The First Lady of Radio, page 18
GH: But Mrs. Roosevelt, what would be your answer to those in the Middlewest who feel themselves geographically secure from attack from Europe or Asia?
ER: Well, suppose we forget temporarily about the traditional way of fighting a war and think about the possibility of a new kind of war. Suppose Hitler is able to subdue the whole of Europe, including Great Britain. That would give him control of the seas and the ability to produce ships, both for war and for commerce, far beyond our own ability to do so.
I have heard people ask why we cannot make peace with Hitler. Why can’t we do business with Hitler? The answer is contained in a little book called, You Can’t Do Business with Hitler, which everyone should read. If Hitler controls the seas, he can outbuild us, and we need no further proof of his organizing ability. He would control as slaves a great number of people, and he can undersell us.
You do not have to land an army on our coasts. You can fly today and do more harm with bombs than any army could possibly do. Doubting Thomas, complacently secure, will say, “Where are our airplanes?” They will be out trying to defend our shores as the boys of the RAF [Royal Air Force] are trying to defend England. And both sides will lose men and planes. If we cannot outbuild and out-train the waves of men and machines that come over, we eventually are going under.
GH: Those are very serious and thought-provoking words, Mrs. Roosevelt. You believe, then, that every citizen, whether he lives on the East Coast, on the West Coast, or right in the center of this great country of ours, should face the same stern facts?
ER: Yes, I do, Mr. Hicks. There are two possibilities every citizen should ponder, because they are the two things that all of us are up against today. First, we are either going to furnish material which makes it possible for nations now fighting Hitler to win out, regardless of what it costs us. Or we are going to find ourselves eventually fighting alone, with all the resources of Europe and Asia against us. Too great a sense of security has caused the downfall of many nations, and sometimes I wonder if we do not suffer in high places from too great a sense of security now, and too little realization of the sense of insecurity which prevails among certain of our people.
GH: You mean economic insecurity, Mrs. Roosevelt?
ER: Yes. Those people may think that there is nothing worth risking their lives for since it seems to them simply a transfer to a new bondage, which may be better than the present one and which they believe cannot be worse.
That brings me to the second possibility I mentioned a moment ago. We are going to make our communities worth living in through the work of volunteers in our civilian defense work. Or if this work is not particularly glamorous, and we cannot find volunteers who will take it seriously and put it through, then we are going to have groups of people who do not think our land is worth defending. That situation would give Hitler the most valuable ally he could possibly have.
GH: Then, Mrs. Roosevelt, you believe a great factor in civilian defense must be increasing the effort on the part of the individual community to see that its own people are taken care of—that there are no persons in that community so underprivileged that they can see nothing in the American way of living to defend?
ER: Yes. Our federal agencies which gather information on relief report that in many parts of our great country there are families lacking food, shelter, clothing, and many other things which we count as necessities for healthful and decent living, simply because the community has no money or too little money to provide needed general relief. Poverty breeds physical and mental disabilities and, finally, delinquency. While we have every reason to expect that the rising tide of employment will mean that people are able to pay for a better standard of living, it will not excuse us from doing the work which will educate them to take the best possible advantage of any change that may come in the employment picture. This must be done by the communities that are aware of the situations they face.
GH: But Mrs. Roosevelt, haven’t the relief agencies been counting on surplus commodities to help feed the unemployed?
ER: That’s just it, Mr. Hicks, Those surplus commodities may disappear completely in the next year. Then we shall have a very serious social situation. In thousands of cities, towns, and villages and country places, there are still families who are unable to get enough relief for even the barest necessities of life, if indeed they can get any relief at all. In fact, there is one great state where the relief workers are accustomed to stories which run something like this: “I am hungry and my kids are hungry. We haven’t had anything but surplus [food] for so long I am too weak to look for work. And I don’t know if I could hold a job if I could get one. The flour and beans are good, but they just won’t last us a month.” And this state is no exception. This is truly a national problem of defense to be met in communities from coast to coast.
GH: That’s very serious indeed. Mrs. Roosevelt, we have received many letters, as we know you have, asking for more of those delightful stories of yours like that story you told us last week about Princess Juliana and her little daughters. I know you’ve brought us another story or two from your trip.
ER: Flying from New York City to Detroit the other day, we had an amusing pilot who passed word back to us that we were on flight eleven on the eleventh day of the eleventh month, that his license was one-eleven and it was the eleventh year of his employment with the American Airlines. We were on route seven, he added, for the benefit of the superstitious who could feel that seven and eleven was a good combination. Altogether, the coincidences on eleven, I thought, were quite amusing.
Last week I told you about those two little Dutch princesses. Well, the children of this country are certainly becoming conscious of their importance as citizens. Two small boys came to the door of our rooms at the hotel in Detroit, demanding to see me. Miss [Malvina] Thompson explained that I was busy and could not see them, and then the smaller one said, “But we belong to the American public, too, and we want to see Mrs. Roosevelt.” You can be sure Miss Thompson let them stay and made me stop and speak to them.
And now, I would like you all to bear in mind the creed written by Stephen Vincent Benét for those who work in civilian defense. A voluntary pledge:
I pledge myself as an American to the work of civilian defense.
I do so voluntarily, in faith and loyalty, because I believe in my country.
I believe in its freedom and its greatness, in the liberties I share with all Americans, in the way of life we, the people, have made here with our own laws and with our own hands.
I mean to defend those liberties and that way of life, with my own hands, here and now. The task I am called upon to do may be small or large. I mean to see that it gets done.
It may mean hard work and sacrifices. I mean to see that it gets done.
I am neither soldier nor sailor but, as an American citizen, I take my place beside the armed forces of the nation, willing and ready as they are to protect the homes and the lives, the wellbeing and the freedom of my fellow citizens, to defend the country I love, to maintain its cause against all enemies and every danger. And to this task I pledge my whole strength and my whole heart.
Now, Mr. Hicks, before I close, I want to call attention to the fact that the American Red Cross roll call is now going on, and everyone who is not a member of the Red Cross will be given an opportunity to join. And those who are annual members can rejoin between the dates of November eleventh and November thirtieth. Surely there is no one who would not want to give this organization whatever support they can at this time, when the Red Cross is sending help all over the world.
GH: Thank you, Mrs. Roosevelt, for your inspiring discussion of world events, for your charming stories, and thank you for speaking for that great institution, the American Red Cross. Next week, we understand Mrs. Roosevelt has invited to be her guest on this program Mr. Daniel G. Arnstein, who has just returned from China’s lifeline, the Burma Road, where his recommendations for traffic control have already increased the flow of war supplies to China. Until then, good evening, and don’t forget that good-night cup of coffee.
29.
“Pearl Harbor Attack”
Over Our Coffee Cups, presented by the Pan-American Coffee Bureau
December 7, 1941
Radio flashed the news to the nation at 2:30 p.m. Eastern time: Japanese airplanes had attacked Pearl Harbor. The radio networks cleared their schedules to provide rolling coverage throughout the day. Industry was warned to be on guard for sabotage. Servicemen and -women were ordered back to base. The Navy announced that all recruiting stations would open at eight the next morning. One newspaper described the attack as “the biggest news event in U.S. radio history.”1
Eleanor Roosevelt’s regularly scheduled NBC news commentary program, Over Our Coffee Cups, was scheduled for that evening. ER went from the White House to NBC’s Washington studios with her secretary, Malvina Thompson. When she arrived, ER told the advertising agency man in charge of her program that she had been rewriting her script. A newspaper reporter turned Army morale officer named Jimmy Cannon was her scheduled guest. Cannon fumbled with the clasp on his script and ER calmly leaned over to help him.
The first part of ER’s message was directed at the nation’s women and youth. “We know what we have to face and we know we are ready to face it,” she declared. ER inaccurately reported that the Japanese ambassador had been talking to FDR at the White House at the time of the Pearl Harbor attack. She had mistaken a Chinese diplomat for Japan’s ambassador. Then, ER introduced Corporal Cannon and spoke to him about troop morale. After the broadcast, Cannon remembered walking the streets of Washington, “feeling big and proud because on this night I had been in the presence of the president’s wife.”2
ANNOUNCER: This is Leon Pearson speaking for the Pan-American Coffee Bureau, which represents seven good neighbor coffee-growing nations, and presenting to you American families your Sunday-evening visit with Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt. This evening Mrs. Roosevelt has as her guest Corporal James Cannon, 1229th Reception Center, Fort Dix. But first, Dan Seymour has a word from our sponsors, the Pan-American Coffee Bureau.
ANNOUNCER DAN SEYMOUR: In this moment of trial, the seven neighbor countries which make up the Pan-American Coffee Bureau welcome the chance to express their support for their great good neighbor, the United States. The new solidarity which has been effected between the Americas in the last few years stands us all in good stead in the face of this emergency. This applies not only in a commercial sense, for Uncle Sam can count on Latin America for essential materials, whether oil or tin or copper or coffee—but also in a political sense. The Americas stand together.
PEARSON: Thank you, Dan Seymour. And now here’s the Pan-American Coffee Bureau’s Sunday-evening news reviewer and news maker, to give us her usual interesting observations on the world we live in, Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt.
ER: Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. I am speaking to you tonight at a very serious moment in our history. The cabinet is convening and the leaders in Congress are meeting with the president. The State Department and Army and Navy officials have been with the president all afternoon. In fact, the Japanese ambassador was talking to the president at the very time that Japan’s airships were bombing our citizens in Hawaii and the Philippines and sinking one of our transports loaded with lumber on its way to Hawaii.
By tomorrow morning, the members of Congress will have a full report and be ready for action. In the meantime we, the people, are already prepared for action. For months now, the knowledge that something of this kind might happen has been hanging over our heads. And yet it seemed impossible to believe, impossible to drop the everyday things of life and feel that there was only one thing which was important: preparation to meet an enemy, no matter where he struck. That is all over now and there is no more uncertainty. We know what we have to face and we know that we are ready to face it.
I should like to say just a word to the women in the country tonight. I have a boy at sea on a destroyer. For all I know he may be on his way to the Pacific. Two of my children are in coast cities on the Pacific. Many of you all over this country have boys in the services who will now be called upon to go into action. You have friends and families in what has suddenly become a danger zone. You cannot escape anxiety. You cannot escape a clutch of fear at your heart. And yet I hope that the certainty of what we have to meet will make you rise above these fears.
We must go about our daily business more determined than ever to do the ordinary things as well as we can. And when we find a way to do anything more in our communities to help others to build morale, to give a feeling of security, we must do it. Whatever is asked of us, I am sure we can accomplish it. We are the free and unconquerable people of the United States of America.
To the young people of the nation, I must speak a word tonight. You are going to have a great opportunity. There will be high moments in which your strength and your ability will be tested. I have faith in you! I feel as though I was standing upon a rock. And that rock is my faith in my fellow citizens.
Now we will go back to the program which we had arranged for tonight. I spoke to you a few weeks ago on the subject of Army morale. I suggested one of the best ways to make the boys in our armed forces more contented with their lot was for the people at home to really do their duty in the various activities of home defense. This evening, I wish to discuss Army morale again, but this time in an even more concrete and specific way. And that’s why I am delighted to have as my guest a young man who is a member of our armed forces, Corporal James Cannon of Fort Dix. How long have you been in the Army, Corporal Cannon?
JC: I’ve been in six months, Mrs. Roosevelt.
ER: You were a selectee?
JC: Yes, Mrs. Roosevelt.
ER: Well, after six months of Army life, how do you like it?
JC: I want to tell you, with great sincerity, I am proud to be a bad soldier in this great army of the people.
ER: I don’t believe you’re such a bad soldier, not with those stripes on your arm, Corporal Cannon.
JC: Honestly, Mrs. Roosevelt, I’m not so hot. But there are good soldiers in my outfit. By the way, Mrs. Roosevelt, do you know who had the highest score in our outfit when we shot for score? A fellow who used to play a pipe organ in a roller-skating rink. He’d never held a rifle in his hands before. But competent instructors have made him a sharpshooter in less than a year. And I’ll bet there are men like him in every Army post in America.
ER: Then you feel from your personal observation—and after all, you are a trained newspaperman—that the Army is making civilians into good soldiers?
JC: Mrs. Roosevelt, in the six months I’ve been in, I’ve seen a miracle take place. I’ve seen ordinary, easygoing guys turned into efficient members of a powerful fighting force. That’s what’s taking place in every training base in this country.
ER: I am sure that’s true, but let me ask you a rather personal question. Aside from actual military training, do you find you are learning anything which is of value to you as a person, as a citizen?
JC: Mrs. Roosevelt, I’m glad you asked me that question. I think I speak for hundreds of thousands of us in training camps everywhere when I tell you that the Army has given me a completely new set of values.
ER: You certainly are an honest soldier. Can you tell me just how the Army has given you this new set of values?
JC: I was born and raised a New Yorker. I used to think America was a suburb of New York. I had the New Yorker’s contempt for people who lived beyond the Hudson. Now I soldier with a lot of guys from the brambles and the bushes and the whistle-stops. And I find they can do a lot of things I can’t do. Sure, I can write a fair piece for a paper or a magazine. I can get wisecracks in a Broadway column. But I’ve neglected myself physically. I’ve gone soft. It sounds corny, I suppose, but you know I’ve learned to respect these guys from the sticks. They aren’t wise-crackers, but they’re tough, strong kids. They’re good soldiers, and I’m proud to be soldiering with them. When it comes to a showdown, they’ll be ready to make the sacrifices to preserve the American way of life.
ER: I am sure that there are many men like you, Corporal, who are learning the greatness of America and the greatness of their fellow Americans perhaps for the first time. But surely, there are things which you don’t like about the Army?
JC: I don’t like those hikes. My feet tear and blister. I can’t like getting up in the dark of the morning. I’m a clumsy chambermaid. My bed always looks like a haystack. But these discomforts are small. I’ve had a lot of laughs in the thirty-two years of my life. I’m willing to kick back one or two years so that I can live the rest of my life with dignity. I feel ashamed of the grumbling I’ve done, the complaining about the little, unimportant things. Because at this minute, soldiers of our Army are proving that, under fire, they are true and brave and worthy of the trust our democracy places in them.
ER: Corporal, do you find an interest among the men in the Army in the present world situation?
JC: I’m on Captain John Parker’s morale staff, attached to the 1229th Reception Center, Fort Dix. I talk to the guys when they first come into the Army. Up to now, the only things they were interested in was: Where were they going to be shipped and if they were on the list for kitchen police. I’m certain all that will change now. When I left camp, we were a peacetime Army. Now we are the Army of a country that has been attacked. But all of us, all of them, have a very definite opinion on the Army in the state of the world.
ER: And what was that opinion?
JC: They know they are in the Army because we have had no choice here in this country. They realize that all we Americans have lived for and died for will vanish from the Earth unless we have a strong Army. Their philosophy is this: We were minding our business. They picked on us. Well, we’ll show ’em.
