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

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NEW YORK.—Someone has suggested to me that perhaps it would be simpler and better if our government allowed individuals to come here from the Soviet Union and the satellite countries without classifying them as representing any particular group but receiving them as interested tourists.

There is a certain amount of value, I think, in this suggestion because organizations frequently are tied up with certain policies which our government sometimes finds it difficult to recognize and accept, whereas individuals coming over purely to study our way of life are more than welcome.

Just as Nikita S. Khrushchev told me that in the past year no visa had been denied an American tourist who wished to go to Russia—even writers who were going to write disagreeable things about what they saw—so it seems to me we might have people coming over here whom we wished to watch. But if they went away still disapproving of some particular phase of our life—or all of it, for that matter—we could still bear up under the disapproval of a certain number of individuals.

I am more and more anxious that there be an interchange between individuals in our countries. I think it will help in finding solutions whereby we can at least exist in the same world with a little less tension than we have at present.

The American Association for the United Nations has always urged its chapters to celebrate United Nations week, and so at the opening of the week the past Sunday, I went to speak for a group in Larchmont, N. Y. It was a beautiful drive. The color of the trees was brilliant along the parkway and only a few trees have lost their leaves.

The meeting was a great success, with the Girl Scouts bringing in the flags of the various member nations, one by one, so that everybody could see them and realize how many nations now belong to the U. N.

I particularly enjoyed the concert given by the Orchestral Society of Westchester after my talk. Its closing number, "Symphonic Variations for Audience and Orchestra," was a first performance.

Unfortunately, as I was making a train back to New York before the concert was over, I had to listen from the back of the hall, but I found it quite delightful to have the audience acting as soloists and participating with the orchestra. I was sorry to have to leave to get back to be on television's "Meet the Press."

Everything went smoothly and we had plenty of time to reach the TV studio and make all the necessary preparations.

I would like to say what a great pleasure it has been to have New York greet the young Queen of England. She and her husband were quite remarkable, I thought, because they certainly had a very busy official time and the strain must have been great, but they greeted everyone with the same cordiality that I remember so well was displayed by the present Queen's father and mother when they visited this country before world war II.

Bernard Baruch and I attended the Mayor's luncheon on Monday, and I was glad to have the opportunity for this glimpse of a much-overburdened but gracious and sweet young Queen.

E. R.

(Copyright, 1957, by United Feature Syndicate, Inc.)


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About this document

My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt, October 25, 1957

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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