|
Theodore
Roosevelt om invandrare:
"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
Comments: Theodore Roosevelt indeed wrote these words, but not in 1907
while he was still President of the United States. The passages were
culled from a letter he wrote to the president of the American Defense
Society on January 3, 1919, three days before Roosevelt died.
"Americanization" was a favorite theme of Roosevelt's during
his later years, when he railed repeatedly against "hyphenated
Americans" and the prospect of a nation "brought to ruins"
by a "tangle of squabbling nationalities."
He advocated the compulsory learning of English by every naturalized
citizen. 'Every immigrant who comes here should
be required within five years to learn English or to leave the country'
he said in a statement to the Kansas City Star in 1918. 'English
should be the only language taught or used in the public schools.'
He also insisted, on more than one occasion, that America has no room
for what he called 'fifty-fifty allegiance.' In a speech made 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.' |
