Column writing, like journalism, is open to any knave, poseur and first lady.
Thus, there is the prospect of the Unabomber’s writing one for Penthouse magazine if he accepts publisher Bob Guccione’s offer to stop killing. And, as Sunday readers of the Sun-Times and other papers know, one now has Hillary Rodham Clinton columnizing.
She began a month ago and has been both sincere and somewhat uninspiring, seeking to come off as a worldly and politically correct populist. She has written about the liberating experience of driving around Little Rock, Ark., by herself and of meeting Mother Teresa, as well as urged employers to subsidize, or provide, child care for workers.
So far it’s a conscious but pale imitation of a six-day-a-week, 500-word column that was written (dictated, really) by Eleanor Roosevelt for 27 years and appeared in as many as 70 newspapers.
Curious, I decided to check out the Roosevelt columns, called “My Day”–at least those she wrote as first lady, from 1936 until early 1945, when her husband died. A heavily edited smattering follows:
In early 1936, the stock market was going a bit wacky, at once nervous over Congress’ decision to give World War I veterans $2 billion in bonus payments and her husband’s having started the Social Security Act the year before, but buoyed by General Motors’ announcing record fourth-quarter profits with net earnings of $53 billion.
Jan. 22, 1936: “I am beginning to wonder if all the legislation in the world will ever make people invest their money for any really good reason. Does anyone else get the impression, I wonder, from reading the newspapers that there is little rhyme or reason to the going up or coming down of the market? . . . Business today, with all its complicated ramifications, seems a bit like the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party!”
A month later, the great singer Marian Anderson was invited to the White House to perform, very unusual for a black citizen.
Feb. 21: “My husband and I had a rare treat Wednesday night in listening to Marian Anderson, a colored contralto, who has made a great success in Europe and this country. She has sung before nearly all the crowned heads and deserves her great success, for I have rarely heard a more beautiful and moving voice or a more finished artist. She sang three Schubert songs and finished with two Negro spirituals, one of which I had never heard before.”
On March 8, 1936, Adolf Hitler moved to occupy the Rhineland, taken away from Germany after World War I. He then wanted to argue before the League of Nations about the curbs placed on Germany by the Versailles Peace Treaty.
March 18: “I am sure that everyone has been going around with a lighter heart today after reading that Hitler agreed to join the League in the discussions about the present European situation. I have always felt that in a tense situation, if time could be given for everyone to discuss what was going on before they actually went to war, we might come to our senses.”
Of the many New Deal projects, she became especially fond of Arthurdale, W. Va., a revived Appalachian community that had been beset by horrendous poverty following coal-mine closings.
Dec. 2: “It is more than six months since I was here last. . . . The chicken farm, run by a co-operative, is doing very well. The entire output of eggs is being sold to the state sanitarium at Hopemont. The Homesteaders have done well with their pigs and the dairy co-operative is about to start. They are planning to specialize in Jersey cows producing cream which will be saleable in Washington.”
In October 1937, she was struck by a magazine article on trends in the work force. Somehow combining that article with an account of going to a Boston hospital so one of her sons could have four wisdom teeth removed, she opined:
Oct. 27, 1937: “The writer makes an excellent point, it seems to me, when he says that the policy many employers have of hiring only very young people will mean we will only have some 15 years in which to earn the necessary money to care for our children until they are working age. That working age seems now to be in the 20s. We must also provide for our own old age which is to begin, apparently, after 15 years of work. Of course, looked at in cold-blooded fashion, this is preposterous–for in our own experience we know that the most vigorous and able people of our acquaintance, doing the most important work in the world, are people between 40 and 60.”
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Abe Lincoln had designated the final Thursday of November as Thanksgiving, but Franklin Roosevelt tried to change it to the fourth Thursday to promote holiday shopping. The country was split on the issue, but Congress enacted FDR’s proposal.
Nov. 23, 1939: “Here we are in Georgia celebrating Thanksgiving Day, but I do not know how many of my readers will be celebrating it on this same day! Just for my own satisfaction I am going to put down some of the things for which I am grateful, and for which I will be thankful on both the 23rd and the 30th if necessary. I am thankful we are not at war. I am thankful that more of our citizens are thinking about their government today and are realizing their obligations to that government.”
In early September 1940, German bombers began the blitz of London. On Sept. 11, Americans listened to a dramatic radio address to the British people by Prime Minister Winston Churchill. Referring to Hitler, he declared, “Little does he know the spirit of the British nation. He has lighted a fire which will burn with a steady and consuming flame until the last vestiges of Nazi tyranny have been burnt out of Europe.”
Sept. 14, 1940: “I forgot to tell you yesterday of the impression that Mr. Churchill’s speech made on me. There was calmness and great fortitude in his voice and words. It seemed a challenge to every individual Briton, which made one feel that it would be impossible to do anything but endure to the end.”
In 1941, she was not especially happy in reading about some recent economic indicators.
Nov. 14, 1941: “I had some quite appalling news on the cost of living last week. The average housewife must now spend 14 percent more money for the food she will need for the family dinner than she did a year ago. If you were preparing a meal of ham and eggs, potatoes, white bread, butter, coffee and milk, the following prices show what you would pay this year in comparison with last year: %%
Sept. Sept. Pct.
1940 1941 Increase
Ham (lb.) 24(cents) 34(cents) 42%
Eggs (doz.) 37(cents) 46(cents) 24%
Bread (lb.) 8(cents) 085(cents) 6%
Butter (lb.) 34(cents) 43(cents) 26%
Potatoes (15 lb.) 28(cents) 32(cents) 14%
Coffee (lb.) 20(cents) 25(cents) 25%
Milk (qt.) 12(cents) 14(cents) 17%
%% On Dec. 7, 1941, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor and, one-half hour after FDR’s speech to Congress, the Senate passed a declaration of war.
Dec. 9, 1941: “At noon today, at the Capitol, I had a curious sense of repetition, for I remembered very vividly the description of the same gallery when Mrs. Woodrow Wilson listened to President Wilson speak to the assembled members of Congress. Today she sat beside me as the President spoke the words which branded a nation as having departed from the code of civilized people. . . . How hard it is for human beings to learn that the only safety valve there is lies in being prepared for any eventuality. . . . If you live along the East Coast, don’t be too sure that you are out of the danger zone. Sign up today and do a job, because if you have a job to do, that responsibility will see you through any situation.”
FDR died April 12, 1945. Eleanor, for the first and only time, took time off from the column, all of four days.
April 17, 1945: “When you have lived for a long time in close contact with the loss and grief which today pervades the world, any personal sorrow seems to be lost in the general sadness of humanity. For a long time, all hearts have been heavy for every serviceman sacrificd in the war. There is only one way in which those of us who live can repay the dead who have given their utmost for the cause of liberty and justice. They died in the hope that, through their sacrifce, an enduring peace would be built and a more just world would emerge for humanity. . . .
“And now I want to say one personal word of gratitude to the many people who have sent messages of affection and condolence during these last days. My children and I are deeply grateful. I want to say too that the people who waited in the stations and along the railroad to pay their last respects have my deep appreciation.
” `And now there abideth these three–faith, hope, charity, but the greatest of these is charity.’ “