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

      

WASHINGTON, Wednesday—Last night we held the judicial reception. It had been snowing and raining most of the day, and that always means the attendance is cut down.

The Justices of the Supreme Court always head the line on this occasion and the Chief Justice always impresses me as looking the part so satisfactorily. He has great dignity, and I always get a sense of pleasure whenever I see Mrs. Hughes. I have never known her very well but I have known her now for a great many years. I think the saying that as we grow older we all of us have exactly the beauty we deserve, applies admirably to her. As Mrs. Hughes has grown older, her beauty has increased and her expression is very lovely.

Gray skies and no real temptation to be out on the bridal path this morning, which was fortunate, for I could not have found the time.

Mr. and Mrs. Albert Cotsworth, Jr., and their daughter breakfasted with me. After breakfast I bade goodbye to our other guests who had been with us overnight, Mr. and Mrs. Bruce Gould and Mr. and Mrs. Fulton Oursler.

A memorial service was held at 10:30 this morning for Mr. Allie S. Freed, who died yesterday at the Emergency Hospital here. He has done a great deal to help us with the homesteads at Arthurdale and with the problems arising in other similar groups. His main interest was in housing.

In the Buckingham Project outside of Washington, he has demonstrated what can be done in the way of housing for those with incomes of $2500 a year and over, by cooperation between private capital and the government. His loss will be felt by many people who have appreciated the work he has done. I am sure his wife and children will receive many expressions of sympathy that will show the gratitude and appreciation of people who have been benefited by Mr. Freed's interest.

I want to tell you today of a protest which has come to me from an association of architects who feel that architects were unjustly criticized when I made the suggestion that the advice of a woman would be valuable in every architect's office. I did not mean what I said as a criticism of the profession. However, I believe a woman's advice would be useful in planning the interior layout of a room because it naturally affects both the exterior and interior arrangements of doors, electric outlets, etc.

I have always supposed that the woman who had some interest in a special house was expected to provide this advice, but in the case of building on a large scale, individual women cannot be consulted, so it seems to me there is a field for the employment of trained women in architect's offices.

I evidently did not express myself with sufficient clarity and I am glad to have an opportunity to explain my idea in greater detail.

E. R.

(Copyright, 1938, by United Feature Syndicate, Inc.)


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About this document

My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt, January 13, 1938

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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Digital edition published 2008, 2017 by
The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project

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.

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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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