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

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WASHINGTON, Tuesday—I had a delightful luncheon yesterday with Mrs. Woodring, wife of the Secretary of War. This is the last official entertainment until the Fourth of March, when we dine with the members of the Cabinet.

In the evening I went to "The Bartered Bride," a comic opera given in a series of four operas. Constitution Hall always seems to me rather a cold place to present an opera, but we enjoyed our evening and I was sorry to have to leave before the end inorder to be home to greet some guests who were arriving last evening.

I think I would like to elaborate on what I wrote yesterday about moral rearmament. The real trouble with the whole theory that we can prevent war through moral rearmament is very much the same trouble we have in developing any real democracy. People awaken rather slowly to a sense of personal responsibility. They awaken rather slowly to the appeal of the Oxford Movement or to any other type of spiritual awakening which would bring about moral rearmament. The danger today seems to lie in certain very definite places where this appeal makes slower headway than anywhere else. So, when I say that it cannot stand alone, I mean that much as we may dislike to do it, it may be necessary to use the forces of this world in the hope of keeping civilization going until spiritual forces gain sufficient strength everywhere to make an acceptance of disarmament possible through a moral rearmament.

I have a letter from the National Needle Craft Bureau which tells me that they are going to promote a "National Sew And Save Week." They find that there has been a tremendous increase in home sewing and they give the credit for this partly to WPA adult sewing projects and partly to the home economic departments in schools all over the country. I am very glad to see this ability to sew revived among the women of the nation.

In the first place, it makes many comforts and pleasures possible for young and old and adds enormously to the interest of home life. It is worthwhile buying something really good to wear if, through home care you can make it last longer. There are many ways of beautifying the home if our women attain skill with their hands. I have felt for a long time that the sewing projects on WPA and NYA might be meeting a temporary relief need, but were at the same time making a great change in the future homes of the country.

E.R.

(Copyright, 1939, by United Feature Syndicate, Inc.)


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About this document

My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt, February 15, 1939

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
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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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