I was notified of the following material currently circulating via e-mail. I offer a comment at the end.
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
Me: Since I have a skeptical streak that requires I verify (if possible) things I hear or read, I checked www.snopes.com which declares Roosevelt's words: "True," but added that Roosevelt's comments were not made in 1907, but were part of a letter written in 1919. See Snopes for much more material on Roosevelt's views on immigrants and "Americanization," including numerous additional quotes.