Page:The National Geographic Magazine Vol 16 1905.djvu/73

Rh will assemble in Washington, D. C. The meeting is held under the auspices of the American Forestry Association, by whom it was called. The purpose of the Congress "is to establish a broader understanding of the forest in its relation to the great industries depending upon it; to advance the conservative use of forest resources for both the present and the future need of these industries; to stimulate and unite all efforts to perpetuate the forest as a permanent resource of the nation."

On Monday, at 12 o'clock noon, January 2, the delegates will be received in a body at the President's New Year's reception at the White House.

Morning and afternoon sessions will be held on January 3, 4, 5, and 6 in the National Rifles' Armory. On the afternoon of January 5 a special meeting will be held in the L,afayette Theater, which will be addressed by the President of the United States and other men prominent in our industrial and national life.

IMMIGRATION AND NATURALIZATION

PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT in his last message to Congress states very clearly the principle which has guided us in the making of immigration laws of the past and which should also guide us in our revision of these laws. "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. In every generation, from the time this government was founded, men of foreign birth have stood in the very foremost rank of good citi- zenship, and that not merely in one, but in every field of American activity; while to try to draw a distinction between the man whose parents came to this country and the man whose ancestors came to it several generations back is a mere absurdity. Good Americanism is a matter of heart, of conscience, of lofty aspiration, of sound common sense, but not of birthplace or of creed. The medal of honor, the highest prize to be won by those who serve in the Army and Navy of the United States, decorates men born here, and it also decorates men born in Great Britain and Ireland, in Germany, in Scandinavia, in France, and doubtless in other countries also. In the field of statesmanship, in the field of business, in the field of philanthropic endeavor, it is equally true that among the men of whom we are most proud as Americans no distinction whatever can be drawn between those who themselves or whose parents came over in sailing ship or steamer from across the water and those whose ancestors stepped ashore into the wooded wilderness at Plymouth or at the mouth of the Hudson, the Delaware, or the James, nearly three centuries ago. 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 there- for. Each must stand on his worth as a man and each is entitled to be judged solely thereby.

' 'There is nodangerof having too many immigrants of the right kind. It makes no difference from what country they come. If they are sound in body and in mind and, above all, if they are of good character, so that we can rest assured that their children and grandchildren will be worthy fellow-citizens of our children and grandchildren, then we should welcome them with cordial hos- pitality.

"But the citizenship of this country should not be debased. It is vital that we should keep high the standard of well-being among our wage- workers, and therefore we should not admit masses of men whose standards of living acd whose personal customs and habits are such that they tend to lower the level of the American wage- worker, and