You are currently browsing the monthly archive for June 2010.
June 29, 1936
“HYDE PARK—The trip to Philadelphia went quickly and we had the amusing experience of hearing over the radio the announcement of our own arrival. Without thinking, I went out on the platform of the car to see if Anna and John and Franklin, Jr., who were to meet us there had arrived and almost immediately I was reminded that my movements were being recorded and retired rapidly inside the car!
Then the drive through the streets, with the Vice President and Mr. Farley, the tremendous crowd at the Stadium, everyone standing and the Star Spangled Banner being sung by Lily Pons.
A man must come to a moment like this with a tremendous sense of responsibility, but that must be very much augmented when he realizes by watching the crowd about him what his thoughts and words are going to mean to innumerable people throughout the nation. I had read the speech but it meant much more to watch the faces of people and hear the seriousness with which it was actually delivered and received. A variety of impressions register at great moments and a hundred and one pictures flashed before me, the face of a friend, the solemnity of some one who I rarely see in a serious mood, the excitement of a child who will probably not even remember what it was all about—then it is over. We drove around the field, back to the station, a night on the train and here we are on Sunday at Hyde Park.”
June 22, 1944: FDR signs the G.I. Bill of Rights which offers educational assistance to veterans.
Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the G.I. Bill.
June 22, 1944
FDR Library Photo Collection. NPx. 64-269.
**********
The New Deal Estore is a great place to shop for Roosevelt related books, gifts, and other treasures from the New Deal Store at the Roosevelt Library. Available at www.fdrlibrary.marist.edu, the Estore features everything from a selection of the latest books on the Roosevelts and their times, to T-shirts, ties and caps, multimedia, campaign memorabilia, and museum replicas. For items related to this week’s blog post, follow the links below:
Beyond the Bonus March and the GI Bill: How Veteran Politics Shaped the New Deal Era by Stephen R. Ortiz
The GI Bill: A New Deal for Veterans by Glenn C. Altschuler and Stuart M. Blumin
The Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum will host its seventh annual Roosevelt Reading Festival on Saturday, June 19, 2010. Allan Nevins Professor of History at Columbia University Alan Brinkley, author of “Franklin Delano Roosevelt” (Oxford, 2009), will deliver the afternoon keynote address. The Reading Festival will be held in the Henry A. Wallace Center at the FDR Presidential Library and Home. All Roosevelt Reading Festival activities are open to the public free of charge.
In six concurrent sessions taking place throughout the day, eighteen authors of recently published works that draw upon the Roosevelt Library archives, or focus on the Roosevelt era, will present author talks followed by question-and-answer sessions and book signings. Copies of all of the authors’ books will be available for sale in the New Deal Store located in the Wallace Center. The program begins at 9:30 a.m. with welcoming remarks, coffee and doughnuts in the lobby of the Wallace Center.
For agenda and participating authors visit: http://www.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/publicprograms/calendar.html
June 18, 1945
“NEW YORK, Sunday—For our future security, perhaps the first and most important thing we should think of is our obligation to see that every man able to work has a job, that every American family has a decent level of subsistence, and that every child has a chance to grow up without the physical and mental handicaps which arise out of bad housing, bad health and poor education and recreational conditions.
Our men have found, while fighting the war, that this country is the best country in the world in which to live. Yet during the depression years there were many people, even youngsters, to whom that would have seemed an impossible statement. We know that the things we want can only be secured if the other nations of the world have a rising standard of living and continuous desires which make the flow of trade more or less equal throughout the world.
* * *
A nation with a high standard of living is a nation with a high national income. This will enable us to spend all we need on our defense without hardship to our people. It will enable us to provide a navy which our experts will consider adequate for protection and which shall only be reduced as armaments throughout the world are reduced; an air force which shall also meet the requirements of our experts and which shall be reduced only as the rest of the world reduces its military equipment proportionately; and a research group that will at all times be abreast of every modern invention, so that no nation in the world shall be ahead of us in the knowledge essential to the winning or to the prevention of future wars.
If we do decide that compulsory military training is essential until our peace organization is functioning and until the various parts of the world which have been unsettled for years past are on a more satisfactory economic and political basis, then we must be very careful how we choose and allocate our young people to their various tasks. In addition, we must repay them—on their release from military service—by giving them training in their chosen fields which will make it possible to accelerate their entrance into productive life as civilians.”
June 16, 1929: FDR is the Grand Marshall of his 25th Harvard Reunion.
FDR at his 25th Class Anniversary at Harvard.
June 16-20, 1929
FDR Library Photo Collection. NPx. 48-22:3701(11).
June 14, 1952
“NEW YORK, Friday—We passed a resolution in the Human Rights Commission yesterday asking the Economic and Social Council to grant us time during the coming year to finish the two covenants and measures of implementation. This should mean that there will be no discussion of the unfinished work either in the Economic and Social Council or in the General Assembly this year, but that we will proceed to complete the work in the Human Rights Commission and bring it in its final form before our parent bodies in 1953.
If this is the way it actually works out we will save a great deal of time. If our work is discussed in its unfinished condition in both the Economic and Social Council and in Committee 3 of the General Assembly, only recommendations can be made. Those recommendations were made last year, so it would be a waste of time to do it all again before the final work of the Human Rights Commission is over.
It also was suggested that we ask for a divided period in our next year’s meeting in order that we might be sure to finish the other items on our agenda, which year by year have been postponed. We did not reach the discussion of any new articles for the convenants, and there are several new articles that must go in before the covenants are really complete.
We had an absurdly long argument about whether the articles as they now are should be temporarily rearranged and renumbered, with the understanding that this was not a final order or sequence and that if new articles were introduced we were not prejudging their positions in the covenant. But the mere numbering of new articles seems to frighten the Soviet delegate and he argued for a long time that they just go in with a description of what they contained over each article.
Finally, we are finished, except for the reading of the report, which will take place today.”
June 11, 1939: FDR hosts a hot dog picnic at Top Cottage for King George IV and Queen Elizabeth of England.
Menu for the Picnic at Top Cottage with the British King and Queen
Renovation of the FDR Presidential Library and Museum has begun! For information and updates about the renovation project check out the renovation page on our website.
June 6, 1944: FDR announces the D-Day invasion.
-
- D-Day Prayer, pg1
-
- D-Day Prayer, pg2
June 6, 1939
“HYDE PARK, N. Y., Monday—Now I must report to you, oh, gentle reader, that we have spent a very peaceful weekend in the country and I have had my first swim of the year out of doors. It was cool but invigorating, and sitting in the sun afterwards was very pleasant.
I am hoping very much that the King and Queen may like to swim. I am sure they like to walk, for all the English people I have ever known enjoy that exercise and really know how to walk, not saunter. So far, our woods are fairly free from mosquitoes and flies, so it would be pleasant to return to the Sunday afternoon pastime of my childhood and take a long walk, ending up with a swim. Perhaps, neither the King of England nor Queen Elizabeth enjoy swimming, for I haven’t seen a mention of it in any of the stories written about their trip.
I rather hope that is because Canada is somewhat colder than the United States. The particular lakes where they have been resting, must still be somewhat glacier-like. I remember swimming one summer in the St. Lawrence River, when my husband was Governor of New York and we were going from one canal to another along the river. It was very chilly amusement even in mid-summer.
If all the people who wish to send gifts to the King and Queen succeed, I think it will take an extra ship to carry these gift home. In self-defense we have had to say that everything has to be sent to the British Embassy. I imagine there is a policy of long standing which forces them to accept gifts only from personal friends. It is, however, a very pleasant gesture and I think our royal visitor will appreciate the kindly feeling which goes with every preferred gift, whether it is large or small.”
In Roosevelt History 