Canada: 1943 – Canada’s Prime Minister Visits a New York City Victory Garden
Prime Minister Mackenzie King Visits with Mrs. Andrew Carnegie at her mansion on 90th Street
From the Diaries of William Lyon Mackenzie King
New York City, May 31, 1943
At 4PM, called on Mrs. Andrew Carnegie. [Wife of the Scottish-American industrialist and philanthropist.]
She gave me a warm welcome. She was anxious to show me her Victory Garden. We went out together to the little enclosure which lies between 90th Street and her beautiful residence.
I gave her my arm and we walked together around the green path of lawn around a vegetable garden which was where the lawn had formerly been.
To me there was something both touching and amusing in the conversion of these square feet of land into a vegetable garden with evidence of millions of dollars in surroundings, any fragment of which would have made a contribution to the war compared with which the Victory Garden would be meaningless. It all shows how much the lives of the people are made to confirm to pattern and convention. It is like the way in which the people satisfy their consciences over a lump of sugar and one cup of coffee where they would spend thousands of dollars on amusements feeling they had complied with the necessary sacrifices in time of war. Mrs. Carnegie herself is the sweetest of women – a very beautiful character.
