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

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NEW YORK, Tuesday—It was kind of Governor Dewey to propose that General Eisenhower run on the Republican ticket for president and to give his assurance that, if elected Governor, he would personally not be a candidate for the Presidency. Of course, there is a chance, I suppose, that someone will persuade Governor Dewey to change his mind and that might make it a bit awkward so far as General Eisenhower is concerned if the latter should accept Governor Dewey's suggestion too rapidly. The general is a wise man, however, and he probably will take his time and await developments before making any commitments on this subject!

We went through a difficult session in Committee #3 in the General Assembly yesterday. We studied amendments to a proposal made by the delegate from Australia, which provided that the U.N. Children's Emergency Fund should continue with its organization unchanged and its objectives the same emergency objectives for two more years.

Australia made no bones about the fact that it was uncertain about the amount of support that could be forthcoming on an emergency basis, but preferred it to any permanent setup at the present time.

The United Kingdom has apparently felt that most of the activity undertaken should be carried on by the specialized agencies. While it decided to go along with the Australian resolution, I think the hope was that it would be proved possible to merge such assistance as was given into the work of the specialized agencies.

The big vote, of course, was with those who wished to receive the same emergency aid as had previously been given Europe and wished it handled in the same way and by the same organization. They will, I think, undoubtedly obtain their wish, and we in the United States delegation will be faced with an emergency organization, unchanged in structure and objectives, in spite of the fact that our Congress has twice refused to vote funds for this type of organization.

I feel convinced that the leader of the group, at least the most vocal member of the group that brought about this result, believes that the United States will not dare to withhold funds from the organization the opposition has voted to continue. This seems to me a strange conviction in view of the action already taken by Congress and the added fact that there are so many calls upon United States money by special agencies to aid children. Nevertheless, there probably will be no difficulty in finding ways to co-operate with the United Nations in a way that is acceptable to Congress.

Some children will undoubtedly receive aid from the United States through the United Nations. But whether the organization set up under the present resolution will receive sufficient support to make its work of importance is a question that only time will answer.

During the days of prosperity people find it easy to be generous. But the cost of living in the United States is going up so rapidly at present that our people may not long continue to have that sense of being able to share what they have with others in the same proportion as they have in the past.

I saw a very graphic description of what the dollar would buy today in comparison to what you got in the days of price control. This does not tend to make the people of the United States feel that their own children do not need to be considered first.

E. R.

(WORLD COPYRIGHT, 1950, BY UNITED FEATURE SYNDICATE, INC. REPRODUCTION IN WHOLE OR IN PART PROHIBITED.)


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About this document

My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt, October 18, 1950

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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