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

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BOSTON—I am glad that the United States will not resume atomic tests without advance notification, and I hope, too, that the Geneva negotiations will bring forth a little more willingness on the part of the Soviet Union to accept the fact that a system for detection of nuclear explosions must be set up.

I attended this past week a luncheon at which the National Women's Division of the American Friends of the Hebrew University presented its seventh Woman of the Year award to actress Katharine Cornell.

This was the group's important donor luncheon, and the large attendance gave evidence of the popularity of this year's choice for the award.

Miss Cornell has won the respect and admiration of her colleagues and fellow artists, for she stands at the top among our great actresses. She is as great a woman as she is an actress, and perhaps this has been greatly responsible for her success. It was a pleasure to see her receive this honor.

I also saw another fine actress, Jessica Tandy, in the play, "Five Finger Exercise." The drama was beautifully acted and provided an interesting evening, though perhaps not exactly a pleasant one.

It was like watching a bit of real life, and it made one feel like saying that a little truth and honesty with oneself, which might seep through into one's relationship with others, would ease the situation all around.

Information has been sent to me about a project apparently initiated by Miss Margo Cairns and presented to Congress by a growing group of citizens. Miss Cairns believes that the corn tassel should be declared the national flower.

Historically, of course, our survival on this continent was due to the corn given by the Indians to our early settlers. It enabled them to live through a period when they might well have starved.

The pre-Inca people called the grain "maize," meaning "mother." It fed generations of early Americans, so Miss Cairns feels that historically the corn tassel is already the symbol of our nation and should be declared the national floral emblem.

This seems to me to be a logical and interesting idea. It certainly is more original than adopting the rose, which already is the official flower of Great Britain.

E.R.

(Copyright, 1960, by United Feature Syndicate, Inc.)


Names and Terms Mentioned or Referenced

Geographic
  • Boston (Mass., United States) [ index ]


About this document

My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt, January 2, 1960

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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