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

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HYDE PARK, N.Y—Miss Pearl Buck will introduce an "Arts of India" evening on Thursday, April 19, at the YM-YWHA at 92nd St. and Lexington Ave., New York. There will be Indian dances—classical and modern—and an exhibition of the textile and ornamental arts of India, as well as a color film by Charles and Ray Ames.

The whole entertainment is for the benefit of the Vidyodaya School of Madras in India. This school "was started 30 years ago and trains girls of all communities, creeds and lingual groups to take their places as homemakers, community leaders and good citizens by giving them the opportunity to live and work and play together."

There is a small group of people in this country who call themselves the Friends of the Vidyodaya School in Madras, India. They are putting on this benefit because the school has suffered the loss of some of its buildings and they hope to raise money to encourage their friends in India in their task of rebuilding. If you are free to go that night, you should have a delightful time.

On Monday evening Mrs. Dorothy Norman and I went to the inaugural dinner of the National Committee on Immigration and Citizenship at which Spyros P. Skouras presided with charm and skill.

The Governor of our most Western state, Goodwin J. Knight, spoke, as did Governor Edmund Muskie of Maine, our most Eastern state. Ironically, Governor Knight pointed out that he, as a Republican, represents a state which is supposed to have many more Democratic than Republican voters, whereas Governor Muskie, as a Democrat, represents a state which unquestionably has many more Republican than Democratic voters.

Both of them agreed that our policies on immigration and citizenship should be better known and understood in this country and should be administered on a nonpartisan basis. There are things, they pointed out, the people of this country should know about the McCarran-Walters bill, which lays down restrictions, based on national origins and creeds, that do great harm. And this bill violates, for the first time, the old American tradition of equality of American natural-born and naturalized citizens.

Senator Herbert Lehman also spoke on the legislation and frankly said that education of the people of this country concerning it was essential, since Congress would not act without the support of an intelligent and educated people.

This, of course, would cost money and great effort, he said, but he felt the effort must be made if we are to move forward in this country.

The committee was organized to carry on a program of education aimed at bringing about "the widest possible study and evaluation of our immigration and citizenship policies."

David M. Lilly, who is finance chairman of the committee, pointed out that our future prosperity depends upon keeping a balance of skills and that immigration is needed to preserve this balance.

E.R.

(Copyright, 1956, by United Feature Syndicate, Inc.)


Names and Terms Mentioned or Referenced

Persons
Organizations
  • National Committee on Immigration and Citizenship [ index ]
         [ SNAC ]
Geographic
  • Hyde Park (Dutchess County, N.Y., United States) [ index ]
Other Terms and Topics


About this document

My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt, April 12, 1956

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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