Eleanor Roosevelt – My Day (Sept. 1939)

21

September 25, 1939

Robinson, Ill., Sunday –
We had a most delightful visit in Delavan, Ill. We stayed with Mrs. S. R. Kemp, at the home of her father, Mr. James Bailey. The atmosphere was one we all wish might prevail in every American home. The family was gathered happily and made us feel welcome and not in the least a burden. That is a rare feat of hospitality, when you entertain two persons who bring you so much trouble in the way of telegrams, mail and even visitors.

I had an opportunity in the afternoon to see some of Mr. Bailey’s young Hereford cattle being shipped off to be fattened. We also went into one of the most glorious cornfields I have ever seen. The corn stood away above our heads and many of the stalks had three huge ears. This is very rich land and a purely agricultural district.

It was interesting, as we drove south yesterday morning about 175 miles, to notice the gradual change in the land. Robinson, which we reached yesterday, is in a rural section, but the land is not so good and the farming is, of necessity, diversified. They are dependent here on a certain amount of industry and have a small refinery, a candy factory and a pottery works which makes bathroom fixtures.

Two of the NYA directors from the neighborhood came to see me and told me there were no youth projects in Robinson itself and no WPA or NYA load to speak of here, which makes this a very fortunate locality. The government, however, has helped them to build, through a PWA grant, a very beautiful gymnasium for the high school students, back of which they have a football field lighted by flood-lights so they can play at night.

After the lecture we went to the home of one of our hostesses and met members of the Junior Women’s Club, which seems to be a very active organization.

This is a peaceful, beautiful day and we motored to Paris, Ill., to take a train for Huntington, W. Va.

In this part of the world the Chicago Tribune is the one paper offered to you most frequently. As I read it this morning, I could not help but feel a little sympathy for a writer who must, I suppose from necessity, occasionally write things which he must know are not entirely true. It is fortunate that some things are facts which even partisanship cannot distort. This spirit, however, is never readily displayed in the field of domestic affairs.

There is a fine editorial in this paper on the defense of Warsaw by the Poles. It seems to me that all of us, no matter with whom we may sympathize in this struggle, must take off our hats to the defenders of the Polish capital. When you read from Berlin the account of the German armies that conquered most of Poland, and realize that the Russian armies have entered on the opposite front, the kind of bravery shown by these soldiers in their capital city gives your own spirit a certain lift.

Human beings are capable of such heroism that it makes up for the fact that we can, on occasion, be mean and ungracious and not quite truthful.

1 Like
22

September 26, 1939

Huntington, W. Va., Monday –
The last time I came through Huntington was toward the end of a very long day’s motoring and my recollection of the city was somewhat vague.

This morning, however, after a press conference at 9 o’clock, Mrs. Gibson, Mrs. Allen and Mrs. Long came for me and we drove past Marshall College, where Mr. Dwight Morrow was once president. We saw the site of a new housing project. Then we went on our way to Red House. It took about an hour-and-a-half to drive there, but this is interesting country and the roads wind among the hills and beside the river.

The Charleston, W. Va., Business and Professional Women’s Club is sponsoring a shop in this government project to encourage the women to learn various handicrafts. This will be useful in making articles for their own homes and at the same time they may learn to make a variety of things for sale.

I wish more people in Charleston would take an interest in their government homestead, for there is so much that can be done for these communities if people nearby lend a hand. I have never felt that the government should be expected to carry the burden alone. These people on government homesteads would ordinarily have been charges on the local communities.

The government inaugurated an experiment, by which it was hoped a way to a better standard of living for a great many people could be found. The government built houses and tried to rehabilitate the morale of people who had been without work and in dire need for a long time. In doing this, work was provided for the homesteaders.

Now the nearby communities have an opportunity to show their interest and help the government. They can assist by getting industries to move in near these localities to give work, or they can find work for these people in existing industries nearby. Their homes and their gardens will give them an added measure of security.

Like all government undertakings, this one is dependent on the cooperation of the neighborhood, to be a real success. At present the men who do not find work outside the project have only part-time work, paid at the standard government rate. This is very low for a big family and not too much even for a little one.

I am glad to find the Business and Professional Women’s Club of Charleston starting the interest ball a-rolling. I hope they will find an outlet in Charleston and in neighboring towns for some of the things which the women and young people on the project are learning to make.

On the way back we stopped at the Morris Memorial Crippled Children’s hospital. The WPA is furnishing the labor for these buildings and they are a monument of which the workers may well be proud. The pool is one of the most delightful I have ever seen and it will certainly be of benefit to the children of this region, when the hospital operates at capacity.

We leave tonight for Washington, DC.

1 Like
23

September 27, 1939

Washington, Tuesday –
Are you ever annoyed with yourself for not having thought of the doctrine of chances? I wanted very much to leave Huntington, W. Va., last night on a train which would have reached Washington early this morning. The train, however, is a fast train and the railroad people said they could not hold it even for a few minutes. It did not seem fair to cut my lecture short for my own convenience, particularly as it would have meant no question period and that is usually, to me, the most interesting part of the lecture. So we made up our minds rather reluctantly to take the 1:37 a.m. train.

When we got back to the hotel, after the lecture, it was a little before 10 and we were told that the train we had wanted to take was 25 minutes late. If we had packed, just on the chance of something like this happening, we could easily have made it, for the audience asked only one question of any importance. With a little hurry on leaving the auditorium, we would have been at the station in ample time.

As it was, having had a late lunch, we went without dinner and had a sandwich and some soup when we got back to the hotel. Then we packed and I had a short visit with Miss Dorothea Campbell, of the Business and Professional Women’s Club of Charleston, which is now working so hard to help the women on the Red House government project. It was still only 20 minutes to 12, and we had to wait until 1:37!

I knew that our kind hosts were waiting also to take us to the train and we felt very guilty. But we slept for an hour and I hope they did too. They were so kind to us, and I think Mr. and Mrs. Philip Gibson and Dr. James Allen must have longed to see the last of us.

It is amusing, when you spend a full day in a hotel, to find how many of the young people telephone and would like to speak to “Mrs. Roosevelt,” or to come up to see her and get an autograph. Miss Thompson has a weak spot for the young. She had one particularly long conversation, and when she was through, she told me that a young Boy Scout at the other end of the telephone was asking if I could not incorporate in my speech the fact that a great many boys in Huntington would like to join the Boy Scouts if someone would just provide the money for uniforms!

They really did not care what they belong to, but they were joining another organization which called itself the Red Shirts, or some such name, and had a camp some eight miles out of town, simply because they could not afford to belong to the Boy Scouts. He felt that this now organization was not as good an influence as the Boy Scouts, and was much troubled.

10 minutes later, he was back on the telephone to check on whether Miss Thompson had given me his message. We smiled about it, but just the same I think it is a good sign, for if you can be as keen as that about the Boy Scouts, you are developing a real sense of responsibility.

1 Like
24

September 28, 1939

En route, Wednesday –
Here we are on the train again, bound for Wilmington, Del., where we get off to drive to Reading, Pa., for a lecture tonight.

We reached the White House in time for lunch yesterday, and I went over immediately to the executive offices to see the President. Secretary Ickes was with him and reported beamingly on the newest Cabinet baby. I wish I had had time to see him, but that will have to wait until I am back for a longer stay.

I did get in this morning to see Diana Hopkins and her father, and was glad to find him in such good spirits. Diana is evidently a good companion.

I had a number of appointments yesterday, but most of the time in the afternoon was spent in a truly feminine and frivolous manner – getting my hair done. The time, however, was well spent in more than one way, for I picked up the September issue of Reader’s Digest, which I had not had time to see before, and read with great interest Mr. William Hard’s article.

With much of it I am in complete agreement and I was particularly interested in his account of the accomplishments of the Monsanto Chemical Company. He said they had reduced the cost of their products by about 75% and had raised the hourly wages of their employes about 50%, between the years of 1926 and 1937.

I had only one question in my mind – namely, whether this had been accomplished by putting in new machinery and reducing the number of employees or not. So I telephoned the Brookings Institution to find out, and they reported that during those years more men were employed. This being the case, it would seem to be possible for us to go farther and find out whether there are not comparable industries which might do the same thing and, also, whether by making careful studies of adjustment, other industries might not achieve these same desirable results.

Mr. Hard’s article is by far the most cheering piece of literature on this subject that I have read in a long time.

Schools are beginning again and my young cousin, Elizabeth Henderson, arrived in Washington in the late afternoon preparatory to getting everything ready for real work, which begins on Friday. I think it is such a good idea for the Madeira School to have the opening day at the end of the week so the girls really have the weekend to do all their adjusting. It is so hard to come down to earth after a summer of play. If you can do it gradually, it certainly makes the transition easier.

The country everywhere is beginning to put on autumn colors, but the magnolia trees outside my sitting-room window in Washington have a new beauty which I never discovered before. Perhaps I have not been in Washington at the right time. Instead of the white flowers of early summer, they now have what looks like a red fruit, which is very pretty against the dark green leaves. The roses are still blooming beautifully in the rose garden, but our grass has suffered badly. Whether it is the drought or some kind of blight I cannot tell. But I grieve over the rust-colored patches, which I have never seen before on these lawns.

1 Like
25

September 29, 1939

New York, Thursday –
We drove over from Wilmington, Del., to Reading, Pa., yesterday afternoon, and because it was very foggy the drive took us longer than we had expected. It is pretty country and I love the old stone farmhouses, whitewashed and looking so spic and span.

It was too dark really to see Reading when we arrived, but we made a stop at a hospital run by a group of Catholic Sisters, to see a World War veteran who seems to have made his long illness not only bearable to himself, but of value to many other people. All he can do is to use his eyes and his voice, but he sells postcards at Christmas and makes money in various other ways to build up a fund from which he helps fellow sufferers.

When I went in, three young men were calling on him and he told me they were members of a boys’ club in which he was interested. They probably contribute much to the pleasure of his existence, but I couldn’t help thinking that this man was furnishing all of us with a valuable lesson in the way to take whatever happens to us in this world and turn it to some advantage.

The fog, and this visit, made us rather late in reaching the hotel and the press conference and photographers were somewhat hurried, as well as our dinner and our dressing. We were ready, however, in time for the lecture, and I think the time has come for me gratefully to acknowledge the fact that people in this country are most considerate of their speakers! Years ago, it seems to me, there was considerably more moving about in halls during speeches, which made it difficult for the speaker. Probably the installation of the kind of public address system which greets one on practically every platform, makes it possible for the whole audience to hear any speaker. It is no strain, even for a woman, to talk, as it usually works better if you keep your voice on its natural pitch. This is to me a great relief!

Even the photographers are kind and when I suggest that flashing bulbs after the first few minutes are a little disconcerting to the audience, they are most considerate. I always remember Ruth Bryan Rohde’s story of how a kitten playing on her stage, on one occasion, attracted all the attention from what she was saying. Flashing bulbs can have much the same effect.

After the lecture, there was only one question sent up from the audience, so we got off early enough to reach Harrisburg by midnight and get a fairly good night’s sleep on the way to New York City.

Arrived this morning, several people greeted me at our apartment and the telephone has been ringing more or less steadily.

Now I am off to see an art exhibit, meet my aunt, Mrs. David Gray, and do a number of other things on the spur of the moment, which I will tell you about tomorrow.

1 Like
26

September 30, 1939

New York, Friday –
Since certain gentlemen saw fit to take me up a short time ago on a few words, which I will agree were open to varied interpretation, I must record that as usual the miracle may be an accomplished fact! I said that the President thought the old barn at Hyde Park could be remodeled for a sum far smaller than the rest of us thought adequate. Well, ingenuity has found a way whereby the barn may be transformed into a two-family dwelling, and the sum which I thought too small will amply cover this. So my husband has the laugh on me. It isn’t the first time that has happened!

I can’t help, however, being much flattered that this simple diary should draw so much attention, from such important gentlemen, even on an unimportant item.

I told you yesterday that I would give you more detail of how I spent my day. First, I went up to the Manhattan Storage house to see a most interesting collection of American Historical portraits belonging to the estate of the late Mr. Percy Rockefeller. There I was pleased to meet the members of the Washington Fine Arts Commission. Since Mr. Moore has retired, I have not had the pleasure of coming in contact with the present chairman, and the other members of the commission have always been vague, but very important, figures in the background, as far as I was concerned.

To find our friend, Mr. Paul Manship, is one of the vague figures gives me great confidence, for I have always looked upon this commission with much awe! The reason for this is that they can at any time step in and object to whatever changes I might want to make in the formal rooms at the White House!

They are much interested in this collection because there has long been a hope that somewhere in Washington there might be established a national portrait gallery. Here is the nucleus of a marvelous collection.

I was most fascinated by the paintings of George Washington’s ancestors and enjoyed all the others, many of which were very unfamiliar. I confess to finding, with rather a shock, one of George Washington himself with red hair. But I understand better why he held out at Valley Forge!

There is a portrait of Abraham Lincoln with a very wonderful expression, which must have been done toward the end of the Civil War because the suffering is so clearly marked. But I must stop, for there are too many of interest in this collection to enumerate them all. I can only say that I hope someday they will be in Washington to add to the store of the nation’s richness.

In the afternoon I went to a reception given by the Women Sculptors and Painters and I wish I had had time to look at more of the work in the galleries, which appeared so interesting. I love Brenda Putnam’s contributions, which won the popular prize for sculpture. I think she grows stronger and surer every year and I hope she knows how much real inspiration her work gives to some of us.

I visited the World’s Fair for several hours, but I have no space to tell you about it today. So perhaps that can wait until later.

1 Like