I waited an hour and on that occasion he never did turn up because the weather was bad and they were grounded. He said that he had not expected me to be at the airport, so he had circled around the cottage twice in order to let me know he was on the way.

We were a long time over lunch. I think the sweet little girl who has been staying here, decided that grown-ups did more talking than eating, they were even slower than she could be. Finally rather wistfully, she asked to be excused. After lunch some friends left us and a little later others arrived. It seems as though every one came with the same question:

Is there anything new on the radio, or have you heard anything from Washington?

2 Likes
6

September 7, 1939

Hyde Park, Wednesday –
Johnny and Anne motored back to Boston on Monday so he could go to work on Tuesday. Jimmy left on Monday night, motoring to Newark airport to start back to California, feeling that he must get his work all up to date. I sense in all these young people a feeling of uncertainty about the future. A sense for the first time that whatever they have to do must be done now, quickly, for fear that something will interrupt the even tenor of life’s ways. They join with you in feeling that this country should do all within its power to keep out of war, but they have no very clearly defined idea of what is going to happen. They have set themselves to prepare for uncertainties, for anything may happen and they must be ready for it.

We were discussing the 1914 psychology and the psychology of today and I think people are much more aware of what war will mean from the economic standpoint as well as the military. We have had a good many years of preparation watching Spain and China and the radio is a more vivid medium of information than the newspapers were in 1914. I think it has made us more realistic, more reluctant to see war anywhere in the world, but I also think it is making us feel the necessity of knowing what are the facts and thinking out for ourselves what the position of our country should be.

One of my young cousins has just sent me a rather interesting letter about a project which is being tried in New York City. I will tell you about it in the words of her letter:

There has been for years the need of a theatre in the Broadway district where the young player can play a variety of parts. “Theatregate” has taken the “Little Theatre” and has engaged an acting company of eleven. Nine of these are between the ages of twenty and thirty, the other two being older men. A thirty-five week season is planned opening in October, and the schedule calls for four or five plays. After the first year, a paying apprentice group will be added. The apprentices will be chosen from the most likely prospects of the leading schools in the country and contacts are already being made with dramatic schools in key cities with this in view. The apprentices will be allowed to take walk-ons and to assist in the technical work. As it is not the plan of “Theatregate” to keep the original eleven permanently, the best of the apprentices will automatically find places in the group and it is felt that the original eleven will find other jobs in the theatre.

This is a new departure for the theatre and, I feel, along very wise lines, so I shall watch what they do with great interest.

We intended to motor over to Westbrook, Connecticut, yesterday to picnic with our friends, Miss Lape and Miss Read, but we woke to heavy rain and stayed home. A friend dropped in on us instead, which is proof that in these days the unexpected always happens!

1 Like
7

September 8, 1939

Hyde Park, Thursday –
Yesterday I reached New York City in time to attend the annual meeting of the National Advisory Committee of the National Youth Administration. The meeting was well attended. In the morning we found ourselves discussing how best to help the youth of the nation to live through the present crisis without being swept away by their emotions.

It seems hard enough to expect grown-ups to accomplish this, but to expect young people who can hardly remember 1914-1918, to keep an objective point of view seems somewhat difficult.

Yesterday was the first day I had not spent a good part of the day listening to a radio, and so I bought a paper at noon and again in the evening. But, in spite of being busy, one could not help but think of the war all the time, for everybody is doing the same thing.

Mr. Aubrey Williams cautioned the Committee, therefore, against forgetting that domestic problems were still with us and that for us they were still paramount, that Congress had shown its confidence in the NYA by allotting it an increase in funds, and that it was essential for us to evaluate the work that had been done and plan, if possible, to better it.

It seemed to me that the most interesting contribution made was that of a member of a local advisory group from Ohio. He discussed the problem of a semi-rural neighborhood and went into details on the value to the community and the youth of the training for work. We had an interesting discussion on various rural and industrial problems as they affect youth today. I hope a committee will be appointed to study much more thoroughly than one can in a brief two day meeting, the relationship between agricultural and industrial problems which affect youth.

I had a luncheon engagement and could not stay with the group, but I returned in time to hear the last part of Mayor LaGuardia’s speech. He made a very stirring one that I am sure everyone present felt was a great contribution to the thinking of the group.

A number of state directors were with us in the afternoon and some of the young people who represented different groups. A few of them returned to my apartment with me and discussed some of the problems which the present situation has put before them. I felt that many people at this meeting were still confused in their own thinking as to what our attitude as a nation and as individuals should be in this crisis.

Dr. Mordecai Johnson struck a note which I think we must hold before us. He said that we were the only nation that could think of building a world in which wars did not recur and that that thought must never be out of our minds. I returned to Hyde Park late last night.

1 Like
8

September 9, 1939

New York City, Friday –
We had the most beautiful drive over to Westbrook, Conn., yesterday. Here and there young trees are turning red, which gives a lovely color but makes my heart sink. I really love the early autumn and the winter too, but I’d like to feel that I was going to spend most of it in the country. The prospect of the next few months, with their busy days and nights, would not be as alluring at any time as my country cottage with an open fire and the beauty of autumn to contemplate.

Just now, however, with the feeling that all of us have that something must be done in this crisis which will continue our own recovery, which must not be retarded, and still be of use to the people of the world, we feel it may be a long time before any of us will again feel free to spend three solid months in an environment of more or less leisure, as I did this year.

Yesterday we cooked our lunch and ate it in the woods overlooking the marshes which run in front of the Sound along the Connecticut shore. A solitary figure could be seen poling a flat bottomed boat along the channels which run through the salt meadows. In front of us was a most beautiful old oak tree which had withstood the ravages of last year’s storm, just as had several others in the depths of the woods. The sun flickered through and it was a most peaceful and restful interlude. When we walked up through the woods after lunch to the higher ground, we had a view of the blue water with the dancing sunlight on it. All the way home we enjoyed every panorama of hills and valleys and every bit of road closed in by trees. We will look back happily on one of our last days of summer freedom.

Franklin Jr. and Ethel came over to see me soon after I returned to my cottage, for they were somewhat worried about friends who have not yet returned to this country.

Then dinner and an evening of catching up on mail and this morning we again left for New York City. We have several errands to do, but two things are really important. One is the luncheon which I am attending for the opening of the Brides’ School, which is to be run by Good Housekeeping Magazine. This plan seems to me to have great possibilities. I shall tell you more about it tomorrow.

I shall leave the lunch at 2:15 and dash over to Brooklyn to meet Mrs. Henry Morgenthau Jr. and two of her children who are landing on a Norwegian steamer. It was a very difficult thing for the Secretary of the Treasury, with his son Robert, to leave the others in order to be back at his desk a week sooner. However, when one has to do things, one does them regardless of preference. This will be a happy day of reunion for them and I shall certainly be glad to have all these dear friends safely home.

1 Like
9

September 11, 1939

Hyde Park, NY, Monday –
I attended a lunch which was held at the Good Housekeeping Magazine office on Friday for a group of brides who are going to meet once a month to discuss problems which come up in their daily living. These are practical problems of personality adjustment and home management where the girl is at work, besides all the varied circumstances which would be apt to occur in a cross-section of the lives of young married people throughout the country. From the questions which were asked me, I realize that many of us have the feeling that we face a world today in which there isn’t much use of planning for the future. World conditions may upset at a moment’s notice any plan, so why not live from day to day?

This is the war psychology of 1914 which extended over to the years immediately after the war. If you are suspended in space, so to speak, with no security ahead, there is a certain recklessness which is bound to enter your daily living.

It seems to me that in this country we must try to fight this psychology. We must realize that what we did before was to lose sight of domestic problems, to shove aside things which were really vitally important to peace, because we were at war. We must not do that again. We are not at war and whatever happens, the world must eventually be reorganized for peace and let us pray that this time we will have strength and foresight enough to plan a more permanent way of peace.

There will be people in plenty to say this is a pipe dream and cannot be done. Well, I, for one, want to try and I hope there will be many other people who feel as I do. I should like to see an international group meeting now continuously to plan for future peace. I should like to see our nation develop activities in the next few months which will aid humanity and civil populations everywhere and which will create in us an awareness of what war means to the lives of all people. If we have a big enough group in this country, particularly young people, who are conscious of this and determined that this world shall be organized for peace in the future, we can be a great factor in the ultimate adjustment.

We reached home on Friday night in time to greet the President on his arrival. In spite of the fact that he needed badly to make up sleep, we talked until late that night. Yesterday was a quiet day in which as much of the time as could be spared away from the telephone, he spent thinking over plans for the new library.

I drove over to see Mrs. William Brown Meloney on Quaker Hill. In the evening Miss Martha Gellhorn and I talked for a long time with the younger members of the family and their friends. Today it is raining, but everyone is coming to my cottage for a picnic lunch, even though we have to have it indoors. Tonight we return to Washington.

1 Like
10

September 12, 1939

Washington, Monday –
Why is it that no matter how far ahead one knows a date of departure from home, one never attends to details until the last day?

After lunch yesterday, my brother wanted to go over to look at a barn which the President is interested in changing into a house. As usual, the President thinks it can be done far more economically than than the rest of us do. I was glad to have my brother bear me out, but our combined arguments had no effect on the President, who said cheerfully:

Well, we will wait and see.

…with the calm conviction that he could perform miracles.

Back at the cottage, my brother and friends left and I set myself to winding up all the little tag ends which need to be done in a house at the end of the season. It was 7:00 before I was back at the big house and ready to leave for Washington.

We boarded the train at about 11:00 and we were all sorry to leave the country and the family. This morning we arrived in Washington to find it cool and beautiful here. The White House still looks more or less summery with the rugs taken up. There is one innovation, a little railing around the seal in the lobby. I approve of this change, for I have always disliked walking over that seal. They tell me that people now stop to look at it, instead of walking over it without even looking down.

It is nice to see all the familiar faces and to be greeted with such pleasure and warmth by all. I certainly am happy to see everyone here again.

I held a meeting this afternoon with Mrs. Dorothy McAllister and Mrs. May Thompson Evans, to talk over the program for the radio time on September sixteenth. This is the day when the Democratic Women are going to attempt to raise some funds of their own and I think it very important for women to do this regardless of the organization in which they are working. The President, who was to have spoken over the radio for the Democratic Women that night, feels that in the present crisis he must only speak as the President to all the people, and not as the representative of a particular party. The program will go on just the same, however, and I feel after talking it over with Mrs. McAllister and the other people who are to take part in it, that it will be very interesting.

Today is the beginning of National Air Progress Week and I was invited to do a little flying around the country in celebration of this event. Unfortunately, I am lecturing and therefore have my schedule all made out. This, however, will not prevent my watching with great interest everything which the air transport industry does to bring home to the public what developments in flying mean to both business and pleasure for us all.

1 Like
11

September 13, 1939

Sweetwater, Tenn., en route, Tuesday –
I have just finished breakfast in a railway dining car. For a time I sat alone until Miss Thompson joined me. I had a Roanoke, Virginia, newspaper to read and it served as a good shield behind which I could observe my neighbors. The train was filled with young girls, all pretty and full of life, evidently returning to school or college. One of them were a thin gold chain with a cross on it around her neck. It took me back to my childhood whom my grandmother gave me a similar one, and I thought of the people who lovingly be such a gift with a prayer in their hearts that it may protect the child. Well, the youngsters are going to need these prayers, for they are facing a troubled world.

I opened the paper with its headlines of war news. The editorials and columns I read all dealt with the war situation.

I spent three years in school in a country which was at war. Even though that war was many miles away and no one was in danger of bombing from the air and there were no radios to bring you hourly news, the tension and war psychology were ever present.

No student of history can feel that every country has acted from the highest motives in its internal or foreign policy. All we can do is to judge things we wish to preserve in the world and to throw our weight into the development and accomplishment of these things, first at home and then abroad. We must not forget that what we do at home has an effect on the world situation.

Curious how we have settled down again after our first flurry of excitement and now turn to our newspapers for real information. Most of us have discovered that war shifts people about so rapidly. The commentators on the air are of necessity obliged to give a changing picture and a real picture can only be given over a longer period of time. Even the newspapers cannot gauge from day to day what the results of the different moves in the war zones may be, and we will have to learn to wait for a long time to determine conclusive facts.

One young man tried to stop to speak to me on the train, but before I looked up, the steward of the car had gently moved him on. Probably he felt that I must be protected!

At that moment I was reading an item in the paper which I thought interesting and a sensible development in education. A high school in Roanoke is offering the boys a course in domestic science with credits. They are to learn about the buying of clothes, the running of machinery in the home and a variety of other subjects which will make them more useful and perhaps more understanding of their mothers and future wives.

1 Like
12

September 14, 1939

Gadsen, Ala., Wednesday –
The Cadek Choral Society of Chattanooga, Tennessee, which is a civic chorus conducted by Mr. J. Oscar Miller, sang three songs very beautifully before my lecture last night. I think they must have been slightly discouraged that there were going to be so many attractions in the city on the same evening.

Today an election for Congressman is taking place, so that all the last political meetings were going on last night. The Chattanooga baseball team has fought its way up and won the pennant and played its first game with Atlanta last night, and everyone was anxious to cheer the home team on. It was a tribute to the society that they still managed to have a good audience at the auditorium. I enjoyed the singing so much that I would gladly have had them go on for the whole evening and forget that I had come to give a lecture.

We left this morning at 8:30 by train for Attalla and drove from there to Gadsden, some six miles. Miss Daisy Smith and Miss Coates accompanied us. On our arrival the ladies and gentlemen of the press came up at once. I find a great interest everywhere now in the King and Queen of England’s visit. How did they look, how did they act, were they are as democratic as the press reports implied? These are samples of the questions asked me.

After the press conference we went out to see the Alabama School of Trades. This is a state educational institution for the training of white boys and young men in useful occupations and in related technical and occupational knowledge required by the trade. A farm is run in connection with the school and the boys put up thousands of gallons of vegetables and fruits. They made most of the equipment for this small cannery and grew the food which they canned. Their herd of cows is not yet quite adequate to their needs, but they are gradually building it up. They have an electrical shop, a wood-working shop, a welding shop and a printing shop. The boys receive a course in sustenance farming, designed to be of use to the boy who, while holding a job, has perhaps five acres of land which he can utilize to raise his standard of living.

In this school is one of the biggest NYA projects in the state. 125 of the 200 students are NYA students. They are at present building a barn for which they drew the plans and made the complete working drawings.

We visited a nursery school, staffed in part by NYA girls, run in a poor part of town for underprivileged white children. Then we visited a library in the post- office of Alabama City, where big cotton mills are situated. Here they have about 2,600 books but the circulation is so large that a very good educational job must have been done in the community to awaken a realization of the value of reading.

Back again now at the hotel for a late lunch and an afternoon of rest and work.

1 Like
13

September 15, 1939

Montgomery, Ala., Thursday –
I think our Southern friends are among the most hospitable hosts that one can find anywhere in this country, but I sometimes wonder if they are as conscious of the passage of time as the rest of us. Last night we drove from Gadsden to Birmingham after my lecture. Nobody seemed to be in any hurry to get off, in fact, I wondered if I had made a mistake about the distance, for one of the ladies driving with us remarked:

Oh, we’ll be home again soon after midnight.

It was then nearly 11:00 and I thought we would not reach Birmingham until after midnight. As it turned out, I was right. When I went to bed after packing everything for an early morning start, I thought of my poor hosts driving wearily homeward and not arriving at their destination until somewhere around 2:00 in the morning.

Trains are also obligingly late in the early morning in this part of the world. Two mornings in succession the telephone operator in the hotel has said:

Good morning, it is seven o’clock, but your train is twenty minutes late.

Perhaps a little later the train will lose a few more minutes. I am very grateful for I hate to start out without my breakfast and I usually plan to eat on the train if we are making a very early start, but both mornings we have had time to breakfast in the hotel before leaving.

We reached Montgomery this morning about 44 minutes late. We held a press conference, spent a few minutes with the Governor and Mrs. Dixon, and later with Mr. and Mrs. Murfee and Mrs. Graves. Then we started out with Senator Hill to see a little of the city.

I think the Alabama State Capitol is one of the loveliest state capitols I have seen. The approach up a long avenue is impressive. Over to the right is Jefferson Davis’ house in which he and Mrs. Davis lived when he was President of the Confederacy. We stopped there, for I was very much interested in seeing the house and many of the historical pieces of furniture. The portrait of President Davis is very fine and shows a rare and sensitive spirit.

After lunch with Senator and Mrs. Hill, we went out to the Alabama Polytechnic Institute beyond Tuskegee. This institution has profited greatly by the help given by the Federal Government through PWA and should be able to meet much more adequately than ever before the needs of the young people in this area.

From there we drove to Tuskegee Institute, a privately endowed institution for colored people established by Booker T. Washington. The state as well as private funds and individuals contribute to its support. Mr. Washington is buried here and his tomb is an impressive sight – a massive stone with two tall evergreen trees towering up on either side of it.

We paid our first visit to the government hospital for colored veterans, a really fine institution, which, however, is already filled to capacity. Then we went back in the Tuskegee grounds, met the doctor who has charge of the infantile paralysis work and attended a little ceremony in the chapel. Everyone present carried away the singing by the choir in their hearts. The work done here for young colored people is outstanding in the South.

1 Like
14

September 16, 1939

Greenville, SC, en route, Friday –
By the time we reached the train last night, we really had had a fairly full day. After writing you yesterday, I went to the tea at Governor and Mrs. Dixon’s and had the pleasure of greeting the members of the State Legislature who closed their session on September 15.

One of the interesting things about being in different parts of the country is the opportunity to read local newspapers. You soon discover what foreign or national news has an interest for the editors of these papers, but the really valuable education for the visitor lies in getting in touch with the local interests of the communities. For instance, Alabama has a new parole board on which they have a woman member. I was interested to meet her yesterday afternoon after reading about her in the paper.

After the tea we went out to have an informal dinner with Colonel and Mrs. Murfee, passing through fields of cotton where the pickers were busy. It is a pretty sight and I wish we could have spent a little more time in seeing some of the outdoor activities on this plantation, for they told me they are doing diversified farming, have a herd of Angus cattle and grow peanuts.

We hurried back to the hotel from dinner to change and be ready for the lecture, after which we attended a short reception at the home of Mrs. M. R. Nachman, president of the Parent Teachers Association, under whose auspices I spoke.

The flowers which are always in profusion in every Southern home make me rather envious. Over the small houses in one of the U.S. housing developments there was a most lovely and delicate vine with pink flowers, which added immensely to the charm of what seemed to be a well laid out and well-planned group of buildings.

This trip, with its chance to view a good deal of our southern countryside, has reminded me of an article by Donald Culross Peattie, which I read in the New York Times magazine. To be sure he writes of the whole United States and urges us as we visit our World’s Fairs at the opposite ends of the nation to get some idea of what we could see at all times – in New England, in the Midwest, in the Far West, in the North and in the South. He writes of our marvelous scenery and the birds and beasts which we too often take for granted.

In every city where I have been, my attention has been drawn to the fact that this is National Retail Demonstration week, and the retailers are certainly putting their best foot foremost. They are showing their confidence in the common sense of the consumers by giving them an opportunity to see new styles and new goods at an early season.

We are spending today on the train bound for Danville, Virginia, and tomorrow morning we will be back in Washington.

1 Like
15

September 18, 1939

Washington, Sunday –
Friday night in Danville, Va., we had only a very short time to get ready for my lecture, but Mayor Meade and his wife met us at the station and drove me straight to the hotel to change. They were both most kind. It was a great pleasure to see Governor Price also at the meeting.

The lecture was sponsored by a group of young businessmen called the Exchange Club. They told me they put on one entertainment a year for the benefit of an underprivileged children’s fund, the money being distributed by school teachers. They give clothing and assistance, thus enabling the children to go to school.

The war has already touched Danville. The fall in sterling and the uncertainty about shipping caused British buyers to withdraw from the tobacco market and close it down. Danville is, of course, a tobacco center and many of the people are concerned. On the other hand, the cotton manufacturers are feeling encouraged that war will bring them additional orders.

We reached Washington Saturday morning and there at the station was my brother, who had routed out of bed one or two other people to come with him to meet us. He had insisted on being there, not only when the train actually got in, but by his New York watch – which meant that they had waited an extra hour. Nothing daunted, however, he agreed to wait another three quarters of an hour and bring his guests to breakfast with me on the White House porch, which was a very pleasant beginning to a busy day.

My first press conference of the season was at 11 o’clock. Then I went to see a friend, who returned to lunch under the trees in the garden. Little Diana Hopkins is staying with us and had two small friends join us.

Several appointments in the afternoon and, after dinner, an hour and a half at the Woman’s National Democratic Club. I hope that Mrs. McAllister, chairman of the women’s division of the Democratic National Committee, will feel repaid for the work she has done on this woman’s day. It should help to make Democratic women conscious of their responsibility in government.

If women of other political faiths listened to the first part of the broadcast, I feel sure that the facts given must have been of interest to them as well.

The heat is not so great in Washington, and one of my daughters-in-law, who arrived this morning, exclaimed as we sat on the porch at breakfast:

What a beautiful day!

For me, however, it was quickly clouded, for when I went into the President’s room, he told me that at five, and again at six o’clock, he had to be awakened to receive dispatches announcing Russia’s entry into Poland.

A curious way to aid the cause of peace!

1 Like
16

September 19, 1939

Clarksburg, W. Va., Monday –
Well, we are off again, leaving Washington early this morning on our way to West Virginia. We go through beautiful country, but much that we see from the train window reminds us that a great nation at peace still has many problems to solve. This is a part of the world where agriculture and coal mining meet. The mining industry has, perhaps, been before the public as a problem as long as any other great industry in the country.

The two extremes of wealth and poverty shook hands in this industry even when it had not reached today’s situation. Now we add not the problem of “Can a mine profitably carry better wages and better working conditions?” but “What can we do with people who once worked in the mine and never will work there again?” To me there is a sense of urgency about solving our economic problems and finding some kind of a pattern which we can offer the future.

I read both Anne O’Hare McCormick and Dorothy Thompson this morning, and the announcement made to the Russian people by their government on their entry into Poland. That last document could only be handed out to a gullible nation. But it is disheartening in the extreme, and I fear that Anne O’Hare McCormick, who is a wise observer of European affairs, is right in her conclusion that in this war the seeds of other wars are being sown.

What can we do as a neutral nation to bring some influence to bear in the future, when of necessity all nations must come to a period of weariness and, whether they like it or not, have a breathing spell? Certainly abdicating one’s right to have a conscience and to use one’s intelligence is never helpful. Certainly thinking only as individuals of what is safe for us, or what will profit us, is not very uplifting to the individual and, in the aggregate, does little to make our nation a force for good.

I read recently a statement made by a United States Senator on neutrality. I listened to another Senator on the screen last night. Why must we approach these questions solely from the point of view of what will save our skins and our pockets? In the end, if the skins of the rest of the world are removed and the pockets of the rest of the world are empty, we will grow thin and lean.

One man says this is 1914 all over again. No, there may be similarities, but there are fundamental differences. We have come a long way since 1914. I hope and pray that we will not have to fight with armed forces in this war, but we do have to fight with our minds, for this is as much a war for the control of ideas as for control of material resources. If certain ideas triumph, then what our forefathers founded in this nation in the way of ideas and ideals would receive a very serious blow.

What we need to think about today is how we can be useful as well as neutral. We must keep alive the ideals which now make life worth living for us. Hundreds of thousands of men, women and children are dying. Are we going to think only of our skins and our own pockets? We have a right to stay at peace, if by doing so we render a greater service to a war-torn world.

That is the important thing we had better be thinking about. This nation had a reason for survival when it was young and weak, because it offered the world a refuge of freedom and a new and better ideal. That is the justification for existence.

1 Like
17

September 20, 1939

Chicago, Tuesday –
After a fairly long train trip, yesterday, we got off at Clarksburg, W. Va., to find a mild-mannered gentleman waiting for us. He murmured his name and that he had come to meet us and, as one photographer stopped us, he mildly said:

Truly, I am not responsible for this. We kept your arrival absolutely secret.

I assured him that we could cope with ease with the situation and we were soon out of town, driving through the familiar

…West Virginia countryside, and our drive was very pleasant. The hills seem close to you here and the roads wind delightfully among them.

We passed first through a coal-mining section, more or less depressed, with bad housing and underfed children. Then, for a time, a rather fertile farming country. Later, some small oil and natural gas wells. Just before we reached Glenville, some badly eroded hillsides stood out in the landscape. They have been denuded of trees and are now being used as pastures or cornfields. But shortly there will be no soil on which anything can grow.

Strange that people will not realize that lack of soil conservation eventually means not only loss in land productivity but deterioration in human beings.

Our host proved gentle in word but not in thought, for he had plenty of convictions. Our talk ranged over a number of subjects and I could not refrain from asking him if he had seen Goodbye, Mr. Chips, for in many ways he reminded me of the charming English schoolmaster.

Glenville, where the State Teachers’ College is situated, is a small town and the college must be the center of interest. The president and his wife are delightful and I wished I could have had a longer visit there. After the lecture we drove back to make our train and nearly missed it, because everyone took it for granted we must be going east instead of west.

The night seemed very short, and we were rather sleepy when it was time to make a change of trains in Cincinnati this morning. It was one of those changes in which there is not time enough to do anything, and yet which seem too long to be sitting around the station. We ate a leisurely breakfast and bought four magazines – only two of which I had already read.

We have another short stopover in Chicago before we reach our destination – St. Paul, Minn. – tonight.

Having been in academic surroundings, I want to tell you of a little volume which your whole family may enjoy and find useful. I was given a curious, rather haphazard education. I studied French, German and Latin grammar. My English grammar was sadly neglected. My grandmother had a theory, I think, that you learned to talk by ear, and that association with people who spoke English correctly was more important than learning out of a book.

Therefore, A Living Grammar by Winifred Watson and Julius M. Nolte, with delightful illustrations by Eleanor Lewis, is a find for me and you may find it a pleasant companion.

1 Like
18

September 21, 1939

St. Paul, Minn., Wednesday –
Always before, when I have been in different parts of the country and have had a full day in any one spot, I have tried to spend part of it visiting either NYA or WPA projects. A number of times Mrs. Ellen Woodward has suggested that I see some of the regional and state offices administering the Social Security program. Today is the first day that I started out to do this.

We got into St. Paul after 10:30 yesterday evening, and were met by a very kind group of ladies. I was particularly glad to see two old friends, Miss Adelaide Enright, who lives here, and Mrs. June Hamilton Rhodes, who is running one part of the Women’s Institute program on which I am speaking tonight. We were soon settled in the penthouse in the Lowry Hotel and glad to find the weather cool and invigorating here. I awoke this morning feeling able to cope with anything.

First was a press conference, at 9 o’clock, and then a little over two hours with the regional director of the Social Security program. This region comprises five states – Minnesota, North and South Dakota, Iowa and Nebraska. The regional office is in Minneapolis. Some of the states do not cooperate on the Dependent Children program, but there is general cooperation on the Old Age Assistance, on Crippled Children and Care of the Blind.

I stopped at one of the refreshment stands run by a blind man, in the Federal Office building, and he seemed very happy in his work. Under the new law, blind people may have stands in public buildings, but no appropriation has been passed to arrange for a revolving fund from which these stands can be set up and gradually amortized. Those set up by private funds seem to be most successful where supervision can be provided and the blind people can be trained in their work.

Of course, the Dependent Children program is always of great interest to me and it is satisfying to see how much Miss Lenroot and the Children’s Bureau have been able to do to make the work of this section more valuable.

Unemployment Compensation is also of great interest to me, and I was delighted to find how closely this part of the Social Security program is working in with the United States Employment Service. They are setting up in this region the Junior Placement service working closely with the NYA, and that also should mean a step forward in the whole picture of employment. After seeing the regional office, we came back to St. Paul and saw the State Administrator’s office and the Employment service.

This program, as a whole, means so much to all the people of the country that I am deeply interested to see development of high standards of personnel, so that in the counties as well as at headquarters the choice of people who work on the program can be made on a basis of ability, regardless of any other consideration.

Mrs. Anna Dickie Olesen came in to pay me a short visit on my return to the hotel.

I will tell you about the rest of the day tomorrow.

1 Like
19

September 22, 1939

Carbondale, Ill., Thursday –
Let me tell you first, today, about the end of my day in St. Paul, Minn. It was thrilling, chiefly because I saw a united group of women in action. 10,500 women filled the auditorium in the afternoon to look at a supper style show put on by Mrs. June Hamilton Rhodes of New York City. Women are traditionally interested in styles. But this had an object. The women of St. Paul were showing what their own shops could produce and helping to stimulate shopping at home and the development of industry in St. Paul.

Another side of their program contemplates bringing a variety of artistic and educational events to St. Paul. But on the first evening they centered their program around the third objective for which they are working – namely, an organization of women which will cover every block in the city and develop a program of city improvement.

12,000 persons attended this evening session and you could not help but be inspired by the idea that these women were banded together in such numbers to influence the development of their city. The test, of course, is how well the effort is sustained and carried through. If it can live without political differences or personal jealousies creeping in, we may see a movement which could spread throughout the United States and accomplish wonderful things for all communities, rural as well as urban.

The eyes of the women of this country should be focused on St. Paul for the next few months, to watch the achievement of this pioneer band.

Now for a word about the fashion show, for I am fairly sure that this is my one and only style show for the year. The greens which were shown in many day and sports clothes are very soft and becoming in shade and are frequently combined with brown.

In one case, however, a light blue sweater made a pretty combination for sports wear. Almost every color and every combination, whether for day or for evening wear, has somewhere a touch of red. Your gloves can be red, or you may have a red feather in your hat or red piping on your suit. No color seems to be quite complete without that touch and I heard the women behind me say that the red accessories would be sold out in every St. Paul shop by the next day.

Those of us who have old-fashioned gold or silver jewelry which belonged to our grandmothers can bring it out and have it cleaned and put in order. It is all the fashion this year – because you can’t be too much decorated.

One lady who called on me at the hotel were her grandmother’s silk dress, with lace fichu and a handkerchief edged with real lace, a pin acquired in Europe somewhere around the 1850s and a ring which dated back to the Civil War. Worn as an evening dress, it would be entirely appropriate today.

Now we are on a train bound for Carbondale, Ill., and in a few minutes we hope to listen to the President addressing a special session of Congress.

20

September 23, 1939

Delavan, Ill., Friday –
We reached Carbondale, Ill., at about 4 o’clock yesterday afternoon and I did not expect much time to see the countryside. However, the National Youth administrator told me there was a small resident project he would like to show me, so I sallied forth with two very kind and enthusiastic young men as guides.

The fact that Illinois has risen to fifth place among oil-producing states has made a considerable change in the outlook of the people, but it does not seem to have changed greatly the fact that the farming population and mining population in this section are at a very low ebb. One of the counties near Carbondale has the greatest number of people on relief in any one county in the United States.

Most of the young men in the Youth Administration project are boys who never had an opportunity for acquiring any work skill or getting into any job which was more than a temporary day-laborer type of occupation. They are teaching some subsistence farming on this project which, from observation from the train window, I should say is very necessary. How to grow a garden, how to get as much of one’s living as possible out of a small acreage, would be very valuable to miners whose work is seasonal. In any case, even when all the mines are open these boys are also given training in auto-mechanics, electrical wiring, woodworking and iron work.

They have the advantage of being near a State Teachers’ college which is cooperating in every way. This college also has a large number of NYA students and has found them a valuable addition. The town itself has many monuments to WPA work – a paved and widened main street, a fine armory and several other lasting improvements. The Business Men’s club seems to cooperate in all this work and has donated the land on which the new buildings are situated.

I drove through the college grounds and out to the Crab Orchard Lake project. This is a PWA project and has employed a good many persons. Flood control is evidently much needed and the possibility of creating power through a series of these projects might mean a good deal to the development of the area. There are, of course, some natural objections. People will lose their land when the lake is filled up and they do not like the countryside inundated.

It would be impossible for me to pass any judgment on their complaints, but I feel sure that careful consideration was given to them before the work was undertaken.

To our great joy Mrs. Helm drove over from Grayville, Ill., and joined us in Carbondale for a few hours. As we had received several envelopes of mail from Washington, we immediately put her to work folding and stamping letters, so she felt as though she had settled down to work a few weeks too early. We are now in Delavan, Ill., where I give a lecture tonight.

1 Like