If You Ask Me
by Eleanor Roosevelt

Washington, Jefferson, Jackson, Lincoln and my own husband, Franklin D. Roosevelt. Though it is early to assess in a historical way a man's greatness, still I feel that the problems my husband met and solved will make the period of history he lived in a great period, and therefore I believe history will feel that he was one of our great Presidents.

I did not have the remotest idea, but I have looked up the figures since this question came in. The second volume of my autobiography was serialized and the book published in 1949. In that year I earned and received from every source a gross of $206,542.60.

I have discovered that it is very difficult to clear $25,000 or $30,000 a year, no matter what my total earnings are. Sometimes I think it would pay not to work so hard, but I happen to like work and to think that one has to justify one's existence, and I continue because of the pleasure and interest it gives me.

Of course, I think Judge Rosenman could probably explain better than I can. I can only imagine that he meant what my husband often said to me—that I was much too impatient to be a good politician, that I wanted to see results much too quickly and therefore would sometimes perhaps have accepted the attitude of a benevolent despot rather than have had the patience to wait for democratic forces to work out the problems and solutions far more slowly. With age I have become more patient!

Very often a social conscience is more easily awakened in one who has not been hardened by having to battle for every advantage in life. My husband's parents brought him up with a sense of obligation to other people. He had a chance to travel and make contact in a simple way with people in other parts of the world. His mind was open and intelligent, and as his contacts broadened his sense of justice deepened. He was a liberal because he believed in social justice.

Not all of my children sucked their thumbs, though I remember having trouble with two of them. In those days we put the hands into Celluloid balls at bedtime. I do not know whether this was a mistake or not. I am now told that thumbsucking should be permitted. Many ideas change as the years go on.

The great thing, I think, is to make children feel that they are needed and actually belong in the family. Give them certain responsibilities, and they will respond with confidence and joy. If this child is sensitive, avoid talking about her before other people and letting her overhear your remarks about what you are doing for her. The main thing is to love her and let her give you her love.

I never plan ahead.