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

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NEW YORK, Wednesday—Election Day has come and gone and in New York State the citizens elected former Governor Herbert H. Lehman as United States Senator. That speaks well, I think, for the real discrimination exercised by our citizens.

The Republicans put on an extremely active campaign in the upstate areas where they are usually overwhelmingly strong, but Governor Lehman, who has won the vote of the people of this state on a number of previous occasions, was elected. I am sure that Republicans and Democrats alike feel confident that he will represent them all well in the Senate.

It was gratifying to see him at his campaign headquarters last night and to be able to tell him again how much I think his victory means to the people of our state and to the people of the world. It gives us a man of heart and character and experience in many fields to represent us in the Senate.

I was happy also to congratulate Mayor William O'Dwyer on his re-election last night. In the city I think the voters were very discriminating. Stanley M. Isaacs, who is a man of integrity and liberalism, was the only Republican to make the City Council. The communist Ben Davis was turned down by the people of Harlem. On the whole, the Democrats were endorsed.

I do not think this means, however, that the Democrats do not have to make good on a liberal administration. I think the pleas made for the Mayor were on the ground that he would be the strongest advocate we had for good, clean government. He has done much to improve services for the people of the City of New York, but there remains much to be done. It must always be remembered that in the departments of a big city it requires constant vigilance to keep down graft and to keep up the standard of honesty and good service to the people on an equal basis.

The Mayor is a realist and knows human nature and I feel sure that he will do his best to give this city as good an administration as possible.

I think the Republican party should learn a lesson from its repeated defeats. The people of the country want to look forward, not backward. When the people realize they have made certain advances, it is quite evident from their actions at the polls that they do not intend to give up those advances.

Before going to the Democratic headquarters on Tuesday night, I went to see Maurice Evans, who is playing in "The Browning Version." It is a short play preceded by a harlequinade. This is light and attractive and amusing. The play itself is very well acted and I found it an interesting character study.

On the whole, it was a pleasant and interesting evening. I liked Mr. Evans in this modern play and I think he must enjoy his little interlude away from Shakespeare, even though he is superlatively good in those well-known roles. I enjoyed Edna Best, too, though her character as a wife in the play is none too pleasant!

E. R.

(WORLD COPYRIGHT, 1949, BY UNITED FEATURE SYNDICATE, INC., REPRODUCTION IN WHOLE OR IN PART PROHIBITED.)


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About this document

My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt, November 10, 1949

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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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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