FOR RELEASE ON
MONDAY FEBRUARY 27, 1939 AND THEREAFTER
MY DAY
By Eleanor Roosevelt
Washington, Sunday - Here we are back in Washington. I woke this morning to
what sounded like a real spring rain. The grass outside my window looks green and, though I
suppose we will probably have a blizzard next week, at the moment I feel as though spring had really
arrived.
I am having a very peaceful day. I drove my car a short distance out of the city
this morning to pilot some friends of mine who are staring [starting] off for a vacation
in Florida. I think this will be my only excurison [excursion] out of the White House
today, for I have plenty of work to do on an accumulation of mail and I hope to get
through in time to enjoy an evening of uninterrupted reading.
I have been debating in my mind for some time, a question which I have had to
debate with myself once or twice before in my life. Usually I have decided differently
from the way in which I am deciding now. The question is, if you belong to an
organization and disapprove of an action which is typical of a policy, should you resign
or is it better to work for a changed point of view within the organization? In the past,
when I was able to work actively in any organization to which I belonged, I have
usually stayed in until I had at least made a fight and had been defeated.
Even then, I have, as a rule, accepted my defeat and decided I was wrong
or, perhaps, a little too far ahead of the thinking of the majority at that time. I have
often found that the thing in which I was interested was done some years later. But, in
this case, I belong to an organization in which I can do no active work. They have
taken an action which has been widely talked of in the press. To remain as a member
implies approval of that action, and therefore I am resigning.
I have just seen some people who are arranging for the Coronado Cuarto
Centennial Celebration in New Mexico in 1940. All the plans for this celebration, which will
begin in May 1940, sound interesting and delightful. New Mexico has many historic
spots. There is beauty and an almost foreign interest in this state which has so many
ties with Spain and the South and Central American countries. I hope that 1940 will
see a great awakening of interest in this part of our nation. More of our American
citizens than ever before should see this land of sunshine and color. I, for one, will
make every effort to make the rounds of all the exhibitions which will be available
during the summer following the opening of this celebration.
While we are speaking on interesting things in the West, let me tell you
that I have been sent a pamphlet by the "Save the Redwoods League" of Berkeley,
Calif., which pictures commercial exploitation of these beautiful redwood trees in the
State of California. Anyone who has ever taken the drive up from the Yosemite to the
State of Oregon, cannot fail to have an unforgettable picture of these giants of the forest.
They have stood thousands of years. Perhaps some of them have reached maturity, but
it seems to me a wicked thing to cut them down when that time arrives. Can not either
the State or the Nation take a hand in preserving these forests?
E.R.
(Copyright, 1939, by United Feature Syndicate, Inc.)
