ABSTRACT

Theodore Roosevelt, in speech and writing, hammered away at such simple but much needed topics as the “square deal” and business ethics. Roosevelt had served as President for seven years, and he considered that the wise tradition which limits the holding of the office to two terms applied in his case. In dealing with the greatest problem of his time, which was that of how to reconcile economic and political democracy with the inevitable appearance of the dinosaurs in a nation as huge as the United States, it cannot be said that he offered any very deep or coherent solution. He was the lightning rod to carry off harmlessly the pent-up fury of the storm which might otherwise have caused vast havoc. To make a long story short, with the connivance of Roosevelt a revolution was staged in Panama; the province seceded; American war vessels prevented Colombian troops from landing to quell it.