This portrait photo of President Roosevelt Titled KEEP UP THE FIGHT FOR AMERICANISMT the Last Public Message Of Theodore Roosevelt, Honorary President Of The American Defense Society Read At Its All American Benefit Concert Held At The Hippodrome, New York City, On January 5, 1919 the night before he died.
“I cannot be with you, and so all I can do is to wish you Godspeed. There must be no sagging back in the fight for Americanism merely because the war is over. There are plenty of persons who have already made the assertion that they believe the American people have a short memory, and they intend to revive all the foreign associations which most directly interfere with the complete Americanization of our people. “Our principle in this matter should be absolutely simple. 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. If he tries to keep segregated with men of his own origin and separated from the rest’ of America, then he isn’t doing his part as an American. “There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but is 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, for we intend to see that the crucible turns our people out as Americans, of American nationality, and not as dwellers in a polyglot boarding house; and we have room for but one soul loyalty, and that is a loyalty to the American people.”
Distributed by The American Defense Society, National Headquarters in New York City Measures 23 1/2″ x 30 1/2″. (has been cleaneed and added accid free paper on back by previous owner).
The frame and print are in very good condition.
