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

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WASHINGTON, Monday—In the current issue of "Parents' Magazine," they give their second annual report on the nation's children. There is a general recognition of the grave responsibility of providing our children, in this war crisis, with the services necessary to preserve for them in the future, the things for which we today are fighting.

The four freedoms will not mean much to them, if they are told that we have preserved them for them, unless they are able to use those four freedoms. You can not be a citizen in a democracy and feel confidence in your own ability to meet the future, unless in your childhood, the basic needs of every child are met, regardless of war conditions.

The carrying out of this program to achieve this end, lies largely in the hands of the Children's Bureau, and the different health and welfare projects under Administrator McNutt. But, I think it is the responsibility of the Office of Civilian Defense to see that the needs are recognized. They must have the backing of people in every community so that the defense councils will recognize the importance of meeting them.

Such magazines as Parents' Magazine can do a great deal to bring before the public the needs of the children and the responsibility of the public towards those needs. I hope that many other magazines and publications will also recognize this responsibility.

I must tell you that the pageant on the contribution of the Negro people to the history of the United States, as given last night in the performance called "Salute to the Negro Troops," presented by the stage, screen and radio division of the Fight For Freedom Inc., was most moving and thrilling. Any citizen of the United States must have been proud when Washington, Jefferson, Jackson and Lincoln, each came on the stage and spoke their own message to their people, who loved democracy and liberty.

It carried into one's heart an emotion, which must translate itself into a greater devotion to accept the challenge of this war, and to make of this nation the example which the founding fathers envisioned, but which we have never completely carried out.

E.R.

(COPYRIGHT, 1942, BY UNITED FEATURE SYNDICATE, INC.)


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About this document

My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt, January 13, 1942

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
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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 UFS wire copy of a My Day column instance archived at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library.
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