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

[This column has emendations. View original version]

      

HYDE PARK , Monday—I do not think I ever remember July weather as pleasant and cool as it has been the last few days. Of course, the growers of fruit say we have had too much rain this summer and it has hurt the crops. Up in Rhinebeck, a project was started to provide pickers by bringing a group of young girls together to be paid by the farmers according to the amount they picked. Great difficulties have arisen because they have not had enough picking to pay for board and lodging.

Many of them, of course, have counted on making a little money on the side. They felt, in addition, that they were performing a job that was useful to the country, since they had been told that labor was needed on the farm and was scarce.

No one can control the elements, however, and the farmer is always subject to the ups and downs brought about by Dame Nature's whimsies. I think it is the occupation above all others that is filled with unknown hazards and requires more wisdom, foresight and hard work than any other occupation in the world. Probably this is why it also carries such great compensations and rewards. Many a man who has made his way in other lines, remembers his boyhood on the farm with gratitude and joy.

We are taking a picnic lunch today up to the top of the hill, but the children have decided they want their picnic right near the swimming pool, so they don't have to bother to dress.

This morning I speak at Vassar College at the opening of the Vassar Summer Institute for Family and Child Care Services in Wartime.

I have just had drawn to my attention the difficulties which are today confronting hospitals all over the country, and the magnificent way in which these difficulties are being met. Many doctors and nurses, who are needed in the armed forces, are being drawn from the hospitals. They are, therefore, trying to meet the needs of the civilian population with a reduced staff of doctors and, in many cases, a nursing force which can only provide expert supervision for new nurses in training.

This is going to require on the part of the civilians less use of hospitals for unimportant illnesses that can be cared for at home, more thoughtfulness in the demands made on doctors and nurses when in the hospital, and a certain amount of patience and understanding of the problems created by the war situation.

E. R.

(COPYRIGHT, 1942, BY UNITED FEATURE SYNDICATE, INC.)


Names and Terms Mentioned or Referenced

Geographic
  • Hyde Park (Dutchess County, N.Y., United States) [ index ]


About this document

My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt, July 14, 1942

Roosevelt, Eleanor, 1884-1962
[ ERPP bio | LC | VIAF | WorldCat | DPLA | Wikidata | SNAC ]

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)
    [ VIAF | ORCID ]
  • Regenhardt, Christy (Associate Editor)
    [ ISNI ]
  • Black, Allida M. (Editor)
    [ VIAF | ISNI ]
  • Binker, Mary Jo (Associate Editor)
    [ VIAF | ORCID ]
  • Alhambra, Christopher C. (Electronic Text Editor)
    [ VIAF | ORCID ]

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.

XML master last modified on June 9, 2017.

HTML version generated and published on May 3, 2022.

Transcription created from a photocopy of a UFS wire copy of a My Day column instance archived at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library.
TMs, AERP, FDRL