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

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LOS ANGELES—The newspaper in Spokane, Wash., where I awakened after a long flight from New York, reported the passage by the United Nations of a resolution censuring the Soviet Union and calling upon that country to withdraw its troops from Hungary.

The vote was interesting because it split the Asia-Africa bloc. Many of these countries voted in favor of the resolution, while others, like India, abstained. The Communist bloc nations were the only ones voting against the resolution.

It must be a real concern to the Soviet government, which has been putting forth such efforts to gain the favor of the Asian bloc, to find that area of the world also is upset over the Soviet Union's attitude toward the people of Hungary and their freedom.

Through the years, the Soviet delegates have talked a great deal of the way in which Hitler took away the freedom of the people of Germany, but they now are demonstrating that they are callous when they are the ones usurping the power.

Their attitude on colonialism is the same. They would have the Arab states believe they were concerned about the domination of any people by a stronger power. But when they are the stronger power and they are dominating, the whole situation is on a different level. Then they are simply helping the people gain their freedom and, if force has to be used, it is the will of the people.

As a matter of fact, the Soviets are as imperialistic a nation as exists in the world today, except where words are concerned. They talk loudly about anti-colonialism and the rights of people and hope that the words will cover up their deeds.

Now that the resolution has gone through in the U.N., I cannot help wondering what plan has been made in case the Soviet Union pays no attention. What is the next step?

Unless we are ready with a plan to put immediately into execution, it is quite possible that the Soviets will behave like the bad little boy and sit on the sidelines, thumbing their collective noses at the rest of the world and practically saying: "What happens next? We see no reason for paying any attention to you."

When you get into this part of the United States, you are made extremely conscious of the fact that the growth here is tremendous. I was told at lunch Thursday that Seattle, Wash., has grown so fast that new bridges had to be built in every direction and many old landmarks were being uprooted.

For instance, there are two alternatives for the construction of one bridge: Either it goes over the terrace of a country club or it goes through a privately-owned island whose owner is not happy over the thought that it will be cut in two.

Another bridge will go through the arboretum, which has been built up over a long period of time. In addition, a great deal of effort has gone into developing the trees and the landscape and, naturally, nobody likes to see it spoiled.

I always have been told that this is a region for young men, and judging from what they tell me about the rise in population, a good many young men must be settling here.

E.R.

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


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About this document

My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt, December 15, 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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