Read The First Lady of Radio for Free Online Page A

responsibility. We are so far away from it that we have doubtless forgotten, but it was primarily with this country that our original slave trade flourished, and those curious old Bible-reading, psalm-singing sea captains who engaged in this trade are the ones who are responsible for our present interest in Liberia.
    From Tokyo, we are glad to see dispatches that the Soviet Union and Japan are resuming their negotiations for the sale of the Chinese Eastern Railroad. This agreement should improve Russo-Japanese relations and dispel some of the war clouds which have been hovering over that horizon. From Paris and Zurich come two dispatches which dovetail into each other. One is the information that the French Foreign Minister, Louis Barthou, returned to Geneva to take up the delicate business of finding a formula for an eastern European peace pact. While in Zurich, the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom has been meeting.
    From Chicago comes the interesting item that the [meat] packers have granted a wage increase of 8 percent, which will total $10 million a year. The report as of June stated that employment in the packing industry was 101.4 percent of normal; the payroll, 87.2 percent; and the average weekly wage was $21.82.
    If the weather is favorable word comes from Detroit that Jean Pic-card, who made the first [balloon] ascent into the stratosphere, will take off with his wife at four a.m. on Thursday, hoping to reach a height of 61,000 feet in their balloon.
    There is being carried on at present a drive to make people in general drink more milk. In fact, one circular being sent throughout the schools advocates a quart of milk a day per person. And milk is recommendedfor those who do not wish to put on too much weight, for milk adds fewer pounds than beer! In Atlantic City, the judges who passed on the merits of twenty-three brands of beer at the convention of the New Jersey Licensed Beverage Association must have put on several pounds at least!
    From Shanghai comes the story of a new tax. We really do not in this country know what it is to be taxed. The Chinese understand the art, and the last one imposed is a “good feelings” tax. It is supposed to be devoted to supplying the provincial soldiers with food and clothing. Aren’t you glad you do not live in China?
    Last winter there came to me a letter, and it ran somewhat like this: “Dear Mrs. Roosevelt: Why do you take so many trips? Think of your poor husband sitting at home, alone in the evening, with no one to keep him company by the fireside.” As is usual with such letters it was unsigned. People seem to enjoy very much giving advice and yet do not like to stand by it by adding their names. It occurred to me—and this belief has been strengthened since this letter—that there are a great many people in this country who have not the remotest idea of the life which is lived by the man who is elected to be president of the United States. Or by his wife. Of course, it is obvious that the conditions in the country as a whole, and personal preferences, make some slight change in the lives of the individuals occupying the White House. But by and large, they lead, administration after administration, very much the same kind of life. In the first place, they carry a burden of work which is scarcely understood by people throughout the country. The president and, to a lesser degree, the head of every federal department, has practically the entire day filled with appointments to see people, especially while Congress is in session. That means that the big volume of mail must be attended to in the late afternoon or evening or early morning. Speeches must be written and any real thinking on troublesome subjects must be done in these periods of so-called leisure. I have found, for instance, thatwhat exercise I hope to get must be over with by eight thirty a.m., when we breakfast. After that I cannot call a single minute of the day my