If You Ask Me
by Eleanor Roosevelt

Seventy-four cents a year is the cost per capita. This includes sixteen cents for the specialized agencies.

No, I am afraid I can't say my opinion has changed, but I hope the D.A.R.'s policy in the use of their Washington auditorium has changed. When I was in Washington they were an extremely narrow and conservative group of people, with a great fear of anything new. They still, I fear, have these same characteristics, but that doesn't prevent them from doing excellent patriotic service in the preservation of historical landmarks throughout the country. This, however, does not make them one of the forces for moving forward in the world today.

No. In a way I think one is very fortunate in the White House. One is cut off in so many ways there from the ordinary social contacts of life that gossip of this kind seldom comes to one's attention immediately. One does learn eventually, of course, what is being said.

It is very difficult to answer questions of this kind, because what I really object to most in Communism is not some of the theories—which were written by Karl Marx in an attempt to correct some of the injustices that he saw during the Industrial Revolution in England—but rather the way Communism developed under Stalin.

Trying to make Stalin and the Communist party take the place of God has not succeeded even with many Russian people, and it seems to me that it would be almost impossible to wipe out religion by offering Communism in its place unless people had already lost their faith in their religion.

What I really consider the greatest danger in Communism is its creation of a police state, which puts everybody under such terror that there is no free expression of individual thinking and no dignity for the human being. The evil of Communism as it has developed in Europe is, of course, the same evil which existed in Fascism and Nazism.

My favorite verses are in First Corinthians, Chapter 13, which starts: "Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal."

I think the whole question of old age needs to be reconsidered. Actually it is an individual question, and when retirement ages are set an arbitrary stand is taken, which frequently is unfair to certain individuals. Some schoolteachers at 65 would be invaluable. Others might be so hidebound they would be of little service to their students. I think the whole problem should be judged on an individual basis.

Yes, I was just as timid as Elliott said I was. I got over it because I had to get over it! My husband took it for granted I could meet any situation, and little by little I found I could, and I became so interested in what I was doing I forgot myself and my own fears completely.

Yes, at night.

I happen to think that history will consider Secretary Acheson a great Secretary of State. It is much too early as yet to evaluate what Secretary Dulles will be able to do during his term of office.