Eleanor (25 page)

I do not like the Franco government and I would much rather see Spain under a government that the people themselves had chosen. I also think that in passing the resolution in the United Nations General Assembly in 1946, we exceeded our authority in trying to interfere in internal affairs and therefore since so many nations are now returning ambassadors, willy nilly, I think it is probably better to rescind the resolution and let people resume ordinary diplomatic relationships which does not in any way imply approval of the government in power, since it is somewhat inconsistent to have Ambassadors in Moscow, Yugoslavia, etc., and in the Argentine and not have them in Spain.
²⁶

8.
AN AMERICAN PHENOMENON

T
HE MOST SENSATIONAL NEWS OF THE DAY, SAID “THE
R
HAM
-katte Rooster,” which was the way Josephus Daniels signed his column in the
Raleigh News and Observer
, came neither from Turkey nor Tibet; it was the report from Hyde Park that Eleanor Roosevelt had said, “I am tired. Let some of the youngsters carry on.” She loved his column, Mrs. Roosevelt replied. “I had been walking around with pneumonia, so it was true that I was weary. I am fine, now, however. . .”; and she did not add, for it was unnecessary, that she had resumed a schedule that once had led her husband to pray, “O Lord, make Eleanor tired.”

“I sometimes think of quickly finishing up all the things I have to do, and then just not doing any more, but there always seem to be so many things to do.” So she told an interviewer for the
New Yorker
in mid-1948.
¹

In addition to her duties at the United Nations, she had resumed her lecture tours under the auspices of her manager, W. Colston Leigh. She did a regular radio commentary with Anna and a television show under Elliott’s management. Her daily column appeared in newspapers ranging in number from seventy-five to ninety. She did a monthly question-and-answer page for
McCall’s
, to which she had moved in 1949 from the
Ladies’ Home Journal
. That year, too, the second volume of her autobiography,
This I Remember,
on which she had been working since 1946, appeared. She joined the boards of the American Association for the United Nations and of Brandeis University. She performed assorted chores for the Americans for Democratic Action, spoke frequently for the United Jewish Appeal, faithfully supported the work of the NAACP and
the Citizens Committee for Children, and appeared frequently at the Wiltwyck School for Boys, usually with a celebrity or potential donor in tow.

These were her regular jobs; but in between the fixed points that they constituted in her schedule, a swarm of invitations, requests for her aid, for her opinion, for interviews managed to proliferate. They were reflected in the sheets of messages that Tommy had for her on her desk when she returned to her apartment:

Martin Lencer,
Washington D.C. producer of documentary films called to say he is in Washington at present and Mrs. R. had said she would be interested in seeing a film of his on Juvenile Delinquency—a 30 minute film. He wonders if Mrs. R. would like him to come to meet her in New York for the purpose of showing the film or if she will be in Washington soon.

Mr. Koons
[lawyer for the Roosevelt estate] called. No message.

Mr. Zuckerman
of the Association of Private Camps called to find out what time to pick up Mrs. R. Will call again Wednesday.

Mr. Golden
called to ask if Mrs. R. enjoyed the ham. (Ham is in the refrigerator.)

Mr. Miller,
University of Chicago, called to enquire about an appointment with Mrs. R. He has a project for World Peace which he thinks will prove interesting. He was in town from 9 to 12 of Feb.
²

Another day’s messages read:

Pare Lorenz
would like to see Mrs. R. next week if he may. Any time would be suitable.

Mrs. Lucille Sullivan
called to ask for an appointment for Mrs. Alice [Nourse] Hobart, author of
Oil for the Lamps of China
. Mrs. Hobart will be in town between 15th and 25th of Oct.

State Department
would like to know if Mrs. R. would be good enough to interview a group of Mexicans here on Pres. Truman’s Point Four program.

They represent the oil industry in Mexico and are the first group of this kind to come here. They will be in N. Y. from the 17th.

Mr. Frank Beal
called to ask if Mrs. R. had written the column for the St. Lawrence Seaway project. He said that now would be a good time to bring the matter up since Canada’s Premier [Louis S.] St. Laurent is talking about Canada doing the project alone.

Allard Lowenstein
will call for Mrs. R. at 9:00 Saturday.

Mrs. Craig McGeachy Schuller
will be delighted to see Mrs. R. at the Stanhope Hotel at 1:00 or 1:15 on Wed. Mrs. Eder, President of the National Council of Women will be present and also Mrs. Barclay Parsons of Women United for U.N.
³

Only occasionally were her iron constitution and even stronger will unequal to her schedule. For over a year William Bishop Scarlett and his wife, Leah, both of whom she was very fond, had been hoping to have her come to them in St. Louis. Finally it was arranged that she would speak at the Flower Service in the cathedral. But in mid-March she came down with a bad case of grippe and lost her voice and had to cancel. “Of course we are terribly disappointed, personally, ecclesiastically and botanically!” Bishop Will, as his friends called him, wrote back. “But not for anything in the world would we have you run the slightest risk. And I am glad that your doctor seems to have control of the reins.” Not everyone took disappointment as gracefully.
⁴

It was an unbreakable rule that engagements must be kept, equally so that letters must be answered. Late at night, just as she had done in Washington, she went over the fifty to one hundred letters that Tommy still put aside for her daily. Often now the replies she asked Tommy to draft were ones of regret:

Thank regret will be in Geneva for a HRC meeting

ack—regret too busy to undertake any more work

Regret—plans for 1952 too uncertain

ack regret never write out speeches as always talk extemporaneously

ack regret not making any engagement which will take me away from home during summer

regret already have all the engagements I can keep

regret no time

Some letters she used in her column, others she sent on to Franklin Jr. in Washington or to James in California for them to answer or, if they were related to her television program, to Elliott. Sometimes, if she knew a government official well, she sent a letter on to him or her. “Dear Anna,” she wrote Mrs. Rosenberg, who had become assistant secretary of defense under General Marshall, “I am forwarding the enclosed for whatever action you think advisable.” She did the same with job applicants. “I do not have any part in the selection of personnel for the UN. I will, however, send your letter to the Director of Personnel.”

Occasionally she was requested to ask a favor of the president. John Ihlder, of the National Capital Housing Authority, wrote reminding her that she had asked FDR to approve the first half-million-dollar appropriation for the authority, which he had done, just as, at Ihlder’s suggestion, she had asked Franklin to order an end to segregation in government cafeterias, which he also had done. Now he had a third request. He was reaching the retirement age and unless Truman signed an executive order exempting him, the services of a man who believed in public housing would be lost. Would she ask the president? She refused:

When I asked the first two things I was asking my husband and that was different from the present situation. I am terribly
sorry not to be able to do what you want but since I have left Washington, I have never made a personal request of any kind of the President. I would, however, be glad to forward to him for consideration an endorsement written by someone else but I cannot myself ask for anything.
⁵

There were two types of letters that she answered meticulously—questionnaires, because they challenged her to make up her mind, and inquiries from children. They were studying the lives of outstanding people, Louise Peters of Vermont wrote her in a child’s labored scrawl. “Perhaps when you were in the fourth grade you started developing habits that helped to make you the successful person that you are today. . . .” “Dear Louise,” she replied. “I am sending you a copy of a letter my father wrote to me when I was a little girl. I hope you will like it as much as I did.” “Dear Werner,” she wrote a high-school editor who wanted to do an article on the responsibilities of citizenship, “you need not be destined for a career in law or government to be policy makers. Each and every vote at every election counts as does each letter written to a Congressman or Senator or even newspaper.”

In 1949 she gave up her apartment in Washington Square to move to the Park Sheraton Hotel.

We [i.e., Mrs. Roosevelt and Elliott] moved yesterday to the hotel and are nearly settled. I am entirely in order and our sitting room is in order but Tommy and the office are not yet settled. She isn’t happy about it yet, but will be, I think, when she is settled and finds as I hope she will that it is less strain and less work when we are here.
⁶

There were changes at Val-Kill. Having purchased 1,100 of the 1,365 acres that FDR had owned at his death, she and Elliott went into partnership, “and we are going to farm the land on a commercial basis.” She paid the estate $87,000 of which $50,000 came out of her own capital and $37,000 was financed through a
mortgage which Elliott undertook to service as his contribution to the purchase price. “As you see,” she wrote her other children,

I have made no gift to Elliott. . . .I write you this so that you may clearly see that you will get from the estate all that you would probably have received in any case, and in addition to make it clear, that Elliott is putting in all he makes so that you will not think any extra gifts have been made to him.
⁷

Elliott had a 75 per cent interest in Val-Kill Farms and Mrs. Roosevelt 25 per cent. Elliott did things on a large scale, and in the heyday of the farming operation there were 40 dairy cattle, 100 beef cattle, 30 brood sows, 2,500 laying turkey hens, and several hundred acres that had been planted by FDR to fir and spruce. “Where it seems wise, we shall continue the Christmas tree plantations which he started, and shall sell Christmas trees just as he did.”
⁸
The trees were the only profitable crop, Elliott selling them in December at a dollar a tree. “I am doing things,” she explained to a close friend,

in endorsing this film [
The Roosevelt Story
] and financing the place & farm & helping Elliott with a book of his Father’s letters that may cause criticism. I’m letting Jimmy go ahead on a film & with his book & will help him by not interfering though I know all will cause criticism but I surmise Elliott has to be established & encouraged to become secure. Jimmy needs to make more money to give his wife the security she demands & if I can help without doing anything I think wrong, the criticism doesn’t bother me. . . .The sooner I can live in dignified obscurity at H.P. the happier I will be.
⁹

Elliott lived in the top cottage. The Stone Cottage by the pool was used for guests, Mrs. Roosevelt having brought out Nancy Cook and Marion Dickerman. “I am afraid the many children we have with us in the summer were too much for their peace
and quiet,” she informed Henry Toombs, who had drawn up the plans for the cottage in 1925. “When Elliott came into the place, it became more difficult,” was Marion Dickerman’s explanation. “One day Nan and I looked up and said, ‘When will we go?’” Mrs. Roosevelt bought out their interest of $17,000. “Dear Eleanor,” Nancy Cook wrote, “I am leaving the keys in an envelope for you. . . .If you are home before we leave we will come over to see you and say good-bye. Affectionately.”
¹⁰

Elliott was a restless soul, much like Mrs. Roosevelt’s father—in and out of a succession of ventures, often immature and reckless, and like him, too, possessing a sweetness and warmth that caused people to remark that he was “the most lovable” of the Roosevelt boys. Mrs. Roosevelt was fiercely loyal to all of her children, but Elliott had a special claim on her affections.

“If Elliott were not at Hyde Park I could not live there, in fact I would not want to.”
¹¹
That was saying a great deal about her gratitude to Elliott, for Val-Kill was home and sanctuary, the place to which she was ready to withdraw if public life became intolerable. That seemed a possibility at times in the postwar years. No nastiness or insinuation was out of bounds for columnist Westbrook Pegler. “If people want to believe that sort of thing,” she said after the appearance of one such column, “there is nothing to be done.” So far as she was concerned, she was perfectly content to retire from public life to the country. She did the public things, but the ones that really mattered were her personal relationships and they could not be affected by such attacks.
¹²