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

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NEW YORK—All over the country tomorrow (Tuesday) voters should take a real interest in the local elections, for it is at the local level that we begin good government.

Proper information is a basic requisite for an intelligent decision at the polls. Yesterday, for example, I received a copy of a poster put out by our candidate in the Democratic party, Robert I. Potter, for supervisor in Hyde Park. Although I am sure Madison Avenue could have improved on the way the information is presented, the poster still does two important things. It gives you the facts of what has happened under the present tenure in office of the incumbent township officials, and then it gives very clearly the objectives which the new Democratic officials, if elected, will strive to achieve.

According to the poster, there seems to have been favoritism in assessments for taxation on property, an accusation which should be easy to prove. It also shows clearly some very slipshod accounting in the town clerk's office, which I think should certainly disqualify the gentleman from any office in which he had to handle township money.

I welcome the circulation of a poster of this kind because it does give the people some facts on which to make up their minds as to how they will vote in their local situation. The first requisite on Election Day, of course, is to go to the polls. The second is to go knowing how and why you intend to vote along certain lines. At least the candidate for Hyde Park supervisor, Robert I. Potter, has made the effort to give this information to his public.

On Friday night I went for the first time this season to the opera. It was a benefit for the Metropolitan Opera Guild and the first performance this season of Mozart's "The Marriage of Figaro." I think the music has enchanted all of us from our childhood on. This opera is a comedy based on a play by Beaumarchais, and it is entirely delightful. It was beautifully conducted, well acted and sung, and anyone who wants a perfectly enchanting evening will do well to go to the next performance.

I am having an interesting time watching the work progress on my apartment, and I begin to understand the value of an architect. My particular helper has been pestered, I think, by all kinds of questions which, quite frankly, I would never have dreamed could come up. Locks have always just been things you find on doors, as far as I was concerned; I never really examined them very seriously before. In my case, it has always been someone else who did the deciding, and so the details never assumed the proportions they have at the present time. Never have I had to trouble an architect with so many foolish questions, but I find it fun and someday I hope I shall enjoy all the results of our labors.

E. R.

(COPYRIGHT, 1959, BY UNITED FEATURE SYNDICATE, INC.)


Names and Terms Mentioned or Referenced

Persons
  • Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus, 1756-1791 [ index ]
         Composer
         [ LC | VIAF | Wikidata | SNAC | FAST ]
  • Potter, Robert I. [ index ]
         American Democratic candidate for Hyde Park supervisor
Geographic
  • New York (N.Y., United States) [ index ]


About this document

My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt, November 2, 1959

Roosevelt, Eleanor, 1884-1962
[ ERPP bio | LC | VIAF | WorldCat | DPLA | Wikidata | SNAC ]

Digital edition created by The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project The George Washington University 312 Academic Building 2100 Foxhall Road, NW Washington, DC 20007

  • Brick, Christopher (Editor)
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  • Regenhardt, Christy (Associate Editor)
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  • Black, Allida M. (Editor)
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  • Binker, Mary Jo (Associate Editor)
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  • Alhambra, Christopher C. (Electronic Text Editor)
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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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