Mrs. FDR Back In Arthurdale For Ceremony
500 Hear Address At Dedication
September 26, 1960
More than 500 people, oblivious of a chilly, winter-like wind, flooded the little community of Arthurdale Saturday evening to hear a dedication speech by Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt at the unveiling of the newly constructed Community Presbyterian Church.
The famous lady reminisced on the depression times of 1934 when the project began. She recalled that Arthurdale was one of three experiments under the early New Deal to give impoverished families a home and a piece of land to support themselves.
"I saw several of the original families and they remembered me," she said afterwards.
The federal government had bought the land and provided the homes, but it pulled out in 1945.
At a time when there were 15 million people unemployed, the Arthurdale section was judged to be among the worst off in the country.
Mrs. Roosevelt said that "we have made so many mistakes here that I've adopted the people and apparently they have adopted me. It was a very happy night."
Shifting to the present political scene, Mrs. Roosefelt [sic] told the crowd that President Eisenhower has failed in not educating the people. She said Sen. John F. Kennedy would succeed where Eisenhower failed.
Pointing out that there are three kinds of education - economic, cultural and moral, the elderly lady stated that "we need education from the President of the United States and if Kennedy is President we will get that education."
In closing, Mrs. Roosevelt charged that "Eisenhower wants peace, but he doesn't know how to achieve it."
Sen. Jennings Randolph (D-W. Va.) and W. W. Barron, candidate for governor, in prepared remarks in essence declared that if the Democrats return to the statehouse they can, by cooperating with a great Democratic Legislature, "obtain additional funds and new programs we need to build a better West Virginia."
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