NOTABLE WOMAN

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 94, 15 January 1936, Page 15

NOTABLE WOMAN

Anna Eleanor Roosevelt’s Place in American Life

UNSELFISH PUBLIC WORK

One morning I was sitting in company with half a dozen other journalists talking to President Roosevelt in his little study at Hyde Park, the old Roosevelt family mansion overlooking the Hudson River, north of New York, relates Douglas Williams, New York correspondent of the London “Daily Telegraph.” The routine of our daily conference had been completed, questions' had been asked and answered, and the conversation had turned to lighter topics. An animated discussion was in full swing as to the respective merits of the Newspapermen’s and the Presidential baseball teams, when suddenly the door leading to the main part of the house opened, and a slim, dark-haired woman entered unannounced. Her hair was combed straight back over her head, and she wore no make-up. She was dressed in a pair of not-too-well-fitting jodhpurs and a plain white blouse, and was hatless. Bending over, she kissed the President and wished him good morning all in the most natural' manner, without affectation, and with obviously real affection. It was Mrs. Roosevelt, just setting forth on her morning ride, and a few seconds later through the window I saw her swing into her saddle and canter away down the gravelled driveway. It is probably safe to say that never has the White House at Washington contained a President’s wife who occupies a more important place in American life than Anna Eleanor Roosevelt. Her unceasing activities as adviser, diplomat and social worker have definitely made l>er the President’s partner —it is true, without official title, but still with great responsibilities. Woman of Amazing Energy. She is a woman of amazing and untiring energy. She is always going somewhere in a great hurry—by motor-car, aeroplane, train or horseback. Since she entered the White House three years ago she has probably used more petrol and purchased more train and aeroplane tickets than any other woman in public life anywhere in the world. In her first year as Mistress of the White House she travelled more than 40.000 miles. The’speedometer on her own little blue car, which she loves to drive alone and unescorted, showed a mileage of nearly 20,000. A trained public speaker, she makes more public appearances in a month than many other Presidents’ wives have done in the whole course of their husbands’ terms of office. Reporters endeavouring to keep up with her become exhausted. On one typical day she Inspected her son’s rooms at Harvard College; Ladled out soup at a charity kitchen; Went down a coal mine; Reviewed policemen; Laid a corner-stone; Inaugurated a swimming pool; Visited a theatre. In her journeys alone in her car, she thinks nothing of motoring from Washington to New York, a distance of 240 miles, in under seven hours. She justifies her wanderings by explaining that she is constantly looking for “sore spots.” “There are,” she said in a recent speech, “a great many social injustices in the United States, and it is surprising how few people actually know about them. A sore spot in any one State, unless it is cured, is sure some day to affect the whole country.” Mrs. Roosevelt arouses constant criticism, but her personality is so delightfully disarming, and the motives underlying her actions so well founded, that her critics make small headway against a vast volume of popular approval. A daily subject of discussion by housewives in a thousand different homes, she is denounced as a publicityseeker and as a “Radical,” or, alternatively, as an aimless busybody. On one occasion she made remarks about the guzzling habits of young ladies of to-day, and a deputation of so-called “women leaders” labelled her innocuous and rather amusing address as “an insult to American girlhood.” Not Upset by Criticism. On another occasion, at a Texas airport, rushing to snatch a hasty breakfast between planes, she avoided an opportunity to be photographed arm in arm with the famous woman Governor of Texas, Mrs. Miriam Ferguson, and within a few hours papers all over the State were complaining bitterly that the First Lady had snubbed Texas by preferring her morning coffee and grape fruit to a close-up with “Ma” Ferguson. These and similar attacks, however, do not upset her, and she accepts all criticism and chaff with unfailing good houmour. A nationally - published magazine once produced a cartoon showing two grimy coal-miners gazing openmouthed at a female figure advancing upon them through a shaft deep underground. “Gosh, it’s Mrs. Roosevelt,” said the caption, and all America laughed. But so did Mrs. Roosevelt when a girl reporter showed it to her the following day. From much experience she has become one of America’s most active and successful broadcasters, and her income from this source, plus her output of articles for magazines and papers, cannot be much less than £20,000 a year. On the air she receives £lOO a minute, and does not attempt to deny that she is paid such magnificent remuneration because she happens to be the President’s wife. All these earnings go to her multifarious charities, chiefly concerned with school and health work in various destitute sections of the country.

Her immediate family are reported to adore her, and the President has never in any way showed any disposition to check or hamper any of her activities.

A widely circulated anecdote well illustrates the feeling of goodwill mingled with humour which the American public holds toward Mrs. Roosevelt. A father was telliug his small son the story of Robinson Crusoe-r “An’ there on the sand Crusoe suddenly saw two footprints. Whose do you think they were?” The boy paused a moment, and then replied with sudden conviction: “Mrs. Roosevelt’s, papa.” All in all she is deservedly popular. Only a few months ago a convention held at a State college unanimously elected her as “the greatest woman personality and the most unselfish woman in the United States,” _