graph, telephone, and cable services, and the creation of a Railroad new federal court for the special purpose of deAct of 1910 termining appeals arising from the orders of the Commission. On June 18, 1910, Taft signed the MannElkins Act for these purposes after a prolonged debate between the insurgent advocates of rigorous control and conservative opposition to any control. Senator Cummins, the head of the insurgents in this matter, with the support of insurgent and Democratic votes, forced the adoption of amendments until, in its final passage, the bill was an acceptable compromise. Its commerce court was a distinct novelty. Heretofore, cases arising out of public control of the railroads had been long drawn out because of the crowded condition of the judicial docket or had involved technical matters in transportation economics that many federal judges were unfitted to determine. The new panel of circuit judges that made up the commerce court was expected both to expedite decisions and to specialize in railroad problems. The long and short haul clause of the original Interstate Commerce Act was restated and placed in the discretionary control of the Interstate Commerce Commission. The bill retained the progress of 1906 and made new advances toward national control. A Postal Savings Act, iong advocated by reformers and included in the old Populist program, was passed in 1910, and in due time turned every post-office into a savings bank. The appropriation of a special fund for economic studies in the tariff schedules made a new step toward the adoption of a scientific basis for tariff legislation. The debates over the Taft measures of 1910 were confused by the rancorous controversy between the conservative and insurgent Republicans. Their final passage was obscured Return of by the fact that on June 18 Theodore Roosevelt landed at New York to receive an ovation that indicated the strong hold that he retained upon the American people. The Roosevelt tour of 1909-10 began with a hunting trip in eastern Africa. The expedition was chiefly scientific in its nature and was partly financed by friends of Roosevelt the National Museum in Washington, to which institution the trophies were presented when the naturalists returned. When the hunt was over Roosevelt proceeded down the Nile to Khartoum, and then to Cairo and Alexandria. He crossed to Italy and paid a round of visits at the courts of Europe, received everywhere as the most distinguished American citizen, with honors usually accorded only to royalty. At Christiania he delivered his Nobel address, and in Paris, Berlin, Oxford, and London spoke upon politics and letters. While in London he was appointed special ambassador to represent the United States at the funeral of Edward VII. He returned to Oyster Bay to receive the visit of politicians of all shades of opinion and to hear their tales of the events during his absence. In August Colonel Roosevelt started West upon a speaking trip with his main objective at Osawatomie, Kansas, where he had agreed to speak on the memory "New Naof John Brown. Here as elsewhere he avoided tionalism" aligning himself against the Administration or expressing an opinion as to whether it had upheld his policies, but he gave a name to the movement in which the insurgents were engaged when he spoke of the "New Nationalism" that must be brought into the United States Government in order to enable it to cope with the problems of industrial life. He preferred to find his legal authority for the work in the existing Constitution, but demanded the amendment of the Constitution if necessary. The antipathies that conservative Republicans had developed toward him in 1909 were revived with increased intensity as he advocated fundamental changes. He showed his power in September by crowding Vice-President Sherman out of the chairmanship of the New York Republican Convention; and entered vigorously into the New York canvass for Henry L. Stimson as governor. The defeat of Stimson in November was interpreted as the work of conservatives to give Roosevelt a lesson, but was more intimately a part of the Democratic gain due to the Republican split. The Sixty-Second Congress, elected on November 8, 1910, was under Democratic control after eight Congresses of Republican ascendancy. It was the consequence of Republican collapse rather than of Democratic leadership. Antagonism to the Payne-Aldrich tariff weakened the Republican vote, while the insurgent controversy gave opportunity for individual Democrats to gain office. Each faction blamed the other for the party losses, but the Democrats interpreted their victory as a precursor of a greater victory in 1912. A renewed interest in the personality of Democratic leaders was born and drew attention to the successful governors in 1910, Harmon, of Ohio, Dix, of New York, and Wilson, of New Jersey. BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE Charles R. Van Hise, Conservation of the Natural Resources of the United States (1910), is a study in the basic problems of conservation by an economic geologist. Theodore Roosevelt, The New Nationalism (1910), contains the Osawatomie speech in which the new phrase was coined. Frederic C. Howe, Wisconsin, an Experiment in Democracy (1912); and Charles McCarthy, The Wisconsin Ideal (1912), are enthusiastic descriptions of the workings of the movement in the Northwest, while some of its larger aspects are covered in Edward A. Ross, Changing America (1912), and Walter E. Weyl, The New Democracy (1912). Benjamin DeWitt, The Progressive Movement (1915), gives a retrospect after the crest of insurgency was passed. James J. Hill, The Highways of Progress (1910), is a capitalist's support of conservation. A valuable report on campaign contributions is "Testimony before a Sub-Committee of the Senate Committee on Privileges and Elections," published by the 62d Cong., 3d Sess. CHAPTER XXXIX THE PROGRAM OF PEACE THE progress of excavation and construction in the Canal Zone brought the Isthmus of Panama into ever greater importance as the geographic center of American diplomacy. Roosevelt eliminated the foreign obstructions and headed off the possibility of German rivalry in the Caribbean. The work of excavation was well advanced when he left office in 1909 after reviewing the home-coming American fleet. His demonstration of naval power and diplomatic intention smoothed the way for his successor. Taft found only those obstructions that were inherent in the engineering problem and the temper of the LatinAmerican neighbors around the Caribbean. The Roosevelt policy of swinging the "big stick" had warned off interlopers, but had increased the suspicion of the United States in South and Central America. Both Root and Knox had this suspicion to contend with as they sought to stabilize the conditions of government in the vicinity of the canal. Goethals Panama Under the benevolent despotism of Goethals the work on the canal advanced without cessation. The annual report showed increasing millions of yards excavated in the Culebra cut, the fills and spillways for the and the dam at Gatun, and the monumental locks to control the water level at either end. Roosevelt determined the site, Taft the lock method of construction. The estimates of the engineers indicated that the task would be completed early in the Administration of Taft's successor, and the formal date was finally placed at August 15, 1914, with a great world's fair at San Francisco to celebrate the occasion in the following winter. The task was done on time, and Goethals was advanced to the rank of major-general as a reward for his services, while his medical subordinate, Gorgas, became brigadier-general. Before the question of rewards was taken up Congress found it necessary in 1912 to settle the terms upon which the Panama Canal should be used by the commerce of the world. The only restriction upon the free power of Congress was the clause of the Hay-Pauncefote Treaty providing that it should be open on equal terms to the vessels of all nations. The bill for the government of the canal was shaped by those who desired a preference for American vessels, and was passed with a clause exempting American bottoms from the tolls. It was known at the time that Great Britain would object to this as a violation of equality of terms, but the provision was allowed to stand. ican neighbors The neighbors of the canal continued to be centers of intrigue and of upheaval. Of all Latin-American countries Latin-Amer- they were the most tropical in character and possessed the smallest number of working white men. Traffic of foreigners in railroad concessions, mining rights, and natural resources was a constant provocative of bribery and repudiation. Their resulting insolvency always invited foreign interventions such as the Venezuela blockade of 1902. In 1905 a step was taken by the United States for the better stability of one of them, Santo Domingo, by the erection of an American financial receivership, and this idea was extended toward Nicaragua and Honduras, and was pressed by Knox as an Administration policy. The principle of the Platt Amendment was to be extended over Central America by the voluntary consent of the countries concerned. American bankers were to underwrite their debts and the American Government was to see that Treasury receipts were honestly collected and expended. The power of the United States was to be used to safeguard them against invasion, and a Central American court of arbitral justice, agreed to under the leadership of Root, was to resolve their local differences. American warships and detachments of marines were often used to maintain order in Nicaragua, Honduras, Santo Domingo, and in Cuba where the Cuban constitution specifically conveyed that power, In the winter of 1912 Knox |