Empty Without You

by Roger Streitmatter

  But—

  These men, most of whom had been working since November 15th, hadn’t yet received any pay.

  Some of them were threatening—not desperately or violently, but rather hopelessly—to walk off the job this afternoon. But when we were there they were still plodding along, patient, dumb.

  These people had been taken off relief the day they went to work for WPA—almost a month ago. Whether we like it or not, that is what has happened all over this state—and, I suspect in many others—as the result of our cutting out of federal relief. The states and counties haven’t got the money—whether they should be able to raise it or not—and it’s the poor devil on relief who catches it in the neck.

  They had gone two weeks and ten days—going on four weeks—on nothing. No relief. No pay. Some of them, I was told, have been coming to work with nothing but onions in their dinner pails.

  I simply couldn’t get those men off my mind. Out there in that bitter wind, working on the “Franklin D. Roosevelt Parkway.” Neither could the WPA director. Finally he said, “Aw, hell, let’s send some food out there.” “You bet,” I said. “I’ll pay for it.” “No, you won’t,” he said. So he gave a man a ten-dollar bill and told him to load up a car with sandwiches and hot coffee and get out there to that job, and God help him if he ever told where they came from. We’re going fifty-fifty on it, whatever it cost.

  And now, believe it or not, I’m writing in front of a beautiful, glowing grate fire! This is an old-fashioned hotel, not too long on plumbing, but with fireplaces in the bedrooms!

  And thus endeth the Tenth Day of December, Anno Domini 1935!

  H

  This letter provides the first reference to one of the most important contributions Hick made to the first lady’s evolution as a public figure—even though it came well after the intense phase of their relationship had ended. Lorena had suggested that Eleanor talk directly to hundreds of thousands of Americans each day through a syndicated newspaper column. When the first lady mentioned the possibility to the head of the United Features syndication service, he agreed to distribute it, and by late December when the column began appearing, some fifty newspapers—including such major ones as the Atlanta Constitution, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and Kansas City Star—had signed up. The enterprise received another big boost when the Scripps-Howard chain bought the column as well. Eleanor was initially concerned that the daily deadline would be a problem, but the $1,000 a month she would earn persuaded her to give it a try. She would continue to produce a column six days a week (all except Sunday) for the next twenty-seven years.

  December 17th

  THE WHITE HOUSE

  Washington

  Dearest one, The writing is easy so far, they just want one incident out of the day & so far I’ve had no trouble.

  I wrapped packages after lunch & one more day will see me pretty well done I think. I also went to see Louis this afternoon.

  Helen Hayes47 came to have lunch as I found she was crazy to come here. Three Governors were here for dinner, Iowa, Nebraska & Colorado & the talk was interesting.

  The diplomatic reception was only a bit over 1,000 & the Hungarians were beautiful & wore the most dashing & romantic black uniforms! My feet however are very weary & I must go to bed. I love you dearly & I look forward to Monday next!48

  All my love,

  E.R.

  This letter suggests that by the end of 1935 Eleanor still considered Hick such a close friend that she would help make the first lady’s funeral arrangements.

  [December 19]

  THE WHITE HOUSE

  Washington

  Dearest, The rest of this day will be hectic so this is just a line to tell you that two packages have come from Detroit but I won’t open them till I return on Sunday! Anna wants me to go there that afternoon to open their present which is also yours & I am intrigued & curious!49

  I stayed at the apartment & worked all morning.

  Evening I went to dress the Xmas tree & then to the memorial service for Mary Rumsey.50

  Darling, don’t let anyone hold memorial meetings for me after I leave you. It is cruel to those who really love you & miss you & means nothing to the others except an obligation fulfilled & certainly it can mean nothing to the spirit in another sphere if it is there at all! I’d like to be remembered happily if that is possible, if that can’t be then I’d rather be forgotten.

  Cheer up darling, we will have a good week or rather ten days together & you must not get depressed about your work, that is good & you know it.

  I love you tenderly,

  E.R.

  Seven

  1936–1939

  Drifting Apart?

  During the late 1930s, Eleanor and Lorena found it difficult to maintain their relationship—even at the reduced pitch that Eleanor had imposed—because they had entered two distinctly different phases of their lives. ER had hit her stride and was succeeding at a daunting array of activities that were providing her with venues she could use to further her social and political agenda—conducting weekly press conferences, giving speeches and radio broadcasts, publishing substantive articles in major magazines, writing a daily newspaper column distributed to dozens of newspapers across the country. Hick, on the other hand, was struggling to find an occupation that would give her the personal satisfaction and sense of self that news reporting once had; she was also facing major health and financial worries.

  Eleanor and Lorena’s correspondence during this period is peppered not only with apologies for hurt feelings but also with apologies for proposed meetings that had to be postponed or canceled. Despite the challenges that prevented them from spending more than an occasional lunch or dinner together, the women remained steadfastly committed to providing each other with support and encouragement through their epistolary conversation.

  As 1936 began, Lorena was investigating the relief conditions in New York and New Jersey while living in her midtown apartment. The day before writing this letter, the first lady had lunched with Hick in New York City.

  January 14 [1936]

  THE WHITE HOUSE

  Washington

  Dearest, Darling, you were low & I know that in some way I hurt you & I am sorry & I wish I had not but all I can say is, I really love you.

  I breakfast alone to-morrow which I much prefer when you can’t be here. To-morrow Anna & John & Sisty & Buzzie leave & I shall feel very sad.1 The afternoon & evening are so filled that I imagine I won’t be able to miss them till the next day, but I know I mustn’t grow too dependent on these four for, as you have so often said(!), one must let go!

  I’d like to call you up, just a kind of yearning to hear your voice but I mustn’t run up too big [of] bills this month or I might not have the money to pay them on Feb. 1st.

  E.R.

  Two days before writing this letter, Eleanor had sent Lorena a telegram suggesting that they meet at Grand Central Station. The subsequent meeting, however, was a disaster. Reporters and on-lookers crowded around the first lady when she arrived at New York’s busiest train station, preventing her from spending even a moment alone with Lorena.

  [February 18, 1936]

  THE WHITE HOUSE

  Washington

  Hick darling, I am so very very sorry. I ought to know it must be alone or not at all [that I see you] & you probably felt I brought you down under false pretenses but I didn’t mean to even though I did.

  A world of love dear always & I hope you don’t get too tired to enjoy Prinz & your home!

  E.R.

  For the two months that Eleanor had been writing her “My Day” column, she had merely listed the activities in her day. This letter documents that it was Lorena who first gave Eleanor the “tip” that the column also could provide the first lady with an instrument for moving important issues onto the national agenda.

  [March 13, 1936]

  20 East Eleventh Street

  New York City

  Dearest, Back in N.Y. with no fuss & fea
thers & $3000 to my credit!2 It has to go out at once in income tax however!

  Thanks for the tip about my column dear. I just never thought of it!

  Franklin has been much interested in your letters, they can’t help being interesting with all the background & knowledge you have. F. may say I don’t know what I’m talking about but he can’t say that of you.

  All my love dear,

  E.R.

  Although there is no evidence that Lorena ever committed her disappointment to paper, she must have been deeply hurt by the first lady’s statement in this letter that “no one will ever be more loyal & devoted” than Louis Howe had been—a distinction that Lorena surely felt belonged to her.

  April 19th [1936]

  THE WHITE HOUSE

  Washington

  Darling, I got in from speaking last night & [White House physician] Dr. [Ross] McIntire called me to tell me Louis had died in his sleep. They just noticed his breathing was changing, called the doctor who did what he could but he never responded & was never conscious. A merciful way for him. We got Franklin as soon as the Gridiron dinner was over & I spent hours getting Mrs. [Grace] Howe & Hartley3 on the telephone, but finally succeeded & they took it calmly, thank Heavens! I’ve been doing a thousand & one little things, changes in dates etc. but until Grace gets here we won’t know what she will want to do.

  This afternoon I’ve read the papers & written letters. In an hour I shall meet Grace & Hartley & go with them to the undertakers. Read F.D.R. your letter & I think he was much pleased.

  I think I felt Louis would always be an invalid but still always there & tho’ for a long time the real person has been gone [because of Louis’s illness] I shall miss some of the things that made one at times almost resentful. He was like a pitiful, querulous child but even when I complained I loved him & no one will ever be more loyal & devoted than he was.

  If I should outlive F.D.R.[,] Missy would be the one I should worry about!4 I rather hope however that I will be the one to go, before I go through this again, it would seem more logical & so restful! However, I feel extremely well so don’t be alarmed!

  I don’t know what you mean about [you] being “an utter fool” but I am certainly not a wise person. We’ll hope I’m generous which is after all little enough for me to be!

  A kiss to you dear one,

  E.R.

  When Eleanor read the first paragraph of this letter to Franklin, his ears perked up. The president had been wanting to publicize the fact that technological advances were, ironically, a major impediment to the New Deal putting people back to work, which was exactly what Lorena’s letter—in simple, straightforward language—said. FDR immediately ordered his wife to reprint Lorena’s statement about the Youngstown steel mills in her “My Day” column.

  [May 4, 1936]

  Dear:

  Youngstown [Ohio] is terribly depressing. The steel mills are running full blast, 80 per cent of capacity—as good as 1929. And yet in the last three years they’ve spent Ten Million Dollars modernizing those plants, and the result is that in 1936, with the mills operating at 1929 production, they are employing 10,000 fewer men than in 1929!5

  These figures are probably very conservative. And this year Two Million Dollars more is to be put into modernization. That means more men laid off.

  The whole population is worried. They see their jobs slipping right out from under them—snatched away by the machine that was supposed to make life a more gracious thing, but which is really taking away their bread and butter.

  H

  May 7th [1936]

  THE WHITE HOUSE

  Washington

  Dearest, From your Youngstown letter I’ve written my Monday piece at Franklin & Roy Howard’s6 suggestion. If you mind I’m terribly sorry, I wanted to wire for your consent but Franklin wouldn’t let me. I think he wants me to be [his] whipping boy & tho’ he can’t bring the question [of modernization] out, he wants it out.

  Another busy day. Army & Navy Rummage Sale, 2 teas, conference on textile bill, & visit from Gov. [Theodore Francis] Green7 & 1 1/2 hours receiving new citizens!8

  Darling, I’ve a basketful of mail to do so good night. Bless you & all my love,

  E.R.

  By the summer of 1936, Eleanor reluctantly agreed to be an active participant in her husband’s re-election campaign. She did so partly because her reshaping of the first lady’s role had become a campaign issue among proponents of the status quo. A Republican campaign button captured the sentiment: “We don’t want Eleanor, either!” When she wrote this letter, she was on her husband’s campaign tour through Texas.

  On the campaign train

  June 11th [1936]

  Hick dearest, We got off at 6 & heaven knows when we get back so I decided I’d write now. Our train is cool when we are on the move but when we got off at 9:30 it was hot & yet people lined the streets of Houston & seemed enthusiastic. The trip by canal was pleasant to San Jacinto & F. made a nice speech. We heard [Alfred M.] Landon was nominated.9

  F. remarked he was really interested in the [Republican] platform, I’ve just read it & it seems to me the same old bunk. I hope ours is not so long but it is foolish to hope it will be any less “bunk-ish”!

  I’m weary of cheering crowds (I’d like them less if they booed but I’d be more interested!) How you continue to travel & bear it I don’t know. I want to settle down & stay put two months [in one place] at least! A world of love,

  E.R.

  As Eleanor was writing this and the next letter, the Democratic National Convention was underway in Philadelphia.

  June 25th [1936]

  THE WHITE HOUSE

  Washington

  Dearest, You are right that your bad times when we are to-gether are hard on us both but oh! dear, why do you have to feel in a way which makes you have bad times, we ought to have such good & happy times to-gether. Perhaps we will some day when I am no longer driven & we are both calmer!

  This evening has been nice because I could talk to Dr. Alice Hamilton10 & she is such a dear, so gentle & unassuming & yet look what she’s done! A lesson to most of us who think we have to assert ourselves to be useful & particularly good for me as I was feeling rather annoyed with F.D.R. Nothing unusual just a little feeling on his part that he was abused because I didn’t co-operate with his plans about Hyde Park when I wasn’t asked at the time to sit in or express an idea!11 Then my pride was injured at his perfect forgetfulness of a political suggestion I had made on the train & I was annoyed till I realized to-night how small it all was sitting by the sweet faced woman who has probably given the impetus to workmen’s compensation & research into industrial diseases & saved countless lives & heartbreaks.

  Now I hear the platform read over the radio as I write. It seems to be going smoothly, tho’ I heard F. say before dinner to [political adviser] Jim Byrnes that one change was “weasly”!

  I am sensing you may think I shouldn’t go with you on a working trip, how would it be to meet me in Warm Springs? Perhaps we can have at least a week end or two.

  All my love,

  E.R.

  Eleanor’s casual reference in this letter—as well as in many others—to hosting a tea party belies the enormous quantity of time and energy she devoted to formal entertaining. In a single year, ER had received 9,211 tea guests, 4,729 dinner guests, and 323 house guests. Serving as hostess for so many White House visitors while balancing her myriad other commitments meant that Eleanor typically began her day at 7 a.m. and did not go to bed until 3 or 4 the next morning.

  June 27th [1936]

  THE WHITE HOUSE

  Washington

  Dearest, This is a peaceful day! Only a presentation of Bibles for guest rooms at the White House by the Gideons(!) & a tea party at four! We leave at 5:15 for Philadelphia & I’ve read F’s speech which is good, not specific enough for me but I am doubtless wrong on that.12

  The magnolias out of my window are in bloom & they look beautiful at night. I listened [to t
he convention] last night & wondered if in 1783 they whooped it up so much. It seems undignified & meaningless but perhaps we need it!

  It has always been so saner a business for me (living I mean) & I guess this quality of abandon is a grand thing to have.

  Gee! I wish I could be excited about all this, I can’t & I hate myself!

  Bless you dear one, I’ll wire you from Hyde Park to-morrow.

  All my love,

  E.R.

  Did you ever long to be a mouse & burrow in the ground?

  Near the end of this letter, Eleanor mentions the session in which she joined Franklin and his most trusted political advisers, on the heels of the Democratic National Convention, to plot the strategy for his reelection campaign.

  [July 2, 1936]

  THE WHITE HOUSE

  Washington

  Dearest one, Your Saturday & Sunday night letter reached me here today forwarded from Hyde Park & you sounded very happy & made me wish to be with you.

  This has been a busy day begun by breakfast with Ruby [Black],13 Tommy, Bess [Furman],14 & Martha [Strayer]15 the other guests. Then [visited] 2 WPA projects in Alexandria [Virginia]—a pitiful little day nursery for colored children & a white women’s sewing project but the relief rolls are way down which is encouraging. 11 [a.m.] Press Conference. 2:30 [p.m.] I spent 2 hours with F.D.R., Jim Farley, [Charlie] Michelson, Stanley High & Forbes Morgan.

  Ever so much love dear one,

  E.R.

  July 11th [1936]

  Stevens Hotel

  Chicago

  My dear:

  The heat sadly reduces my energy! Partly—or largely—because it keeps me from sleeping at night. Last night I had to get up five times and wring a bath towel in cold water and put it over me. I can’t really decide whether I’m cooler with or without it, although it does make sleep possible, for a few minutes at least. I’m grateful though, for the fact that in the late afternoon and early evening this room, on the lake front, is fairly comfortable. It’s when I have to close the door and go to bed that Hell starts. How the rest of Chicago survives is beyond me. Along the beaches you can hardly see the water for people. And they tell me that, with the wind blowing from the West—blowing the water out instead of in—the water becomes very impure. At a time like this last year, they tested the water at Oak Street, the most populous beach, and found it almost 50 per cent urine! Humanity along the lakefront these days is not a very lovely spectacle. I’d not mind nudism so much if only the human body were beautiful! It certainly is not, usually. (No, Madame, I’m not doing any boasting, either!)