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

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SAN FRANCISCO, Tuesday—We were fortunate yesterday, for, though the sky was somewhat cloudy, we still had spurts of sunshine and our first view of Treasure Island as we crossed the magnificent new bridge was one of almost dazzling beauty.

This is the second time I have come to San Francisco under the auspices of Mr. Paul Posz, but on this occasion I spoke on Treasure Island, because he is musical director for the Fair and therefore arranged my lecture in the auditorium there. We stopped first at the Administration Building, where Mr. Cutler joined us and was valiant enough to stay with us during most of the rest of the day. He is proud of his achievement and I do not wonder, for on the whole it gives you the impression of lovely color combinations with water used in every possible way to enhance the charm of architecture and of the landscape gardening. The trees and flowers have transformed what was a heap of plowed up earth into a really lovely spot.

We went to visit the State Building, where Mrs. George Knox, Assistant Chairman of the Democratic State Committee, greeted us for the Governor who was obliged to return to Sacramento. Then we went to the City Building, where Mayor Rossi welcomed us with a group of ladies.

Most of our time was spent, of course, in the Federal Building, which Mr. George Creel kindly showed us. The various activities of the Government are very graphically and intelligently placed before your eyes and I should think that everybody would find these exhibitions of vital interest. They show what the Government actually does, and so few of us realize the extent of these activities. Mr. Creel has actually set up a city slum and an Arkansas farm shack to show the two extremes of bad housing, in contrast to the efforts made by the Government to point the way for improved low housing in both urban and rural areas.

Mrs. Creel, charming as ever, awaited us here and arranged for a peaceful interlude before the lecture. Afterwards we went to a tea given at the Women's Club. This is a charming building, financed and built by the Women's Committee. I was very happy to meet Mlle. Eve Curie, who has been lecturing here for several days. She is, I hope, coming to Washington for a night before her return to France. I was glad to have this opportunity to tell her how much I admired her work. The book she wrote about her mother is an unforgettable piece of literature.

Mrs. Florence Kahn also greeted me and it was a pleasure to see her again. Miss Anne Morgan and Miss Elsa Maxwell were also at tea and it was pleasant to see familiar faces from New York, as well as my old friends Captain and Mrs. Edward Macauley and Judge and Mrs. William Denman. Mrs. Denman has put much of herself into the preparation of the Indian exhibit, which fully justifies all the work she and Mr. Rene D'Harencourt have done on it. It is to me one of the outstanding things in the Federal exhibition.

Tomorrow I shall have to tell you the most unforgettable impression I have carried away from the Fair.

E.R.

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


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  • San Francisco (Calif., United States) [ index ]


About this document

My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt, March 22, 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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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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