The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers, Digital Edition > My Day
OCTOBER 22, 1942
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New York City, Wednesday—The artists are exhibiting again all around Washington Square, and they couldn't have more favorable conditions. I haven't any more space to hang even the smallest print or picture, but I can never resist wandering around and looking at them. If I didn't have several put away, ready to send as gifts to my friends, I am afraid I could not help buying one or two scenes which caught my eye yesterday.
For some time I have had a collection of black and white pictures of Scottie dogs done by some well-known artists. Pictures of this personable Scotch canine decorate one wall of my White House sitting room.
When in Seattle, I found that my grandaughter was very fond of one of these pictures which hangs in her own room. I asked her if she would like my collection and discovered I had made a most welcome suggestion. I know now of some Christmas and birthday presents that can accompany War Savings Stamps during these war years without entailing any added expenditures.
I am trying to finish what little shopping has to be done this year for the holiday season and winter months. At the same time I manage to see a good many people who have been writing me for appointments "when I next come to New York." These "next times" are often so crowded, that I frequently find months go by before I get around to making the promised engagements.
Some of you may have read the article on the work that is being done in Geneva, Switzerland, for the refugee children. In groups of ten thousand they are taken in every three months fed and housed and saved from permanent ill healthand then returned to occupied France, Belgium, Greece or Jugo-Slavia. Sometimes they go to individual families, sometimes they live in hostels.
In addition to housing and feeding, many of these children have to be clothed and given medical attention. More important than anything else, whether they are in homes or hostels, is the fact that they are with people who love them and want to help them. For this work, the rest of the world owes the Swiss people a debt of gratitude, for these saved children will be of infinite value in rebuilding Europe in the future.
It is true that some of the German children, cared for in Norway after the last war, have repaid their kind hosts with treachery, but that should not deter us or make us blame the kindly act. It should confirm our determination not to allow again the conditions which have given us a second world war.
E.R.
(COPYRIGHT, 1942, BY UNITED FEATURE SYNDICATE, INC.)
About this document
My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt, October 22, 1942
Digital edition created by The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project The George Washington University 312 Academic Building 2100 Foxhall Road, NW Washington, DC 20007
Digital edition published 2008, 2017 by
The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project
Available under licence from the Estate of Anna Eleanor Roosevelt.
Published with permission from the Estate of Anna Eleanor Roosevelt.
MEP edition publlished on June 30, 2008.
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