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

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NEW YORK, Monday—These pre-election days are busy ones and last Thursday was typical. I seemed to be running from place to place!

First, I went to the meeting in Madison Square Garden run by the labor organizations for Governor Lehman. Vice-President Barkley and Mayor O'Dwyer and many other speakers were there. Unfortunately, I had to speak first and then leave without hearing the rest because months before I had agreed to go to a dinner in honor of Edward J. Flynn, given by the Zionists of the Bronx. I arrived at the rally early enough to see some of Milton Berle's show which I enjoyed and to meet my own son, Franklin, Jr., who was arriving as I was leaving.

I had no time to hear Franklin speak but I have been told of a number of speeches he has made for Governor Lehman upstate. Of course, in New York City he is also speaking for Mayor O'Dwyer and the rest of the Democratic ticket. I am always interested when he tells me of having met some of the people my husband and I knew long years ago when we were campaigning in the state. I think our old friends must be interested in seeing the younger generation take to politics, for their young people must be doing it, too! One of the compensations of old age is to look back and evaluate the situation of today, with regard to the record of the past.

Everyone who spoke at the dinner given for Ed Flynn had a really warm feeling for this exceptional leader. He has long been in politics, is very realistic and is still taking a broad view of the objectives of government. He spoke with feeling about a subject which I know is dear to his heart—the partition of Ireland.

It is difficult for us who do not have the close ties to Ireland that some among our citizens have to feel as deeply as Ed Flynn does. I should understand it, for my great-grandfather on my mother's side came from Ireland as an immigrant and lived in Brooklyn. But I have never been in Ireland long enough to feel an emotional tie with the Irish question. It does seem foolish, however, not to let this question of a unified Ireland be decided by the people of Ireland themselves by vote.

I was able to come up to the country on Friday, and on Saturday in the late autumn sunshine on the lawn at Hyde Park I was given a distinguished service award by the upstate New York Council of the B'nai B'rith organization. It was, of course, an honor which I deeply appreciated.

Some of the chairmen of the upstate councils were here and the presentation was made by Frank Goldman, president of the B'nai B'rith. He is co-chairman of the coordinating board of Jewish organizations and this board has consultative status with the Economic and Social Council.

They are very faithful in following the work of the council and also of the Human Rights Commission, so I have had an opportunity to see their representatives at different times. I was glad to know that they take a continuing interest in the drawing up of the Covenant of Human Rights, since I think we should have the advice of all non-governmental groups.

E. R.

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


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About this document

My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt, November 1, 1949

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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