We located the quote you inquired of as being from Theodore Roosevelt’s message to the President of the American Defense Society written January 3, 1919; last message, read at a meeting in New York on Jan 5, 1919. Our source for the citation is The Theodore Roosevelt Cyclopedia (Theodore Roosevelt Association and Meckler, 1989), 13 and 243.



The quote that has been circulated and cited as of late is not only misdated (1907 as opposed to 1919) but some of the wording is juxtaposed in different order from the original.



I hope that this is of some help.



Best regards,

John



John Staudt, Ph.D.

Theodore Roosevelt Association



Below are the quotations as they appeared as extracted from the original message:



____________. 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 that they intend to revive all the



foreign associations which most directly interfere with



the complete Americanization of our people. . . .



Any man who says he is an American, but



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. (To



President of the American Defense Society, January 3,



1919; last message, read at meeting in New York,



January 5, 1919.) Mem. Ed. XXIV, 554-555; Bishop II,



474.



____________. 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.



(To President of the American Defense Society,



January 3, 1919; last message, read at meeting in New



York, January 5, 1919.) Mem. Ed. XXIV, 554; Bishop