Evening star., 1933-07-16


~ PARSONS are odious and
never more so than between
First Ladies of the Land. Each
~ has her own quality, her own
personality Mrs. Coolidge, for
example, has her own charm, and
very rare one it is. Mrs. Hoover has
another. Eleanor Roosevelt has still
another. 1t is possible to appreciate
all kinds of charm and be grateful Tor
the variety. A pink Radiance rose Is
no less lovely than Talisman, and 1t
does not exalt the Talisman rose above
the others to call attention to its unique
color.
It Is thus, with no intention OF be-
littling any of her predecessors: that
I shall attempt to point out Eleanor
Roosevelt's difference from them. To
ignore it in any serious discussion OF the
role she now plays in our national life
would be quite impossible. For 1t is
her uniqueness that has both deter
mined the role and given 1t social Sig
nificance.
To begin with. she is the first First
Lady to take with her into the White
House a career of her own entirely
apart from that Of wife. In the course
of the career she has been vice chairman
of a State political committee and ex-
ecutive chairman of national cam
paign committee At the time her hus-
band was elected President she was
active in business as the director OF
furniture factory, was teaching school,
was a journalist. editing one magazine
and writing for several others. HAD
her husband been an obscure man she
would have been known to thousands
for her own activities.
Change Entailed Sacrifice.
There was created for her, therefore,
as mistress of the White House, prob
lem that none of her predecessors had
ever had to solve The American people
are thrifty when it comes to their
Presidents. For the price of one en-
pIoye they expect the services of two
those of the Presidents wife as well
as his own. Not only Is she to PRESIDE
over the national home, offering there
hospitality in the name of the Nation,
but she is to act as queen consort,
taking a star part in the public pageant.
In monarchies, by the way, queens are
granted allowances for their perform
ance 1t is only in republic that they
are expected to perform gratis.
Now. all this may have been very well
for presidential wives who had no busl-
ness of their own, no interest apart
from that of their husbands, no career
in their own name. But here was
Eleanor Roosevelt, who had several
careers of her own and was accustomed
to selling her time and ability In the
public market. To make present OF
them to the public entailed sacrifice.
That many thousands OF women
would have thought the glory OF being
First Lady well worth the sacrifice is
beside the point. For Eleanor Roosevelt
probably values far more the rewards
that come as a result OF her own
efforts than any diadem placed on her
head BY a marriage certificate. Her
whole life indicates it. Else why would
she. with a fair measure of wealth and
a privileged position. have done these
things? It must have been for the
self-respect which follows self-achieve-
ment the satisfaction which no honor
deriving from the accident OF birth or
marriage can ever bring. She had:
then, to decide how far she was called
upon to sacrifice her own activities.
say called upon" for doubtless, like
other wives who essay career she
wished to meet every obligation OF a
wife.
Solved Problem by Compromise.
This problem she solved by compro-
mise. Activities which would interfere
with her duties as First Lady. such as
school teaching. she abandoned. Those
which she could carry on without such
interference, such as her professional
writing, she continued. She probably
realized that the continuance would
meet with disapproval from those who
think they have right to all OF FIRST
Lady's time She also must have
known that those who think a First
LADY should be content with her pag-
cant part would object to this other
activity.
But to let her decision be governed
by their opinions would be to acqulesce
to their ideas Of the place, OF Women
in modern social life. to abandon her
own belief in the right of women to
express themselves as individuals. to
betray all those women everywhere who
do believe in this. More. it would 1g-
more a great opportunity to give a
demonstration in a high place OF Wom-
ems ability to carry on individual &C
tivities and at the same time to meet
their obligations as wives.
Eleanor Roosevelt takes such oppor-
tunities seriously She believes. as all
her words and actions bear witness,
that ones practices must give evidence
of the faith that is in them. Her sense
of social responsibility is highly de-
veloped. One should not do the easy
thing. One should do the thing that
will promote a better world. This is
the philosophy back of all her actions.
Once We grasp that. We have the key to
them. She herself has said that it was
a teacher who impressed this upon her.
early in life. Perhaps the reason she
lays such stress upon education Is that
to a teacher she owes what she thinks
has made her life worth while.
Education Is Passion.
Certainly education seems to be a
passion with her You cannot talk
with her long without some reference
to it cropping out. You cannot listen
to her public speeches or read her
articles without discovering her desire
to convey facts or truths to others-in
other words. to educate them. Freely
she confesses this love of teaching.
When some one asked her how, after
her strenuous social duties as wife OF
the Governor of New York she could
take those early morning trains from
Albany to New York City each Monday,
she cried: But teaching is my diver
sion! I couldn't give that up"
With this educational bent, it follows
that she would realize the educational
possibilities of example, especially the
example of the First Lady of the Land
Have not pedagogues always said that
example is the best teacher?
So when she saw the opportunity
- <~s,,s eko