_My Fellow-Citizens_:
Here in Florida, the first of the Gulf States which I have visited upon
this trip, I wish to say a special word about the Panama Canal. I
believe that the canal will be of great benefit to all of our people,
but most of all to the States of the South Atlantic, the Gulf and the
Pacific Slope. When completed the canal will stand as a monument to
this Nation; for it will be the greatest engineering feat ever yet
accomplished in the world. It will be a good thing for the world as a
whole, and for the people of the Isthmus and of the northern portions
of South America in particular. Because of our especial interest in
it, and because of the position we occupy on this hemisphere, it is a
matter of especial pride to us that our Nation, the American Nation,
should have undertaken the performance of this world duty. A body of
the most eminent engineers in the world, both Americans and foreigners,
has been summoned to advise as to the exact type of canal which should
be built. At no distant date I hope to be able to announce what their
advice is, and also the action taken upon their advice. Meanwhile
the work is already well under way, and has advanced sufficiently
far to enable me to announce with certainty that it can surely be
accomplished, and probably at rather less expense than was anticipated.
But upon the last point, as well as upon the question of time, no
positive statement can be made until the report of the commission of
engineers as to the exact type of canal has been received. The work is
as difficult as it is important; and it is of course inevitable that
from time to time difficulties will occur and checks be encountered.
Whenever such is the case the men of little faith at home will lose
that little faith, and the critics who confound hysteria with emphasis
will act after their kind. But our people as a whole possess not only
faith, but resolution, and are of too virile fibre to be swept one
way or the other by mere sensationalism. No check that may come will
be of more than trivial and passing consequence, will inflict any
permanent damage, or cause any serious delay. The work can be done, is
being done, and will be done. What has already been accomplished is a
guaranty as to the future.
When any such work is undertaken there are always many mere adventurers
who flock to where it is going on, and many men who think they are
adventurers, but who are in reality either weak or timid, follow in
their footsteps. Some of the first class will now and then cause
trouble in one way or another. But every care will be taken to detect
any misdeed on their part and to punish them as soon as the misdeed is
detected. As for the second class, they will cause trouble chiefly by
losing heart, returning home, or writing home, and raising a cry that
they are not happy, and that the conditions of life are not easy, or
that the work is not being done as they think it ought to be done. Now
these men stand just as the stragglers and laggards stand who are ever
to be found in the rear of even a victorious army. The veterans of the
Civil War who are here present will tell you that the very rear of an
army, even when it is victorious, is apt to look and behave as if
the victory were defeat. And just the same thing is true in any great
enterprise in civil life; there are always weaklings who get trampled
down or lose heart, and there are always people who listen to their
complaints. They amount to nothing one way or the other, so far as
achieving results is concerned; and their complaints and outcries need
never detain us.
I call your attention specifically to the matter of health on the
Isthmus. The climate was supposed to be deadly, and yellow fever,
in especial, was supposed to be epidemic. Yet since we have assumed
control there has been far less yellow fever than in our own country.
The administration is steadily becoming better and more effective,
from the hygienic as well as from every other standpoint. The work
of building the canal is a great American work, in which the whole
American people are interested. It has nothing to do with parties
or partisanship, and is being carried on with absolute disregard to
all merely political considerations; with regard only to efficiency,
honesty, and economy.
The digging of the canal will, of course, greatly increase our interest
in the Caribbean Sea. It will be our duty to police the canal, both
in the interest of other nations and in our own interest. To do this
it is, of course, indispensable to have an efficient navy (and I am
happy to say that we are well on our way toward having one), and also
to possess, as we already possess, certain strategic points to control
the approach to the canal. In addition it is urgently necessary that
the insular and continental countries within or bordering upon the
Caribbean Sea should be able to secure fair dealing and orderly liberty
within their own borders. I need not say that the United States not
only has no purpose of aggression upon any republic, continental or
insular, to the south of us, but has the friendliest feeling toward
them, and desires nothing save their progress and prosperity. We do not
wish another foot of territory; and I think our conduct toward Cuba
is a guaranty that this is our genuine attitude toward all our sister
republics. If ever we should have to interfere in the affairs of any
of our neighbors it would only be when we found it impossible longer
to refrain from doing so without serious damage following; and even in
such case it would only be with the sincere and effective purpose to
make our interference beneficial to the peoples concerned. Of course,
occupying the position we do, occasions may now and then arise when we
can not refrain from such interference, save under penalty of seeing
some other strong nation undertake the duty which we neglect; and such
neglect would be unfortunate from more than one standpoint. Wherever
possible we should gladly give any aid we can to a weaker sister
republic which is endeavoring to achieve stability and prosperity. It
is an ungenerous thing for us to refuse such aid; and it is foolish not
to give it in a way that will make it really effective, and therefore
of direct benefit to the people concerned—and of indirect benefit to
us, simply because it is a benefit to them. In the last resort, and
only in the last resort, it may occasionally be necessary to interfere
by exercising what is virtually an international police power, if only
to avoid seeing some European power forced to exercise it. In short,
while we must interfere always cautiously, and never wantonly, yet,
on rare occasions, where the need is great, it may be necessary to
interfere, unless we are willing to confess ourselves too feeble for
the task that we have undertaken, and to avow that we are willing to
surrender it into stronger hands; and such confession and avowal I know
my countrymen too well to believe that they will ever make.