The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers, Digital Edition > My Day
MARCH 4, 1940
[This column has emendations. View original version]
GOLDEN BEACH, Fla., Sunday—The day has come to leave Florida and I am afraid this lazy life is going to be hard to shake off. I have discovered that there is much in a change of atmosphere. I imagine that the President most reluctantly neared his home port again. However, he has already taken up the threads of all the state affairs and I feel sure that when I reach the White House this evening I shall forget in the twinkling of an eye that there are such things as days which are not scheduled and hours when one can lie in the sun or sit and read a book.
It has been a delightful holiday and I feel a deep sense of gratitude to the kindly people who were so considerate and allowed me such freedom. Among other things, I shall miss the lavish use of oranges.
On Friday afternoon, I had a few visitors; Mr. and Mrs. James M. Cox, Mr. and Mrs. John Knight of Ohio, and Mr and Mrs. Arthur Sporborg. I feel I owe Mr. Sporborg a special debt of gratitude for having found me this house, which I leave so reluctantly.
I have just received a most charming circular about a book published by the Caxton Printers, Limited, of Caldwell, Idaho. It is called: "With A Sketch Book Along The Old Mission Trail" by Maude Robeson Gunthrop. The story is chiefly told by the sketches, but each drawing is accompanied by a brief note. I can hardly wait to get the book itself, because of this charming folder.
The proposal of ex-President Hoover, that this government donate $20,000,000 for Polish relief, is interesting. I think his statement that, when the war comes to an end, all of Europe will be starving, is discouraging in the extreme, but not very far from the truth. Unfortunately, it is always the little people who starve. They are starving now, not in Finland, for there, food is one of the few things which they do not need, but most certainly there is starvation in Poland, and to a great extent probably in Germany, and probably in Spain and Italy, and, to some extent, even in France and England.
Mrs. Dorothy Canfield Fisher has already begun to bring home through the newspapers, the story of her effort to arouse the children of this country to share what they can with the children who are in want in other countries. I hope she will be successful, not only because of the help which may go to children of other lands, but because of the education value which the plan holds for our own children, who are so apt to take for granted their relatively happy surroundings.
E.R.
(COPYRIGH, 1940, BY UNITED FEATURE SYNDICATE, INC.)
About this document
My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt, March 4, 1940
Digital edition created by The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project The George Washington University 312 Academic Building 2100 Foxhall Road, NW Washington, DC 20007
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.
TEI-P5 edition published on April 28, 2017.
XML master last modified on June 9, 2017.
HTML version generated and published on May 3, 2022.
TMs, AERP, FDRL