The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers, Digital Edition > My Day
NOVEMBER 10, 1953
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SALT LAKE CITY, Monday—On Saturday night the weather cleared and Mr. Eichelberger, Miss Baillargeon and I were able to leave on the plane for Denver at 12:40 a.m. and Sunday at 5:30 a.m., Denver time, we were met by our kind hosts who remained kind in spite of the hour at which they had to meet us. Instead of being cold as it had been when we left New York, the day in Denver proved beautiful and warm. We were allowed a chance to sleep and then to have a delightful breakfast before we went to the radio station, and later had a short press conference.
Then I went off with my granddaugher, Chandler, and niece, Amy, and that was a wonderful chance to catch up on family news. Chandler is enjoying her year at the University in Boulder. She says that in some ways it is harder work than she put in last year, but that she finds her surroundings most congenial. Both she and Amy spoke of the mountains and of the feeling they had after the first snow when they looked at the mountains suddenly gleaming white in the distance. Some people grow fonder of living with mountains, some of living by the sea. I think both have an element of grandeur which perhaps brings a sense of proportion into the thinking of all human beings.
On Sunday afternoon there was a meeting of the Colorado Association of the United Nations and of the American Association for the United Nations together with representatives of other organizations. This, including the question period, lasted until four o'clock and the question period was very helpful. Of course we stressed the ways of increasing membership and through membership the ways of increasing information throughout the United States.
One gentleman came up to me and reminded me that I should use more often the illustration of how difficult it is to have communications between people of different nations. I had just told how it came about that in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights our American wording "that all men are created equal" was changed to "all human beings," and the word "men" throughout the declaration was changed to "men and women," or "everyone."
In the United States we consider that the words "all men" mean all men and women but the women from some areas of the world complained that if they went home with the declaration reading "all men" that the document would mean only men and not women.
I am glad to see that according to one of the papers here opportunity will be given to General Vaughn and President Truman to explain their position in regard to Mr. Harry Dexter White. Of course it is difficult for any of us today, granted the fact of the atmosphere of fear in which we live, to project ourselves back to the comparatively free atmosphere in which we lived in '46.
We did not at that time expect everyone with whom we talked to be a Communist, but it was a surprise to me to see in the paper that the FBI had handed a report intended for the President to General Vaughn. My recollection was that anything as important as such a report would be directly handed to the person for whom it was intended and while I know how difficult it is to ascertain the truth, when the chief character is dead, I cannot help being glad that at least the living are going to fearlessly face the facts of what they did or did not do. I wish meanwhile we could dig up cases that deal primarily with the living who can still speak for themselves.
E. R.
(WORLD COPYRIGHT, 1953, BY UNITED FEATURE SYNDICATE, INC. REPRODUCTION IN WHOLE OR IN PART PROHIBITED.)
About this document
My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt, November 10, 1953
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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The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project
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