Excerpt from Proceedings of the First Citizenship Convention: Held at Washington, D. C., July 10-15, 1916, Under the Auspices of the Bureau of Naturalization, U. S. Department of Labor
This morning we represent a small, a very small, gathering and reflection of this great national movement, but it has been said that where there are a small number gathered together consecrated to a cause their potentiality will be great, and I am sure, with the results which we expect to accomplish from this series of meetings, the wave of force will be renewed with the coming school year, and instead of having experiments, tried and proved successful in some parts of the country and failing to be so successful in others, we will solidify and accomplish definite and complete results.
It is my pleasure this morning first to introduce to you, for an address of welcome, Commissioner Oliver P. Newman, one of the three Commissioners of the District of Columbia.
Address Of Commissioner Newman.
Mr. Secretary, Ladies, And Gentlemen: You behold in me the necessary evil of every convention. I am the official key giver of the city; and every convention which comes here has to stop in the progress of its legitimate purpose for a few moments on the first morning and receive that key, so that you are now undergoing that process. I want to say that to this particular convention I am particularly glad to turn over the key of the city. I have a very great personal and official admiration for the two elements which are Drought together in this conference; one, the Department of Labor of the Government, and the other, the public-school teacher. I would like to be able to say that I was a school-teacher, for I know that men in public office always find that such a statement meets with a hearty response from any audience. The most I can say is that I am morganatically affiliated with your profession - I married a school-teacher.
I think it is particularly appropriate that this conference be held in the National Capital and that the efforts which are to result from the undertaking which has been launched under the auspices of the Bureau of Naturalization should radiate from the center of government, the seat of government. I think that this movement probably illustrates as accurately as anything which has been done in recent years the new view, the new interpretation of the purposes of government. I have seen it in all of the departments in the last few years, particularly here in Washington. But this is especially emphatic, for it seems to me that this movement is a striking case of the utilization of the machinery of the Government for the benefit of society, or rather the utilization by society of its own machinery for its own benefit, and being here for the purpose of accomplishing a thing of that kind I am very glad to welcome you, to extend to you in behalf of the government of the District of Columbia, which, as you probably know, is far from a democratic institution, the key to the city.
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