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

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NEW YORK, Thursday—One of the things which seems to me very important for the future is that every nation belonging to the United Nations Organization, in building up its personnel, should remember not only the obvious people who must be in every council or committee discussing world situations, but also some of the groups that are often forgotten.

Everyone realizes that the legislative and executive bodies of all nations must be represented. In all the different agencies, there also must be representatives who have expert understanding of the questions under discussion. And some representatives must be on hand who have the point of view of the general public.

There are several special groups, however, which I think have a right to representation somewhere in the setup. One is the group of younger representatives of the arts, sciences and cultural fields, because they will be the people thinking primarily of future developments, and that is what we need to have in mind in everything we undertake.

Probably no question that comes before the UNO in the next few years is going to have an answer that you can discover by a knowledge of the past alone. Most of the things that come up in international relations are going to be adventures in new types of contact and of procedure. All of which will require young, elastic and well-trained minds to work out successfully. The expert on history and economics is always of value because a knowledge of the past is essential, but his knowledge alone will not be sufficient to meet the questions of the future.

* * *

The second group that I think needs representation in every delegation to the UNO are the men who fought the war. They know, as no civilian can possibly know and as no man who fought in any previous war can possibly know, the meaning of war today. They have the greatest incentive of any group in the world to work for peace.

They have paid with their bodies and with years of their lives. Many of their friends and relatives have paid by making the ultimate sacrifice and are now lying in some faraway land, or at the bottom of some ocean. They speak with the voice, not only of the living but of the dead, and above every other group, they have a right to be heard.

I take it for granted that women will be represented eventually in every delegation, for in many nations women fought the war side by side with their men, and in all nations they participated fully in whatever was done at home to win the war. Above everything else, women have brought into the world the children who will be vitally affected by the actions of those who are our representatives in the United Nations Organization. Women as mothers are constantly projecting themselves into the future and are therefore deeply concerned with every phase of the preservation and development of life on this globe.

E. R.

(WORLD COPYRIGHT, 1946, BY UNITED FEATURE SYNDICATE, INC.; REPRODUCTION IN WHOLE OR PART PROHIBITED.)


Names and Terms Mentioned or Referenced

Organizations
Geographic
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Other Terms and Topics
  • Economic development
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  • Veterans Employment
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  • War victims
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  • War--sacrifices during
  • Women
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About this document

My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt, February 22, 1946

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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MEP edition publlished on June 30, 2008.

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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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