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

      

NEW YORK, Monday—When I looked at the newspapers yesterday and saw that Michael J. Quill, president of the Transport Workers Union, had set a deadline for the threatened transportation strike in this city, I wondered whether he remembered what happened in England after the last war when a similar strike took place. I happened to be in London at the time. The trains were run by amateurs but they were run after the first day. Nevertheless, a great many people were delayed, kept from work and from their daily occupations. Many were inconvenienced and the rights and wrongs of the question at stake were completely forgotten after the first day.

There has never been a strike of that kind in England since their general strike, because the inconvenience of the general public led to the setting up of such a complicated system of conciliation that the labor leaders today rarely reach the point of actually calling a strike. I wonder if we might not reach that desirable situation through the use of intelligent leadership on both sides, thus avoiding all the bad feeling which is bound to be created if everyone is made uncomfortable by a transportation strike.

* * *

It was wonderful to get up to the country Saturday evening and find my cottage looking all spic and span and bright and cheerful. My young cousin, Mrs. Forbes Morgan, and her children were there to greet us.

White snow lay deep upon the fields and even on the roads. When I let my little dog Fala out of the car, he ran all around, a little black ball rolling over and over in the snow. He seemed to feel as much excitement over the freedom of the country as I did.

We all walked up the hill to dine with my son and daughter-in-law. When we walked back, the stars were shining brightly overhead. In my heart was a great thankfulness for this country and all it holds of security and peace.

When we woke on Sunday morning, the snow was falling gently. Again, Fala and I both enjoyed ourselves. With all of our walking around, I had a grand appetite for lunch, and it was an added pleasure to find that the chickens and vegetables, put away in our deep freezer last summer, tasted just as good as I hoped they would.

I had an opportunity to talk to the superintendent of the place and give some orders about a few things which must be done before spring. Miss Thompson said we should spend a week up at Hyde Park, getting things straightened out, but instead, we left right after lunch to drive back to New York City. Fala got into the car with such reluctance, I thought he was expressing the way we all felt.

E. R.

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


Names and Terms Mentioned or Referenced

Persons
  • Morgan, Marie Newsom, 1908-1998 [ index ]
         Spouse of ER cousin William Forbes Morgan, III
  • Palmer, George A., -1988 [ index ]
         American parks service official; superintendent of the government properties in Hyde Park
  • Quill, Mike, 1905-1966 [ index ]
         Irish-born American, president of the Transport Workers Union
         [ LC | VIAF | Wikidata | SNAC ]
  • Thompson, Malvina, 1893-1953 [ index ]
         ER's secretary
         [ ERPP bio | LC | VIAF | Wikidata | SNAC | FAST | US Nat. Archives ]
Geographic
  • New York (N.Y., United States) [ index ]
Other Terms and Topics


About this document

My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt, February 26, 1946

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 May 2, 2022.

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