A Brief Summary Of Assimilation

During the years of 1915 and 1924 America was fighting against foreign countries in WWI and the ending of another war. America’s population was increasing at a high rate and was becoming a concern to who feared the amount of immigrants coming from foreign countries. Assimilation to act and behave as a proper American was crucial at this time as the fear of being deported was a issue for all immigrants in America. President Theodore Roosevelt and Senator Ellison DuRant Smith made individual speeches to give the public their own opinion of Immigrants and why they should assimilate to be a true American or eventually get deported. Looking specifically at Roosevelt's speech, he refers to Immigrants as either hyphenated Americans or aliens. In his
He refers to America as a melting pot which is a common term used by many to describe all of the ethnicities and cultures that are accepted in America. In fact, America is known at this time as one of the most diverse countries, and continues to attract more and more immigrants. Thus the Immigration Act of 1924 was put into place to exclude the immigration of certain races such as Arabs, East Indians, Asians, Southern Europeans, and Italians. The primary cause for this act was the fear Americans had on foreign people who could possibly have bad intentions coming from enemy countries or countries that America has gone to war with in the past. The Post Communist Revolution was a hard time for all Americans as any one of them could be accused of being a Communist for even the slightest reason of accusingly acting suspicious. Everyone was scared of Communist and wanted to ensure that their way of living was not put in danger. Smith repeatedly mentioned how America needs to “shut the door and assimilate what we have” in order to properly make immigrants pure Americans who practice the rights and ideals that America live up to (Document 2). Not only does he want to Americanize the people, he also wants to Americanize the forces such as factories to live out his goals of allowing those who live in poverty to enjoy the same wealth as other Americans can once America shuts
Roosevelt bases his ideas on assimilating immigrants on ensuring that the take part in the rights and duties of an American citizen who puts effort in learning simple things like the English Language. He believes that aliens who do their part as a citizen should be allowed all the help possible towards advancing themselves as an American. While Smith does not want to give anymore immigrants the chance to prove themselves worthy or unworthy. He strongly believes that the doors should be shut to anymore immigrants, and that the current people in America should be Americanized and appreciated for their individual power and role they have as American citizens. Smith emphasized power and strength, while Roosevelt strived to create ‘One America’ where there was equal justice for all. Reading back through their speeches in an Argument stand point, I see why Roosevelt felt the need to unify the country during war, because at this point Americans needed to stand strong and show their loyalty to America. I also understand why he believes that we should “condemn any man who holds any other allegiance” because at the time it was hard to know whether people like this were working with foreign countries against America (Document 1). What I don’t fully understand is Smith’s logic on how “we have sufficient stock in America now for us to shut the door” when America will always need to to