Interesting Teddy Roosevelt Quote on Immigration

[BamaLefty]

Thoughts?

"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."

- - - Theodore Roosevelt 1907

[ThomWV]

1. The Only Part I Would Take Issue With

Is the speaking English part. I don't think it a matters a whit what language a person speaks in this country.

[Imagine My Surprise]

3. That hit me the same way

[Imagine My Surprise]

2. Not exactly Pat Buchanan, but...

I still think it smacks of Manifest Destiny. Thanks for sharing.

[BamaLefty]

4. Yeah, I'm not so thrilled about it either

people need to chill out over it. Something needs to be done, yes. But it isn't like the "filthy Mexicans are taking over the world."

[silverlib]

5. "be treated on an exact equality with everyone else"

This is the most important part. If we had wage standards and corporations were not exploiting the immigrants our problems, IMO, would be almost a non-issue.

[nevergiveup]

6. In 1907 this was

probably considered fairly progressive.

[Smarmie Doofus]

7. I'm not so sure about the last clause: "we have room for....

but one sole loyalty, and that is to the American people."

Non-Americans are people too; my loyalty is to humanity.

Pretty easy to see what TR was doing with that 'big stick'. ( That *was* TR, wasn't it?)

[bbinacan]

8. I think he meant that

those who choose America as home should consider themselves American.:shrug:

[spindrifter]

9. Remember, this was

the era right before some of the really big immigrant populations from southern Europe and Russia came over here. Americans did not have ESL / Second Language Learner classes. Kids were popped into public school to sink or swim in English--if they learned their original/family language, it was because the parents kept it alive in the home or the community had after school language classes.
Remember, too, we have gone from America--the Melting Pot to America--the Mosaic.