Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1894-02-19
TRUE Al[ERICANISM
As It 70 Viewed by Theodore
Roseyslt.
LETTER 10 A PAP1R AT ST. PAUL.

Has No Use for K.oInsthlneism - the
One Hand Nor .'0er hnism' or ''Irish.
Ssm" on the Other-1Eoae Rule for IRE
land or British Federation Questions
That American Cltiscns Should Not BE
C0ncerned About.
ST. PAUL, Feb. 19.-Thc American Citi.
zen, local weekly Published ''In the in.
terest of true Americanism," with Incl.
dental opposition to the A. p. A., pub
fishes an interesting letter from Hon.
Theodore Roosevelt Of the United States
civil service commission. The letter is a
follows:
'EDIroR AMERICAN CITIzEN-Sir: have
been much interested in two or three Of
your editorials that have been sent to me,
notably in that wherein you oppose the
division of the school fund. 1t gives me
mendation Of the spirit Of true American
ism. True Americanism is as absolutely
alien to knownothingism on the one
hand as it is to every form of forcignism
on the other. Every foreigner who comes
to this country is in honor bound to be-
come an American citizen, pure and sim
pie, without any qualification. He has no
business to bring into our American polit-
ical life the questions = European politics.
and especially the yelf1ious and race rival.
ries OF Europe. He is bound not to act as
an lrishman, German, Englishnan, or
Scandinavian, but purely rs AN American.
To Catch the Foreign Vote.
ut is an outrage that any one of our 20.
litical conventions should insert into the
xl.Sr Il. =.
vision OF the foreign vote, because it is
an outrage that there should he any divis-
ion of our voters whokcast their votes as
foreigners. We haves othing to do in our
political platforms lii the rivalry be-
tween Germany and France, the question
of home rule for Ireland, or of union for
the British empire; all We are concerned
with are the questions of American poll
tics, and We have thei right to demand
that every american voter should vote
purely with reference 20 these questions.
But if the 1brcign-born citizen who comes
over here, honestly and in good faith full
fills the duties Of American citizenship
and acts as an American pure and simple,
il is most emphatically an outrage to dis
criminate against him in any way because
Of his birthplace or creed. have had
the honor Of knowing a number of gem
tlemen who have been to congress from
the northwest during, the past few years,
and among the very stoutest Americans
Of them all could name certain congress.
men who happened 20 be born in Ger.
many, in Sweden, or - Norway.
IAN lmportans Selection.
I'm the sume way during my term Of
service in the New York legislature when
came to select the most important COM
mittee with which z Ter had to work, and
when had TO choose hy four colleagues
purely from consider5 ions affecting the
public service, i found hat noless than three
Of them were Irish birth or descent.
Among the men with 1Shom / was asso.
ciated in the New Y3k legislature if l
were asked to name tHbse whom thought
most thoroughly Anglican rs well as alb
solutely honest and i4triotic in their de-
votion to the well beirlE of the common
wealth, should pt& very high among
their number many my colleagues OF
German and Irish birth or pnrentage. One
of them, by the way, whom should put
up especially high, would he a gentleman
now residing in St. Paul. / have been
through the fire with him and have seen
him tried by every severe test and not
found wanting. 1t is always pleasure to
me to say anything l can on behalf OF
straight Americanisin in every form.
Yours truly, THEoDoRE RoosEvELT."