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

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SYRACUSE, N.Y., Wednesday—I wonder if it is wise for any of us to read anyone's writings too consistently? No matter how able they may be, they seem occassionally to find it difficult to be consistent, and this tends to give me as a reader the feeling that we are all of us swayed by so much by our momentary impulses and interests, that what we write at any time can not be taken too seriously. I am talking now as a reader and I don't question but that it would be possible to make the same criticism of me as a writer. I shall probably be saved by the fact that I am more a painter of pictures and a reporter of unimportant events! The writers of whom I am speaking, from my standpoint as a reader, are those who interpret events and influence the public through their own expressions of opinion.

The following quotation is what inspired these thoughts: "One thing is certain: this is no time to call names. The country is less interested at the moment about who is to blame than about what is to be done. If the feeling of hatred and hostility, of exaggerated lack of confidence on both sides were diminished, that, of itself, would ease the crisis." I am in full and complete agreement, but I can hardly realize that the person who write these words is the same person whom I am a reader have been following during many months. I devoutly hope, however, that many other readers will agree with this present statement.

We seem to be in for a three days rainstorm. It is not often that I envy people who are housed in bed, but when I was visiting a cousin yesterday afternoon, laid up with an attack of bronchitis, I could not help but be a little envious of the pleasant comfort of the room, and the fact that there was no necessity for her to go out into our autumn storm. She probably wished that she was feeling well enough to do the going out. Such are the perversities of human nature!

For the second time in a rainstorm I visited Newark, New Jersey last night, to attend a dinner given by the Women's Trade Union League, of New Jersey. If the size of the dinner and the enthusiasm of the guests is a measure of the interest of the community in the work of the League, I think this winter will see a great increase in the influence of the League ideas and in the work which it can accomplish in the State.

It was pleasant to see a number of friends at that dinner. Among them Mrs. Abram Elkus and her daughter sat directly in front of me and Mrs. Garrison and Mrs. Walker from Llewllyn Park were not far away. I imagine there were others whom I was not able to identify. Secretary Perkins drove back with us after dinner and we left her at the Pennsylvania Station to take the midnight back to Washington. When we walked into our apartment it was twelve-forty-five! Up this morning and breakfasted at eight o'clock and caught a nine o'clock train for Erie, Pennsylvania where I am speaking tonight.

E.R.


Names and Terms Mentioned or Referenced

Geographic
  • Syracuse (N.Y., United States) [ index ]


About this document

My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt, October 21, 1937

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

  • Brick, Christopher (Editor)
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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 October 20, 1937, FDR Library, Hyde Park, NY
TMsd, 20 October 1937, AERP, FDRL