Theodore Roosevelt's Immigration Ideals

[Moondog]

Beautiful and straight forward...

Theodore Roosevelt's ideas on Immigrants and being an AMERICAN in 1907.

"In the first place, we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin.

But this is predicated upon the person's becoming in every facet an American, and nothing but an American...There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn't an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag... We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language... and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people."

[curt_the_flirt]

Teddie was an excellent speaker. He could rouse an audience with the best.
I would say that the only part with which I may have some difficulty is with the statement, "We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language... " When this country was founded, there were as many people speaking German as English. I do think we tend to go overboard on this, though. Here in California, election ballots are printed in at least 10 different languages. I'm not sure how that helps us be a cohesive nation.

[nelson]

I really like what Teddy Roosevelt said, thanks for posting it.

At one point in our history the existence of various languages was purely incidental; people still became American, they still gave up an old identity, assumed a new one, tried to and eventually did learn English, and overall people were much more humble and grateful just to have a chance here at a new life. Today, the different languages spoken here are insulating; immigrants retain their old national identities, refuse to adopt a new one, demand benefits nonetheless, and actually wield political clout.