Eleanor Roosevelt Speeches

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. I am very happy to have this opportunity to talk to the Campfire Girls of America and to their leaders assembled at their annual meeting. I shall speak to the girls, knowing that it is a message which must also go to their leaders as they help the young people to put this message into practice. I have been over some of the work which you girls have been doing this summer, studying American women of achievement. And it seems to be of very great importance, particularly at this time, when the world is in a state of such distraction, that you girls all over our country should learn to evaluate the qualities in human beings. I know your program through long contact with it, and I know that the people you admire are the ones who have thought things through and have done good things in their own communities. In your own communities, you have been looking into the lives of people who, in their own localities at least, have meant something. It is sometimes harder to achieve real greatness within the narrow confines of a village, than it is if you have the world as a stage. But there are similarities in the experiences of nearly all these people whom you have written about, that are worth noting. Practically none of them has achieved greatness of character without some struggle with herself to overcome certain difficulties of personality. There have been struggles with economic circumstances, struggles against physical handicaps, or against some emotional catastrophes. This is a good thing to keep before you, for you might as well learn when you are young, that no success comes without fighting for it. I think there is another thing which the study you have made should have proved to you. Namely, all success requires a certain amount of generosity. You cannot be successful and harbor grudges or bear other people ill will. And you must have discovered also that all these people who achieved success were people of character and people of integrity. Wishy-washy people are rarely remembered in their communities. They pass into oblivion with surprising rapidity. Even if you do not always like or agree with people, like Catherine Cornell, or Judge Florence Allen, you still would not forget them and you would have respect for them and for their achievements. They are people of character and have convictions. (5:46) In the present state of the world, you will grow up to face grave responsibilities. Nobody knows what the next few years will bring us. You may be sure of one thing however, this is no world for weaklings and we better prepare ourselves for struggle. If you are inclined at times to think that what you do today will make very little difference in your ultimate ability to count as a real person in your community, remember that habit has a great deal to do with the control you exercise over yourselves. Each time you exert yourself to live up to your highest standards, you make it just that much easier for yourself in the long run, to count for positive good in your community. No one could have accused the women and girls who landed on the Mayflower of being soft, but a good many people today say that we have in America thought too much of our physical comforts. We've grown soft, not only bodily, but mentally and spiritually. I think it is up to all of us to prove that this is not so. The way to begin is to set ourselves certain tasks and live up to them, day in and day out. It will not be easy, but if you keep remembering the lives of your heroines, I think you will find that either of their own volition or the cause of the force of circumstances, they were trained in a similar school. This country, and the world, is going to need heroic women as well as men during the next few years. Begin now, to prepare yourselves to meet the challenge of the world of the future..

Thank you, Dr. Raycroft. I am very happy to receive this award. I think we all need to be reminded that the hearth, the home of each one of us, is the first thing that we women must care for and then we want to add the recreation that our children should learn young to acquire in the out of door life that they can lead in this country. This preparation, of living at home and living out of doors, is a good preparation for the grown-up citizen, which each one of you girls is someday going to be. You think little perhaps today, of what you will do in the future as a citizen in a great democracy. But I, who receive this award, am happy to have this opportunity not only to thank you for the award, but to tell you that I hope through the training you are receiving today, in your homes and in your outdoor life, that you will grow to be a useful citizen, with a full understanding of what it means to be a real democrat, and take your full share of responsibility in caring for your nation, as you care for your home. Thank you again and good night.