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

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SAN FRANCISCO—San Francisco is always one of my favorite cities and I never come into the Fairmont Hotel without being reminded of my old friend, Alexander Woollcott, who thought of this as the most delightful of all hotels because of the enjoyment he got out of the balcony off his room which looked out over the bay.

Once when he was acting in "The Man Who Came to Dinner" in San Francisco, he invited me to come over to have tea with him (I happened to be here for a lecture). I still remember the pleasure of that afternoon tea whenever I step out on my balcony in this hotel overlooking the bay.

The weather was not completely clear in San Francisco Thursday, but our plane had no trouble in landing on time.

A press conference was the next activity on our schedule and then my niece, Diana Jaicks, her husband, and John Hight, who was sent out by the National Democratic Committee, had lunch with me before I sat down to do my column and prepare for an afternoon reception in Oakland, followed by a dinner speech.

I was met here at once by the question, "Had I really meant that Mr. Nixon had called Mrs. Douglas a Communist?" I replied that Mr. Nixon has said he had never called her a Communist and that I must have been mistaken.

Of course, it is obvious he never made that statement in so many words, but anyone in this state will remember a pink sheet which came from his headquarters, relating false facts and giving the impression that he believed her to be a Communist. It cited her votes as being similar in many instances to Vito Marcantonio's and failed to state that these votes were similar because they were cast for the Democratic program.

Since that bit of information was left out, those who did not know the facts might easily have been led to believe that the pink paper was used to describe pink activities in which the lady had voted for a mysterious Communistic program of Marcantonio's. These are misleading ways of creating impressions without actually stating something which cannot be proved.

The press also asked me about a statement by Governor Goodwin J. Knight of California to a Republican women's group that the women voters of the country had played a deciding role in the election of President Eisenhower in his first term and would play an equally important part in his reelection on November 6.

I think the women will play a very important part this year, but I think they will play it in the election of Adlai Stevenson, for they know that he devoted his first major speech of a constructive nature to how we could improve the lives of our young people.

They will find Stevenson will deal with intelligence and feeling the question of education, which is of such importance to our young people and has been sadly neglected by the Republican party. They will realize that while we have peace, it is a precarious peace, and that while we have prosperity, it is a prosperity not apparent everywhere.

I look forward to substantial support from the women of the United States in this year's election for Stevenson and Kefauver and many other Democratic candidates.

E.R.

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


Names and Terms Mentioned or Referenced

Geographic
  • San Francisco (Calif., United States) [ index ]


About this document

My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt, October 2, 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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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.

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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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