The First Lady of Radio (24 page)

ER: Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. As you have said, I was in Michigan and Ohio last week, and it was a flying trip, Mr. Hicks, just as you called it.

GH: Well, in your brief talks with people in the Middlewest, Mrs. Roosevelt, what reaction did you find to the problem of national defense?

ER: I was in Michigan and Ohio, and I think this is probably one of the centers of strong “America First” sentiment. This I believe is partly because of the leadership and partly because—while they are a defense production center—they feel themselves far away from the coast and find it impossible to visualize any attack from Europe or Asia. It seems practically impossible from their point of view.

GH: You were telling me, though, that some people in that part of the country did take the threat to their security very seriously, even to the extent of publishing a Hitler invasion map of the Middlewest.

ER: Yes, Mr. Hicks. Someone told me that there had been published in this area a rather interesting map, superimposing Russia on our own map, and showing that the German Army's successful march toward Moscow would mean practically a march in this country reaching to Indianapolis, Indiana, with such cities as Cincinnati being wiped out on the way.

GH: And what's the answer of the isolationists of Ohio and Michigan to this map, Mrs. Roosevelt?

ER: Their answer is probably that the German Army did not have to cross an ocean to get to Russia and did not have to land in the face of opposition. All of which, I grant, adds to the difficulty of invasion and does give one a measure of security.

GH: But Mrs. Roosevelt, what would be your answer to those in the Middlewest who feel themselves geographically secure from attack from Europe or Asia?

ER: Well, suppose we forget temporarily about the traditional way of fighting a war and think about the possibility of a new kind of war. Suppose Hitler is able to subdue the whole of Europe, including Great
Britain. That would give him control of the seas and the ability to produce ships, both for war and for commerce, far beyond our own ability to do so.

I have heard people ask why we cannot make peace with Hitler. Why can't we do business with Hitler? The answer is contained in a little book called,
You Can't Do Business with Hitler
, which everyone should read. If Hitler controls the seas, he can outbuild us, and we need no further proof of his organizing ability. He would control as slaves a great number of people, and he can undersell us.

You do not have to land an army on our coasts. You can fly today and do more harm with bombs than any army could possibly do. Doubting Thomas, complacently secure, will say, “Where are our airplanes?” They will be out trying to defend our shores as the boys of the RAF [Royal Air Force] are trying to defend England. And both sides will lose men and planes. If we cannot outbuild and out-train the waves of men and machines that come over, we eventually are going under.

GH: Those are very serious and thought-provoking words, Mrs. Roosevelt. You believe, then, that every citizen, whether he lives on the East Coast, on the West Coast, or right in the center of this great country of ours, should face the same stern facts?

ER: Yes, I do, Mr. Hicks. There are two possibilities every citizen should ponder, because they are the two things that all of us are up against today. First, we are either going to furnish material which makes it possible for nations now fighting Hitler to win out, regardless of what it costs us. Or we are going to find ourselves eventually fighting alone, with all the resources of Europe and Asia against us. Too great a sense of security has caused the downfall of many nations, and sometimes I wonder if we do not suffer in high places from too great a sense of security now, and too little realization of the sense of insecurity which prevails among certain of our people.

GH: You mean economic insecurity, Mrs. Roosevelt?

ER: Yes. Those people may think that there is nothing worth risking their lives for since it seems to them simply a transfer to a new bondage, which may be better than the present one and which they believe cannot be worse.

That brings me to the second possibility I mentioned a moment ago. We are going to make our communities worth living in through the work of volunteers in our civilian defense work. Or if this work is not particularly glamorous, and we cannot find volunteers who will take it seriously and put it through, then we are going to have groups of people who do not think our land is worth defending. That situation would give Hitler the most valuable ally he could possibly have.

GH: Then, Mrs. Roosevelt, you believe a great factor in civilian defense must be increasing the effort on the part of the individual community to see that its own people are taken care of—that there are no persons in that community so underprivileged that they can see nothing in the American way of living to defend?

ER: Yes. Our federal agencies which gather information on relief report that in many parts of our great country there are families lacking food, shelter, clothing, and many other things which we count as necessities for healthful and decent living, simply because the community has no money or too little money to provide needed general relief. Poverty breeds physical and mental disabilities and, finally, delinquency. While we have every reason to expect that the rising tide of employment will mean that people are able to pay for a better standard of living, it will not excuse us from doing the work which will educate them to take the best possible advantage of any change that may come in the employment picture. This must be done by the communities that are aware of the situations they face.

GH: But Mrs. Roosevelt, haven't the relief agencies been counting on surplus commodities to help feed the unemployed?

ER: That's just it, Mr. Hicks, Those surplus commodities may
disappear completely in the next year. Then we shall have a very serious social situation. In thousands of cities, towns, and villages and country places, there are still families who are unable to get enough relief for even the barest necessities of life, if indeed they can get any relief at all. In fact, there is one great state where the relief workers are accustomed to stories which run something like this: “I am hungry and my kids are hungry. We haven't had anything but surplus [food] for so long I am too weak to look for work. And I don't know if I could hold a job if I could get one. The flour and beans are good, but they just won't last us a month.” And this state is no exception. This is truly a national problem of defense to be met in communities from coast to coast.

GH: That's very serious indeed. Mrs. Roosevelt, we have received many letters, as we know you have, asking for more of those delightful stories of yours like that story you told us last week about Princess Juliana and her little daughters. I know you've brought us another story or two from your trip.

ER: Flying from New York City to Detroit the other day, we had an amusing pilot who passed word back to us that we were on flight eleven on the eleventh day of the eleventh month, that his license was one-eleven and it was the eleventh year of his employment with the American Airlines. We were on route seven, he added, for the benefit of the superstitious who could feel that seven and eleven was a good combination. Altogether, the coincidences on eleven, I thought, were quite amusing.

Last week I told you about those two little Dutch princesses. Well, the children of this country are certainly becoming conscious of their importance as citizens. Two small boys came to the door of our rooms at the hotel in Detroit, demanding to see me. Miss [Malvina] Thompson explained that I was busy and could not see them, and then the smaller one said, “But we belong to the American public, too, and we want to
see Mrs. Roosevelt.” You can be sure Miss Thompson let them stay and made me stop and speak to them.

And now, I would like you all to bear in mind the creed written by Stephen Vincent Benét for those who work in civilian defense. A voluntary pledge:

I pledge myself as an American to the work of civilian defense.

I do so voluntarily, in faith and loyalty, because I believe in my country.

I believe in its freedom and its greatness, in the liberties I share with all Americans, in the way of life we, the people, have made here with our own laws and with our own hands.

I mean to defend those liberties and that way of life, with my own hands, here and now. The task I am called upon to do may be small or large. I mean to see that it gets done.

It may mean hard work and sacrifices. I mean to see that it gets done.

I am neither soldier nor sailor but, as an American citizen, I take my place beside the armed forces of the nation, willing and ready as they are to protect the homes and the lives, the wellbeing and the freedom of my fellow citizens, to defend the country I love, to maintain its cause against all enemies and every danger. And to this task I pledge my whole strength and my whole heart.

Now, Mr. Hicks, before I close, I want to call attention to the fact that the American Red Cross roll call is now going on, and everyone who is not a member of the Red Cross will be given an opportunity to join. And those who are annual members can rejoin between the dates of November eleventh and November thirtieth. Surely there is no one who would not want to give this organization whatever support
they can at this time, when the Red Cross is sending help all over the world.

GH: Thank you, Mrs. Roosevelt, for your inspiring discussion of world events, for your charming stories, and thank you for speaking for that great institution, the American Red Cross. Next week, we understand Mrs. Roosevelt has invited to be her guest on this program Mr. Daniel G. Arnstein, who has just returned from China's lifeline, the Burma Road, where his recommendations for traffic control have already increased the flow of war supplies to China. Until then, good evening, and don't forget that good-night cup of coffee.

29.

“Pearl Harbor Attack”

Over Our Coffee Cups,
presented by the Pan-American Coffee Bureau

December 7, 1941

Radio flashed the news to the nation at 2:30 p.m. Eastern time: Japanese airplanes had attacked Pearl Harbor. The radio networks cleared their schedules to provide rolling coverage throughout the day. Industry was warned to be on guard for sabotage. Servicemen and -women were ordered back to base. The Navy announced that all recruiting stations would open at eight the next morning. One newspaper described the attack as “the biggest news event in U.S. radio history.”
¹

Eleanor Roosevelt's regularly scheduled NBC news commentary program,
Over Our Coffee Cups
, was scheduled for that evening. ER went from the White House to NBC's Washington studios with her secretary, Malvina Thompson. When she arrived, ER told the advertising agency man in charge of her program that she had been rewriting her script. A newspaper reporter turned Army morale officer named Jimmy
Cannon was her scheduled guest. Cannon fumbled with the clasp on his script and ER calmly leaned over to help him.

The first part of ER's message was directed at the nation's women and youth. “We know what we have to face and we know we are ready to face it,” she declared. ER inaccurately reported that the Japanese ambassador had been talking to FDR at the White House at the time of the Pearl Harbor attack. She had mistaken a Chinese diplomat for Japan's ambassador. Then, ER introduced Corporal Cannon and spoke to him about troop morale. After the broadcast, Cannon remembered walking the streets of Washington, “feeling big and proud because on this night I had been in the presence of the president's wife.”
²

ANNOUNCER: This is Leon Pearson speaking for the Pan-American Coffee Bureau, which represents seven good neighbor coffee-growing nations, and presenting to you American families your Sunday-evening visit with Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt. This evening Mrs. Roosevelt has as her guest Corporal James Cannon, 1229th Reception Center, Fort Dix. But first, Dan Seymour has a word from our sponsors, the Pan-American Coffee Bureau.

ANNOUNCER DAN SEYMOUR: In this moment of trial, the seven neighbor countries which make up the Pan-American Coffee Bureau welcome the chance to express their support for their great good neighbor, the United States. The new solidarity which has been effected between the Americas in the last few years stands us all in good stead in the face of this emergency. This applies not only in a commercial sense, for Uncle Sam can count on Latin America for essential materials, whether oil or tin or copper or coffee—but also in a political sense. The Americas stand together.

PEARSON: Thank you, Dan Seymour. And now here's the Pan-American Coffee Bureau's Sunday-evening news reviewer and news
maker, to give us her usual interesting observations on the world we live in, Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt.

ER: Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. I am speaking to you tonight at a very serious moment in our history. The cabinet is convening and the leaders in Congress are meeting with the president. The State Department and Army and Navy officials have been with the president all afternoon. In fact, the Japanese ambassador was talking to the president at the very time that Japan's airships were bombing our citizens in Hawaii and the Philippines and sinking one of our transports loaded with lumber on its way to Hawaii.

By tomorrow morning, the members of Congress will have a full report and be ready for action. In the meantime we, the people, are already prepared for action. For months now, the knowledge that something of this kind might happen has been hanging over our heads. And yet it seemed impossible to believe, impossible to drop the everyday things of life and feel that there was only one thing which was important: preparation to meet an enemy, no matter where he struck. That is all over now and there is no more uncertainty. We know what we have to face and we know that we are ready to face it.