The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers, Digital Edition > My Day
My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt

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WASHINGTON— Mrs. Edward Young of the New York State Home Bureau Federation came into see me and to ask a number of questions about the Associated Rural Women of the World meetings before breakfast this morning. She and Mrs. Bridgen, also of the New York State Home Bureau Federation, and I had breakfast together on the South Porch. It was very peaceful and I remarked that no matter how bad the rest of the day might be, this was a quiet moment and I could almost forget that I had spent the night on the train. With a twinkle, Mrs. Bridgen said: "I see you like contrasts."

At ten o'clock the President came in from his trip on the River, looking very well indeed and much rested. At ten-thirty, having caught up with a few housekeeping details, I had a press conference. A brief one as the girls were as anxious to get away as I was, for Washington is overrun by farm women and people interested in rural life. Delegates from forty foreign countries are here, Canada having sent a large delegation as well as England, and our own United States is represented by six thousand odd from every part of the country.

I must say that I felt a sense of pride when I went into Constitution Hall which is so rarely filled and found it packed both in the orchestra and up to the roof at noon today. I remember the sceptics, mostly gentlemen to be sure, telling me that we would have only a handful of women, but as the Secretary of Agriculture said: "Farm women are on the move." The farm woman knows when she thinks something is worthwhile doing and evidently a large number have decided that this is worth doing.

The meeting adjourned at one-thirty and at three-thirty I was down on the lawn greeting the foreign delegates and the heads of state organizations. Then I went up on the South Porch where some of the Ambassadors and Cabinet were gathered, and where the President spoke to the assembled women. Afterwards I went back and shook hands with as many as I could reach in a walk around the lawn.

I hope to see them often again in the course of the next few days at their meetings. It certainly was a pleasure to have them here and to get a chance to even say a word to so many of them this afternoon.

E.R.


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About this document

My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt, June 2, 1936

Roosevelt, Eleanor, 1884-1962
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Digital edition created by The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project The George Washington University 312 Academic Building 2100 Foxhall Road, NW Washington, DC 20007

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Digital edition published 2008, 2017 by
The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project

Available under licence from the Estate of Anna Eleanor Roosevelt.

Published with permission from the Estate of Anna Eleanor Roosevelt.

MEP edition publlished on June 30, 2008.

TEI-P5 edition published on April 28, 2017.

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Transcription created from a photocopy of a draft version of a My Day column instance archived at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library. My Day column draft dated June 1, 1936, FDR Library, Hyde Park, NY
TMsd, 1 June 1936, AERP, FDRL