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

      

WASHINGTON, Thursday—Tuesday morning I went down to the radio station to do a recording about the American Association for the United Nations conference here, and while there I was asked to come in as a guest for a few minutes on a program where they had played some Latin American music and received protests immediately because of the shooting in the House. It seems to me unreasonable and very harmful for people not to recognize that this small group of terrorists have no support whatsoever in Latin America or even in Puerto Rico. This is the same group that was responsible for the attempted shooting of President Truman in 1950. I am told it is Communist-inspired, which is not improbable because the stirring up of trouble, particularly for the United States, is a normal role for any Communist group to play.

Puerto Rico's governor, Luis Munoz Marin, flew up immediately to tell President Eisenhower of the indignation of the people of Puerto Rico. They are a gentle people and it seems to me they can have very little sympathy with the methods used by this group of terrorists.

I still do not understand how it was possible, after the incident which occurred in relation to President Truman, that this group has not been under constant surveillance. It seems according to the newspapers that all those injured are out of danger except for Representative Bentley who is still in serious condition.

It looks as though certain elements in the Senate, having been defeated on the Bricker amendment, now wish to bring up milder forms of the same idea. I hope they will be unsuccessful at this session and that they won't find any backing in the next. Unless the President takes a very firm stand, however, I am afraid that in one form or another this curtailment of the President's treaty-making power is going to be under discussion for a long time. Therefore, I think that all organizations who have fought in opposition to the Bricker amendment should not disband nor cease their activities.

I feel they should make it a point to educate all those they possibly can so that Senators returning to their constituencies will find informed people ready to strengthen their position against the Bricker amendment or any other milder form of it.

Republican national chairman, Leonard W. Hall of New York, who usually upholds Senator McCarthy has spoken against him. That does not deter the Senator in taking on a fight with a new member of the Administration. Apparently you must agree with Senator McCarthy—whether you are a Republican or a Democrat—or you are liable to be his enemy. This is the way a dictator behaves. The Senator has placed his friends very successfully in practically every department of the government, I am told. If they are attacked, he comes to their defense. So, no head of a department is permitted any longer to run his own department. Now the Senator has taken on the Secretary of State who decided it would be better in his department if Mr. McLeod, Senator McCarthy's friend, did not have certain duties. The State Department is run supposedly by the Secretary of State, but Senator McCarthy is going to investigate why the Secretary has made his decision. The people of this country are opposed to dictators. Perhaps they do not recognize in the present situation the assumption by the Senator that he is all-powerful. The time has come to give it some thought.

E.R.

(WORLD COPYRIGHT, 1954, BY UNITED FEATURE SYNDICATE, INC. REPRODUCTION IN WHOLE OR IN PART PROHIBITED.)


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About this document

My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt, March 5, 1954

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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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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