Bisbee daily review., 1920-01-07
THEODORE ROOSEVELTS
 Letters to His Children Edited by JOSEPH BUCKLIN BISHOP
Installment 28

In the fall of 1906, the New York
 elections were of national sienifi-
 canoe. The president amazed the
 country by throwing his influence
 openly for Hughes against Hearst in
 the contest for governor. National
 issues were at stake, he believed.
 Secretary Root was sent to Utica as
 spoke sman of the administration in
 a statement attacking Hearst and
 backing Hughes The first "third- term" talk began to be heard at this
 juncture. 1t was said that the for tunes of the Republican party and the fate of what were to become
 known as "my policies" would com pei the president to reconsider his
 decision not to run aeain.-Editor.
 What the President Saw at Panama U. s. s. Louisiana.
 At Sea Nov. 20, 1906.
 DEAR KERMIT:
 Our visit to Panama was most sue eessful as well as most interesting. We were there three days and we worked from morning till night. The second day I was up at a quarter to and got to bed at a quarter to 12, and I do not believe that in the intervening time. save when I was dressing, there were 10 consecutive minutes when l was not busily at work in some shape or form. For two days there (were) uninterrupted tropic rains without glimpse SS the sun, and the Chagres River rose in flood, higher than any for 15 years; so that we saw the climate at it's worst. It was just what I desired to do.
 It certainly adds to ones pleasure to have read history and to appreci- ate the picturesque. When on We'd nesday we approached the coast, and the jungle-covered mountains looked clearer and clearer until we could see the surf beating on the shores, while there was hardly a sign of hu man habitation, I kept thinking of the four centuries of wild and bloody romance, mixed with, abject squaloI and suffering, which had made up the history of the isthmus until three years ago. I could see Balboa be- tween the Spaniards and the Indians, and the settlement and the building
 
 towns; and the trade, across the seas by galleon, and over land by pack train and river canoe, iii gold and silver, in. precious stones; and then the advent of the buccaneers, and Of the English seamen, of Drake and | FrObisher and Morgan, and many, | many others, and the wild destruc- | ton they wrought. Then I thought of the rebellion against the Spanish do- minion, and the uninterrupted and | bloody wars that followed, the last | occurring when I became president; | wars, the victorious heroes of which | have their pictures frescoed on the | quaint rooms of the palace at Panama l city, and in similar palaces in all | capitals of these strange, turbulent | little half-caste civilizations. Mean while the Panama Railroad had been | built by Americans over half centu- l ry ago, with appalling loss of life, so that 1t is said, of course with .ex- Sggeration, that every sleeper laid | the death of man. Then the French canal company satrt ed work, and for two or three years did a good deal, until it became evi- dent that the task far exceeded its powers; and then to miscalculation and inefficiency was added the hid eous greed of adventurers, tryins , each to save something from the gen. eral wreck, and the company closed | with infamy and scandal.
 Now we have taken hold of the job. ! We have difficulties with our own people, of course. I haven't doubt that it will take little longer and , cost little more than men now ap- preciate, but I believe that the work | is being done with a very high degree both in efficiency and honesty; and ! [ am immensely struck by the char ! acter of American employees who are engaged, not merely in superintend- 1 ing the work, but in doing all the [ jobs that need skill and intelligence. The steam shovels, the dirt trains, the machine shops, and the like, are all filled with American engineers, | conductors, machinists, boilermakers, | From the top to the bot ! tom these men are so handy, so eff so energetic, that it is a real pleasure to look at them. Stevens, the head engineer. is a big fellow, man of daring and good sense, and burly power. All of these men are quite as formidable, and would, if it were necessary, do quite as much in | tho araua Of nrakp and