was further pettifogging he committed no impropriety in warning
the British statesmen of his purpose. In judging these
Rooseveltian short cuts, the reader must decide whether they were
justified by the good which they achieved.

Of even greater importance was the understanding reached, under
Roosevelt's direction, with the British Government in regard to
the construction of a canal across the Isthmus of Panama. By the
Clayton-Bulwer Treaty of 1850, the United States and Great
Britain agreed to maintain free and uninterrupted passage across
the Isthmus, and, further, that neither country should "obtain or
maintain to itself any control over the said ship-canal," or
"assume or exercise any dominion . . . over any part of Central
America." The ship canal talked about as a probability in 1850
had become a necessity by 1900. During the Spanish-American War,
the American battleship Oregon had been obliged. to make the
voyage round Cape Horn, from San Francisco to Cuba, and this
served to impress on the people of the United States the really
acute need of a canal across the Isthmus, so that in time of war
with a powerful enemy, our Atlantic fleet and our Pacific fleet
might quickly pass from one coast to another. It would obviously
be impossible for us to play the role of a World Power unless we
had this short line of communication. But the conditions of
peace, not less than the emergencies of war, called for a canal.
International commerce, as well as our own, required the saving
of thousands of miles of distance.

About 1880, the French under Count De Lesseps undertook to
construct a canal from Panama to Aspinwall, but after half a
dozen years the French company suspended work, partly for