The First Lady of Radio (28 page)

I have been surprised to have people write to me that they were
not able or willing to buy defense bonds or stamps for one reason or another, and their arguments have been based on the premise that they were giving something to the government. Every stamp and bond will be redeemed at the stated time, and every investor in these bonds and stamps will receive his or her money back, plus interest.

Now, in closing, I would like to leave you with this thought: When any public man says that we should consider only our own needs—that we should have done this in the past as well as in the present—it shows how little he understands the magnitude of the world situation. He shows, above everything else, that he has learned nothing from world events in the past few years. We can no more live in a world that is alien to our form of government and our way of life than we could stay out of war and remain unattacked in a world which was at war. Only men with vision to embrace the whole world picture are of any value at the present time.

One of the things which we must keep before us is the fact, also, that we must not only fight this war side by side, but we must learn in doing so to get on with other people—to recognize the fundamental qualities in other people which put them on our side. We may be irritated with an individual who remarks that, because we tried to stay at peace and have only just come to fighting beside him, we're playing a less important role. But our own irritation at this criticism is not of great importance. The thing we must be sure of is that this individual is fighting for the same democratic rights in which we believe. Otherwise, the Atlantic Charter will not mean anything. The war will have been fought for nothing. As we fight side by side with the men of China, of India, of Africa, of Great Britain and its dominions, of South America, of Russia, of the Netherlands, and of Norway, and of the other countries who are our allies, we must make it our job to know what are the fundamental things which will preserve a free and democratic world. Yes, and we must make sure that those who are with us are our true allies, in the important sense that they believe in the fundamentals of democracy and of freedom.

33.

“Answering Her Critics”

Over Our Coffee Cups
, sponsored by the Pan-American Coffee Bureau

Sunday, February 22, 1942

ER: In the past week, Singapore has fallen and a fight took place in the Channel in which two Nazi battleships, in the fog, took a desperate chance and made port. They were apparently much damaged, but the British lost a number of planes, which meant also a number of young lives lost. In spite of these heartbreaking and important events, more time was spent in Congress, over the air, and in the newspapers, discussing what would seem to be relatively unimportant things. As these things have been made so important, however, and as some members of Congress have seen fit to make me of greater importance than I have ever before thought I possibly could be, I am taking this opportunity to explain to those who listen to my broadcasts why I think civilian mobilization is necessary on two fronts.

No one will question the advisability and the importance of
protection, as far as possible, of property and human life against possible air raids and fires. But many of us realize that this protection will be uncertain and inadequate if it consists only of a concern for blackouts, the training of more policemen and more firemen, and the providing of more emergency medical care. In the long run, the strains that we, in this country, will have to endure are the strains of uncertainty. Anxiety for loved ones far away, anxiety for ourselves in case of attack; the stress of the need of greater production, which will require longer hours of work and less loss of man-hours of labor because of illness and accident; the inclusion of women in the program of production, with the adjustment in our everyday living to sacrifice; and discomfort which we have not had to bear in the past. This necessitates, I think, better nutrition, better housing, better day-by-day medical care, better education, better recreation for every age. Day nurseries and nursery schools must be established where needed. Organized recreation must be provided for every age, but particularly up to working age.

And now to meet the explicit attacks which have been made. I have resigned from the Office of Civilian Defense and I am, therefore, free to speak my mind as a private citizen. I suggested Miss Mayris Chaney's name to the director of physical fitness, who appointed her at a salary which was fixed by responsible authorities for the work which she was expected to do. I suggested her because I thought she was qualified to do the work on a program which she herself had worked out and thought might be of value. I believe in physical fitness and I think it is important for the nation as a whole, no matter where the program is finally carried on.

I should like to quote what Dr. Jesse Feiring Williams, of the Department of Health and Physical Education and Recreation, Teachers College, Columbia University, has to say on the subject: “But let no one suppose that physical exercise is for youth alone. It is the basis of active vigor in all persons. Our duty seems to be clear. It is to keep fit today,
not only for the better individual lives which we can live, but also for the better service which the nation so sorely needs.” I believe that dancing—not fan dancing, which was just a slur put in for the sake of clouding the issue—but rhythmic dancing, ballroom dancing, folk dancing, have a place in physical fitness for young and old.

As to Mr. Melvyn Douglas, it seems to me that we in this country should have a feeling of deep gratitude to the writers, actors, artists, and musicians who always give so generously of their time and talents to charitable and civic institutions of the nation. It is apparently all right for businessmen to come to Washington to give their services on an expense basis, but not for an actor. We should be grateful to these businessmen, and we should be equally grateful to men like Mr. Melvyn Douglas. Generosity of money and time and talent is something for which we can be grateful. But [just] because people have fought and stood for liberal causes, they need not be branded as communists in this country, which gives us freedom to be Republicans or Democrats, reactionaries or liberals.

I do not want a program which I consider vitally important to the conduct of the war, and to the well-being of the people during a period of crisis, to suffer because what I hope is a small but very vocal group of unenlightened men are now able to renew, under the guise of patriotism and economy, the age-old fight for the privileged few against the good of the many. Perhaps we must all stand up now and be counted in this fight. The virtuous Westbrook Peglers on the one side, the boondogglers, so-called, on the other. But I think if the people of this country can be reached with the truth, their judgment will be in favor of the many as against the privileged few.

This is not a question of Republican or Democrat. It is a question of privilege or equality. I am resigning because I do not want to bring on a good program, and on good and valued public servants, the attacks and criticisms which are bound to be made on some of us in this fight. But
if there has to be a fight, I am glad I am enlisted as a common soldier with the many.

There is nothing which those people who have raised this hue and cry can give me or take away from me that matters in the least to me. What makes this country, in the long run, a better place in which to live for the average citizen, what makes us strong to win the war and the peace, is because our needs are met and because we are given a sense of security that matters. For that I intend to fight.

34.

“Broadcast from Liverpool”

Sunday, November 8, 1942, 9:15 p.m. [British time] (British Broadcasting Corporation)

In September 1942, Eleanor Roosevelt was invited to visit Great Britain by Queen Elizabeth. The United States had been in the war for nearly a year and thousands of American troops were stationed at bases across Britain. But the Anglo-American alliance was strained. The United States was fighting, in part, to spread democratic ideals around the world; British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, meanwhile, hoped to survive the war with his nation's colonial empire intact. Some Britons complained that Americans had little idea of the suffering they had endured in three years of war. There had also been tensions among British and American troops on the island. The trip naturally posed some danger to the first lady. Although there had been a lull in the German bombing of London, the possibility existed of further raids. But FDR and his aides saw the potential political and diplomatic value of the journey. ER was keen to make the trip. After being forced from her job at the Office of Civilian Defense, she was looking for new ways to contribute to the war effort.

ER's mission was to tour war-damaged Britain and let the people of both sides “know a great deal more about each other.”
¹
She also wanted to report back to women in the United States on the condition of their husbands and sons stationed there, and on how the everyday households of Britain were coping during war. ER and her secretary, Malvina Thompson, flew to England as guests of the king and queen. ER stayed with the royals at Buckingham Palace, then toured cities and the countryside to inspect bomb damage and home-front initiatives. ER was in the media spotlight throughout the three-week visit. Her boundless energy and exhausting itinerary through factories, schools, hospitals, shelters, and military bases left a number of British reporters footsore and breathless. Crowds cheered and clapped when she appeared. Throughout the trip, ER and Thompson filed copy for the daily newspaper column back home.

As her trip drew to a close, ER made a radio broadcast to the British people over the BBC from the city of Liverpool. She urged her audience to think about the work to be done once the war was over, how to go about winning the peace. Her talk followed the popular nine p.m. news bulletin. The head of the BBC told an American diplomat in London that ER's speech drew an unusually large listening audience—some 51.4 percent of the adult civilian population of Great Britain. The
Times
(London) praised ER's “indomitable spirit” and ventured that her “eager sympathy and warm understanding have brought her into close contact with every section of the population.”
²
Churchill was delighted with ER's trip, sending her a note that she had left “golden footprints” behind her.
³

When ER returned to the United States, she continued to write and broadcast about her experiences across the Atlantic. She delivered a number of national radio talks on wartime conditions in Great Britain over NBC.

ER: Good evening. First of all I should like to thank the people of Great Britain, who everywhere have given me such a warm and sympathetic
welcome, and to rejoice with them on this momentous day. I also want to thank the many kind people who have written me. I have not been able to answer all of these letters but I am nonetheless appreciative.

I realize that I am here as a symbol, a symbol representing an ally whom the people of Great Britain are glad to have fighting with them. Not only because we bring them material strength, but because the peoples of the two countries feel that they are fighting for the same objectives—a world which shall be free from cruelty and greed and oppression, a world where men shall be free to worship God as they see fit, and to seek the development of their own personalities and their own happiness within the limits which safeguard the rights of other human beings to do the same.

The peoples of our countries know that they will never compromise in this fight. But they also know they must plan, now, to establish a method of working together for the future. Without such cooperation among all the united nations, we cannot hope for the kind of world in which it may be possible to maintain peace.

I have only a short time tonight and so I can only sum up for you quickly the impressions which stand out as a result of the days which I have already spent here. I am sure that I will learn much more in the remaining days of my visit.

First, it seems to me that the women of Great Britain have assumed their responsibility in the war in a truly magnificent way. From top to bottom, for men and women alike, among the representatives of all the united nations whom I have met here, material things seem to have found their level and to be no longer of primary importance. A man said to me the other day that he had heard of the loss of a substantial piece of property belonging to him and it seemed such a trivial matter that, for three days, he forgot to tell his wife. Before the war, he said, it would have worried him for days, and now it meant nothing.

It means nothing because people have seen bricks and mortar disappear. They have found that it did not really matter—that they could
rejoice if those whom they loved were safe. The nearness to catastrophe enhances, enormously, this sense of the value of personal relationships. A woman said to me quite blithely the other day, “We have all accepted the fact that we may be destroyed at any moment, so danger has no meaning to us.” This spirit is the spirit of the people as a whole. If all of your possessions are destroyed, it really does not matter whether they were contained in one room or in twenty rooms. What you have left may be only your determination to go on fighting for the rehabilitation of the world. But that is important. That seems to live as long as those you love are about you.

People seem to have come through unbelievable hardships, smilingly. The people of Great Britain have learned to meet emergencies. I had an emergency meal the other day, such as would be supplied in a blitzed area. It was quite as good as one that you would eat in many a private household.