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]

      

BRUSSELS.—Coming over here on the plane I read with great interest the first of a series of articles written by Mr. Adlai Stevenson about his recent trip to Russia. I particularly enjoyed the report of his talk with Nikita Khrushchev.

Mr. Stevenson is a keen observer and very quick in his reactions, and when he says "the Western intervention to protect Lebanon and Jordan in one respect was probably a welcome relief to Mr. Khrushchev" I am sure he is quite right.

Ever since the adverse reaction around the world to the execution of the former government officials in Hungary, Mr. Khrushchev has been conscious of a need to strengthen his position with certain countries, such as India and even perhaps some of the Arab nations.

Of course, there is never the slightest logic in the Soviet attitude as to interference in the affairs of other nations. The Russians interfere openly and blatantly, but if any other nation responds to an appeal from another country the Soviet Union screams that that country is interfering in the domestic situations of another country, which is something it has no right to do.

If ever a summit meeting does come about, this question of what is interfering in the internal affairs of another nation will have to be defined very clearly. It will help a great deal to clarify the understanding of the rest of the world.

I look forward to additional articles by Mr. Stevenson, for he is sure to give us new insights into the situations of a country that we need to understand. I am sure he will give us new understandings both of the people and of the leaders of the Soviet Union, which is something we all need.

Many of us must have read with interest the statement of Dr. Josef Haemel, former rector of Jena University in East Germany, who recently fled to West Berlin.

It is most pathetic to learn that the "unbearable" Communist demands to convert the university into a political institution had obliged this 62-year-old Doctor of Medicine to leave his post and start life anew somewhere else. One can understand what a difficult decision his had been. When one realizes the attachment a professor has to the university he has presided over for some time, one can feel what a terrible situation this man faced and how courageously he has met it.

A breathing spell seems to have been given to all concerned with the U.S. Supreme Court's postponement of its decision until September 11 on integration in Little Rock. So many are waiting anxiously to hear what the country's highest court will decide.

Of course, we all hope for leadership from President Eisenhower to prevent violence in Arkansas. But he is dealing with a gentleman in Governor Orval Faubus who seems to have no scruples about what he does.

Governor Faubus seems to be interested only in his own future, and he is playing a dangerous game in inciting his people to stand against the law of the land. But the President can exert greater leadership than the governor, and even though the governor has been empowered by his state legislature to shut down schools to prevent integration one hopes that the Arkansans will realize that the closed schools will hurt more white children than colored children.

E.R.

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


Names and Terms Mentioned or Referenced

Geographic
  • Brussels (Belgium) [ index ]


About this document

My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt, August 30, 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