The Panama Canal (q.v.), begun under Roosevelt and completed under the succeeding Republican administration, is one of the greatest engineering feats of all time and will have a lasting influence upon the development of the United States, bringing constantly into closer commercial and political relations the people of the Atlantic and Pacific coasts and simplifying the problems of national defense. It would have been indefinitely delayed had it not been for Roosevelt's firmness and prompt decision in dealing with the neighboring South and Central American states. The early years of his incumbency were marked by the settlement of the great anthracite coal strike, which threatened a coal famine in the winter of 1902. He brought the contending operators and operatives together and named a non-partisan commission composed of men representing labor, capital and the public, which named terms of agreement.
The Republican National Convention held at Chicago in June 1904 unanimously nominated Roosevelt as his own successor and named Charles W. Fairbanks, of Indiana as the can didate for Vice-President. The Democrats at Saint Louis nominated for President Alton B. Parker, of New York, and for Vice-President Henry G. Davis, of West Virginia. Roosevelt and Fairbanks were elected, receiving a total of 336 electoral votes out of 476. In his second administration Roosevelt entered on a crusade against what he regarded as a danger ous tendency to concentrate power in the hands of capitaligts controlling agencies of transpor tation, manufacture and commerce. He se cured the enactment by Congress of legislation enlarging the functions of the Interstate Com merce Commission and investing the Commis sion with authority to fix railroad rates and abolish discriminating nractices. The Depart ment of Justice with his approval brought suit under the Sherman Law against large indus trial organizations as combinations in re straint of trade.
In the spring of 1904 war broke out between Russia and Japan. After the battle of the Sea of Japan, 27 and 28 May 1904, in which the Russian fleet was almost annihilated, Presi dent Roosevelt (9 June) urged on the Russian and Japanese governments the desirability of putting an end to the war and proferred his good offices toward bringing about peace. Both governments acceded and appointed plenipo tentiaries to discuss terms. Portsmouth, N. H., was selected as the place of meet ing. A deadlock arising between the plenipo tentiaries, the President again appealed to the high contracting parties and finally succeeded in bringing about an agreement. A treaty was signed at Portsmouth, 5 September. For his services in bringing about peace President Roosevelt was later awarded the Nobel Prize.
In November 1906 President Roosevelt made a visit to the Isthmus of Panama. This was the first time a President of the United States had gone outside the territorial limits of the Union, even technically. It was at a time when Con gress was not in session and there were no great and immediately pressing questions which might call for official action by the President.
The first session of the 60th Congress passed an act to regulate the employment of child labor in the District of Columbia, intended to be a model law on the subject. It was the forerunner of more comprehensive legislation which was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in 1918. On 30 May 1908 was passed an act to amend the national banking laws of the United States and creating a Na tional Monetary Commission, which was au thorized to investigate and ascertain what changes may be necessary in the banking and currency laws. This commission made an ex haustive and scientific study of our entire finan cial policy, which it had long been plain was faulty. Our banking system, based on legisla tion adopted early in the Civil War and ap plicable primarily to the Civil War emergency, was quite unequal to the demands of our ex panding commerce. Our currency was inelastic. In times of monetary stringency the resources of the treasury were repeatedly called upon to meet a desperate emergency and even this reser voir of credit occasionally proved inadequate, as was evidenced in the panics of 1873, 1893, 1901 and 1907. The Monetary Commission com posed of senators and representatives was fortu nate in the high character of its At the head was Nelson W. Aldrich of Rhode Island, chairman of the Finance Committee of the Senate; while among the representatives on the commission were Edward B. Vreeland of New York, chairman of the House Committee on Banking and Currency, and John W. Weeks of Massachusetts, later a United States senator, a man of constructive ability and financial knowledge. Owing to limitation of time it was impossible to secure the enactment of a com prehensive measure such as Senator Aldrich and his associates had in mind, but a measure calculated to meet immediately urgent neces sities and called the aAldrich-Vreeland) Emergency Act was enacted. This act was first called into operation in 1914, after the outbreak of the European War, and by resorting to the methods of relief which it provided the danger of panic was averted. A striking feature of Roosevelt's administration was his dramatic action in sending around the world a great American fleet consisting of 16 battleships which stopped at many ports, impressing European and Asiatic powers with the potential naval strength of the United States. The fleet left Hampton Roads, Va., 16 Dec. 1907 and arrived at Hampton Roads, on its return, 22 Feb. 1909. principal places visited were Trinidad, Rio de Janeiro, Valparaiso, Callao, San Diego, San Francisco, Honolulu, New Zealand, New South Wales, Australia, Manila, Japan, Ceylon, Suez, Naples, Villefranche, Athens, Algiers, Gibraltar and Portugal and everywhere the fleet was received with great demonstrations of goodwill toward the United States. While Roosevelt was President, the United States re mained at peace. No foreign nation had the hardihood to trespass on the rights of Ameri can citizens on land or sea.