AT JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA

OCTOBER 21, 1905 

My Felloiv-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 accom 
plished 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 espe 
cial 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 cer 
tainty that it can surely be accomplished, and prob 
ably 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 ex 
act type of canal has been received. The work is as 
difficult as it is important; and it is of course in 
evitable 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 reso 
lution, 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 dam 
age, 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 al 
ways many mere adventurers who flock to where it 
is going on, and many men who think they are ad 
venturers, 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 con 
cerned ; 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 sup 
posed 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 hy 
gienic 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 inter 
ested. It has nothing to do with parties or partisan 
ship, 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 effi 
cient navy (and I am happy to say that we are well 
on our way toward having one), and also to pos 
sess, 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 or 
derly 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 in 
sular, 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 neigh 
bors 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 con 
cerned. 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 w r e neglect; and such neglect would be 
unfortunate from more than one standpoint. Where- 
ever 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 ungen 
erous thing for us to refuse such aid ; and it is foolish 
not to give it in a way that will make it really ef 
fective, 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, ana 
only in the last resort, it may occasionally be neces 
sary 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 country 
men too well to believe that they will ever make.