The Foes of Our Own Household
By Theodore Roosevelt: Prior to World War One, Germany had sent a number of immigrants to this country as spies, saboteurs, & propagandists to influence  German immigrants to support Germany when war broke out. It was a fairly successful plan because some politicians including President Wilson feared the German vote. This country needed someone to speak out against the foes of our household. When others feared to speak out, Theodore Roosevelt was there & almost seemed super human in his efforts to find opportunities to sound the clarion call for wise action. TR said:

“We have believed that we would get devotion to our country from immigrants who came here merely to make money and escape meeting obligations. The belief was ill founded. The man who feels that the country owes him everything and that he owes the country nothing, will pay the country just what he thinks he owes— nothing. It is a curious fact that many Germans who came here to avoid military service, and who while here have had to do nothing they did not care to do, yet as soon as the strain came, felt all their loyalty toward the country which exacted much from its citizens, and none at all for the country which expected nothing from its citizens”.

TR was not the type of person that would only fight one foe of our country at a time. He challenges every recognizable foe in this book that his logic based upon his Philosophy of History examples could reveal. He gives very powerful arguments that explain the dangers of Hyphenated Americans, Socialism & Communism. There are a long list of social ills that he talks about that are tearing the country apart. The concept of “parasite women” was prevalent in his day, TR did not hesitate to set the record straight about equal rights for women so that those people that were following popular opinion would have a correct opinion to follow. Without fearless leaders that are willing to challenge those things, the crowd wrongly believes, to be politically correct the country will follow popular opinion until some disaster changes the way they think. What TR does time after time is to recognize pending disasters. He then places himself in front of the stampede of ill thinking people while firing warning shots that change the course of popular opinions to avert disasters. He states time after time that the possibility of personal injury was never a factor and that correcting a wrong was his only consideration. Where are the fearless leaders today? Have saboteurs re-entered the country? Have the foes of our household returned because it has become popular opinion not to remember TR's examples for removing the foes that will surely destroy this country. A letter by Abraham Lincoln to Mrs. Bixby, a mother that had 5 sons killed in the civil war, can be found in several speeches by TR as a reason for dedicating some of our time toward trying to recognize the foes of our household in times of peace. When you consider what people have given to this country to preserve it, should we not try to learn a little about the philosophy of history which TR writes about so that disasters such as this mother faced can be avoided?  TR writes about history so that individuals and leaders will learn how to recognize the foes of our household and know how to respond. Knowledge of history & TR's moral character examples will produce people like TR if you help promote this web site.