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

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FAYETTEVILLE, Ark., Tuesday —A great deal has been said in the newspapers in the last few days, first about the necessity of not talking about a recession and then suddenly, perhaps in a little different language from that which has been used by the Democrats, one sees reference by members of the Administration to a readjustment. Under whatever name, I can see no harm for the government and for individuals to consider economic conditions in our country. I don't think we can be talked into a recession any more than we can be talked into a boom. I think all of us should constantly watch economic signs for one cannot simply trust that things will go well all by themselves. We certainly should have learned enough so that this businessmen's Administration which can command the cooperation of business need have no real worries about its ability to meet whatever situations may arise. Unchecked sliding downhill is never a good thing, however, and unemployment should be watched.

Travelling through our country as I have been the last few days, I am struck by the fact that our forefathers destroyed so many trees. There are very few old trees left. In parts of Ohio and Indiana one sees that an effort has been made to preserve a farm woodlot, but there are practically no trees around the fields and it seems to me that we have lost sight of the fact that our trees have value in the preservation of the water level and also in preventing winds from blowing off topsoil.

All of the old highways in our country used to be bordered by trees. I suppose they were narrow enough so trees could shade them. Nowadays our super highways are too broad for that. However, many of them are built with a division in the center and I wish we might make a determined effort to plant trees right down the middle as well as along the sides of our roads so that we would not lose the beauty of highways over which trees used to arch.

One of the things we have enjoyed always in this country is the coming of spring and the turning of our leaves in the autumn. No country has as wonderful colors in September and October as we have in the United States, and if we go on cutting down our trees and not replanting them we are going to lose much of this beauty.

E.R.

(WORLD COPYRIGHT, 1954, BY UNITED FEATURE SYNDICATE, INC. REPRODUCTION IN WHOLE OR IN PART PROHIBITED.)


Names and Terms Mentioned or Referenced

Geographic
  • Fayetteville (Ark., United States) [ index ]


About this document

My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt, February 17, 1954

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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