A ROOM OF OUR OWN
Follette, Isabel B. La
A Room Of Our Own By Isabel B. La Follette. IMAGINE my feelings when the telephone bell summoned me from the weekly washing to hear a newspaper friend's voice: "Have you heard the news?" And upon...
...Roosevelt...
...I think that the confusion in people's minds caused by this policy has had a lot to do with the public apathy existing today...
...There is bound to be a painful adjustment between those who have faced the immediate and direct test of life and death and those of us who have remained in personal security behind the lines...
...However, the excitement and joy may have dazed but not completely stunned poor old mama...
...They are moderately interested in hearing of your personal exploits but not in digging below the surface for your honest thoughts...
...Problems were too complicated, so they claimed, too 'confusing' for them to take a stand on, so they pushed aside their responsibilities as citizens of a democracy and blindly rested on Mr...
...Think of having a father going to work mornings...
...For years a body of our people sat back and rested on the wisdom of Mr...
...This even more than V-E Day makes me feel that we are coming down the home stretch...
...As in our past, when a crying need existed, men stepped forward to fill it, so in the days ahead I am confident that we shall work out a clear-cut program which will enable us to shake ourselves out of our gloomy inactivity...
...Roosevelt...
...Gee—oh, to think that any day you'll be seeing him...
...wire has just come in from the Philippines and says that Phil has been awarded the Legion of Merit for extremely meritorious service in the Philippines campaign, and that after the ceremony he 'left for home.' " I sank on a conveniently-located seat and gasped for breath...
...The telephone again...
...However, I am confident that this atrophy of our democratic tradition is temporary...
...I don't know what Phil's plans are (he always has plenty...
...And upon my negative he announced, "The A.P...
...I am not talking about the various scarcities, rationing, and the physical changes, but the strange apathy which is spreading like a disease...
...a batch of mail yesterday described the meeting of Phil and our son Bob "somewhere in the Philippines" and their grand reunion, and I'm happy that they at least had an opportunity for "hail and farewell...
...As I expressed it to a young man recently returned from the European theater who is struggling with this problem, "It is true, temporarily at least, that the average person is not interested in probing the knotty problems facing us...
...Mr...
...Our daughter Judy exulted, "Why, I don't know how to act with a man around the house again...
...However, as to the destiny of America, I feel sure that the resources—material, mental, and spiritual—which are winning in the field of battle will eventually be mobilized as effectively in the field of democratic political aims...
...And this in the face of the distressing political realities arising daily in Europe alone...
...But not the expected call...
...Now, as I told the girls last evening, it seems very strange not to be writing my daily letter to Phil, but we still have another foreign correspondent very important to us in our only son...
...So now I have joined the ranks of the gals who are hanging near the telephone waiting for the call that tells us that the men have landed on the shores of the "good old U.S.A...
...Instead of "muddling through" our political problems at home and abroad, once we are presented with a clear-cut course of action, the present miasma will lift, and with new wisdom we shall find ourselves embarked on a course we, the people, understand and want...
...but one thing} I do know: I shall "bring all pressure to bear" toward getting him to take sufficient time to re-orient himself to the home front...
...With due respect to the late President's memory, it must be said that one of his outstanding techniques was to keep a lot of balls in the air at once so that it was very hard for the layman to follow all of them...
...They look askance at President Truman, and begrudgingly admit that he seems to be doing better than they could have hoped, but beyond that they refuse to go...
...Of course, as readers of The Progressive know from the excerpts of Phil's letters which were published last week, I knew that eventually this would take place, but was thunderstruck at the speed...
...In place of the late President, they have set up the San Francisco conference, and the various international "agreements" on which to pin all their hopes...
...One of my sisters dispatched to me an air-mail-special with, "What perfectly marvellous news—and to happen so soon...
...However, it is also my impression that he looks upon himself as a stop-gap attempting to continue the general policies of the Roosevelt Administration...
...Roosevelt's death cut these people adrift...
...Do you think I shall survive...
...However, various of my Army-wife friends.have been having the same experience as the older men with long service are being replaced, many having arrived home already and others due any moment...
...Change On The Home Front' Fortunately (if you are interested...
...Even with comments in our daily correspondence during this more than 3 years of separation, I am sure that it will be very difficult for Phil and the rest of the returnees to understand and adjust to the individual and public state of low morale in the country...
...They have naturally been idealizing home "as it used to be," and it certainly is not the same...
...This wide-spread attitude is too painfully like that abounding in pre-Hitler Germany...
...One cannot prognosticate the names of the individuals or the party which will clarify the issues and carry the banner, but that is unimportant in relation to the general cause...
...Faith In The Future President Truman has, it seems to me, shown a fine spirit and political wisdom thus far in his conduct of American affairs...
Vol. 9 • June 1945 • No. 25
