Roosevelt's Last Administration

Although President Roosevelt had shown during the Cuban War that he was not afraid to fight, he firmly believed that most quarrels could and should be settled by arbitration. A deadly war had long been raging between Russia and Japan, when he persuaded those two countries to send delegates to Portsmouth, New Hampshire. After much discussion, the Treaty of Portsmouth, ending the Russo-Japanese War, was signed.

The year 1906 was an eventful year for us. Congress passed a pure food law obliging all provision and drug merchants to state on the labels of their goods exactly what they were selling. Congress also passed laws providing for a more strict control of the railroads. An earthquake in California, followed in San Francisco by a terrible fire, left that city in a mass of ruins. On all sides, helping hands were immediately held out and money and supplies were sent to the homeless people. With admirable courage, the people of San Francisco at once set to work to rebuild their ruined city.

We have seen that the Chinese immigration was stopped while Cleveland was President. When Japanese began to come in large numbers, the people of our far western states objected to them also. In 1907 the United States made a "gentleman's agreement" with Japan by which the Japanese government checked immigration to this country. Later the Pacific states made laws which prevented the Chinese and Japanese from owning land there.

For some time a few far-sighted Americans had realized that if we wished to remain a rich and prosperous nation, we must cease to be as recklessly wasteful as in the past. Our game had been so ruthlessly killed that some kinds of animals such as the buffalo—had ceased to exist in a wild state. Our forest, water, and mineral resources had also been wasted, misused, or neglected. The government had given, or sold at low prices, so much land that only some 700,000,000 acres were left to distribute. About half of this was in Alaska and the rest was too dry to be of use.

Roosevelt fought hard to prevent this wasting of the country's resources; under his leadership government forests were made into national forest reservations. Dams were built to regulate the flow of streams, and canals carried water to irrigate arid lands.

Believing that nations often misunderstood each other simply because they were not well enough acquainted, the President sent a fleet of sixteen American battleships to make a tour of the world, paying friendly visits to all the principal ports. This thirty-thousand mile voyage proved a liberal education to the officers and sailors of the fleet, since they had to meet all kinds of people in a friendly way, and it made our country favorably known to many foreign nations.

ROOSEVELT AND HIS SON KERMIT ON A HUNTING EXPEDITION IN AFRICA.

Roosevelt, as we have seen by his part in the settlement of the Russo-Japanese War, was interested in arbitration. At his suggestion, the Czar of Russia called a second Peace Conference at The Hague in Holland. At the first conference, held in 1899, only twenty-six nations had been represented. At the second one there were delegates from forty-seven nations. Our representatives were warmly welcomed, for the United States had grown to be an important country.

When the time came for the election of 1908, Roosevelt, having occupied the White House for nearly eight years, decided not to become a candidate. William H. Taft was elected President. As soon as he was free from his burdens as President, Roosevelt undertook a hunting expedition to Central Africa. From there he sent home rare animals and photographs to enrich the zoological gardens and natural history museums of our country.