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

[Original version of the column. Text in red are tagged with <sic> (needs correction); text in purple are tagged with <orig> (needs regularization); and text in blue are tagged names of persons or organizations. View emended version]

      

NEW YORK.—Conditions in Georgia must be fairly bad, for I have a letter from a gentleman there who says that he does not think President Eisenhower's campaign for foreign aid should be supported by the Democrats.

I personally wish the Democrats could get this program amended so it would be more realistic, not giving so much military aid but a great deal more economic aid. That, however, would not satisfy my Georgia correspondent. He says:

"I am against all this foreign aid. It looks like the government officials are more interested in countries and peoples overseas than they are in the U.S. If a country ever needed help in more ways than one, it is this country.

"Look at the physical condition of our youth—the crime being committed, the people out of work and in bread lines, the older people trying to live on pensions with every dollar worth less and less every day.

"Charity begins at home. Let's spend our time for a while trying to better conditions morally, physically, financially, etc., in the U.S.A."

Poor Georgia! I did not know the people there were so badly off. I have not seen bread lines in any other place where I have been.

It is true that there is a recession. It is true that our Democrats in Congress should be suggesting a top-flight committee to take a good look at our economy, but I think it would discover that our economy would be benefited if we helped develop areas of the world from which we can buy things and which, in return, will buy things from us.

The gentleman is right that our pensions and welfare budgets are not geared to the cost of living. He is right, too, that we have not been giving our young people the best of educations or the attention they need to keep them out of trouble. But it is not because we lack the money, and I haven't heard of any plans coming from the Georgia representatives Congress to meet these problems satisfactorily.

I will support the President's foreign aid bill, but I wish it could be far more comprehensive and do us some good in stimulating world trade instead of tying us more and more to military aid. And I wish the Democrats would push some plans of their own.

I extend again my sympathy to the gentleman who wrote me and who is concerned about his people in Atlanta, Ga., which was the postmark on his letter.

In San Francisco Sunday I had breakfast with my niece, Mrs. Agar Jaicks, and her husband and baby girl.

It is always a joy to see these young people, and I returned to the hotel to see another old friend and then to have Captain and Mrs. Edward Macauley lunch with me before I had to join my hosts who were driving me to San Mateo for a speech; After that, I was driven to San Jose for a second speech and returned rather late to San Francisco.

On Monday I did two TV programs and spoke in the afternoon and evening at Berkley University. I flew home that night, changing planes in the early morning in Chicago.

Not enough Episcopalians are conscious of the fact that the Episcopal Church Foundation has been started to help the church meet its obligations of constructing new churches, parish halls, and other badly needed buildings where parishes are poor or on a missionary status.

There are also many social service needs which the church could and should meet. I, therefore, am glad to call to our attention the Episcopal Church Foundation, which makes its appeal to everyone belonging to that Church.

E.R.

(Copyright, 1958, by United Feature Syndicate, Inc.)


Names and Terms Mentioned or Referenced

Geographic
  • New York (N.Y., United States) [ index ]


About this document

My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt, February 20, 1958

Roosevelt, Eleanor, 1884-1962
[ ERPP bio | LC | VIAF | WorldCat | DPLA | Wikidata | SNAC ]

Digital edition created by The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project The George Washington University 312 Academic Building 2100 Foxhall Road, NW Washington, DC 20007

  • Brick, Christopher (Editor)
    [ VIAF | ORCID ]
  • Regenhardt, Christy (Associate Editor)
    [ ISNI ]
  • Black, Allida M. (Editor)
    [ VIAF | ISNI ]
  • Binker, Mary Jo (Associate Editor)
    [ VIAF | ORCID ]
  • Alhambra, Christopher C. (Electronic Text Editor)
    [ VIAF | ORCID ]

Digital edition published 2008, 2017 by
The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project

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.

TEI-P5 edition published on April 28, 2017.

XML master last modified on: June 9, 2017.

HTML version generated and published on: May 3, 2022.

Transcription created from a photocopy of a UFS wire copy of a My Day column instance archived at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library.
TMs, AERP, FDRL