The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers, Digital Edition > My Day
MAY 13, 1939
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WASHINGTON, Friday—Some time ago I made mention in my column of a letter which I had received, reflecting the feelings of some of my artist friends, that a bridge in lower Manhattan would ruin, from the aesthetic point of view, the approach to the city. To my amusement, I heard the other day that the War Department had been appealed to by me not to build the bridge. Needless to say, I have never spoken to anyone in the War Department on this subject.
The architect of the bridge kindly offered to show me his plans and I told him I did not feel qualified to have a real opinion on this question, General Hugh Johnson, in his column, suggests that this "My Day" article was inspired by animosity to Mr. Moses, so, I would like to add that I did not know that Mr. Moses had an interest in this bridge. Which shows how dumb I am!
I always lean toward the artist's point of view because I think we are prone to think first of the material side but I have given this question no real study and I certainly don't consider that my opinion should have any weight in this matter. I like Battery Park as it is today, I like the skyline of the city as you come up the harbor, I would hate to see it spoiled, but the final decision remains with the responsible officials of the city, and I wouldn't like anyone to believe that I had been appealing to the War Department on the subject!
Yesterday afternoon the Polish Ambassador, Count Potocki, with Madame Wankowicz, wife of the counsellor of the Polish Embassy, brought in three Polish ladies, Madame Roman, wife of the Minister of Industry and Commerce, Madame Bobokowska, daughter of the President of Poland, and Madame Zaleska, wife of the former Minister of Foreign Affairs. These ladies are here because of Poland's participation in the New York World's Fair.
I was deeply interested to find that Madame Zaleska edited a woman's page in one of the papers in Poland. She has a fairly close connection with home economists in this country and so she spent the morning in Dr. Louise Stanley's bailiwick in the Department of Agriculture. She was much impressed by all that we are doing in this field and said that she had been really led to study what was being done in home economics in Poland because of an article which she had been asked to write for one of the home economics papers in this country. They have no organization in Poland such as our state extention service which is affiliated with our state universities, but she tells me they are beginning to take an increasing interest in this type of work.
After that, the Ambassador from Venezuela, Senor Dr. Escalante and his wife brought Dr. and Senora Lopez. Dr. Lopez is the Venezuelan Commissioner General to the New York World's Fair. Senora Lopez is a citizen of the United States. They brought me the most beautiful white orchids, the first to be shipped to the Fair. From now on they will come by air three times a week from Venezuela to New York City.
E.R.
(Dist. by United Feature Syndicate, Inc. Distributor
About this document
My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt, May 13, 1939
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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The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project
Available under licence from the Estate of Anna Eleanor Roosevelt.
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