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

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NEW YORK—It was a dramatic session at the U.N. Wednesday, when President Eisenhower appeared before the General Assembly, speaking for the United States and presenting his detailed program for dealing with the troubled situation in the Middle East. This is an important forward step, and we should all be thankful for it.

His economic program for assisting the Arab countries to develop their lands and improve their standards of living was most interesting to me. I am sure that agreement on such an economic program would go a long way towards a peaceful solution of the entire situation. But I feel that there is much in this extremely complex Middle East problem that lies deeper than any economic plans can reach. There must also, I think, be some real spiritual leadership, to give the people of those countries a vision of what the future could be with a real development of cultural and intellectual potentialities, as well as merely meeting human needs.

It was no surprise to any of us in New York City that Adam Clayton Powell won the Democratic nomination for Congressman in Harlem. Mr. Carmine De Sapio, leader of Tammany Hall, has promised that the Democratic party will now unite behind Mr. Powell, and I suppose there is nothing else he can say, since the people of Harlem have made their choice clear.

Those of us who are interested in seeing the Negro people intelligently represented in high places, and who hope this representation can be of a quality which will help to bring about integration and the recognition of the high development among Negro leaders, cannot help but be a little saddened by having a man who is considered a demagogue of questionable ethical standards returned as a candidate for Congress in an area where the people of his own race predominate.

I understand well the ease with which a man who is gifted as a speechmaker can carry people with him who do not follow his record, and I understand also that his opponent was not a strong candidate. But the fact remains that the Negro people of Harlem will not be represented in Congress by someone who will command respect from his colleagues.

It is gratifying to know that a second nuclear powered submarine, the Skate, has sailed under the North Pole and our congratulations go to the crew and their captain.

I was very much interested in the Navy apology to Admiral Rickover, who was overlooked in the invitations to the ceremony in honor of the captain of the Nautilus. A slight of that kind is hard to undo and apologies now come with poor grace from the Navy.

It is rare for Navy officials to go through such a period of excitement that they overlook protocol, but since the White House could not be blamed, the Navy evidently felt they had to accept the blame. I cannot help feeling a little sorry for them since it must be very hard for them to admit that they forgot something so obvious as to invite Admiral Rickover to the ceremony.

E.R.

(Copyright, 1958, by United Feature Syndicate, Inc.)


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About this document

My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt, August 15, 1958

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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