A ROOM OF OUR OWN
Follette, Isabel B. La
A Room Of Our Own Isabel B. La follette ON the many trips Phil and I were fortunate to make in Europe and Central America in the years prior to World War II, we made delightful contacts with...
...that we were in a position if anyone was to set our own standards...
...Most people enjoy good fare, but I have yet to see the individual who did not enjoy other values more...
...Of course that is really harder work...
...They insisted that in Berlin, for example, one could not maintain one's prestige without serving the number of courses with appropriate wines that were found at the tables of the wealthiest Germans, and in England they felt it necessary to out-do the British at their own standards...
...No one doubts our material prowess, but many of us believe the time is here to translate that into higher values...
...With people we came to know well enough, Phil and I in our more youthful exuberant days used to take issue...
...A Room Of Our Own Isabel B. La follette ON the many trips Phil and I were fortunate to make in Europe and Central America in the years prior to World War II, we made delightful contacts with representatives of the American diplomatic service...
...If we don't, who will...
...that while we should set a good table within our means, this should be subordinate to the mental fare offered...
...One of these is that people do not love those to whom they are indebted...
...We dug down in our pockets for Lend-Lease, supplies and troops, for UNNRA, clothing and postwar relief, but the peoples of Europe are starving and miserable and we are the goat...
...Ostentatious throwing our weight around makes us hated and ridiculed, publicly or privately...
...THERE are, however, certain rules of conduct in human relations that have been proven by experience...
...They were quite bitter over what they considered the niggardly pay and perquisites of the American diplomatic corps as compared with other countries, and we listened over and over again to the refrain that it was "humiliating" for the "richest country in the world" not to outshine all the rest in the elegance of its representation...
...The best education we can give the Germans and the Japanese is to act our values of life...
...Some of them go even farther and criticize Gen...
...When a friendship ensued, however, we found that beneath the apparent ease and graciousness of their life they were deeply concerned with "keeping up with the Jones" of England, Italy, Germany, Costa Rica, or wherever they happened to be stationed...
...Again, rather than dealing in terms of material strength alone, he is making use of human values...
...This tendency, very common, to put one's effort on the material rather than the "higher" sides of life needs serious consideration when it comes to dealing with other individuals and peoples...
...one earns it...
...that rather than compete on the material side we should bend our efforts to giving them an interesting and stimulating evening...
...Most of them not only "did their duty" by us, but entertained us with generosity...
...Although most of the press and radio pound away at the old theme that the United States has been derelict in its duty to the rest of the world, the opposite is actually the case...
...The values that I felt in pre-war days should be our standards- as "the greatest nation on the face of the earth" should still hold true in our foreign relations...
...MacArthur for not producing the same kind of chaos in Asia...
...When I used to entertain at the Executive Residence here in Madison, and would ask a group of friends to "assist" me, I had to get really tough with said friends to keep them all from clustering in the dining-room and carrying plates instead of making the effort to find common points of interest with the other guests and make them have a good time and feel at home...
...During these war years the world has grappled in the mire of material competition...
...THERE is a great deal of prating about "education" for Germany and Japan, yet any sensible person knows that action speaks louder than words...
...They fail altogether to note that with a fraction of the men and equipment shipped so lavishly to Europe, he has conquered a nation of 80 million people scattered over an almost unthinkably wide area...
...A look at the continent of Europe proves a sad example of this...
...As Phil recently told nine-year-old Sherry who wanted to "treat the room," one cannot buy friendship or popularity...
...All the resources we have poured into Europe have not really bought us a friend...
...With our youth and generosity we have played the Good Samaritan all over the world wherever people were in trouble, culminating in the ghastly war just brought to a close...
...Naturally everyone's deepest desire is to end such catastrophes for all time, but the method to bring about this end is still undetermined...
...OUR point of view was that just because we did have the wealth and power was all the more reason for not strutting it...
...Yet it is appalling to me to read in the press and hear on the radio the smug satisfaction of these- armchair experts over the chaos of the European continent which they still think of in terms of vengeance rather than the prevention of future wars...
Vol. 9 • October 1945 • No. 39
