The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers, Digital Edition > My Day
NOVEMBER 11, 1947
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NEW YORK, Monday—I received an interesting letter the other day from a woman in Cambridge, Mass., who likes to keep in touch with the United Nations. For the sake of others who may wish to do likewise, I am going to quote from it here:
"A year ago, at Woods Hole on Cape Cod, I discovered WNYC's (New York City's broadcasting Station) live and continuous broadcasts of the General Assembly. When we moved back to our Cambridge apartment this fall, I hated to give up the pleasure of listening to U.N. proceedings. My son took his amateur radio shortwave receiver and plugged it to the insides of an ordinary broadcast receiver, tuned to The Voice of America. And, as I write, I listen to delegates of New Zealand and India discuss colonial problems.
"Anyone having a short-wave section in their radio can try to hear the Voice of America beamed to Europe on short waves. Here in New England the program comes in at 15.2 megacycles from Cincinnati's transmitter. There are thousands of radio amateurs throughout the country, many of them away at school or at work by day, when their short-wave receivers are idle. These receivers bring the signals in much more accurately and more loudly than do the usual short-wave dials on broadcast receivers. Perhaps club women could get the cooperation of the ARRL in Hartford and the amateurs it represents. Schools, too, could set up a radio U.N. class.
"Hearing the actual voices of the delegates brings the drama of viewpoints into focus as the written page can never hope to do. It makes me sad that no one seems to be aware of this short-wave program passing over much of the United States on its way to Europe. I hope you will have an opportunity to report it to your audience of the Security Workshop."
I fear I may not have the opportunity to tell this on my broadcast on Sunday, so I am putting it in my column.
* * *
One woman came up to me at Lake Success the other day and said that for a long time she had listened to the UN proceedings over the air, but until she had actually been at the meetings and seen the people working in committees, she had never really had an understanding as to what the United Nations actually meant.
Another woman told me "I am a school teacher. This is a great experience for me." It should indeed be a great experience, for it should not only reach back to the classrooms of that particular teacher but, through her contacts, to many other people in her community. And the 30 percent who have never heard of the United Nations may gradually be brought down until all the people of the country know of the United Nations. It must become a familiar word to all or it will never really function the way it should.
E. R.
(WORLD COPYRIGHT, 1947, BY UNITED FEATURE SYNDICATE, INC.; REPRODUCTION IN WHOLE OR IN PART PROHIBITED.)
Names and Terms Mentioned or Referenced
Organizations
- United Nations [ index ]
[ LC | ISNI | VIAF | Wikidata | SNAC | FAST | Other source ] - United Nations. General Assembly [ index ]
[ LC | ISNI | VIAF | Wikidata | SNAC | FAST ] - Voice of America (Organization) [ index ]
[ LC | ISNI | VIAF | Wikidata | SNAC | FAST | US Nat. Archives | Other source ]
Geographic
- [ index ] New York (N.Y., United States)
Other Terms and Topics
About this document
My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt, November 11, 1947
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.
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