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

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NEW YORK.—I forgot to mention previously that when I parted with Mr. Banner, a representative of the Boston Globe who traveled with me from New York to Chicago on part of my campaign tour, he went on to Iowa to join Mrs. Ivy Baker Priest, who was campaigning there for two days.

In this way, he would get a balanced view of how a Republican office-holder (Mrs. Priest is Treasurer of the United States) and a plain Democratic woman campaign!

Late last week I went to Pittsburgh for some more campaigning, leaving New York in the rain. But before I was far on my way, the weather cleared and it was beautiful. This was fortunate, for in Pittsburgh I rode in an open car in a cavalcade most of the time.

I always felt that this open-car campaigning was for candidates only, so I was a little appalled to find myself suddenly in the role of a "candidate," waving to people who did not care whether they ever saw a woman named Eleanor Roosevelt or not.

There was a press luncheon at noon at the Press Club. This seems to be an institution in Pittsburgh, for Joseph S. Clark Jr., the Democratic candidate for U.S. Senator, had been there and was followed by his opponent, Republican Senator James H. Duff. Then I came along and our signatures followed each other in the guest book. I thought Senator Duff was having a hard time, surrounded, as he was, by Democrats.

A student group rally followed the Press Club luncheon. The rally I thought, was rather poor, but I was much impressed by a speech there by Al Lowenstein. He gave me some bits of information that I think will prove valuable when I talk to student groups in the future.

I spent the night with Mrs. Molly Yard Garrett, who is executive director of the Volunteers for Stevenson in Pittsburgh, and she told me that she had no difficulty in recruiting several hundred volunteers to ring doorbells. That was an encouraging sign, for that work is none too pleasant and people really have to be interested in the cause to undertake it.

There was a very successful mass meeting in the evening, and the next morning I left Pittsburgh on an 8:45 plane, which meant that I had to get up at 6:15 a.m. I always find getting up in the morning much more difficult than staying up at night!

My next stop was Philadelphia, where we were fortunate in having another beautiful day. There, former Mayor Clark and I toured the city for two hours in the morning, stopping at Democratic headquarters. After a small press luncheon, Clark left for appointments in other parts of the state.

I toured various party headquarters in Philadelphia most of the afternoon, then did a 15-minute television show. After an evening reception, I took a plane back to New York, getting me home by midnight.

In Philadelphia, the Eisenhower-Nixon headquarters are near the Bellevue Stratford Hotel, where I lunched. The people from the Republican headquarters sent crowds out with banners to greet me, which amused me, and added to our publicity, which pleased me.

The Philadelphia Congressional and local candidates all felt our day there together had been successful. But this cavalcade business through the streets is still unfamiliar to me except that which I did with my husband when he was either President or candidate for President. I can't quite get accustomed to the role!

E.R.

(Copyright, 1956, by United Feature Syndicate, Inc.)


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About this document

My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt, October 24, 1956

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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