WASHINGTON, Wednesday—Yesterday was the first time this autumn that the ladies of the Cabinet had gathered together at luncheon here. Unfortunately, several of them were away, two of them have husbands overseas but are still in this country, two others were not well enough to come and one had a previous engagement.

There is little in the way of social dates to be settled these days since there is no official entertaining. We had a very pleasant time talking together and then went down to look at a five-minute reel, which the Army newspaper "Yank" had taken while I was on Guadalcanal. It is in color and quite interesting.

In the late afternoon, I went over to Baltimore, Md., to speak at the Baltimore Museum of Art, where they have an exhibtion of original paintings by American artists for posters. The collection is very interesting and many of them are very familiar because they have been used in the campaigns for the sale of war bonds.

I hope that people all over the country are preparing to celebrate the week of Dec. 12th to 18th, which has been designated as "Bill of Rights Week." We need to reread the Bill of Rights at frequent intervals, especially during wartime. All wars curtail the rights of the individual, but in our country we give up these rights voluntarily because we see the need for doing so while a war is on. However, we retain the one great right of a free and secret ballot, which insures the return of these rights at the end of the war.

This war is being fought for Four great Freedoms—Freedom of Religion, Freedom from Want, Freedom from Fear, and Freedom of Expression; in the press, by assembly, and in any way that information reaches the people. They know that different types of information will be given the people and it will require education on their part to decide what they believe in and what they wish to uphold. The study of our own Bill of Rights will help us to help the world to attain these basic feedoms, and it will help us also jealously to guard the expression of our will through a secret ballot.