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

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NEW YORK, Tuesday—I reached New York City yesterday afternoon and visited two of my family who are temporarily laid up. My mother-in-law says that everyone now knows that she broke two of the bones in her ankle and therefore has her foot in a plaster cast and can not be her usual active self. For a whole week, however, she kept it absolutely secret until she was sure that her letters explaining that the injury was slight, would reach both my husband and myself. I doubt very much if he received her letter until after my telegram reached him saying that I had seen her and she seemed extremely well and would probably profit by the rest. Perhaps it is fortunate that letters don't reach their destination at sea quite as quickly as they might on land! She looks perfectly well and is accepting this mishap with her usual philosophy. Her only remark being that she would prefer to be in the country and perhaps if she had kept to her plan and gone to Seattle, this would not have occurred. She had planned to go out to visit her granddaughter and her family.

A quiet evening with a friend and much work.

This morning I finally had a chance to try on some clothes which I ordered six weeks ago! I meant to have a spring suit to wear when I went west, something turned up and I never had a chance to try it on. I discovered that an old one did quite well! It's probably a good thing for the new suit ought to last me an extra season as its usefulness this spring will be rather short!

The exhibition of school work at the Todhunter School takes place this afternoon and then I am going to see the exhibit which the New York World's Fair Committee has on the first floor of the Empire State Building. I am much interested in this Fair as well as the proposed one in San Francisco. It seems to me that there is an opportunity here to do a remarkable piece of work from the educational standpoint, and the conception of the whole Fair as outlined to me sounds very provocative of thought.

There are drawbacks to being so easily recognized. As I hurried along yesterday afternoon, some one stopped me and said: "I will never have another chance to speak to you and I have been wanting for a long time to get your consideration of my case. I want a Civil Service rating and a government job, but I can't get it unless I can have one of those Presidential appointments." I had to explain at some length that the President had no private appointments in the Civil Service: that he could invite people to serve in his Cabinet subject to the ratification of Congress and he could appoint people to various other important offices, also subject to Congress' approval. He did have the privilege of appointing the sons of officers in the Army and Navy to Annapolis and West Point, but when it came to Civil Service, everybody had to take an examination and only the Civil Service Commission could pass them. I thought I made a very clear explanation but the face which was turned upon me bore an expression which plainly said: "You are just trying to get out of helping me. I know if you wanted to do this for me, you could do it."

E.R.



About this document

My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt, May 12, 1937

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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Digital edition published 2008, 2017 by
The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project

Available under licence from the Estate of Anna Eleanor Roosevelt.

Published with permission from the Estate of Anna Eleanor Roosevelt.

MEP edition publlished on June 30, 2008.

TEI-P5 edition published on April 28, 2017.

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Transcription created from a photocopy of a draft version of a My Day column instance archived at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library. My Day column draft dated May 11, 1937, FDR Library, Hyde Park, NY
TMsd, 11 May 1937, AERP, FDRL