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

      

SAN FRANCISCO, Tuesday—I am going to do something that I have never done before—namely, point out that a fellow columnist has been inaccurate in certain statements he made. I would not do so if it concerned only myself or even my family, and if the statements were not in "quotes." One is supposed to accept as accurate what appears in newspapers in quotation marks.

In this case, the columnist, who was not present as far as I know, reports a conversation between myself and Mr. Winston Churchill. The conversation never occurred.

I stated in one of my own columns what I thought in connection with Mr. Churchill's visit to my husband's grave. He came to do honor to an old and dear friend, and I deeply appreciated his coming.

In another column, I stated how I felt we should act in order to obtain peace in the world. The objectives of Mr. Churchill undoubtedly are to obtain peace. That was also my husband's great desire. I happen to feel that most of the peoples of the world want peace and, in spite of many of our newspapers, I believe that Premier Stalin and Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek want peace.

The difference, however, is that people think peace can be achieved in different ways. Mr. Churchill thinks that his Fulton, Mo. speech pointed out the best way in which Great Britain and the United States can keep peace in the world. On the other hand, many people think that peace can be assured only by the participation of all the great nations and all the little ones. That happens to be my own belief.

We are so accustomed to using force in the world that, for a time, either individual or collective force will have to be used to ensure peace. Many of us believe it is better to have collective force. It seems to me that these things can be talked out among the United Nations at their meetings and that the collective wisdom of a number of nations and men will find an answer to which we are capable of adhering. I do not believe that any answer which represents only two of us can be satisfactory to the whole group.

I want to emphasize again that it is the quotation marks and the fact that I am supposed to have said things that were both unkind and rude to a guest which make me mention the column in which these statements appeared. I have always appreciated Mr. Churchill's friendship and personal devotion to my husband. Differences of political opinions are one thing and personal associations are quite another.

Our flight from Los Angeles to San Francisco was very beautiful. The weather was clear and we identified Mount Wilson and the observatory buildings. As we neared San Francisco, we looked down with interest at Stanford University, which from the air seems to be almost a complete city. Everyone told us, on our arrival, how fortunate we were that we had brought the sunshine, which has been absent here for some time.

E. R.

(WORLD COPYRIGHT, 1946, BY UNITED FEATURE SYNDICATE, INC.; REPRODUCTION IN WHOLE OR PART PROHIBITED.)


Names and Terms Mentioned or Referenced

Persons
Geographic
  • San Francisco (Calif., United States) [ index ]
Other Terms and Topics


About this document

My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt, March 27, 1946

Roosevelt, Eleanor, 1884-1962
[ ERPP bio | LC | VIAF | WorldCat | DPLA | Wikidata | SNAC ]

Digital edition created by The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project The George Washington University 312 Academic Building 2100 Foxhall Road, NW Washington, DC 20007

  • Brick, Christopher (Editor)
    [ VIAF | ORCID ]
  • Regenhardt, Christy (Associate Editor)
    [ ISNI ]
  • Black, Allida M. (Editor)
    [ VIAF | ISNI ]
  • Binker, Mary Jo (Associate Editor)
    [ VIAF | ORCID ]
  • Alhambra, Christopher C. (Electronic Text Editor)
    [ VIAF | ORCID ]

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 May 2, 2022.

HTML version generated and published on May 3, 2022.

Transcription created from a photocopy of a UFS wire copy of a My Day column instance archived at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library.
TMs, AERP, FDRL