Eleanor Roosevelt's "My Day," 1/22/1937

WASHINGTON, Thursday—Like any other housewife, after a busy day, I have been taking stock of yesterday's activities! I wrote yesterday's column just before I went out to the Parade. Luckily this parade was primarily a military parade though the Governors themselves in their cars, the C.C.C. boys and the National Youth Administration with its floats reminded us of some of the other phases of government.

I was proud indeed of the Services as they marched by in the rain. Everyone in fit condition, looking smart in spite of the weather. West Point, Annapolis, the Coast Guard School and the regular Army, Navy and Marines. These Services and the men who compose them deserve our gratitude and respect. They give service which can never be paid for in money. We pray that it may never be war service, but the world is not safe as yet from this spirit of madness and while the United States of America is the greatest peace loving nation in the world, her first line of defense, both in peace and in war are these men who belong to what are rightly termed the Services of the United States.

Seven hundred and ten people lunched here and twenty-seven hundred people came to tea after the Parade was over. When everyone had been received I went with some trepidation into the East Room and the State Dining Room to make sure that there was still some food for late comers. To my joy there was plenty. Then we were sixteen at dinner and I went over to the Inaugural Concert where the artists, Miss Kathryn Meisle¹, Miss Susanne Fisher², Mr. Hans Kindler³, Mr. Richard Bonelli⁴ and Mr. Richard Crooks⁵ donated their services, and finally I sat in my room and thought gratefully of the people who had made it possible for everything to go so smoothly during the day.

First of all the Inaugural Committee and all those making arrangements at the Capitol and for the Parade were more than kind. Then in the house itself, Mr. William Rockwell⁶ and his assistants in the Social Bureau, the Ushers, the Military Aides, the Chauffeurs, Mrs. Nesbitt⁷, the housekeeper, and all the domestic staff both in the kitchen, pantry and in the house itself, cooperated and worked together as a team to make everything move with ease. I went about today thanking everyone I could find.

While I have always admired the spirit with which the work is done in the White House, I don't think it ever came home to me with more force than yesterday. It is the dignity of the house which is at stake and everyone feels they are serving the country in doing their work well.

My mother-in-law⁸ and I have just returned from a luncheon given for me by Mrs. Morgenthau⁹, the Wife of the Secretary of the Treasury. It was a delightful party with an individual touch for she had written very clever verses on a number of subjects and Mrs. Genevieve Forbes Herrick¹⁰ and I read them aloud alternately.

We have been catching up on mail and there is much in the house to be done. The President went back to work as though such a thing as an Inauguration was an every day affair and the next four years have begun!

E.R.

Copyright, 1937, by United Feature Syndicate, Inc.