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

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WASHINGTON, Friday—The United Press reported from London a day or so ago, that the Archbishops of Canterbury and York, the highest primates of the Church of England, advocated post-war economic reforms. In effect, the report says they are asking their followers to denounce urban landlordism and any business system operated on a strictly profit basis.

This is rather interesting when placed side by side with something which was said by one of our Representatives in Congress a day or so ago. In his speech, he spoke of a large fund, $1,534, 070, which under the will of Robert Marshall, was left to be used in various ways. One half of the estate was set aside for " the promotion and advancement of an economic system in the United States based upon the theory of production for use and not for profit." This half of the estate has become the Robert Marshall Foundation.

Could it be that Mr. Marshall and the highly respected Christian leaders of the Church of England have both, some years apart, expressed similar convictions? Advocating research about existing conditions, even in the field of economics, does not mean that you will adopt any particular theories. It simply means you recognize the world changes and you have to meet new world conditions and, therefore, must not become ossified.

Our very eminent Congressional Representative does not seem to agree, however, and he even goes a step further. He said most of the money supplying the Communist front organizations in this country came from this fund. If that is true I am afraid they have not had very great financial support, for half of $1,573,070 would not for long support any active group of organizations.

There is evidence that some of this money has been given to organizations which were thought to be liberal organizations and which were doing good work along certain lines. Later they were proved to be under the control of a particular group, perhaps Communist, perhaps something else, and I surmise when that was proved, the support was withdrawn.

Many people have experienced the necessity of severing membership and long standing interest in an organization, when it became controlled by one element of which they did not approve. Many people, however, retained membership in groups where they felt it was worth while fighting to develop an organization under democratic control.

There must be some hidden Fascist groups and individuals not yet brought to light in this country. It surprises me how often our eminent Congressman stresses the Communist danger and ignores the Fascist danger, which a little research might also bring to light.

E.R.

(COPYRIGHT, 1942, BY UNITED FEATURE SYNDICATE, INC.)


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About this document

My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt, September 26, 1942

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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