Teddy Roosevelt

It makes no difference from what country they come.

There is no danger of having too many immigrants of the right kind.

Each must stand on his worth as a man and each is entitled to be judged solely thereby.

No fellow-citizen of ours is entitled to any peculiar regard because of the way in which he worships his Maker, or because of the birthplace of himself or his parents, nor should he be in any way discriminated against therefor.

Good Americanism is a matter of heart, of conscience, of lofty aspiration, of sound common sense, but not of birthplace or of creed.

First and foremost, let us remember that the question of being a good American has nothing whatever to do with a man's birthplace any more than it has to do with his creed.

I especially commend to your immediate attention the encouragement of our merchant marine by appropriate legislation.

Practical instruction of this kind would in a few years result in the forming of habits of regular industry, which would render the Indian a producer and would effect a great reduction in the cost of his maintenance.

The veterans of the Civil War have a claim upon the Nation such as no other body of our citizens possess.

The Canyon of the Colorado should be made a national park; and the national-park system should include the Yosemite and as many as possible of the groves of giant trees in California.

We owe it to future generations to keep alive the noble and beautiful creatures which by their presence add such distinctive character to the American wilderness.

It is true, also, that the forest services of nearly all the great nations of the world are under the respective departments of agriculture, while in but two of the smaller nations and in one colony are they under the department of the…

The United States is the only one of the great nations in which the forest work of the Government is not concentrated under one department, in consonance with the plainest dictates of good administration and common sense.

On the contrary, it is everywhere and always the interest of the permanent settler and the permanent business man, the man with a stake in the country, which must be considered and which must decide.

But neither can we accept the views of those whose only interest in the forest is temporary; who are anxious to reap what they have not sown and then move away, leaving desolation behind them.

It can not safely, and should not in any case, be imposed upon them against their will.

The forest reserve policy can be successful only when it has the full support of the people of the West.

The second reason for which forest reserves are created is to preserve the timber supply for various classes of wood users.

Indeed, they are essential to the welfare of every one of the great interests of the West.

They are of special importance because they preserve the water supply and the supply of timber for domestic purposes, and so promote settlement under the reclamation act.

The forest reserves themselves are of extreme value to the present as well as to the future welfare of all the western public-land States.

But these resources must be used in such a way as to make them permanent.

Whatever interferes with the use of their resources is to be avoided by every possible means.

It is the cardinal principle of the forest-reserve policy of this Administration that the reserves are for use.

Fruits suitable to our soils and climates are being imported from all the countries of the Old World--the fig from Turkey, the almond from Spain, the date from Algeria, the mango from India.