The First Lady of Radio (17 page)

I have just listened to your combination of politics and soap peddling over the NBC. It seems to me you could do a lot more for yourself and the nation if you would stay home and try to persuade your foolish husband to keep his nose out of European embroilment.
⁴

A typewritten postcard from San Francisco read:

Why don't you use some of this soap to scrub those BUCK TEETH of yours and maybe you could talk plainer . . . Why don't you go jump in the bay and let the young people get some work, when we all know that the old cripple is worth millions.
⁵

Either ER or her secretary, Malvina Thompson, had marked these letters “N.A.” for no answer. But they were still kept on file.

ANNOUNCER: This is
Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt's Own Program
, presented by SweetHeart Soap!

(MUSIC “UP AND OUT”)

ANNOUNCER: And again, we greet Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt! Today Mrs. Roosevelt takes time out from her countless other interests to chat with us from the nation's capital. These intimate talks come to you with the compliments of SweetHeart Soap, one of America's favorite beauty soaps for the past half-century. And now, we won't keep you waiting a minute longer. Are you ready, Washington, DC? Then please come in, Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt!

ER: There is one thing about every woman's home which I think has never been sufficiently emphasized. Namely, that household work is a profession. If you do the household work yourself, you will find it most satisfying and you will be able to do more for your husband and children and to include more outside interests in your life if you learn to schedule your time. If you have a routine for everything you do, you will be astonished to find how much you can increase your speed. In dealing with little children, of course, it is impossible to hurry them. And one has to realize that, in order to allow them to learn to do things for themselves, one is obliged to take a great deal more time in letting them struggle over things which could easily be done for them. In the long run, however, this too saves time. And teaching a child a routine is one of the best lessons which can be learned in the home.

In many households throughout the country, one or more people are employed for household work. This is one of the fields which is not oversupplied and many people have come to look upon this as a possible new profession. Two elements enter into the successful development, however, of this field of employment. One is the proper training
of the household employee. The other is the proper training which the homemaker must have as an employer of labor. The approach to the whole situation has been a bad one in the past. There were no regular hours and the living conditions and working conditions were peculiarly unsatisfactory. That was because the majority of women did not approach the running of a house as a man would approach the running of his business. If one person was taken on to work in the home, the woman of the home was apt to think that the [housekeeper] would do all the work which was to be done without any regard to standards in hours and wages. No man employs an assistant in his business and expects the assistant to take over the whole running of the business. No woman employing one or more people in her home can ever expect to run it satisfactorily unless she schedules the time of her employees and has a complete understanding as to what each person in her household is expected to do, [and] sees to it that the living and working conditions are good and takes a personal interest in those who work with her. This makes the home a good place in which to live.

In the last few years, largely through the interest of the Young Women's Christian Association and a few different groups of women, great strides have been made in interesting women to set up standards for household employees. I believe if we educate the employer, we will soon find a much more satisfactory situation, which will mean employment for many women on a more or less professional basis. There are women being trained today to go into homes on an eight-hour-a-day schedule. There are women being trained as specialists for certain specific work in the home, such as the care of children, or cooking, or laundry work, or waitresses, or housemaids. But the vast majority of workers will be wanted as general houseworkers, doing a little of everything.

In certain parts of the country, the household employees will be, in the majority, colored. But that does not mean that, of necessity, they must be less well trained or receive lower wages. If the work is worth
doing, it is worth doing well and it should receive adequate compensation. Where board and room are given which is of a satisfactory nature, that should be taken into consideration in the agreement on wages. But the important thing is a clear understanding before the worker takes the position. We have states today which have recognized household employment as a profession and have passed laws which govern such employment. As yet there is no organization in this field. And I imagine because of the close individual association between people, it will be difficult for a union to form very definite rules governing this type of organization. Therefore, it is important that there should be education on both sides, a sense of mutual responsibility, and a recognition of the fact that the relationship of individuals in the home has a great deal to do with the atmosphere which exists in that home.

But before we continue, I believe New York has a message for us. Let's listen.

ANNOUNCER: Many thanks, and I'll only take a minute, Mrs. Roosevelt. Friends, it's exactly three weeks ago that Mrs. Roosevelt began this series of broadcasts—a series which has already won a well-deserved place on America's “must listen” list. And already the letters are pouring in—letters from folks who'd been on the verge of trying the product responsible for these programs, SweetHeart Soap. Thousands of these people are now actually using SweetHeart Soap, and folks, you just ought to hear their comments. At last, they say, we've found a bath and beauty soap that's so pure and gentle, so wonderfully thorough, so delightfully mild and fragrant that every bath and cleanup is a real joy. And the grandest part of it is the way the whole family enjoys pure, delicately fragrant SweetHeart Soap. Well, all I want to add is this: SweetHeart Soap is yours for only a few pennies a cake, very likely less than you're spending now. So try it real soon. Why not today? Remember the name: SweetHeart Soap. And now we take you back to Washington, DC, and our welcome speaker, Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt.

ER: Now, for a moment, I want to talk to you about the general question of housing. It seems to me that every woman in this country must be deeply concerned with this problem. That is one industry—building—which means a great deal in the way of general employment. The building of houses brings about much employment in allied fields. This country needs about 900,000 new homes a year for at least a decade. Of these, one-third should be for the top-income third; one-third should be for the middle-income third, and in both of these brackets, private capital can find an outlet and make money. The last one-third should be for the lowest-income group. Here is where the government has come into the field. Private industry has not built at all for this group, and so the United States Housing Authority was organized. This authority is now providing about 60,000 homes a year. These homes rent anywhere from $7.00 a month in certain places in the South to $17.00 a month in New York City.

These homes are restricted to the people with annual incomes ranging from about $550 to $1,050 a year. It has been found necessary to do this so that there should be no competition with private industry. Approximately 360,000 homes a year are built by private industry for the highest-income group. Sixty thousand a year are built for the middle-income group. Even the low-cost housing, subsidized in large part by the government, helps business, because the materials going into these homes have to be bought in the open market and the production of these materials provides employment. It has been the experience in both England and Wales that this type of building encouraged building by private industry.

Ever since the United States Housing Authority has been at work, we have been gradually clearing our slums, both in urban and rural areas. This is a relief to the taxpayers, for slum areas are extremely expensive for the community. Out of them come our greatest number of criminals and public charges in hospitals and insane asylums. They cost us more
in police protection and fire protection than any other part of our communities and yet we forget to add all these things in when we compute the cost of the appropriations which are made for low-cost housing. It has always seemed to me that this program should make special appeal to the women, who know the value of home life and spend so much of their time in the creation of homes.

Before a jury of representative women in Washington the other day, I heard a New York City mother tell the story of her family. She lived in one of those old-type tenements that have windows in the front and back only, and the bedrooms in between have no ventilation. Out of her family of six, one child was in a tuberculosis sanitarium and all the others were in the outdoor classes in the New York City public school system, which meant that [other students] were threatened with tuberculosis. This condition is due in part to malnutrition, but much of it is due to bad housing.

We women realize what this means to the future of this country and we are the ones to urge doing something about it. If you live in a community where there are housing projects, you should go to see them and become interested in them and register your interest with your representatives of your state and federal government. Projects of this kind depend upon public opinion. As a woman you probably have a more vivid understanding than has any man of what decent homes mean to the community and what sanitary conditions mean, especially to the children. Next Thursday, I think I shall talk a little about gardens, which seem to me something one should think about even in a city.

(MUSIC)

ANNOUNCER: Thank you very much, Mrs. Roosevelt. Folks, we're proud of the fact that SweetHeart Soap has won over five million new users in the last two years. We think it's a fine tribute to this fifty-five-year-favorite soap. But some of you listeners haven't tried SweetHeart Soap as yet, and I want you to know why you should.
SweetHeart Soap is pure, and therefore mild. It agrees with your skin. SweetHeart Soap is thorough, so it removes stubborn surface impurities that might spoil natural skin charm. And SweetHeart lends you a lovely, delicate fragrance for extra pleasure in every bath and cleanup. Five million new users discovered all this just lately, so why not make pure, delicately fragrant SweetHeart Soap your personal discovery too? When you do we're confident that you'll join those delighted thousands who say, “There's no other soap like it!”

(MUSIC)

ANNOUNCER: And this brings us to the end of another visit with Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt. Be sure to set your radio dials for this same station, same time, next Thursday, when Mrs. Roosevelt again comes to call on her friends all over America. Meantime, be sure to provide yourself with the fine product that presents these programs, SweetHeart Soap, famous for fifty years as the soap that agrees with your skin. Now it's good-bye until next Thursday, when you'll again hear . . .

(MUSIC “UP AND OUT”)

ANNOUNCER:
Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt's Own Program
! Ed Herlihy speaking.

19.

“Questions About the White House”

Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt's Own Program,
presented by SweetHeart Soap

Tuesday, June 4, 1940

ER: Good day, ladies and gentlemen. I have received a great many interesting letters since we started these radio talks. I want to thank you for writing to me, and I would like to tell you how much I appreciate your comments and specific suggestions. As I promised you before, I hope to answer as many of your questions as possible. But because they are of such a varied nature, it is necessary to group them and select a number of related questions for each broadcast. So, if your question has not yet been answered, I hope you will bear with me.

Your most frequent requests are for information about the White House, how it runs, how the many tasks are divided, and a host of other details. So today, I have invited Mrs. Genevieve Forbes Herrick to come to the studio with me and, by acting as your spokesman, to help me answer your many questions. Being interviewed by Mrs. Herrick is not a
novelty for me. For some time, Mrs. Herrick has been a regular member of the group of correspondents with whom I have regular press conferences in Washington. So I want you to meet Mrs. Herrick now.

GH: Thank you, Mrs. Roosevelt. It's indeed a pleasure to act as spokesman for your many radio friends. Having looked through some of their many letters, it seems that almost everyone is interested in the White House. And I suppose that is only natural because the White House is the symbolic home of the nation. Just how many people would you say visit the White House every year?

ER: Last year we had some 1,320,300 visitors. Of that number, 4,729 had meals—either lunch, dinner, or tea—23,267 came in groups to be received, and 264,060 were sightseers. And 323 were houseguests. You can see, Mrs. Herrick, that the White House is a sort of Mecca for patriotic pilgrims.

GH: And what would you say, Mrs. Roosevelt, is the one thing that most White House visitors want to see?

ER: I believe they are most anxious to see the portraits of George and Martha Washington in the East Room. But almost every individual or group has something about which they are most curious. This varies of course. Some want to see the new Lincoln portrait, others the White House china, and so on and on.