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

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NEW YORK, Friday—The other afternoon, a group of very ardent members of the League of Women Voters came to see me, and to my shame I was told that my membership in the league had lapsed! I was for many years an active member, and then, when I became active in the Democratic State Committee, I joined my local league in Dutchess County, but was never very active. However, I never intended to disassociate myself wholly from the league, because I think it has been one of the great forces for the political education of women and for better government.

Their publications are short and informative, and they now try to conduct their meetings on a discussion basis in smaller groups—which, I think, is the best possible way to get individuals to feel their responsibilities as citizens. The league's pamphlet "They Represent You" is something everyone should have at hand. It gives the names of our federal, state and local representatives, with whom we should keep in close touch, for they cannot know how we feel unless we tell them. The league is going to add to this publication the names of the United States delegates to all the different groups in the United Nations, and that should mean that those delegates also would have a closer touch with many people throughout the country.

The league has developed a slide film which can now be shown at meetings, and they hope to develop more. This film is entitled "Economics for Everybody," and must be entertaining as well as interesting.

I was happy to renew my contact with the League of Women Voters and I had a sense of stimulation when my guests departed—which is a good way to feel these days, for too often discouragement as to arousing public interest settles upon us all.

* * *

I went to a birthday party the other night, and after dinner we went to see the play "Craig's Wife." Judith Evelyn, in the role of the wife, gives a very good performance. The cast is excellent and the young man who is responsible for presenting this play—Gant Gaither—deserves the success which is evidently his. Philip Ober plays the part of the husband very well. This character, when goaded to final recognition of his unhappy existence, mildly breaks an ornament and smokes a cigarette! That he did not do this much sooner is the only thing which makes the character seem a little unreal to me.

I saw myself doing some of the things that Craig's wife does! I am too neat a person, I fear, and spend much more time than necessary tidying things up. I hope it hasn't become such an obsession that the house I live in has ceased to have a homelike atmosphere. But one of the things, I suppose, that we all must guard against as we grow older is the horrible tendency of getting "set in our ways." Perhaps grandchildren are the best antidote—they will drag all their toys out on the floor and leave them there in spite of all of our admonitions to put them away!

E.R.

(WORLD COPYRIGHT, 1947, BY UNITED FEATURE SYNDICATE, INC.; REPRODUCTION IN WHOLE OR PART PROHIBITED.)


Names and Terms Mentioned or Referenced

Persons
  • Evelyn, Judith, 1913-1967 [ index ]
         American-Canadian film and stage actress
         [ LC | VIAF | Wikidata ]
  • Gaither, Gant, 1917- [ index ]
         American broadway producer and artist
         [ LC | VIAF | SNAC ]
  • Ober, Philip, 1902-1982 [ index ]
         American stage and screen actor
         [ LC | VIAF | Wikidata | SNAC ]
Organizations
Geographic
  • New York (N.Y., United States) [ index ]


About this document

My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt, February 22, 1947

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)
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  • Regenhardt, Christy (Associate Editor)
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  • Black, Allida M. (Editor)
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  • Binker, Mary Jo (Associate Editor)
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  • Alhambra, Christopher C. (Electronic Text Editor)
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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.

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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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