If You Ask Me
by Eleanor Roosevelt

There is no criticism of a connection with big business. There is criticism of being too subservient to it. I don't think my husband's family ever had much connection with big business, and I would rather doubt how much Adlai Stevenson has. I am quite sure in any case that both my husband and Adlai Stevenson and Governor Harriman and Herbert Lehman would want the government to be stronger than big business—not big business to control the government, which is the point at issue. I suppose everything is granted us, even life itself, by heaven!

My children were always likely to be underweight. When they were I handled it by trying to feed them as well as I possibly could. If they had been overweight, I would have seen to it that they went on a diet prescribed by a doctor. Naturally I would have had them examined by a doctor to find out if there was any medical reason for this condition.

Yes, I wear the same rings I wore when my husband was alive, except that I don't wear as many because arthritis has deformed some of my joints and I can't get some of the rings over these joints. There is no way that I know of to indicate widowhood by rings. There was a time when people wore mourning rings, but that is a custom of the past, I think.

I am sorry, but I don't think I know enough about Mrs. Eisenhower's clothes to be able to pass an opinion. I have not seen Mrs. Eisenhower since she went into the White House, except in photographs. I have no doubt that one of Mrs. Eisenhower's assets is her charm and friendly approach to people.

I'm afraid I let him do whatever he prefers to do, but ordinarily he prefers the floor. I have to coax him onto the couch for pictures.

I can't possibly see what we as Americans have to do with the decision made in Ireland as to Irish union. They are the people who have to decide and they are free to do so. Therefore I don't think there is any action whatsoever required of us.

Most of my property, including my house, is already in my husband's estate, and so I have practically no decisions to make except for the very small amount which I have earned and saved that remains for me to decide on for the future.

He loved the little Ford that he used to drive himself in Hyde Park and Warm Springs, Georgia. It was open and he managed it with special controls by hand and could drive it almost everywhere.

If they can get married, it is certainly proper for them to have a formal wedding. I never saw much difference between a formal and an informal wedding. Once married you are married, and that is the important fact to be considered.

I suppose you are referring to my plea for desegregation of housing in the big cities. I have lived in a neighborhood (I don't know whether it was in the same block) with Negroes and have never found it any different from any other neighborhood.