Loading ...Teddy thought like that great American Henry Ford
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 every 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.
Microsoft Word – Fall 12, Firsht-1.docx
HENRY FORD==
To rectify his immigrant problem, Ford sought to Americanize his foreign workforce through the Ford English School, which began in 1914. Taught by native-born American workers, the English School was mandatory for foreign-born employees. Samuel Marquis, head of the Ford Sociological Department, stated in a speech that workers who did not make an effort to go to school would be discharged.7 While the explicit purpose of the English School was to teach foreign workers English and how to spend their wages, the English School had a much further reaching impact. Ford said, “These men of many nations must be taught American ways, the English language, and the right way to live.”8 The “right way to live” according to Ford was a life of middle class, bourgeois values that favored consumerism. Ford foreign workers were educated to be a consummate working class—complete with knowledge of important middle
Microsoft Word – Fall 12, Firsht-1.docx
The Ford English School produced Americans by “Seventy-two lessons…taught in thirty-six weeks, two lessons a week, each covering a period of an hour and a half.”14 By continually adding knowledge of American values to the raw product of the immigrant, they could eventually be turned out as the finished product as Americans. Therefore, because it was almost compulsory for immigrants to attend the English School, Ford could be promised a constant stream of new Americans. An article in the Ford Times exclaimed, “By treating employees as Men and making possible for themselves and their families to live respectably, it has become possible—yes, easy [my emphasis]—for these thousands of foreign born workers to be refashioned and woven into the warp and woof of greater Americanism.”15 The FMC believed that this was an “easy” process that could be easily implemented on any immigrant to make them American. Americanization became a sudden and immediate transformation.
https://michiganjournalhistory.files.wordpress.com/2014/02/fall-12-firsht.pdf