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

      

LAWTON, Okla.—It is quite understandable that our Secretary of State should feel that the United States cannot abandon nuclear tests unilaterally. But the question is whether we could not accept the offer which, if I remember rightly, already has been made by the Soviet Union to abandon these tests.

What has held us back from accepting is the fact that no adequate method of inspection has been found to determine if nuclear bombs are being built and tested.

Some of us believe that, if you agree to abandon these tests, it is impossible to conduct them without being detected, for so far we have known whenever the Soviet Union has set off hydrogen bomb explosions. They are like an earthquake; they register all over the world.

But this never has seemed an adequate protection to the present Administration. Yet the value of making a beginning seems so great to me that I would be willing to take the small risk involved in not having an inspection system.

Professor Masatoshi Matsushita, who conferred with the Secretary of State as representative of Japanese Premier Nobusuke Kishi on ending nuclear tests, came to see me, too. I had remembered meeting him in Japan.

It requires the experience the Japanese have had to make people feel strongly about doing something—and doing it now—to end nuclear bomb tests, which may be harming all of us far more than we know.

It was wonderful to be at Hyde Park, N.Y., for Easter and to have such a beautiful day. Last year we had a snowstorm on Easter and my daughter-in-law remarked that she hoped she would not have to hide the eggs in the snow for the children again this year.

I went for several walks in the woods, accompanied by Duffy, my little Scottie, who enjoyed his two days in the country. He is getting quite fat and needs more country exercise, so I will be glad when I finally get to spending a little more time in Hyde Park. But for a month or more Duffy will have to put up with New York City.

The Easter parade in New York must have been wonderful, but I thought the young people in church in Hyde Park looked gay and well dressed, too.

I was very proud of my own young cousin, Barbara Morgan, and her friend who stayed with me. And all around us were friends and neighbors with children ranging in age from four on up, all dressed in their Easter finery.

It evidently is a tradition that you must have new clothes for Easter Sunday. I probably am the only person who always forgets until it is too late to remedy any gaps in her wardrobe!

E.R.

(Copyright, 1957, by United Feature Syndicate, Inc.)


Names and Terms Mentioned or Referenced

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  • Lawton (Okla., United States) [ index ]


About this document

My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt, April 25, 1957

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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