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

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NEW YORK, Wednesday—Some of us who have been in touch with what is going on in certain women's organizations in Europe were surprised to find that there was great confusion as to the attitude taken by American women toward the United Nations.

As a result of this, a group of women representing national organizations came together and presented a statement to the United States mission to the U.N. This statement seems to me so clear and good that I want those who read my column throughout the country to have the benefit of at least reading some of the excerpts which I have selected below.

Twenty national women's organizations with a combined membership of 26,000,000 women agreed on this statement. It begins by saying:

"The purpose of issuing this statement at this time is to combat Soviet propaganda against American women and their organizations, and to make a positive declaration of belief in the United Nations as the instrument for peace."

Then followed: "The undersigned American women's organizations welcome the establishment of the Disarmament Commission at the sixth session of the U.N. General Assembly. We wish the Disarmament Commission every success in this long and difficult task of developing comprehensive, coordinate plans, under international control 'for the regulation, limitation and balanced production of all armed forces and all armaments, for the elimination of all major weapons, adaptable to mass destruction, and for the effective international control of atomic energy, to insure prohibition of atomic weapons and the use of atomic energy for peaceful purposes.'

"Though it may take many years to achieve any substantial reduction in armament, we commend this new, realistic approach to the disarmament problem, representing, as it does, a compelling desire for a radical limitations and reduction of all armed forces and armaments...

"We recognize that armaments, necessary as they are until greater security against aggression has been achieved, will not of themselves bring about peace and security. We recognize the continuing need to alleviate the all-too-prevalent conditions of hunger, ill health, poverty, illiteracy, which are the breeding places for unrest and strife. In the belief that measures for economic and social betterment contribute to peace, we commend the programs for equitable land reform and economic aid to underdeveloped areas.

"One of the basic policies of all our organizations, which have long worked for peace, is support of the United Nations as a means of strengthening world peace and freedom.

“We reaffirm our belief in the principles of the U.N. Charter, including the obligation of member nations to assist, by collective measures, victims of aggression and to refrain from aggression or assistance to aggressors.”

It is certainly significant that these women should have taken the trouble to make this statement at this time and I feel it important in this country that every woman should know what these women's clubs are doing in their behalf.

E. R.

(WORLD COPYRIGHT, 1952, BY UNITED FEATURE SYNDICATE, INC. REPRODUCTION IN WHOLE OR IN PART PROHIBITED.)


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About this document

My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt, July 24, 1952

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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