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

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NEW YORK—This is a busy city! One would hardly believe that with its vast number of hotels there would ever come a time when getting a room in a New York hotel would be difficult. Yet, one of my sons had to ask me for a couch in my apartment to sleep on Monday night.

However, I see in the paper that 10,000 Rotarians from 72 nations opened their 50th annual convention on Sunday night in Madison Square Garden. This will go on for six days, and they expect to have 16,000 in attendance. In addition, the Dental Association is meeting here and the mayors of the country are meeting also.

Altogether, New York City must be looked upon with favor by the various groups as a place to hold their meetings.

I would like to call attention to the fact that the New York State Commission Against Discrimination reported Monday that in the first quarter of 1959 there was a big rise in complaints against employment agencies for discrimination.

On the same day a special report by the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith, which does some of the very best work to prevent discrimination, reported that in several sections of the country private employment agencies had become "the cat's paw of job bias" and had thrown "a protection curtain around discriminatory employers."

It is high time that in this country the only qualification for a job should be competence, and neither race nor religion should be considered in employment.

I am sure that there are many, many people who were saddened Monday to read of the death of Mr. Charles C. Burlingham. He had been blind and hard of hearing for the last few years but he remained active and mentally alert. He had thousands of friends, many of them very close, who will miss him greatly, as will his children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren because in a way Mr. Burlingham kept his young outlook on life and the young people were always glad of a chance to talk with him.

He was always in the thick of political reform. He crossed party lines very easily after he became an elder statesman—whenever he saw a chance of achieving the results he wanted, regardless of the party that happened to be in power.

His loss will be felt keenly because his pen had been at work even in recent battles. Those of us who had the pleasure of knowing him deeply sympathize with his family and close friends.

On Saturday night I attended the dinner of the Associated Health Foundation, which is part of the Knights of Pythias. At this dinner every year they give away large sums of money to various good causes. They presented to me a check for the Institute for Cancer Research in Denver and promised to continue their interest in this institution. I know there is deep gratitude in the part of those who are raising money to make this cancer research center a reality.

On Friday night of last week I went to the City Center, which is celebrating its 15th anniversary and is hoping to acquire many new members this year. We spent a very pleasant evening seeing the Japanese Imperial Household Dancers and several other ballets.

E.R.

(Copyright, 1959, by United Feature Syndicate, Inc.)


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About this document

My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt, June 10, 1959

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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