Ashland weekly tidings. [volume] (Ashland, Or.) 1919-1924, 1919-11-12
ANtERICANIZATION OF FOR
EIGNERS.

We have lost Theodore Roosevelt
the greatest thinker and the great
est American of his time. we re-
tain. however, his memory, his Ideals
and his love of country. Now there
is lust closing nationwide cam
paign to do him honor. When we
think of him, we can do better than
express in words an easy admiration
We can bend ourselves to the real
work that was close to his heart.
Part of this work was the Amerl-
canization of the immigrant. In
serving him we serve ourselves.
We have permitted the immigra'
ton of millions of men and women
from the less literate countries;
Southern Russia, the Balkan States
Austria and Southern Italy; we have
opened to them the opportunities oil
our own people. But, and the 'fault
is as much our own as theirs, they
have in no true sense of the word be-
come Americans. They have re-
NAMED alien racial groups,
Theodore Roosevelt, friend OF the
Immigrants, saw the danger that has
now become visible to us all. He said
Any man who comes here, whether
he be German, a Slav, an Italian, a
man from the British Islands, or the
Scandinavian countries, or any one
elese. II he becomes citizen at all
either commits perjury or else be-
comes an American, and only an
American, and specifically foreswears
all allegiance to his former country
and its ruler. Either he has com
mitted perjury, else he has ceased
to be a German, or an Englishman,
or an Irishman, or a Slav, or a
Frenchman, and has become an
American, and only an American. He
must adopt the institutions of the
United States, and, therefore, he
must adopt the language which is
now the native tongue of our peo-
pie, no matter what the several
strains of blood in our ,eins may b."
These words are worth weighing!
Our immigration practically ceased
with the beginning of the war but
for the decade before 1914 the for
eigners who came to our shores
were from less competent races than
those OF the preceding generation.
We have today a vast and undigest-
ed group of aliens who dominate
many OF our vital industries-iron
and steel, coal, packing, textile, oil
refining and others.
We have been lax; we have not,
to quote Roosevelt again, seen that
the wisest and quickest way TO
Americanize the immigrant is to
make him understand that here in
America we have at last walked up
to our needs, and that henceforth
every man, whether born here or
abroad owes this country the fullest
service of body and of soul"
Since understanding, = sympathy,
appreciation, fellow-feellng and real
interest are one and all impossible
to a man who does not know the
language of the country in which he
lives, possibly our major fault has
been in not compelling the immi-
grant to learn English within rea-
sonable period after his arrival here.
We have let him isolate himself
in the slums of our cities, getting
news from his foreign-language
newspaper, and his viewpoint from
the cheap politicians who prey upon
him. He has had no opportunity
TO learn what the United States is,
what our ideals and standards are,
and our traditions and aspirations.
Upon his arrival he may have had
q keen desire to "be an American" "
This desire fades for lack of stimu-
lation, and he sinks to an inartlcu-
late dissatisfaction with his sur
roundings. Any agitator, appealing
10 him in his own tongue, can move
him; and any agitator can tell him
untruths about our government. for
he knows no better
In word, Roosevelt hit at the
heart Of the trouble when he said
''The one absolutely certain way OF
bringing this nation TO ruin, OF pre-
venting all possibility OF its eontin-
uing 10 be a nation at all. would be
TO permit II to become a tangle OF
squabbling nationalities. an intTi-
cate knot Of German-Americans,
Irish-Amerlcans, Scandinavians, or
FrenehAmericans, Scandinavians. or
Italisn-Americans. each preserving
its separate nationality, each at
heart feeling more sympathy with
Europeans Of that nationality than
9TH tho ,tbar cftf1o,e 81 tha An.ar-