Did Theodore Roosevelt write anything on immigration in 1907? Would it apply today in 2007?
Answer:
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."
Theodore Roosevelt 1907
Would it apply in 2007..?
Some people would like to think so. Not everyone!
In a speech in 1917, he said, "It is our boast that we admit the immigrant to full fellowship and equality with the native-born. In return we demand that he shall share our undivided allegiance to the one flag which floats over all of us."
"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 man's becoming in very fact 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, and this excludes the red flag, which symbolizes all wars against liberty and civilization, just as much as it excludes any foreign flag of a nation to which we are hostile...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."
There is no room in this country for hyphenated Americanism. When I refer to hyphenated Americans, I do not refer to naturalized Americans. Some of the very best Americans I have ever known were naturalized Americans, Americans born abroad. But a hyphenated American is not an American at all.
This is just as true of the man who puts “native” before the hyphen as of the man who puts German or Irish or English or French before the hyphen. Americanism is a matter of the spirit and of the soul. Our allegiance must be purely to the United States. We must unsparingly condemn any man who holds any other allegiance.
But if he is heartily and singly loyal to this Republic, then no matter where he was born, he is just as good an American as any one else.
The one absolutely certain way of bringing this nation to ruin, of preventing all possibility of its continuing to be a nation at all, would be to permit it to become a tangle of squabbling nationalities, an intricate knot of German-Americans, Irish-Americans, English- Americans, French-Americans, Scandinavian- Americans, or Italian-Americans, each preserving its separate nationality, each at heart feeling more sympathy with Europeans of that nationality than with the other citizens of the American Republic.
The men who do not become Americans and nothing else are hyphenated Americans; and there ought to be no room for them in this country. The man who calls himself an American citizen and who yet shows by his actions that he is primarily the citizen of a foreign land, plays a thoroughly mischievous part in the life of our body politic. He has no place here; and the sooner he returns to the land to which he feels his real heart-allegiance, the better it will be for every good American.
Addressing the Knights of Columbus in New York City
12 October 1915
It is more applicable today than when he said it.
Back then people that came to America WANTED to come to America and become American.
Then there was no welfare, no food stamps, no ESL, no free lunch. We were a God fearing nation that could say Merry Christmas without fear of offending someone.
Common sense and Yankee ingenuity ruled the day and people survived without worrying about being politically correct.
Our feel good politicians should take to heart what Teddy had to say. It is simple and to the point. A person with a 6th grade education should be able to understand it. A hyphenated American is NOT an American at all. America will be far better off if all you hyphenated Americans go home....especially those of you who march in our streets and wave the flag of another country.
"Speak softly and carry a big stick.."
So basically --- Live your life, protect yourself, and if anyone tries to cut you down or take what's yours --- put them in check.
He obviously had the right idea back then.
Yes and YES! Maybe Scorpio X is right...we need the big stick, too.
As others have shown, he did and it does. But what is more important is there are those in this nation who would paint him in retrospect to be either in the spirit of a Southen Secessionist or a KKK member. This just goes to show you how far the politicians have brainwashed the masses to keep getting themselves elected - and most second-generation and illegal immigrants are probably not right-wing, which is what Roosevelt appears now in contrast to other active politicians I could name.
I personally do not think anyone of Roosevelt's character, talent or political attitude would stand a ghost of a chance nowadays - in fact, I am sure there are those who would want to lynch such a person were he or she to arise on the scene today.
That is the year he passed the law barring cretins, imbeciles and the feeble minded from being able to immigrate to the US.
The immigration information post by website user , MyTend.com not guarantee correctness