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

      

HYDE PARK, Sunday—On New Year's Day many of my close neighbors came to call on me at home in the afternoon, and I was asked quite frequently whether I would now be staying here more of the time. Suddenly I realized that I would probably be here less.

As my readers doubtless know, all Democrats who have been Presidential appointees either to the U.S. delegations to the U.N. General Assembly or to any of the U.N. councils or commissions are expected, with the change of administration, to send in their resignations. It is, of course, only fair that a new President should have an opportunity to appoint people of his own choice to represent him in these positions. For this reason I have sent to the State Department, for presentation at the proper time, my resignation as a delegate to the present General Assembly, which has only adjourned and will reconvene in February.

I would probably have had no work to do in February in any case, because my committee had finished its agenda. It therefore seemed hardly necessary for me to resign, since appointments to the General Assembly are only for that particular assembly. But because of the adjournment and the unfinished business of the political committees, all those whose work was not finished will have to return unless someone else is appointed to their places.

Having resigned both from the General Assembly delegation and the Human Rights Commission, and not having lost any of my interest in the U.N., I tried to think of the most useful thing I could do. It seems to me that the most essential thing is to strengthen the American Association of the United Nations in this country. This, of course, can only be done by finding ways to enlarge our existing chapters, to increase the number of chapters throughout the nation, and to make all of them centers from which information flows to every other organization in the community. In that way, knowledge of all U.N. activities will not only be available, but practically thrust upon the attention of every American citizen. Therefore I am going to start work on Monday morning as a volunteer under Mr. Clark Eichelberger, and I hope that I can be of use to him and to the U.N.

We are having quite the strangest winter weather up here. Saturday morning it couldn't decide whether to rain or snow. I gave up going out to luncheon because I felt uncertain about driving myself on slippery roads. But it grew warm and rained, and nothing froze. After luncheon some of us went to see some neighbors who have a house with a perfectly lovely view of the river. It is only on such occasions that I realize that my cottage looks out only on a brook. But I have grown so accustomed to my view of the brook that, on the whole, I like it better than the river. In any case, I think it is so much more intimate and close, that I have a sense of knowing every ripple and every change of light and shade on the brook's surface.

E. R.

(WORLD COPYRIGHT, 1953, BY UNITED FEATURE SYNDICATE, INC.; REPRODUCTION IN WHOLE OR IN PART PROHIBITED.)


Names and Terms Mentioned or Referenced

Persons
Geographic
  • Hyde Park (Dutchess County, N.Y., United States) [ index ]


About this document

My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt, January 5, 1953

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

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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.

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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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