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

[This column has emendations. View original version]

      

CHICAGO, Tuesday—On Monday morning before we left Webster Groves, Mo., Bishop William Scarlett invited in some of the clergy with their wives and asked if I minded answering questions. Since that was what I came on this trip to do, I was more than willing to hold a quiz period. At 1 o'clock, however, we were off for Des Moines, Iowa.

I have been late only twice on this long trip: In flying from Calgary to Vancouver when the plane came in from the east two hours late and we were, therefore, two hours behind schedule time when we reached our destination, and from St. Louis to Des Moines when we had some radio trouble. In Los Angeles one of the staff at the airport told me that before long they would have all the fog-dispelling machinery installed and flights could be brought in and sent off at all times except in zero-zero weather.

Des Moines was a busy few hours for us, with a dinner given by the Women's Chamber of Commerce, a radio recording and finally the evening meeting when I spoke on the United Nations. We ended up at 11:15 p.m. on the train to Chicago, and here we are with only one more speech to make on this trip.

After a very short time here for a press conference and radio interview, we will motor out to Glencoe where the speech is to be given tonight, after which we will board the 1 a.m. plane, if all goes well, and reach La Guardia Field in New York City in the small hours of the morning.

Naturally the most interesting part of this trip was the week spent in northwest Canada because that was new country to me. All of the trip has been pleasant, however, and the most heartening thing is to come back feeling that though there may be many questions in peoples' minds as regards the United Nations and the Declaration of Human Rights, still there is sufficient interest to bring them out in very large numbers to each meeting. Where your interest lies you will do some work and that is all we can expect people to do in furthering the cause of the U.N.

When I was in San Francisco I saw a clipping from the Christian Science Monitor telling of the work being done by George Mardikian, the well-known San Francisco restaurateur. He has taken on a very important job. While travelling around Germany inspecting troop kitchens for the United States Army, he discovered near Stuttgart an Armenian displaced persons camp. He felt the waste of keeping people, who were capable of being productive citizens, in these camps, and with his enthusiasm and great organizing ability he set to work finding them homes. Naturally, he is working first for his Armenian compatriots, although he is an American citizen himself. He does not, however, exclude from his help any others whom he can take under his wing and he is now visiting South America to find places there where displaced persons can begin a new life.

I am sure this unofficial representative of the International Refugee Organization will be successful in his errands of mercy.

E. R.

(WORLD COPYRIGHT, 1949, BY UNITED FEATURE SYNDICATE, INC. REPRODUCTION IN WHOLE OR IN PART PROHIBITED.)


Names and Terms Mentioned or Referenced

Geographic
  • Webster Groves (Mo., United States) [ index ]


About this document

My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt, March 16, 1949

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