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

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NEW YORK, Monday—I am writing this column from New York after a rather lightning-fast weekend trip to Detroit. I arrived in that busy metropolis by train from New York City early on Saturday morning. The steps of the train were covered with snow, and I discovered that we had been through a heavy storm in northern New York State. During the day the snow caught up with us in Detroit.

Detroit is a fantastic town! When you are there you readily begin to understand why anyone would say that "What is good for General Motors is good for the U.S." It is quite evident that everything revolves around the automobile. Since many of us assume that where one lives would be the center of the universe, one can easily understand that someone working in General Motors would think that without the success of the automobile industry the world would be lost.

My first visitor was a journalist from the Caribbean area. She was a little lady who spoke very little English, some French and a voluble Spanish. She explained that she had missed seeing me in New York and so had made sure that she would see me in Detroit. I answered some of her questions but asked her to wait for the regular press conference at 10:30. Then we had pictures and the press came in.

I was amused to see a headline Sunday morning in the Hearst paper, which said that I said we should scrap the Yalta agreements. Of course, what I really said was that if the Soviets had not lived up to them, there was no reason why we should not scrap them. They already had been scrapped by the Soviets.

At 11 o'clock I was called for to go to the meeting of Detroit Public Schools members. I had a pleasant lunch with them and, following the luncheon, talked about the United Nations.

This was only the beginning of the day, however. Soon after this luncheon meeting some lady Democrats called for me and took me to a gathering of more than 2,000 Democratic women. Also present was Governor G. Mennen Williams, who is, I believe, the first Democratic governor to be elected three times in succession. He is a forceful and attractive personality, and has a young, pretty and delightful wife. Both of them seemed to know everybody in sight, and I heard someone remark to her that she must be called Nancy by everyone in Michigan. This is a sign of the great popularity that both of them enjoy.

Mr. Stephen Mitchell, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, was there also, and spoke at the dinner in the evening.

After the meeting I had time to stop for a few minutes in the hotel and see Mr. and Mrs. Neal Lang and their young son, aged 14 months. Mr. Lang is now the manager of the Sheraton-Cadillac. He used to be the manager of the Park Sheraton here in New York City where I maintain an apartment. He and his wife certainly have an interesting and energetic youngster.

The Jefferson-Jackson dinner was the event of the evening, and I'm beginning to think that all these Democratic parties are being held more or less as victory parties. This one was certainly an expression of hopeful and energetic party workers.

It is rather nice to be among a group of Democrats, but I have restricted myself during the past few years to nonpartisan speeches so that the transition to talking about questions of party policy is sometimes rather difficult!

E.R.

(WORLD COPYRIGHT, 1953, BY UNITED FEATURE SYNDICATE, INC. REPRODUCTION IN WHOLE OR IN PART PROHIBITED.)


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About this document

My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt, March 10, 1953

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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