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

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WASHINGTON, Monday—It is interesting what a rearrangement of the same words will do to a well-known document. A short time ago, I was sent a small book in which the Constitution is rearranged so that you do not have to turn from one section to the other to know the final decision on some point, for all the sections dealing with one idea are grouped together. It seemed to me a most interesting and worthwhile presentation of a document which is sacred to us all, but which many of us really do not understand.

Dr. Charles A. Beard says: "I think your idea is excellent," in writing to Allen Robert Murray, who is responsible for this piece of literary editing. The little pamphlet is entitled: "What The Constitution Says", and carries as a subtitle: "A New Way To Understand The Constitution." I think many people will find it valuable.

I had a ride yesterday morning, the first one in many weeks and even though the day was gray, it was delightful to be out on the bridle path.

It seemed to me that an extraordinary number of planes kept flying north, and I decided that instead of an hourly service, we were running a service every fifteen minutes. This fact makes me rejoice that the work on a new airport in Washington is at last begun. Our very familiar blimp was sailing around also, and I began to think that this particular lighter-than-air means of transportation must have more hours in the air than any other similar ship.

In the afternoon and evening Mr. Charles Taussig and Mr. Aubrey Williams and I met with a group of young people to discuss, among other "little" subjects, the question of awakening our interest as a nation in the study of democracy, its real meaning to us as individuals and its practical application in our own citizenship.

In the afternoon I also went to the Madeira School to see their Christmas play. They give the same religious play each year, accompanied by the singing of certain well-known Christmas carols by one of their glee clubs. It was done with reverence and earnestness by the freshman high school group.

Having told you how annoyed I was with the behavior of a zipper on one of my dresses when I was on my last lecture trip, I think I must tell you that my new travelling wardrobe, which depends almost entirely on zippers for its usefulness, is proving most satisfactory. There is no doubt about it, if one is in a hurry, zippers which work are a great blessing. The perfection of this particular mode of fastener certainly should seem important to the busy woman.

E.R.

(Copyright, 1938, by United Feature Syndicate, Inc.)


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About this document

My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt, December 13, 1938

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 UFS wire copy of a My Day column instance archived at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library.
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