American ideals, and other essays, social and politicalRoosevelt, Theodore
General
American ideals, and other essays, social and political
Roosevelt, Theodore
National characteristics, American; United States -- Politics and government; United States -- Social conditions -- 1865-1918
There is much more reason to fear the industrial competition of these
races; but even this will be less formidable as the power of the State
increases and especially as the democratic idea obtains more and more
currency. The Russians are not democratic at all, but the State is very
powerful with them; and therefore they keep the Chinese out of their
Siberian provinces, which are being rapidly filled up with a population
mainly Slav, the remainder of which is being Slavicized. From the
United States and Australia the Chinaman is kept out because the
democracy, with much clearness of vision, has seen that his presence is
ruinous to the white race.
Nineteenth century democracy needs no more complete vindication for its
existence than the fact that it has kept for the white race the best
portions of the new worlds’ surface, temperate America and Australia.
Had these regions been under aristocratic governments, Chinese
immigration would have been encouraged precisely as the slave trade is
encouraged of necessity by any slave-holding oligarchy, and the result
would in a few generations have been even more fatal to the white race;
but the democracy, with the clear instinct of race selfishness, saw the
race foe, and kept out the dangerous alien. The presence of the negro
in our Southern States is a legacy from the time when we were ruled
by a trans-oceanic aristocracy. The whole civilization of the future
owes a debt of gratitude greater than can be expressed in words to that
democratic policy which has kept the temperate zones of the new and the
newest worlds a heritage for the white people.
As for the industrial competition, the Chinaman and the Hindoo may
drive certain kinds of white traders from the tropics; but more than
this they cannot do. They can never change the status of the white
laborer in his own home, for the latter can always protect himself, and
as soon as he is seriously menaced, always will protect himself, by
protective tariffs and stringent immigration laws.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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