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

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MEEKER, Colo.—The very young people staying at Elliott's ranch here, led by my granddaughter, Chandler, went on a camping expedition last night. We thought they would be caught in a heavy rain but, luckily, only a sprinkle reached them, and they had a wonderful night in the open. Some of them, however, I think, did not sleep a great deal. The rest of us are spending a quiet day today, and relaxation is everywhere.

I received a copy of a sheet from a newspaper that was sent by some people in Princeton, N. J. This printed material, from my point of view, is a rather shocking document.

In the first place, it is openly anti-semitic, so violently anti-semitic that it allows itself to say things which are completely untrue. In the second place, it attacks President Eisenhower in an outrageous way.

I am not a Republican but I believe that all of us Democrats and Republicans alike owe the office of the President, as well as the man who occupies it, respect and truth in our criticisms. The criticisms in this sheet are far from true.

It is headed with a hammer and sickle on both sides of the banner headline: "The Coming Red Dictatorship." As one reads on, one wants to point out the inaccuracies in almost every paragraph but, suffice it to say, that the anit-semitism is not hidden but stares out from every line.

Here is one statement which, it seems to me, is inexcusable: "Eisenhower is completely subservient to the Jewish plotters and is carrying forward their protocol plots steadily."

What nonsense! How gullible can people be?

One must suppose that the people who get out this sheet are writing what they believe, but if that is so one can only say that they are stupid beyond belief. And if they are writing what they do not believe, then they are doing it for some purpose, perhaps to fool the public. Apparently they hope people will be gullible enough to accept without real analysis their idiotic statements.

One thing about which I personally know the truth they say: "The human rights covenant drawn up by Eleanor Roosevelt, Dean Acheson and two Russians gives the government of any member nation and the U.N. the right, if it thinks itself threatened, to curb the freedom of the press and impose martial law and to take over all industry and all labor."

Just to point out how inaccurate they are, here are the facts: No human rights covenant has been accepted by the General Assembly of the U.N. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was not legally binding and could not do any of the things here put down and it was written by the representatives of 18 nations who worked together for over two years. So, picking out the U.S. and the Soviet Union as responsible for it is rather absurd to say the least.

One might laugh at a publication such as this—which is called "Common sense" and carries a sub-title, "The Nation's Anti-Communist Paper"—if it were not so tragic that such nonsense can exist in a country like ours.

E.R.

(Copyright, 1955, by United Feature Syndicate, Inc.)


Names and Terms Mentioned or Referenced

Geographic
  • Meeker (Colo., United States) [ index ]


About this document

My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt, August 11, 1955

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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Digital edition published 2008, 2017 by
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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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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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