The Leavenworth echo. [volume] (Leavenworth, Wash.) 1904-current, 1912-09-13
THEODORE ROOSEVELT AND
HIS RECORD AS PRESIDENT
Is Today the Biggest Man in the U. S.
And Will be the Next
Executive

he is not yet fifty-four years of age and
is probably today one Of the most Wig
orous personalities in the entire nation.
Theodore Roosevelt has been politi-
clan, author, statesman, soldier and ex-
plorer-if one may call hunting wild
animals in Africa exploration, says a
Seattle paper.
Theodore Roosevelt began his po-
litical life almost thirty years ago, and
was such a prominent character in
1884 that he was chairman of the New
York delegation supporting President
Arthur for a reelection in the National
Convention of that year.
His organization of regiment OF
rough riders grew out Of the fact that
he had been the owner and operator of
a Dakota ranch in the eighties, where
he learned to tame and ride veritable
bronco.
AS a result, when the war broke out
with Spain, Mr.. Roosevelt, as he was
then known, was made Colonel Roose-
welt Of a regiment of cowboys and
rough riders which he organized him
self from the plains of the west.
The same good luck which had al
ways attended Roosevelt as political
leader in New York attended him in
the Spanish War-and the battle Of
San Juan Hill made him famous.
That fame made him Governor Of
New York the verv next year after the
Spanish War closed-and he so con-
Quoted the office thereof as to become
VicePresident with Mckinley in his
second term.
The assassin's bullet made Roose-
welt president on the 18th day Of Sep
TENDER, 1901-the day following the
assassination Of President Mckinley at
Buffalo.
President Roosevelt so conducted
the unexpired term of Mckinley as to
secure him the unanimous nomination
in 1904 in convention of oo4 dele
gates and an overwhelming election.
During his second term President
Roosevelt startled the world by the
brilliancy of his administration and the
accomplishment of great things-the
greatest of all being the Panama Canal
undertaking.
For nearly century Great Britain
had been trying to control any canal
which might connect the waters of the
Atlantic with the Pacific through the
Caribbean Sea-and when the Clayton
Bulwer treaty was consummated Uncle
Sam was practically prohibited from
having any interest in any such canal
at all.
This treaty so agitated the American
people that fifty years afterward Hon.
John Hay, then secretary of state,
negotiated with Ambassador Pauncefote
a new tready, which simply abrogated
the prohibitive clauses Of the Clayton
Bulwer treaty.
In the meantime, a French corpora
ton had undertaken to construct ca
nal across the little Republic Of Pana-
ma wholly outside and independent Of
the Nicaraguan proposition.
President Roosevelt. with courage
unequaled before in official life and an
audacity that shocked the world, Sc
cured from the French corporation all
its rights and from the Republic 81
Panama for price strip Of land now
known as the Canal Zone, extending
from the Caribbean Sea to the Pacific
ocean.
When once obtained and the title
recorded and the property recognized
by all the world as the land of Uncle
Sam, Roosevelt proceeded to negotiate
the building OF the Canal-the most
brilliant undertaking under the most
audacious conditions ever undertaken
by man.
Although it became apparent that it
would take five years in which to con
struct the canal--and that the ultimate
cost would exceed five hundred mill
ion dollars, nevertheless, before Presi-
dent Roosevelt went out of office the
contract had been executed and the
money appropriated by the Congress
OF the United States.
To-day we have notice from Colonel
roatbale the Tinted Statae ap0inaav