1936 Eleanor example essay topic

The Gridiron often gave an all-male dinner and invited most Washington officials and visiting politicos. So Eleanor held the Gridiron Widows Dinner for all the women reporters, cabinet wives, and women bureaucrats. Eleanor took special interest into increasing womens role in the U.S. government and in the Democratic Party. She often invited the few females who held an office to the White House.

Seeing the first woman alternate chosen for the Resolutions Committee at the 1936 Democratic convention awarded her efforts. Shortly after Franklins inauguration in March 1933 an army of unemployed set up camp in Washington and flooded it. When Eleanor asked Howe what to do he answered, Im going to take a nap, and you are going out there to talk to them. (Eaton, p. 133) Eleanor walked into the tent city all alone to talk to them she told the of her volunteer work during World War I and promising to do whatever she could to help them. The unemployed veterans cheered as she left. Said one, in words that would become famous, Hoover sent the Army.

Roosevelt sent his wife. (Hershan, p. 155) The president regularly sent his wife to many strange places as she continued her random inspections as she showed up alone and unexpected. She often visited the poorest parts of the country and tried to do something about the slums of Washington. One time she took carloads of cabinet wives to the tenements trying to awaken their interest in the city (Hershan, p. 157).

Eleanor was well known as a first lady who cared about people and received nearly 300,000 in the first year; she, her secretary and her staff read each and every one of them. If the problem was in a federal agency she did what needed to be done to fix it, and if it was a personal problem she attempted to counsel the person or seek assistance, using the Womens Trade Union League to check out the situation. Everyone wanted to learn more about Eleanor; she went on two lecture tours a year and often surprised the audience. (Freedman, p. 113) She presented to the Conservative Daughters of the American Revolution a new idea of patriotism one that called for living for the interests of everyone in our country, and the world not just preparing to die for our country (Scharf, p. 80).

She spoke on the radio and in 1935 earned a total of 72,000 in which she gave to the American Friends Service Committee (Eaton, p. 149). When a Republican congressman charged her with tax evasion she then received the money, paid taxes on it, and then gave the rest to the AFSC. In 1936 Eleanor took up the task of writing a newspaper column which was basically a diary of her life and times as first lady. She would change up the topics from; disagreeing with the idea that women could not be great playwrights, to her opposition to war toys, or to sympathy of children in the Spanish Civil War.

Any topics that were possibly too controversial she took up with her husband and he used them to test public reaction. This new job gave Eleanor, a long time supporter of unions, the chance to join one as she became a member of the Newspaper Guild- she declined the offer to become their president. Eleanor had always backed unions in fact her interest in the Womens Trade Union League is what had swayed her to the side of the workers against management. She tried to stay neutral but her bias in favor of such unions as the New York based International Ladies Garment Workers Union could easily be seen.

Eleanor would not cross a picket line no matter what the circumstances. She once cancelled a meeting with a very esteemed dressmaker because his workers were on strike. I will have to wait before coming to see you again, she explained to the owner of the store, until you have made some agreement with your people that is satisfactory to both sides (Scharf, p. 104). She did not forget the farm laborers either.

In Arkansas many sharecroppers were run off their land and pushed to relocate. Eleanor tried to use the acquaintance of Senator Joseph Robinson as an ally in the situation, telling him the story just as she heard it, but was denied the help she wanted. So she dropped the correspondence and began working behind the scenes to get immediate relief payments for the evicted farmers. Eleanor had become a major political asset to her husband.