Teddy Roosevelt on Immigration

1919 Quote


"We should insist that if the immigrant who comes here does in good faith become an American and assimilates himself to us he shall be treated on an exact equality with every one else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed or birth-place 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. . . 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 loyalty to the American people."

Miscellaneous Stuff!!

Well. let's see. Me and my lovely wife Regina celebrated our 43rd Wedding anniversary on January 10th, also we are also going through a second round of empty nest syndrome because my youngest son was in an awkward position. He was the lone renter in a house as its lease expired. Since his other roomies moved on, he didn't want to assume the whole burden on his own, so he stayed with us while looking for a studio apartment. He was with us for about two months until he found an apartment to his liking. It was a real pleasure to have him back in the house again. I think we miss him now more than we did the first time he left.

Retirement agrees with me more and more, I  volunteer at the local Historical Society once a week and attend Civil War Round Table meetings monthly. It keeps the cobwebs out of my brain. For now, I don't think I want to add any more activities. Have to ease into all this fun you know, i don't know if I can stand it?  :-)

Who Is Minnie Torkler?

I've started off my stint as a volunteer at the Historical Society of Rockland County by transcribing the 1926 diary of Minnie Torkler. I've done two weeks so far. It's pretty interesting, a New Years Eve Dinner plate at the Hotel St. George in Nyack went for a whopping $4.00,

It appears that she and her husband Fred are landlords for several buildings in Manhattan since she makes references to several people not having hot water and she mentions bookkeeping a lot. I think this might be an interesting slice of life in 1926 as I delve deeper into the transcribing.