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

      

DETROIT, Sunday—After my talk at Ann Arbor, Mich., on Wednesday night we caught a train which arrived in Chicago only about half an hour late on Thursday morning. We had just about enough time to eat breakfast and transfer from one station to the other before taking a train which reached Milwaukee after 11 A.M.

On the train we met Mrs. Harry J. Aronson, regional president of the Women's American ORT, and a reporter from the Milwaukee Journal. Directly upon our arrival in Milwaukee we went to one of the great brewery buildings, where space for various activities is provided. There, in a very charming room, I met with representatives of the press and received the sponsors of the ORT meeting which I had come to address. At 12 o'clock we were at the hotel where the luncheon of almost 1,000 women was to be held. They announced with pride at the luncheon that they had raised $12,800 which was being used for educational purposes in Israel. One modern tractor had been purchased that day from Allys-Chalmers, with the promise that it would be delivered in Israel in exactly two weeks.

I have never seen things move as smoothly as the plans made by these ladies. Luncheon was served to their many guests, it was hot and well cooked and everything went as well as they could possibly have wished.

After the meeting I went in almost immediately to meet with a group of journalism students from the high schools. Their questions, all prepared beforehand, did not take very long to answer, and I left to get ready for the train. I found our host on one of my former Milwaukee visits talking to Miss Thompson, and he and Mr. and Mrs. Aronson accompanied us to the train.

I had decided in Detroit, the day before, that our worries over schedules were at an end, since from then on we were to be on trains. But one should never be too optimistic. When we reached the station we found our train was an hour and a half late. We had dinner and three hours later boarded a coach train, the first one to go out of that station for Chicago. Luckily we made our connections in Chicago with time to spare, and I would like to thank all the people who so kindly helped us on and off trains and across the city. Finally we were in our space and headed for Des Moines, Iowa.

When the morning came I wondered why the porter did not call me. It turned out that the train was an hour late—a rather dismaying prospect, for this would make me late for a 10 o'clock speech at Iowa State College in Ames, which is a 31-mile drive from Des Moines. We must have made up time, however, for we had barely finished our breakfast when we pulled into Des Moines, only half an hour late. The drive over was easy and I was on the platform only a few minutes later.

The meeting of the Mortar Board Society is held in celebration of Woman's Day. It was a crowded audience of girls and faculty members who wanted to hear about the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Afterward I went to the Home Economics building and had a very hurried glimpse of the activities carried on in that section of the college. I was strongly reminded of the College of Home Economics at Cornell, and found that the heads of the section here knew my old friends, Miss Flora Rose and Miss Martha Van Rensselaer.

E. R.

(WORLD COPYRIGHT, 1950, BY UNITED FEATURE SYNDICATE, INC.; REPRODUCTION IN WHOLE OR IN PART PROHIBITED.)


Names and Terms Mentioned or Referenced

Geographic
  • Detroit (Mich., United States) [ index ]


About this document

My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt, January 30, 1950

Roosevelt, Eleanor, 1884-1962
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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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  • Black, Allida M. (Editor)
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  • Binker, Mary Jo (Associate 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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