If You Ask Me (Excerpt)

Ladies' Home Journal June 1947

My husband and I decided some years ago that our small contributions to peace would be never to tell or repeat "Eleanor stories," racial-prejudice stories or jokes, but we differ on our reactions to others' telling such stories. My husband says that if other persons make racial jokes, it is like beating your head against a stone wall to argue with them. He just changes the subject. I "light into" them, and tell them if they can't say anything good, not to say anything. Which of us is correct?

I doubt if "lighting into" people ever does much good, but I think the time has come when we ourselves must stand up and be counted for our beliefs. If we can say quietly that we think the attitude that someone is taking is harmful to the co-operation between people of different races and religions and will not help to promote peace in the world, and explain very calmly why we think so, we may plant a seed in even a prejudiced mind, which may of itself bear fruit someday.

TMsex DLC

Preparing to Draft the Declaration

At the end of the first session of the eighteen-member Human Rights Commission, which met from January 27 to February 10, 1947, the commissioners decided that three of its members, "with the assistance of the Secretariat," would prepare a "preliminary draft" of the international bill of rights. This draft would then be revised by the full commission when it met again in December. The commission chose ER, P. C. Chang of China, and Charles Malik of Lebanon, along with John Humphrey, the secretary of the HRC, for this task. After the Soviet and French delegates complained to ECOSOC (the body to which the HRC reported) about the small size of the group and the absence of a European representative, ER expanded the drafting committee to eight members. With the help of his staff and drawing on a wealth of material—including existing and proposed bills of rights sent by governments and non-governmental organizations—Humphrey wrote a first draft of the international bill of rights that became the basis for the version produced by the drafting committee.¹

During the various stages of the drafting process, the State Department prepared position papers indicating which draft articles it approved of in their current form and suggesting alternatives when it disapproved. The following memorandum of conversation, which was prepared by James P. Hendrick, ER's principal State Department advisor, records a session in which ER met with her State Department advisors to review the department's suggestions. The meeting served to prepare her for the meetings of the drafting committee, which began on June 9, 1947.²