documents a reservation of all questions involving what Roosevelt called the “vital interest, the independence or honour of the nation,” and in 1912 it refused to approve them. A long-standing difficulty with Russia caused by the refusal of the Russian Government to recognize passports issued to Jews and some other people, was suddenly accentuated when, on Dec. 18 1911, the commercial treaty with Russia was abrogated. Trade relations went on for the time, however, without a treaty.
In 1911 the Republican majority under President Taft's leadership proceeded to a policy of commercial reciprocity with Canada, thus reviving the principle of the treaty of 1854 which went out of effect in 1865. An agreement was made with the Canadian Government by which each side should reduce or abolish duties on certain raw products and manufactures. For the first time in American history such an international arrangement was to be brought about by legislation on both sides, instead of by a formal treaty. With great difficulty the necessary bill was pushed through Congress (July 1911); but two months later the Canadian electors refused to support the Liberal Government which had negotiated the reciprocity agreement, and the plan broke down with the refusal of Canada.
Conditions in the Latin-American states did not remain harmonious. The United States ever since the Spanish war had been gaining territory and power to the southward. The arrangements of 1902 made Cuba practically a dependency; and from 1906 to 1909 it was found necessary to resort to those treaty rights and set up a provisional Government, supported by American troops. The Panama Canal was now approaching completion and the little republic of Panama, which it bisected, nominally an independent state, was in fact under complete American control. President Taft continued the occupation of San Domingo, the consent of the Senate to a treaty to that effect having been obtained in 1907. In 1911 he secured a convention by which Nicaragua ceded certain small islands on its Atlantic and Pacific coasts and gave exclusive canal privileges to the United States. Although the Senate did not ratify the treaty, President Taft practically took possession of Nicaragua and this occupation continued throughout his term. Another foreign question arose out of the possession of the Panama Canal. As the Canal approached completion, an Act of Congress was passed Aug. 27 1912 for laying tolls on shipping, from which American ships engaged in coastwise trade were to be relieved. The British Government lodged a protest (Dec. 9) on the ground that by its treaty with the United States the Canal was to be opened on equal terms to the ships of “all nations”; President Taft, however, stood by the Act, and the question was passed on to the next Administration (see Panama Canal).
Still more serious were the relations with Mexico, where, in 1910, a revolution headed by Madero, assailed the presumedly solid Government of Dictator Diaz and drove the latter after a few months out of the country. Mexico was thrown into confusion, and President Taft found it necessary to place troops on the border; in 1912 he proclaimed an embargo on the export of arms or military supplies to Mexico. Meanwhile the concessions and property of Americans in Mexico were threatened or destroyed, and there were many cases of robbery, forced loans and murder. The Americans who had interests in Mexico began a steady pressure for intervention by the United States. The nationals of other countries were suffering from the same disorder and violence; but the temper of the United States was strongly against any show of force by other Governments, because it might be a direct or indirect violation of the Monroe Doctrine.
Across the Pacific, clouds rose on the diplomatic horizon. Chinese immigration had long been prohibited, but the commercial treaties with Japan allowed a reciprocal freedom of residence and trade to the nationals of the two countries. The immigration of Japanese was very distasteful to the people of California, who undertook to restrict Japanese children to separate schools. Behind this difficulty was the rising power of the Japanese and their national spirit, greatly enhanced by their victory over the Russians in 1905. In 1908 Roosevelt sent around the world a powerful naval fleet which visited Japan and was received with elaborate courtesy by a welcoming Japanese squadron exactly equal in number, ship for ship. In the Root-Takahira reciprocal note of Dec. 1 1908 (which was never submitted to the Senate), the United States practically admitted Japan's special interest in Asiatic affairs. In Dec. 1909, Secretary Knox suggested the nationalization of the Manchurian railways by China, which proved to be unacceptable both to Japan and Russia. The Japanese were evidently acquiring a sense of their special and almost exclusive rights to influence on the Asiatic mainland. The question of immigration was settled for the time being by renewal of the commercial treaty, July 24 1911; the previous “gentlemen's agreement” was continued, according to which, while not yielding its claim to a right of immigration into the United States, the Japanese Government pledged itself not to issue passports to labourers. There still seemed to be a feeling in the United States that the Japanese had in mind an imperial policy, and when in 1912 it was rumoured that they were trying to get possession of Magdalena Bay in Mexico, the Senate adopted the Lodge resolution against foreign occupation of territory near by which might be a point of vantage against the United States.
Politics, 1909-12.—In the action of Congress on many important issues as above described no party lines were drawn; though such measures as the tariff and the new taxes were distinctly Republican. As often happens when a party is firmly seated in power, the Republicans began to divide. On the tariff, some members from middle western states, particularly Minnesota, voted against the Payne-Aldrich measure because their constituents could see in it no advantage to themselves. Another influence which tended to divide the Republican party was resentment against the Speaker of the House, Cannon of Illinois, who exercised the powers that had been accumulating in the hands of Speakers for a hundred years. By his control of the proceedings of the House, by his appointments of committees, and by his power to refuse recognition of members who desired to take part in debate or submit proposals, he was practically the legislative premier. Through the combining of these powers the Speaker virtually had a veto on any measure or proceeding which he did not like. This concentration of authority in the Speaker, and a few chairmen of committees whom he designated, in many ways tended to unity and responsibility in legislation; but Cannon kept too tight a hand; hence, March 19 1910, a group of Republican “insurgents” joined hands with the Democrats of the House to reduce his power. By these and later changes in the rules, the power to appoint committees and to direct legislation was taken from the Speaker and never restored. The Speaker became simply a partisan moderator.
A new issue upon which both parties were divided was covered by the general term “conservation.” The United States, though most of the arable land had passed out of its possession, was still, as owner of a vast area of public lands, the possessor of great tracts of forest, of mineral lands, and of water power. President Roosevelt became interested in stopping the waste of timber and minerals, in preserving part of the gifts of nature for future generations, and in retaining public ownership of the utilities of the country, particularly the forests and streams. The policy of conservation had hardly gone further than the reservation of large areas of forest land until 1910, when statutes provided for a new classification of land and for the reservation of coal by the Government. Congress in 1902 had provided for a system of irrigation, the cost to be advanced by the Government and repaid in instalments by the users of the water. This statute underwent various amendments so as to give greater encouragement to settlers. In 1910 large areas, previously held as forest lands, were thrown open to settlement. Under a statute of March 1911, considerable areas of mountain land were purchased in the Appalachians on the theory that their control would protect the watersheds of navigable rivers. Congress also reserved forever several scenic areas, particularly Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado, Glacier Park in Montana, and later the Grand Canyon of the Colorado.
The Progressive Movement.—In the confusion of statutes, executive orders, proceedings of the Interstate Commerce Commis-
