ROOSEVELT 



ROOSEVELT 



countries, for government of the Philippines 

 and for other policies were all advanced. So 

 striking was the President's personality, so tre- 

 mendous his influence, that his character was 

 the chief issue in the campaign of 1904. The 

 President said frankly that he wanted to be 

 elected to serve a full term. He was nominated 

 by the Republican convention by acclamation, 

 and his election was a foregone conclusion. He 

 defeated Judge Alton B. Parker, the Demo- 

 cratic candidate, by a popular majority of 

 nrarly 2,000,000 votes, and received 336 elec- 

 toral votes to 140 for Parker. In his second ad- 

 ministration he pursued in a general way the 

 policies outlined during his first term, and the 

 seven years and six months for which he was 

 President constitute a single unit. 

 Important Legislation. During the whole of 

 o terms President Roosevelt wielded a 

 tremendous influence on Congressional legisla- 

 tion. He advocated a larger army and navy, 

 and one of the first important laws passed 



ELECTION MAP OF 1904 



States marked with lines gave their electoral 

 votes to Roosevelt ; states appearing in solid black 

 were Democratic, supporting Parker. The white 

 areas north of Mexico were then nonvoting terri- 

 tories. 



reorganized these two branches. A general 

 staff was created for the army in 1903, and a 

 program of more rapid construction was 

 adopted for the navy. About the same time 

 Congress passed a new Chinese Exclusion Act 

 and the Reclamation Act, the latter providing 

 for the reclamation and irrigation of the arid 

 lands of the West. Congress in 1902 made the 

 Census Bureau a permanent branch of the gov- 

 ernment and in 1903 created a new department, 

 that of Commerce and Labor. The Hepburn 

 Railway Rate Act of 1906, the Federal meat 

 inspection act and a pure-food law of the same 

 year, the establishment of a Bureau of Immi- 

 gration, a uniform naturalization law, a law 

 increasing the salaries of the Vice-President, 



the Speaker and members of Congress, and, 

 finally, the Aldrich-Vreeland Act of 1907 these 

 are the most important laws of Roosevelt's 

 terms. During these seven and a half years the 

 President's support of many radical reforms 

 alienated the more conservative members of 

 his party, and especially in the closing years 

 of his term there was bitter antagonism be- 

 tween them and him. 



Foreign Relations. During the whole of 

 President Roosevelt's administration foreign re- 

 lations presented many knotty problems. For 

 the most part these involved South or Central 

 American republics. By far the most important 

 concerned the Panama Canal. The Hay- 

 Pauncefote Treaty (which see) was ratified on 

 December 16, 1901. Two years later, after Co- 

 lombia had rejected a treaty for the construc- 

 tion of a canal, the state of Panama revolted 

 and was immediately recognized as an inde- 

 pendent republic by the United States; it 

 promptly granted to the United States the 

 canal rights it sought. There is some evidence 

 that the President was directly concerned in 

 the revolt of Panama, but his action was gen- 

 erally approved by public opinion, and the 

 acquisition of the Canal Zone was without 

 question the greatest material achievement of 

 the Roosevelt administration. 



Less important in its results, but more threat- 

 ening at the time, was the Venezuelan compli- 

 cation. Great Britain and Germany sent a joint 

 naval expedition to force Venezuela to pay 

 certain claims which they held against it. The 

 bombardment of the Venezuelan ports was 

 about to begin when President Roosevelt called 

 on the two powers to submit their claims to 

 arbitration. After tedious negotiations rela- 

 tions between Great Britain and the United 

 States were further smoothed out by the action 

 of the Joint High Commission in finally dis- 

 posing of the Alaska boundary dispute. In 

 San Domingo in 1907 the attempt of the Euro- 

 pean powers to enforce certain claims led the 

 United States to assume a sort of financial pro- 

 tectorate over the island republic, American 

 officials being used to collect customs duties 

 and pay San Domingo's foreign debts with the 

 net proceeds. 



A reciprocity treaty was negotiated with 

 Cuba in 1903. In 1906 an American provisional 

 government was established in that island as 

 the result of an insurrection. As soon as order 

 was restored authority was turned back to the 

 Cubans. The most remarkable episode in for- 

 eign relations, however, was the President's ac- 



