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

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NEW YORK.—We all listened with interest Tuesday evening to the President reporting on his Latin-American trip. But 15 minutes is not a long time in which to give a comprehensive account of what occurred during a trip that must have been packed full of impressions and observations. These many, many impressions will need much reflection and analysing to be really evaluated correctly.

The President made no specific promises of aid, but said the United States will continue to help in the development of its sister nations to the south in the most effective way it can. He reaffirmed the U.S. pledge in its support of the principle of the Rio de Janeiro treaty of 1947—that an attack on one of the 21 American republics is an attack on all which all, particularly the U.S., will resist. This shield of protection, he said, should enable some Latin-American countries to spend less on armaments and more toward their economic development.

The need in many South American nations is differentiation in production. This is also true among the African nations. Therefore, it is evident that with the newly emerging African nations there will have to be a study made, because many of these nations will produce some of the same things that have been produced in South America.

It is certain that if buying power is stepped up, the world will need all that can be produced either for food consumption or for basic materials going into industrial development. But this requires an over-all look at the world as a whole, and the President must have returned from his trip with his mind and imagination stimulated to range far into the future.

Let us hope that he can communicate the outline of some of the visions of future possibilities, so that the minds of our people may be stretched and we may go beyond our immediate home interests and look at our interests in the context of the broader vision of world development.

Poor Mr. Paul Butler! He seems to have been unaware of the fact that our military bands have been making successful trips for a very long time. As good-will gestures these appearances have been among the best things our country does. Our military bands are outstandingly good, and they do not have too many great opportunities to show off their excellence. Such good-will tours as they have taken, during almost every Administration, have been good for the country as well as for the men themselves.

Everyone was saddened by the tragic accident that occurred at Rio de Janeiro when the President was there. It would have been of great value to have them play at particular receptions, as planned, and the survivors as well as the families of those who were lost at least know that, like all good soldiers, they were performing their duty.

To take to countries beyond our shores some of the feeling of good will that exists in our country and to bring to them a knowledge also that we foster the arts and have something in our military service to offer that can bring inspiration and enjoyment is as much a duty as it is to inspire our own soldiers at home.

E.R.

(Copyright, 1960, by United Feature Syndicate, Inc.)


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About this document

My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt, March 10, 1960

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.

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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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