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

      

NEW YORK, Friday—There are still many organizations that are making a great effort to remind us of the fact that there are in Army and Navy hospitals and Veterans Administration hospitals a great many disabled veterans who must not be forgotten at this Christmas season.

On December 7, Pearl Harbor Day, for instance, the Army and Navy Union of the USA sponsored a Christmas package entertainment show for 200 disabled hospitalized veterans. It seemed to me a particularly good idea to serve refreshments to the veterans and to ask anyone who wanted to see the show to bring a Christmas package for a hospitalized disabled veteran. If you could not go to see the show you could still send a gift package. This idea, if carried out in many places where we have Veterans Administration hospitals, would result in bringing together the veterans and the people of the community. I'm sure it would create added interest in giving these veterans a happy time at this holiday season.

I have been asked to correct an impression created by a column I wrote back on September 9. Some of the material furnished me led me to believe that Dr. Walter A. Meier was closely connected with Lawrence Reilly, Gerald Winrod and others, and that he supported the Nazis as the bulwark against communism until near the close of World War II. It appears that this was entirely erroneous information or rather that I misread the information.

Some of Dr. Meier's articles were accepted and carried in Mr. Reilly's publication but that did not in any way constitute a connection between the two men or a similarity in their attitudes and beliefs. One of his friends, who feels strongly that I have done him an injustice, has asked me to state that I made this mistake, and I am more than glad to do so.

I was primarily trying to find out whether an organization called the Lutheran Research Society, in which Mr. Reilly seems to be a moving figure, was really backed by the United Lutheran Church in America. I found it had no connection with that church and the name was being used purely to give a religious flavor to Mr. Reilly's strange writings and activities. This part of what I said remains entirely valid. Dr. Meier is a radio preacher on the Lutheran Hour. Any misunderstanding of his position might hurt his spiritual leadership.

While I am talking about the radio and the church, I must mention the fact that I attended and spoke on a panel on the Protestant radio half hour Thursday night at 10:30 p.m. The idea of having a panel afterwards, dealing with the subject which has been presented in a radio play, seemed to me a very interesting one. The discussion of prejudice was all too short, since it is a subject that has so many facets it is extremely hard to cover it in a brief discussion. I hope, however, that it did emphasize certain points and leave people some food for thought.

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, December 10, 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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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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