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

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NEW YORK, Tuesday—On one page of a newspaper I was reading the other day it was announced: "General Eisenhower Would Bare Income This Week." On another page it was reported that Senator Nixon "will not publicly disclose his income-tax returns or further discuss his personal income."

It seems to me the Republican candidates should get together and either both of them disclose or neither of them disclose what their incomes have been.

The same paper announced that "Senator Nixon "will discuss Governor Adlai Stevenson's role in the Alger Hiss case tonight over a nationwide TV and radio network."

As far as I know, Governor Stevenson's role doesn't seem to me worth the price of a nationwide TV and radio speech. He knew Hiss, served with him, and when he was asked what his impression was of his character he gave the impression which he had formed during their work together. It was a simple statement of what he thought and observed while he was working with Alger Hiss.

On TV Sunday night Mr. John Foster Dulles was questioned after I had been questioned on the program. I heard him asked the question on Hiss. Now I had been under the impression that it was Mr. Dulles who recommended Mr. Hiss to the Carnegie Endowment Fund. Quite evidently, if he recommended him for this place, he would have had to say, as Governor Stevenson said, that as far as he knew he had never seen or heard anything Mr. Hiss did or said that was subversive.

Lawyers must be more careful than any of the rest of us, however, for Sunday night I heard Mr. Dulles say that while Governor Stevenson had made this statement when he was asked for it, Mr. Dulles did not make it. It must be pointed out here that Mr. Hiss was already under suspicion. Nevertheless, refraining from making a character statement does not justify a recommendation, which presumably he must have made because he thought well of Mr. Hiss.

It seems to me if you recommend someone for a position you must feel pretty sure, at least at the time, that the man is not subversive. And this caution in saying so or not saying so seems to me to make the original recommendation very questionable.

I have had so many cards and messages from kind people on my birthday that I want to say a word of thanks and appreciation here. I think perhaps when you reach my age people should forget your birthday. However, it is very pleasant to have them remember, and I was particularly touched by the kindness of some of the members of the commissions who served on the Human Rights Commission and who responded to Jinx McCrary's request and recorded good wishes for my birthday, which she used on her program October 10. I know how busy all these foreign representatives are and I think it was very kind and considerate of them to take the time to wish me well.

E. R.

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


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About this document

My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt, October 15, 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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