Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1944-10-24

.G~u1Sh
BY Westbrook
PeeIer


MRS. ROOSEVELTS preach
WI ing and her personal per-
formanceS have been so incon-
sistent that / often turn from
her current writings 10 her
autobiography. dated 1887, not
with any hope of reconciling the
two attitudes but just to marvel
which is one of my hobbies.
There are many arguments
i'm favor Of a year Of national
service" Mrs. r. wrote on Aug.
rs, 1914. There would be the
advantage that young men from
all the different groups which
make up the citizenship of the
nation, would be thrown to-
gether. They would know each
other, and the differences in
background and environment
would melt away"
Mrs. Roosevelt has something
there, although those Americans
who went to public schools all
know that children from "all
the different groups" are thrown
together in the classroomS and
in the School-yard.
In our school, there were
Negro boys and girls and there
were sons and daughters OF i'm
migrant Germans. Scandinavians
and Irish and old-stock Amerl-
cans. We were thrown to-
gether" and knew each other
very well.
DUT, neither Mrs. Roosevelt
ID nor her husband ever set
foot in a public school and,
when she had young ones, she
saw to il that neither did they.
Mrs. Roosevelt took her Jimmy
TO Groton where. certainly all
the different groups" are not
thrown together, and she speaks
of taking Elliot there, after he
had had a year at Buckley"
which seems 10 be pre-prep
school of the Groton social CHI
mate and tradition, and. again.
of sending young Franklin 10
Buckley" and Johnny to Miss
Hewitts's" and Anna TO miss
Chapin's," and so forth.
Did she send her children 10
these cloisters TO meet "all the
different groups ?" or to make
sure they wouldn't be contain
mated by contact with "all the
different groups?
IN another recent writing, Mrs.
Il Roosevelt proposed that all
young American girls. as well
as the boys, should put in a year
of compulsory service in which
they would get some training
useful in case of war and learn
the meaning OF citizenship in a
democracy.
The meaning Of this will sug-
eest itself TO the parents Of
young daughters and so. Of
course, will the difference be-
tween the raising of her own
daughter and the course which
she now advocates for other
peoples daughters.
Mrs. Roosevelt's constant en-
phasis on citizenship" seems to
suggest that she thinks we are
not AS good citizens as we might
be. but with a strong impllca-
ton that she and her husband.
who were kept aloof from the
lower classes, nevertheless, by
some innate superiority, over
came this handicap and became
exemplary citizens.
Yet. the citizenship Of the
United States will seem 10 many
of us TO have been fairly good
down to now, although we may
have made some spectacular
mistakes at the polls. as Mrs.
r. might agree we have.
IN the economic field, Mrs.
Roosevelt again seems incon-
sistent. There were fortunes on
both sides of the family and no
body seems ever to have worked
at useful toll.
"My grandfather Hall never
engaged i'm business" she wrote.
He lived on what his father
and mother gave him" Her
father with the consent Of an
indulgent mother and two ador-
ing sisters. took part Of his in
heritance and went around the
world"
When Roosevelt was assistant
secretary of the navy, in 1914,
on $500 A year. she took with
her 10 Washington -four serv-
ants and a nurse and governess."
And. before that, when Roose-
welt was only a state senator in
Albany at about $1,000 year,
where the legislators of all the
different groups" lived in cheap
hotels and rooming houses. they
took house and II brought
three servants. besides the
nurses"
TT was not until the entire
Il family had enjoyed every adj
vantage, luxury and pleasure,
including towr houses and coun-
try estates. Yachts. pony carts