Eleanor Roosevelt

by Blanche Wiesen Cook

  511 Mason considered ER “the most useful woman in America”: Mason was particularly grateful to ER for her appointment to the National Emergency Council, which FDR convened to address the South’s regional problems. Southern leaders would meet in July, and Mason hoped to see ER there. But ER intended to be exclusively at Hyde Park. Masterful, Mason to ER, 1 July 1938; ER to Mason, 3 July 1938.

  511 World Youth Congress: ER to Elizabeth Shields-Collins, secretary, World Youth Congress Movement, Geneva, 13 Jan. 1938, 100, Box 1477: “I will be glad to attend … 15 August.” Originally, ER tried to persuade FDR to accept the World Youth Congress as an official government-sponsored conference, and finance it. ER to FDR, 7 Jan. 1938; FDR memo to ER, 10 Jan. 1938, rejecting idea. There were altogether too many groups to support.

  511–12 Aubrey Williams and AYC: Gould, p. 86; McCloskey to ER, in Lash, Eleanor and Franklin, p. 545. ER was particularly fond of Joseph Cadden, then editor of the National Student Mirror and associated with the National Student Federation; William Porter of Kentucky, president of the AYC’s Southern branch; and especially William Hinckley, AYC chairman. Born in South Dakota, Hinckley was “big and bouncing.” An award-winning scholar and athlete, he graduated from Rollins College, and had a master’s in social science from Columbia. Unfailingly cheerful, he and his widowed mother worked hard for every educational opportunity he achieved. He had great respect for struggling people, a profound commitment to democratic activism, and unbounded admiration for ER. I am grateful to Vivian Cadden for information and AYC memorabilia.

  512 AYC’s Declaration of Rights: Hinckley to ER, 23 Mar. 1938; Leslie Gould, American Youth Today (Random House, 1940).

  513 ER moved on: ER became close to several AYC leaders, notably Hinckley, Joseph Cadden (executive secretary), Abbot Simon (legislative secretary), Josaph Lash (AYC vice president and president, American Student Union), Molly Yard (a vigorous organizer, and vice president of the American Student Union), and Jack McMichael (a student orator from Quitman, Georgia, who went to China for the YMCA; he succeeded Hinckley as AYC president, then attended Union Theological Seminary and became a progressive rural Methodist minister). In 1938 the AYC executive board included Louise Meyerovitz of Young Judea; unionist James Carey (UERMWA, United Electrical Workers, CIO), Hipolito Marcano (Puerto Rican Youth Congress), Lael Moon (American Country Life Association), Edward Strong (National Negro Congress), and Myrtle Powell (YWCA).

  513 “to jolt women out of their apathy”: ER quoted in NYT, 28 Dec. 1938.

  514 ER elected to AYC advisory board: Hinckley to ER, 23 Mar. 1938; ER to Hinckley, 16 April, with attachments on congressional investigation of the AYC, 100, Box 1462; on Hinckley, Gould; Abbott Simon and Vivian Cadden to BWC.

  514 Catholic lobby, divorce and birthing: NYT, 27 April 1938; Lash, Eleanor and Franklin, p. 568.

  514 ER a Red leader: ER to Mrs. Jack Trautman, 1 July 1936; Trautman to ER, 13 June 1936 (Columbus, Ohio), 100, Box 1408. See also Elizabeth Dilling’s The Red Network, and Jeansonne, Women of the Radical Right.

  515 Rumors of Hopkins’s impending marriage: Hick to ER, 19 May; ER to Hick, 21 May 1938.

  515 no special time, Barbirolli “too pedantic”: ER to Hick, 29 Apr. 1938.

  515–16 Wages and hours law, and Lubin: in Davis, pp. 240–41.

  516 ER amused by Kennedy’s impressions: ER to Hick, 22 June 1938.

  516 Anne Lindsay Clark marries John Roosevelt: Sun. NYT, 19 June 1938.

  516 At Val-Kill: ER to Hick, 6 July, 23 June 1938.

  517 Evian Conference: Morse, pp. 170–76; Hitler quoted in Davis, p. 197; Evian resulted from a suggestion made by Sumner Welles on 25 Mar. 1938; Shirer, Berlin Diary, 7 July 1938, pp. 119–20.

  517 Galápagos: FDR to ER aboard USS Houston, 24 July 1938, 31 July, 1 Aug., 2 Aug., pp. 799–800.

  517–18 Winston Churchill’s boot FDR to Uncle Fred, 25 June 1938, “Ever so many thanks…. It will make great reading on the trip …,” p. 793. Upon his return, jolly and satisfied, ER noted: “F seems to have had a perfect holiday.” ER to Hick, 12 Aug 1938. Although she never wanted to join him on his fishing adventures, ER envied FDR’s trip to the Galapagos and vowed one day to go there herself, which she did during the war.

  518 “life may be somewhat negative”: ER to Hick, 21 July 1938.

  518 “If you like it one-tenth”: Hick to ER; curious tone: ER to Elizabeth and Esther, 2 Aug. 1938.

  518 ER replied frankly: ER to Esther, 11 Aug. 1938.

  518 In Hick’s space: Hick had once written ER about her hilarious moments with Bill Dana, the two of them together through the woods hunting, with music and brandy, in his Rolls-Royce town car. “That’s the sort of thing that would happen only out here!” It was not, however, something that might thrill ER. Hick to ER, 30 Oct. 1937, LH, Box 4; I am grateful for Doris Dana’s memories of her father and Hick on the place; politely: ER to Hick, 5 Aug. 1938.

  519 Letters of complaint: ER to FDR, 4 Aug.; to Elinor Morgenthau, 6 Aug. 1938.

  519 three letters to Anna: ER to Anna, 4 Aug. 1938; Halsted, Box 57; ER to Anna, 12 Aug. 1938; driven by work: ER to Anna, 22 Aug. 1938.

  520 A dozen AYC leaders: William Hinckley to ER, 5 August 1938, 100, Box 1462; NYT, 10 Aug. 1938.

  520 FDR to ER, 2 Aug.; n.d., Aug., from Balboa, pp. 800–801; “I don’t want to go anywhere”: ER to FDR, 4 Aug. 1938.

  520–21 FDR speech, 18 August 1938: Selected speeches, pp. 158ff.; Dallek, p. 163. Germany dismissed his words as “moral preachment.”

  521 World Youth Congress, from beginning: NYT, 10 Aug. 1938; Gould, passim.

  521 On U.S. attendance at Nuremberg rally: See FDR to Sumner Welles, 3 June 1938, pp. 790–91; see also Offner.

  522 ER differs with the bishops: “Radicals at Vassar,” in America, 6 Aug. 1938; sent to ER by Reverend J. Murphy; ER to Father Murphy, 16 Aug. 1938, 100, Box 1470.

  522 ER greeted the delegates: NYT, 17 Aug. 1938.

  522–23 Details of the Youth Congress in Gould, pp. 90–94.

  523 “a lesson to their elders”: ER to Hick, 27 Aug. 1938; see also Lash, Friends, pp. 1–6.

  523 Hallie Flanagan and first Dies committee hearing: See Eric Bentley, 30 Years of Treason (Viking, 1971), pp. 3–55.

  523 endured tough questions: NYT, 21 Aug. 1938.

  523 ER left Vassar: ER to Hick, 16 Aug. 1938; 27 Aug. 1938.

  523 ER defended the Congress: NYT, 21 Aug. 1938. Matthews also explained the origin of the ASU in the autumn of 1935: The National Student League and the Student League for Industrial Democracy, associated with Norman Thomas, merged and the ASU became the united front’s student movement. ER initially ignored the Dies hearings that August, and defended the Youth Congress as “an outstanding event,” in her Democratic Digest column, Oct. 1938.

  524 letter to disturbed citizens, “I do not believe in Communism”: ER to Ellinor Heiser, Md., 6 Sept. 1938, 100, Box 1461.

  524 triumphant dive: ER to Hick, 21 Aug. 1938.

  525 “fish in a back water”: ER to Hick, 27 Aug. 1938.

  525 Hall appeared: ER to Hick, 28 Aug. 1938; additional details: 31 Aug. 1938.

  526–27 Inauguration letters: Tommy to Anna, Jan. 1937; “George Bye told me … $25,000 job”: n.d., Jan. 1938, Halsted, Box 75.

  527 “Our Daughters’ Heritage”: Marion Dickerman Papers, Box 4.

  527 “I am terribly sorry”: ER to MD, quoted in Davis, Summer, pp. 148–49. Still, ER was not ready simply to abandon Todhunter. On 30 Mar. Tommy wrote “Dear Gorgeous” that “Todhunter hogs a lot of time.” Still it was an “affliction to be born with so much generosity and kindness as your mother has.” Then, in April, Tommy wrote with glee: “Your mother will probably tell you about Myron Taylor’s dinner. [He] told them in no uncertain terms that your mother was the one and only drawing card…. He frankly admitted that he would have no interest whatsoever unless it were for your mother….” Tommy to Anna, 15 Apr. 38.

  527 “as a contact”: ER to Dickerman, with details of the
meeting with Hooker, Bernard Baruch, and Judge Gerard, 26 Apr. 1938.

  527 “endurance test”: Tommy to Anna, n.d., 30 Mar. 1937; “my house”: 10 Sept. 1937.

  528 Dickerman appointed to commission: Tommy to Anna, 11 July 1938.

  528 ER once before tried to get Dickerman a job: ER to Hopkins, 14 June 1935, 70, Box 653.

  529 Dickerman’s sojourn a disaster: Frances Perkins, Columbia Oral History, vol. 5, pp. 415–40.

  529 ER in Democratic Digest: Oct. 1938; Dickerman observed Kennedy, and Swope: Davis, Summer, pp. 149–50.

  530 “it makes your mother very nervous”: Tommy to Anna, 6 Aug. 1938.

  530 at dock: Davis, p. 150; “Eleanor hurt her”: Dickerman, Columbia Oral History Project, p. 352.

  530 “Eleanor never forgot a hurt”: Dickerman, Oral, p. 352.

  530 “your mother never takes any credit”: Tommy to Anna, May 1937, Halsted, Box 75.

  531 “Pa’s ten days”: ER to Anna, 30 Aug. 1938, Halsted, Box 57.

  532 For the significant Arthurdale sums in Nancy Cook’s account, see Pickett to ER, 1934–37.

  532 Tommy’s call “incredibly dashing”: Lape, Memories of Saltmeadow, in Lape Papers, FDRL, pp. 25–26. ER confided her deepest feelings to Lape, “I am overcome now and then by the shameless way in which I tell you all the little things of life but then they do make up the major part of our existence, dont they?” ER to Lape, 5 Oct. 1938.

  532–33 “I thought I had made it very clear”: ER to Nan and Marion, 29 Oct. 1938, MD, Box 4, p. 577; the final separation agreement: ER to MD, 9 Nov. 1938, ibid.

  533 Dickerman-ER telegrams: Davis, p. 153.

  533–34 Tommy to Lape and Read, Nov. 1938.

  534 “Franklin dear”: Nancy Cook to FDR, 14 Nov. 1938, ppf, 1256.

  535 “The only instance”: Dickerman to ER, 16 May, in Davis, p. 155.

  535 “I know nothing,” Dickerman’s final letters: in Davis, pp. 155–57.

  536 “an empty victory”: Tommy to Anna, 12 Nov. 1938.

  536 Tommy had minor surgery: Lucy Randolph Mason to ER, 24 June 1938; ER to Mason, 5 July.

  536 Dr. Steele, “complete disillusionment”: Tommy to Anna, 12 Nov. 1938, Halsted, box 75.

  536 “I hate to see you disillusioned”: Hick to ER, 17 Nov. 1938.

  Chapter 27: Storms on Every Front

  538 FDR’s words thrilled ER’s allies: See Linda Reed, Simple Decency and Common Sense: The Southern Conference Movement, 1938–1963 (Indiana University Press, 1991), intro; Virginia Durr, Outside the Magic Circle: The Autobiography of Virginia Durr (University of Alabama Press, 1985), pp. 116–18.

  538—39 “I like facing facts”: ER to Hick; “Father came to Rochester”: James Roosevelt, p. 309; ER described her lonely hospital vigil, and their flight: TIR, p. 166; Democratic Digest, Nov. 1938.

  539 to avert war by “flattering him why it is worth doing”: ER to Hick, 15 Sept. 1938.

  539 “tension in the house is great”: ER to Anna, 15 Sept. 1938.

  540 Lake Geneva, 14–22 Sept.: Shirer, Diary, pp. 124–37.

  540 Nicolson lunched with Litvinov: Nicolson, p. 356.

  540 No gossip, only war talk: Virginia Woolf to Vanessa Bell, 28 Sept., 1 Oct., 3 Oct. 1938, Letters, VI, pp. 273–79.

  541 Marguerite Few, Once Baxter, to ER: Lash, Eleanor and Franklin, p. 573. 541 FDR’s 26 Sept. 1938 message, and responses: Sumner Welles, The Time for Decision (Harper, 1940), pp. 69–71.

  541 Munich Conference: Shirer, Diary, A.J.P. Taylor noted that Hitler wanted an Anglo-Saxon alliance, but U.S. isolation prevented that. For a recent and important discussion of appeasement and historians, see Clement Leibovitz and Alvin Finkel, In Our Time: The Chamberlain-Hitler Collusion (Monthly Review Press, 1998).

  541 The most dramatic description of the weeks that led to Munich, and beyond, is Harold Nicolson, pp. 350–76.

  541 “The poor Czechs!”: ER to FDR, 21, 27 Sept. 1938, fam/childn, box 16.

  541–42 FDR to cabinet: Ickes, p. 468.

  542 FDR quoted in Bullitt, p. 285; Keitel quoted in Churchill, p. 319; Bonnet in Bullitt, p. 284; Daladier in Bullitt, p. 287.

  542 “All is over”: Churchill, pp. 327–28.

  543 “He is not a Jew himself”: Gertrude Ely to ER, 13 Sept. 1938, 100, Box 1457; ER to Ely, 19 Sept. 1938, 100, Box 1457.

  543–44 Joseph Kennedy: Beschloss, pp. 159ff.; 177, 172, 187; see also Ickes Diary, Nov. 1938.

  544 Bullitt, Moffat, Cudahy: Ted Morgan, pp. 498–99, passim; see also Dallek.

  545 “How do you manage”: Hick to ER, 19 Sept. 1938.

  545 “an efficient maid”: ER to Hick, 20 Sept. 1938; “anxious for a glimpse”: ER to Hick, 19 Sept.

  545 “Doesn’t one feel helpless when nature gets going?”: She also wrote, “Of course you are glad to have no one on your mind—You are too busy to be bothered!” ER to Hick, 22 Sept. 1938.

  546 “Our cellars here are flooded”: ER to Hick, 23 Sept. 1938. I am grateful to David Rattray for “The Hurricane of “38,” written and produced by Thomas Lennon and Michael Epstein for the American Experience.

  546–47 “I shall not soon forget that night”: Hick to ER, 26 Sept. 1938; at the White House, “eclipsed by the world situation”: ER to Hick, 27 Sept. 1938; Esther Lape rushed to be with Elizabeth Read: see Lape, Saltmeadow, pp. 36–41.

  547 “What a mad man!”: ER to Hick, 28 Sept. 1938.

  547–48 “nature does cover up”: ER to Hick, 29 Sept. 1938; Pa’s speech and Thomas Mann: ER to Anna, 3 Oct. 1938; Mann and “Czechoslovakia set up in an arbitrary way”: My Day, 23 Sept. 1938.

  548–49 ER to Helen Gifford, 14 Oct. 1938; Lash, Eleanor and Franklin, p. 574.

  549 “Mankind has never been in this position before”: Churchill in Gathering, pp. 38–41.

  549 “I have never believed”: ER to Elizabeth Baker, National Committee on the Cause and Cure of War, 20 Jan. 1938, SCPC.

  549 “everywhere people listened,” speeches on tour, and youngest grandson: Democratic Digest, Nov. 1938.

  550 dined with Aubrey Williams, Josephine Roche, others, sympathy with Mexico’s oil lands: ER to Hick, 9 Oct. 1938; Dallek, pp. 175–76; Ickes, pp. 352, 521–22; see also Time, 8 Aug. 1938.

  551 ER to HH, 13 Oct. 1938, with poem, 70, Box 731.

  552 ER’s birthday a state occasion: NYT, 13 Oct. 1938; also, 10 Sept.; New York State women’s poll; and Women’s National Press Club honored “Good Queen Eleanor”: NYT, 16 Oct. 1938, sect. 4.

  552 Granny “aging fast”: ER to Anna, 3 Oct. 1938; worried about everything: ER to Anna, 23 Oct. 1938; publicly, “younger in spirit”: Democratic Digest, Nov. 1938.

  553–54 “Too bad Curt,” and James: ER to Anna, 23 Oct. 1938; on the road: ER to Hick, 12 Oct.; “If only you weren’t the President’s wife”: Hick to ER, 12 Oct. 1938; “I doubt dear”: ER to Hick, 15 Oct. 1938.

  554 proposed a week in Washington: ER to Hick, 21 Oct.; “thought you had put the White House aside forever!”: ER to Hick, 25 Oct. 1938; Hick to ER, 27 Oct. 1938; KKK, labor strikes: ER to Hick, 28, 29 Oct. 1938.

  554–55 birth of John Boettiger, Jr.: Anna to Tommy, 7 Nov. 1938, Halsted, box 75.

  555 Returned in time to join FDR and SDR at the polls: Democratic Digest, Dec. 1938.

  555 1938 elections disastrous: Davis, pp. 362–64.

  555 “wholly reconciled”: FDR to Josephus Daniels, 14 Nov. 1938, Letters, IV, p. 827.

  555 “libelous misinformation”: Flanagan to ER, 22 Sept. 1938; ER to Flanagan, 28 Sept. 1938, 70.

  557 “This German-Jewish business makes me sick”: ER to Hick, 14 Nov. 1938.

  557 canceled engagement because it excluded Jews: E. Digby Baltzell, The Protestant Establishment (Vintage, 1966), p. 237.

  557 drive for home for immigrant girls in Jerusalem”: NYT, 19 Oct. 1937; spoke for Léon Blum colony in Palestine: NYT, 7 Dec. 1938.

  558 TR’s 1902 message to Romania: Arthur D. Morse, While Six Million Died, p. 107.

  558 For aid to China: FDR to H
ull, 11 Jan. 1938, Letters, IV, pp. 744–45; see esp. Iris Chang, The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II (Penguin, 1997).

  558 Jews on the run for 4,000 years: FDR to William Phillips, 15 Sept. 1938, Letters, IV, p. 811.

  558 to drive wedge between Hitler and Mussolini: Ickes, 7 Jan. 1939, p. 548.

  558 Red Cross: Morse, p. 262.

  559 FDR appealed for emergency asylum: NYT, 19 Nov. 1938.

  560–61 Bowman’s report: 21 Nov. 1938; 25 Nov. 1938; psf, 177, refugees.

  561–62 Appropriate Baja, California: Sumner Welles to FDR, 28 Nov. 1938, with 12-page memo: The Dominican Republic agreed to accept 10,000; and at the subsequent London Conference raised that to 100,000. But of 2,000 refugees who applied for Dominican visas, only 20 had been granted in the preceding four months. Nicaragua admitted “a fair number of refugees.” El Salvador did not attend Evian, and refused to accept refugees. Colombia had admitted 10,000 refugees, and “believes that it is unwise to admit more.” Ecuador admitted “substantial numbers” as agriculturalists, but they all settled in cities. Ecuador then began deportation proceedings, which it rescinded “due to the efforts of the local Jewish community.”

  Brazil and Paraguay were willing to admit additional refugees. Argentina had a population of 350,000 Jews, “more than in the rest of Latin America combined.” “New and more restrictive immigration regulations went into effect October 1st. It is nevertheless probable that the government will continue to admit a not inconsiderable number of refugees.” Chile and Uruguay adopted greater restrictions after Evian. Bolivia had limited settlement potential. Peru was cooperative and wanted agriculturalists and people “with capital to establish many non-existing industries which the country seriously needs.” Cuba “has been relatively hospitable to refugees,” but made no commitment as to the future. Within six months of Welles’s discouraging assessment, additional barriers were raised everywhere. Welles, 28 Nov., psf, 177.