The First Lady of Radio (13 page)

GH: With so much to do at the White House, how do you find time to be away as much as you are?

ER: I think being out and around the country is just as important, more so sometimes, than some of the things I do in the White House.

GH: Why is that?

ER: If I stayed in Washington all the time, I'd lose touch with the rest of the world. I might have a less crowded life but I would begin to think, perhaps, that my life in Washington was representative of the rest of the country, and that is a dangerous point of view.

GH: What's the greatest satisfaction in being the president's wife? Or what do you enjoy the most?

ER: I'd say the sense of enlarged vision. Because you can see the nation as a whole, through individuals you meet from every part of the country. Also the ability the position gives you to do helpful things for a great many people. Take the little girl, for instance, who because I was so prominent in public, wrote and told me she had never been able to walk straight. Through the kindness of my friends in the orthopedic hospital, she was put through the necessary operations. After ten months in a plaster cast she came out as straight as any other child. She is now earning her own living.

GH: Meeting so many, don't people tend to become all alike to you?

ER: On the reception line it's hard to get more than just a casual impression. But I meet so many others who have something definite to tell me, both at the White House and around the country. Through such meetings I know those people as individuals. I know their lives. One day a woman stopped me as she went past me in the receiving line and said, “May I talk to you for a minute afterwards? I am trying to make my living as a farmer and I need some help.” She came back afterwards and told me the familiar story of farm loans, drought, poor crops, et cetera. Between us we tried to work out some of the difficulties with the proper government agencies and I learned a great deal from her and it helped me to understand similar conditions throughout the country.

GH: What is the greatest drawback to being a president's wife?

ER: I think it's the fact that you have to think of what you do not as a private citizen but as a public personage. In private life you can be yourself, always. Those who know you will understand. But what you do of a public nature will be seen not only by friends who know you but by many people who will be affected by what you say or do without the background of knowledge of you, yourself. So you cannot count on a correct interpretation. For instance, a great many people may think that your interest in a certain thing is because of some political reason, whereas anyone who had known you would at once realize that that interest had been yours for many years.

GH: Do you think being the wife of a president changes a woman?

ER: No, I don't think it does inside. It changes your method of thinking to a certain extent, but it doesn't change you as a person at all.

GH: In being the wife of a president, what does that mean to your private life? Where do you get time for it?

ER: You have very little time. But you plan for such things as are important to you. You do what you feel you must do to retain your individuality. Some people say they can get along without outdoor exercise. I
feel that's necessary and will find time for it during the day even though it may mean I work far into the night. I feel it's important to get away from the White House and back to people who don't treat me as a personage. That's why I arrange my time so as to get away and be with old friends now and then. But Geno, before we get into our other questions, Virginia Barr has a word to say, and then we'll continue our talk.

(MIDDLE COMMERCIAL)

ER: Mrs. Herrick thinks I should tell you a little of what it means to run a presidential household.

GH: What about clothes? Do you have to have a new dress for every occasion?

ER: Oh my, no. But I have to have a great many more than I sometimes think I need. In the winter, with the increased entertaining, I have to have more dresses. This year I had new inauguration clothes, but if it were not for the many photographs one could wear clothes longer.

GH: Do you have any set time for going to bed?

ER: I never get there before eleven and frequently it is three a.m.

GH: And then up again at a quarter to eight?

ER: Oh, yes.

GH: How do you feel about the publicity that follows you so much?

ER: The essential publicity of public appearances concerns me very little. But other types of publicity concern me a great deal, not only for myself but for members of my family. Young people hate to have every move recorded and I myself very often feel that the people can hardly be interested in some of the things which are written.

GH: Do you write all your own things?

ER: Yes, I dictate every word which appears over my signature. I've been told that I have a ghostwriter, but there are no skeletons in my desk.

GH: What's the funniest thing that's happened to you?

ER: I don't know whether I think this is as funny as it is natural, but I made some purchases in a New York department store and gave my
name and address as Mrs. F. D. Roosevelt, R-O-O-S-E-V-E-L-T, The White House, Washington, DC. The girl wrote quickly and, without looking up, said, “Any room number?”

(LAUGHTER)

ER: Now, Geno, I know we could go on forever but I must go home, for we have people staying in the house and one rule is that the president is not kept waiting, and he expects dinner at seven forty-five. In closing, I should like to say to all who are listening that we will welcome any suggestions or questions you want to send in. I really can't acknowledge your letters though, and we can't give any assurance that your questions will be answered in the ensuing broadcasts, but we will do our best. And if you do write, would you please address your letters to the radio station to which you're listening?

Next Wednesday I'll be back again to describe a typical day in the White House. I'm going to select a recent day and then Mrs. Thompson and I will tell you all about it. You know I feel that the White House is your house, and in this way I hope you will feel that you're sharing a day with me there. Good night.

(COMMERCIAL)

(CLOSING ANNOUNCEMENT)

14.

“Education of a Daughter for the Twentieth Century”

The Pond's Program

Wednesday, May 5, 1937

ANNOUNCER: This is Virginia Barr of the Pond's Company, speaking from Seattle, Washington, and bringing you Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt. Tonight, Mrs. Roosevelt is going to give us her ideas on the education of a daughter for the twentieth century.

(COMMERCIAL)

BARR: And now I have the great privilege of presenting Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt!

ER: Good evening. As I am in Seattle now, visiting my daughter, Anna Roosevelt Boettiger, and her family, I asked her to join me tonight and together we are going to discuss for you the education of a daughter for the twentieth century. I, from the point of view of educating Anna, and Anna, from the point of view of educating her [own daughter] Eleanor.

AB: That's right, Mother, and don't forget to speak of her always as Eleanor. She doesn't like “Sistie” anymore.

ER: Yes, I'll be very careful.

AB: Well, in talking about education, I often wondered how you picked the various phases of mine.

ER: I tried to pick out the things which meant most to me. My grandmother, who brought me up, thought of all women as wives, mothers, and adornments to society. I didn't want to restrict you to that field. I had a faint inkling that you would have to meet different circumstances than had fallen to my lot. I wasn't perfectly sure what your preparation should be, but I believed any aptitudes you showed should be given an opportunity to develop. From your point of view, Anna, what do you feel was the most useful part of the education you received?

AB: The most useful? Well, I think it was the development of my bump of curiosity.

ER: I'm glad to hear you say that. What do you feel developed it most?

AB: Why, you and Father. You made me feel there is so much in the world that not a second should be lost learning all about it.

ER: I think I remember several seconds, and even minutes, which you thought could be missed when it came to learning various subjects.

AB: Oh, that was in school, Mother. But at home, I was terribly curious about everything, except maybe learning to play the piano. If I remember rightly my chief interest lay in hiding in the kitchen closet when my music teacher was about to arrive.

ER: I never knew that, Anna. But as you hated to play the piano, I think it's interesting that you make Sistie, I mean Eleanor, do it. You'd better explain that a little.

AB: Oh, she
wants
to learn. She has a good ear and she also plays in her school harmonica band.

ER: I know, but tell me this. If she didn't want to learn, would you still make her?

AB: No. Not if it was only so she could play little pieces for company. But yes if it would help her appreciate music and get more fun out of playing later on.

ER: Now, Anna, back to that curiosity of yours.

AB: Well, one thing, I know I was terribly curious about people. I still am.

ER: Your father and I made a point to have you with us a great deal. And to give you every opportunity to meet all types of interesting people. I think that's an important part of anyone's education, for nowadays a person has to work with so many different types of people that it's never too early to start getting used to them. And another result of a child's being familiar with people is the development of poise. They learn to be at ease with others, know how to be themselves—natural at all times. That will be one of their greatest assets all their lives.

AB: I remember when I was eighteen I toured New York State with the women's division of the Democratic State Committee. I had to keep all the schedules and all the accounts, and get along with everybody on the tour. If I hadn't learned about people before I went on that trip, I would have been lost. Then when I branched out into other types of work, such as the Girl Scouts and later into radio and writing, I found out again how important knowing human beings is as a background.

ER: Another thing that I think mothers are interested in today is the reading their daughters do.

AB: I wanted to find out what was between the covers of almost every book I could lay my hands on. And I think that today my understanding of a great many things is traceable to the historical background I got from reading all sorts of books.

ER: It was a good thing I didn't censor your reading. It seemed to me that to be turned loose in a library, as I had been when I was a child,
was the best way of gaining knowledge. If you happened on a book that was unsuitable to your age, you simply would not understand it, but it would do you no harm. I may be wrong about this theory but it seems to have worked with you.

AB: Well, I'm going to use the same theory with Eleanor.

ER: She isn't much of a reader yet, is she?

AB: Just now her chief interests are tomboyish rather than bookish. Playing cops and robbers is her favorite pastime when school is out.

ER: There's another thing, Anna, that bothered me as a girl. I had an inferiority complex, which so many children suffer from.

AB: It took me a long time to get over mine and I think that was your fault.

ER: Really? Why?

AB: Well, I never felt I could be as capable and interesting as you and Father were.

ER: I have heard many young people say that about their elders. I have come to believe that one of the essentials of education is developing a sense of self-confidence. If only our companionship could have developed as freely when you were little as it did later on. I would have probably understood a great deal more. You are doing a better job with your child.

AB: That's nice of you, Mother. But how do I know how she'll feel about it when she grows up?

ER: That's so, but perhaps she'll feel as we do now. I don't think of you only as a daughter but as my best friend.

AB: You're quite right, and companionship is one of the fundamentals of education. To develop this companionship with my daughter today, I feel that I can never allow myself to go stale, never lose my perspective, sense of humor, or the ability to put myself in the other fellow's place—in my daughter's place. But there are other fundamentals too.

ER: If you mean the R's: readin,' ritin' and 'rithmatic, I think they are a necessity. But there is one more fundamental, and that is to learn
to think for oneself and to know where and how to look up information and to concentrate on your study.

AB: I've got one more important than that: seeing
why
you should learn those facts. I know any number of children who would be bright students if they could only get a good answer to why they have to learn. History dates, for instance. And when I was in school the art of darning seemed so useless. I remember being handed a perfectly good piece of cloth with a hole cut in the middle of it and being told to darn it. Well, I did. But then when it was approved they cut it all out and made me practice darning a bigger hole.