‘Language of the United States’
Regarding the Monterey Park English-language initiative or any similar resolution or ordinance in any city or state, it really makes no difference regarding the basic question. English is the language of the United States, and nothing will change it. It doesn’t have to be established. It is about as pointless as a statement saying that cherries shall be the chief ingredient of cherry pie.
Perhaps it would have been better for the City Council to recognize this fact and just pass a resolution or ordinance with the innocuous wording quoted in The Times. How much wiser and more admirable it would have been for those who want to be contributing Americans and enjoy the many benefits of this country to have appreciatively and calmly accepted and supported the logic of it.
The Americanization process has been going on for generations in this country, and it will continue, either smoothly or with unnecessary and incongruous disruption. Theodore Roosevelt said it best when he said:
“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 boardinghouse.”
A. G. BROADIE
San Gabriel
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