Evening star., 1932-09-07
OPPOSESPUbL|C !
CAREER FOR CHILD
Wife of Democratic Nominee
Declares It Bad for
Young.
By the Associated Press.

BY the Associated Press.
NEW YORK, September Mrs.
Franklin D. Roosevelt, who will learn in
November whether she is to be the First
Is bad for the officers children. She Is
the mother of five.
So it is with mixed feelings she lends
some Of her energies to the campaign Of
her husband for the country,s highest
office.
She has no official place in the cam
paign, but just now is filling in" while
Miss Mary w. DewSon, women's division
chairman of the Democratic Campaign
Committee, is on vacation. During the
worst heat spell Of the Summer, she has
spent hours in the humid turmoil of a
New York office, only a few floors above
the changing traffic.
Calm, eficient, gracious, this f1rst
lady Of the Empire State paused In the
press of activity engulflng her plain
business desk to explain she never has
opposed her husbands public career.
His Decision to Make"
That was "his decision to make" Be-
sides, with the civic conscience of Co
lonial stock, she believes public office
is duty to those qualified to fill it,
But there is no question about the
DeTSOIldl oAlC OoiA
"And it is certainly bad for the children.
Il remember Theocore Theodore
Roosevelt, jr., her first cousin) saying
once he thought his fathers being
President was the worse thing that
could have happened to them. And
rather think he was right"
Children of public man learn early,
she said, that they cannot be first"
with their father. They are robbed OF
much of his time and companionship,
and he of theirs
But it is the reflected limelight which
tends especially to be injurious, she
{ thinks-the favors that come, things
offered with strings to them which chill
uren do not perceive. Nor is it desirable
10 teach too early to be always on the
lookout for strings" or doubtful OF
,sincerity which may be genuine, she
added.
ut may be so small thing as being
anvited to park their car where others
are not permitted to-" she explained.
1T is bad for children to be al
lowed to infringe the rules. I keep
telling them they should make point
of not doing so, but, OF course, that
isn't always possible"
In an effort to counteract the effects
of prominence, mother finds herself
forced into the role OF sort OF per
ennial defiator," constantly holding
back, she explained.
Sometimes it seems to me am
everlastingly saying no. she said with
q sigh. And what mother does not
dislike that?"
Boarding school Is a good antidote.
too, she believes, for there the boys
are singled out only for "the razz," as
they complain, when their names or
pictures are given prominence.
In spite of the NOS" however, Mrs.
Roosevelt always has been compan-
ion and playmate to their children,
more than ever after their fathers
illness in 1921, robbed them Of his
company In active sports. The young
est boy was only S then. Though she
as not q sportswoman, she rides. swims
and goes bob-sledding with the chill
Qren in Winter.
President Attended Wedding.
She does not, Of course, speak slight
angly or even with indifference of the
possibility of presiding at the White
House, but talk with Mrs. Roosevelt
quickly convinces one the glamour of
It does not figure very dazzlingly in
her mind.
She cannot remember that "she
GnouSnt nuCn dooute a8i"lrn sAS
visited there as a girl OF 10, home
after three years of schooling abroad.
when her uncle, the late Theodore
Roosevelt, was President.
She was Anna Eleanor Roosevelt,
daughter of Elliot, the Presidents
younger brother, before she married
her distant cousin, Franklin. The
President journeyed from Washington
Ito New York to give the bride away.
.It was st. Patrick's Day, 1905,-"the
only day Uncle Ted could get away"
Relatives who like to trace family
characteristics have said "she has
Theodore's energy" 1t is the force of
1t now she is turning toward an end,
which, If attained, would make her
daughter and four sons-whether it Is
good for them or not-the children
Snf the President of the United States.