I Dare Say – Frances and Eleanor (5-27-41)

The Pittsburgh Press (May 27, 1941)

Parry

I DARE SAY —

Frances and Eleanor

By Florence Fisher Parry

When the history books are written in the year 2000 or so, certain names will appear in it as having bent the course of events into their present… shall I say… Boomerang?

I cannot remember the names now, of the emissaries sent to inform President Beneš of Czechoslovakia that England was sorry, and that France was sorry, but they would have to ask Czechoslovakia to be swallowed up for their shakes – but I think their names will be there. And there will be mentioned the names of those, of course, who directed the tide of events at Versailles. And on the list, so many men – men everywhere in that long tragic history!

But you know and I know that history is not made by men. It is directed by men, but it is motivated by women. Now these women have been, for the most part, beautiful women. Or brilliant women. Or cunning women. Elizabeth, Catherine the Great, Emma Hamilton… Wally (Duchess) Windsor…

But never before have there been women like Frances and Eleanor.

Now no one will deny that Eleanor wields quite as much influence today as does her husband, who is holding down the biggest job in the world – at least that’s how big it could be. And no one will deny that whoever is Secretary of Labor today is captain of the industrial resources that could determine the victory in this war. So Eleanor and Frances are, indisputably, a unique team of history-makers.

I call them Frances and Eleanor, not through disrespect, but to accent their own recognition of each other’s indispensability. When they meet, they fall into each other’s arms in that cosy way that old friends have, and exclaim in one breath “Frances!” “Eleanor!” You and I have done this a thousand times when we meet some friend with whom we have grown up, or worked together in some pet project.

This is what makes their friendship such a fascinating study. For they are just like you and me, or any two friends you might meet down Main Street. The only difference is that one of them married a man who became President, which was bound to affect their lives and broaden their opportunities, in a way that was not quite our portion.


Still the same

But the remarkable thing about these two historical women is that all this didn’t make the slightest difference in them; not really, I mean – just a few external improvements, which success is bound to add to any woman. Frances wears about the same kind of hat she’d be wearing if she were NOT Secretary of Labor, and Eleanor thinks about the same kind of thoughts she alway thought, and shows no signal change in her manner of expressing them.

Indeed, I suspect that the reason these two women are so well received by their sisters is that they have remained so RECOGNIZABLE! In each one of them, most women in America see themselves, as in a kindly mirror. When Frances says:

Well, all I know is what I remember of the social conditions I came upon in my settlement work.

…what earnest uplifter in any community doesn’t know JUST what it must be like to be a Secretary of Labor and have to deal with all those poor unfortunate strikers?

And when Eleanor writes:

The war is sad and we must all make sacrifices.

… we know just how she feels. No wonder everybody’s reading “My Day.”

That’s the charm of Eleanor. She makes her readers feel that they, too, could write a daily column.

I am sure that we all know someone, whether here in the city, or back home on Main Street, who reminds us of Frances or Eleanor, I have in mind a Frances up home – she is SUCH a nice girl, high ideals, just enough stubbornness to rush in where angels fear to tread, and a wonderful attitude toward her fellow man. Her favorite saying is: You must remember there are two sides to every question – you must remember how the other fellow thinks, TOO.

Now this is a beautiful sentiment and I revere her for it. But when the other fellow is a saboteur, a loafer or a plain unadulterated so-and-so, I have found her just a leetle bit trying. I’m afraid I’d worry if she were to be made Secretary of Labor. At this time, anyway.


Historical Eleanor

But as for Eleanor, she’s a kind of escape to us other women, she’s what most women would LIKE to be. She can pick up and go and not have to ask her family or even complain that she hasn’t a thing to her back, but sail out and buy it herself with her own money – that is, with what money she doesn’t give to all those charities. She can even go when her man is sick in bed and know he’ll make out all right without her.

And in order to influence her husband, does SHE have to stick around? She does not; she does it by absent treatment. No wonder she’s historical!

WE understand why she can’t allow the President to fire Frances.

Those two girls have too much in common. Why, I remember just as well the way I felt when my husband wanted to get rid of a girlfriend who was visiting me. I was just worried sick! Why, I’d almost had her for my maid of honor; and besides, hadn’t we, as children, saved that big litter of kittens that papa said we’d have to drown? And collected money together to give that poor paroled convict?

2 Likes