12/14-12/20/47

12/14 Sunday Lillian took the kids to the Sunday school for a Chanukah party. Some of the children put on a little ceremony and there were two movies, one about the circus and the other a Dr. Christian picture which Eugene liked very much. Had an advantage of Queen two rooks and a bishop against a Queen and rook on Eugene when he mated me!

12/15 We played the Burl Ives records yesterday and Eugene remembered many of the words. We bought the records when he was four when he used to play and sing them over and over again. Sylvia has been very miserable. We finally got her to bed at 2 o'clock. Russia announced a re-valuation of its currency, abolishing rationing and lowering bread and cereals 12% and many items including shoes and clothing 75%. The object is to head of [sic] inflation and penalize hoarders and speculators. Cash in circulation will be exchanged at 10 old rubles for one new one. The first 3000 rubles of bank savings will be exchanged one for one but additional rubles up to 10000 will be at two new for three old ones. At more than 10,000 exchange will be at 1 for 2. Earl Baldwin died at 80. 

I did love the Burl Ives songs; Dad wrote out all the words to help me sing them. 

12/16 Sylvia better but still in bed. The kids have been making paper chains to decorate their beds. The Foreign Ministers Council ended in failure, on Marshall's motion. The main hitch was Molotov's demand for 10 billion dollars reparations from Germany. A. Johnson C.P. will speak at Columbia. Lillian enjoyed Lewis' "Cass Timberlane". We both read Ella Winter's "I Saw the Russian People". Truman's Comm. on Higher Education denounced segregation, free education through the first two years of college, subsidies to students, new colleges. We pulled our last troops out of Italy and Russia hers out of Bulgaria at the deadline. 

12/17 Eugene had to go up to Gloria's as soon as he came home from school to see whether her tinker toy was larger than his as she had boasted. Sylvia is out of bed but her symptoms remain. The Bureau of Labor Statistics announced an average family of four would need about $3400 per year to get by. This is an increase of $500 in a year. The P.C.A. Exec Comm. voted to ask Wallace to run for the Presidency on a third ticket. Whitney, Walsh and Deutsch, Liebling Kingdon and Crum have resigned being against a third party now. G. Eisler has been touring the colleges speaking to many students with a few disturbances. 4 hrs. O.T. Pay 133.17. 

12/18 Lillian went to school this morning to see a show the children put on. They had Christmas Cards Jingle bells and portrayed Christmas and Chanukah presents. Eugene was an aeroplane. 4 hr. O.T. 

12/19 45 Union leaders asked Wallace to run. America evacuated Hungary. 4 hrs. O.T.

It seems likely to me that the shortness of the last few entries are due to all the overtime he's working, which was commonplace for postal workers as Christmas approached.  

12/20 The U.S. will set up an Economic Cooperation Administration to supervise the Marshall Plan in Europe. a MP[?] rep. to the 16 nations and a network of Economic officials in the various embassies. Quill was elected city C.I.O. head to replace Curran, resigned. A N.J. delegation asked Wallace to run. Jouhaux and a majority of the C.G.L. leaders have taken their followers (about 25%) out of the Confederation. They have organized the "Force Ouvriere" as an Anti-Communist movement. 12 hrs. all O.T. 

This is Saturday, and he's working 12 hours.