http://www.snopes.com/politics/quotes/troosevelt.asp
I say "Bully!"
They use to call it Americanization
Why Teddy, your a racist!
sacr/
"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..."
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The ONE Roosevelt that was an American, was a patriot, and not a socialist. And he understood Americanism, the importance of citizenship and maintaining soverignty.
Something lost on the elitists, globalists and liberals controlling Washington.
America is a Nation and not a mosaic of nationalities. The various nationalities that come here are not to remain separate, but to blend into the one American nationality—the nationality of Washington and Lincoln, of Muhlenberg and Sheridan. Therefore, we must have but one language, the English language. Every immigrant who comes here should be required within five years to learn English or to leave the country, for hereafter every immigrant should be treated as a future fellow citizen and not merely as a labor unit. English should be the only language taught or used in the primary schools. We should provide by law so that after a reasonable interval every newspaper in this country should be published in English. (April 27, 1918.) Roosevelt in the Kansas City Star, 143.
Typical Republican racist
(sarcasm)
Over half of Great Migration (1890s-1910s) period Italians returned to Italy. Overall, upwards 1/3 of all immigrants during that period returned. TR was speaking not to that condition, but to the lack of assimilation. Only he missed out on what was really happening. Assimilation didn't begin until European migration was cut in the 1920s. Until that time, most immigrants expected to return to their homelands, and, therefore, had little interest in assimilating.
And I believe I saw posted on a wall at Ellis Island, a quote by Teddy that said, "there is no such thing as a hyphenated American".
I found the info I was referring to at Ellis Island:
Former President Theodore Roosevelt insisted to an Irish Catholic audience in 1915 that ,
"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. ... 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. ... There is no such thing as a hyphenated American who is a good American. The only man who is a good American is the man who is an American and nothing else."
I completely agree. But who around FR is working on the issue?
I see lots of whining about "the border". I see lots of plans to arrest illegals, and prevent them from getting jobs. But I see no one taking on the PC education establishment and forcing English immersion, and discouraging foreign language media in the US, or removing foreign languages from bank teller machines or voter ballots.
Teddy doesn't look racist. He looks like a proud American, and wants to share this wonderful country with any and everybody who is willing to adapt and "be an American" like us.
It's the modern "Americans" who appear racist.